Skip's Original Turn-On Strike Indicators

One of my most successful fall back methods has been suspending buzzers under a pimp. Recently though, with moving from small stillwaters to large reservoirs they haven't been so useful. In the past I have used the rugby ball (or american football) shaped ones and haven't been too enamored with their performance. They have a tendency to slip when casting, this is solved by winding line around the float before the elastic tube is inserted. When doing this though, when a large fish strikes the line squeezes into the float and can split it neatly in two.

i recently experimented with using a yarn indicator. There are great benefits when using this as it doesn't hit the water as hard as the pimps and seems to cast alot better. the down size is that it has to be fitted onto your line before any flies are added and can't be taken off so easily. they also have a greater tendency to slip.

i had seen the turn-on indicators a couple of times in magazines but struggled to find any in shops. After searching the internet i found them at http://www.sportfish.co.uk/ quickly ordered them and they arrived the next day.

initial impressions are very promising, they attached and detached easily and can be made to stay put by putting more turns on. the only downside is the price, they do seem slightly overpriced for bits of foam but when you consider the price of other bite indicators, they are probably better value as they look pretty solid and they also come with spare inserts.

27th March, Middle South Woodburn

Took the fly rods for a walk around the reservoir today, joined by David and Andrew, we though the rods looked thirsty so we gave them and extended drink in the water. Both Andrew and David seem to have thought that we were actually fishing and maintain that they felt fish nibbling at their flies.

At some point i may have tied on a couple of buzzers suspended under yarn. I'm finding the yarn casts alot better than with pimps.

Although we spent a couple of hours at water very little fish activity was seen. Possibly the cold or the brightness.

Next time lads, next time, i promise.

Woodburn South Middle, 25th March

Started out with high hopes for today, After a quick ring around to recruit some fishermen, I always leave this until last moment, my brother was recruited. This of course meant i had to wait for a couple of hours to let him get sorted, Grrr. Arrived at reservoir at about two, two hours later than planned, Grrrrr. Not a bad day, the wind was down from the gale forces previously experienced and the rain was light.





I had stepped up the rod to my 7wt and was pleased with the increased distance. Using the 5wt for so long seems to have taught me a bit of finesse. There was a slight activity at the surface and i opted with buzzers, Nick opted for the dry. This he then casted into the only tree within 500yrds.

Unfortunately the day had to be cut short as obligations arose. Grrrrrr. At least i got lines wet, i had envisaged a fishing drought for the foreseeable future as uni and impending family-hood commitments arose.

Diary Of Pimp

In the recent weeks I've become obsessed with looking at the stats on this website, both through google analytics and webmaster tools. There is always something to amuse me. In the Webmaster tools you can see the top twenty searchs people have clicked your site from, A couple of weeks ago position twenty was 'diary of pimp', pimp in my case refers to the float attached to a flyline. Of course there were more relevant sites to the search query, so i would have been buried quite far down the list but yet according to the stats, people are still clicking to my site through this search. It's not often the worlds of the sex trade worker and the flyfisherman collide.

When i started this blog thingy I had accepted he fact that it was pretty much only going to have been read by me. The stats tell me differently, so if you've swung by. Howdy. Also if you leave a comment and as long as it's not telling me how shit i am at fishing, i'll quite happily stick you on the blogroll.

Fishing by remote

Kids. Don't try this at home, if you do, let me know so i can watch

Feed this fish

For a bit of fishing replacement theraphy, feed my fish in the side bar. Just click on the water to drop some food. Want your own fish! Try abowman.com, he has all sorts of cool stuff, all free.

Ballykeel Lougherne 18th march

Struck out yet again. I'm starting to think that it might be just too damn cold for fishing.

Ballykeel Lougherne is a great place, it's hidden away in Co Down near Hillsborough and i've been there on and off for a while. I like it more for the wildlife than the fishing, its fishing pontoons are a bitch to get to and i've yet to find the secrets of the place but every time i'm there i'm treated to something new and interesting. My first otter sighting was there and there are always beautiful grebes messing about on the water. This time we discovered a herd of deer in the adjoining field. After thinking about it for a bit, this is worrying me, that field wasn't the most secure the last time i was there as cows kept coming over and harrassing me. I don't fancy ending up on the antlers of a curious stag.

The water was flat calm today, with the occassional trout swirls far out. We stuck mainly to buzzers changing them whenever we fancied something a bit different. There did seem to be a sporadic hatch coming off, but the fish didn't seem to be taking them from the surface.

