LOUGH ADERRA

The four main words when fishing for rainbow trout are observation,location,position and depth.

(1) OBSERVATION : Stop at the lakeside and observe lake for signs of rising or moving fish.

(2) LOCATION : When you have located the fish mark their location either by using trees or bushes to get a cross reference of the area where the fish are holding.

(3)POSITION : Row out to within eighty metres of the area where the fish are, allowing for wind direction(the wind should be blowing from you onto the fish).It is advisable to have the anchor held just below the waterline on a short knot.Let the boat drift slowly onto the area and knowing your casting range slowly drop the anchor within your range.I often wait for five to ten minutes before fishing to allow the fish to relax.Soft casting on the water is an important factor and also casting accurately to the moving fish.This allows you to cover live water i.e areas where there are feeding/rising fish and increases your chances of catching them.I use just three flies on all rainbow lakes,the only thing I change is speed of retrieve or depth that I'm fishing.

When fish are showing on the surface a floating line can be used but when fish are just nipping under the surface an intermediate line is best suited.The three flies that I use constantly are slight variations of (1)Sooty Olive,(2)Connemarra Black,(3) a small size 14 Viva which takes the bigger fish.

The Sooty Olive is greased up so that it will float and causes an excellent disturbance on the top film of water attracting fish to the disturbance.I class this fly as my Pamela Anderson fly ,not every trout will want to take it but they'll all have a damn  good look!!In mid summer when the small rudd are easy prey for the larger fish I use a size twelve Silver Invicta as an imitation and it takes a lot of the bigger fish.The best thing about fishing midsummer is that the bigger fish show more consistently on the surface and that makes them easier to locate and catch.