The DCAL sign has been changed from saying boats not allowed to saying hire boats may be available. this is good news as I have a feeling the fish are deep in the middle. Although at present there are no boats there, i'm hoping i might be able to get the canoe here for a visit.

*update* cheers to andrewgmurphy for the piccy, i forgot you had brought a camera with you

fishing vid

i quite liked this vid, thought i would share it.

14th March Bantry Lough, co tyrone

Am i destined to never catch another fish, it looks like it at mo.

andrewgmurphy and i set out for lough money after finding ourselves at lose end. Unfortunately i had made the promise of good fishing. this probably put the scud on the day. The first half of the afternoon the weather and other signs were promising, unfortunately this didn't result in any takes. the second half of the afternoon, the wind picked up, this also didn't result in any takes.

We fished hard, but to no avail. mainly concentrated on buzzers, as there was a lot of empty buzzer shucks at the surface. Fish swirls were also present. It may have been an unsuccessful day, but it was good to get back to a place that i have a fondness for.

Next time andrew, i promise we'll catch fish.

13th March, Sixmilewater

I went in search for the scenic sixmilewater as shown on http://www.sixmilewater.co.uk/index.html, Unfortunatly i bought my permit at a filling station in templepatrick where no-one could give my any info on where to get access, let alone what tactics i should be using. As such i didn't see anything like the piccies from the their website. (piccy on left shows the M2 bridge)

The next hour was spent going back and forth from doagh to Dunadry, trying to find river(i don't believe in pre-planning). Finally pulled up at where i started search near the templepatrick hilton. Rigged up, thought indepth about tactics and contemplated an afternoons fishing. After which i fell on my ass and slid down to waters edge. Great start.

Not having much experience of river fishing, i didn't notice the problems i was going to have later on. We had experienced gales and heavy downpour recently and i failed to put two and two together and of course the water was the colour of hot chocolate. Add to that, the wind was blowing strongly upstream, and the water was going at some rate, at one point i watched half a tree bob sedately by.

The only two flies i have ever been successful with on a river are an elk hair thingy and a wee gold headed hares ear, these of course were produced. Naturally they were ineffectual.

Many times i have read about anglers mending their lines whilst a current moves it downstream. I have to honest when i say that i didn't really grasp this concept, the important of this was hammered home today. with the current dragging my line away the instant it landed.

Eventually i had proof of life, something made a loud gloop downstream and i saw large ripples at a spot in slack water. quickly changed to a dry and targeted the fish.

....only to be defeated soundly by the current mess i mentioned earlier, just couldn't get the fly to float in a realistic way. Gah!

I'll be back though, maybe I'll pay a bit more attention to the weather forecast beforehand though

10th March Middle South Woodburn

AT LAST!!

Finally i manage to land a fish, and it was worth the wait. I fished the Middle South Woodburn, and persevered almost every type of weather but finally my Pb brown trout (1 3/4lbs) fell to a black buzzer fished a couple of feet below surface. I was using my 5wt so the fight was a bit hairy for a bit. Gave up and went home soon after fish was caught, the proudest man in Co Antrim. I was afraid what weather might come next. While heading home i was treated to a rainbow, that i was sure was sent to congratulate me.

5th march, killylane

Ye Gods, what does it take to catch a fish

ONce again the wind followed me around the reservoir, no fish were catch and only seen towards the end. a great deal of small flies in the surface film at the windblown side, nothing eating them though. Pretty much had a go at everything, but mainly concentrated on bloodworm and a black buzezer, although suffers alot of tangles when used together. Does seem like a credible brown trout fishery though, the people there spoke highly of it and it is largly unknown. When the weather calms down i will investigate this more seriously. It is largly surrounded by peat, i don't know if this will effect the aquatic life makeup at all.

Ponts of interest: i meet the straid fishery manager today at killylane, he recommended dungonnell in the summer.

Also just noticed that killylane is ment to be disabled accessable. I didn't think this was the case at all.

3rd march Marshalstown and killylane

Started getting far too cold in marshalstown, water very high and very windy. no action at water. packed upp and went to killylane. i remembered that someone said that brown trout feed earlier and in colder weather so figured this would be a fair bet. i wasn't expecting it to start snowing. Only had an hour there, most of which was sppent nosying around. did startle fish twice near the edge, i think i'm going to investigate further.