FISHING THE TIDAL RACE! PV

Part Five (techniques)

Thank you

Andys' Flies go on Holidays

Fishing Report - April 04 David Anchell

I spent Monday and Tuesday of this week fly fishing for pike in the Northeast. As part of my continuous development plan for SEAi I have partnered up with a pike fishing guru. Peadar O’Brien is a fully qualified pike fishing guide with more than 15 years experience in Pike guiding including International clients. We have been working together now for some time and I am learning the ropes, locations, boat management, safety and much more. I hope to bring you excellent opportunities in the next few months for some quality pike fishing both on fly and lure in some truly remote and beautiful locations.

I had invited David as a ‘test’ client to fish with us for the last two days in order to demonstrate and experience the quality of the fishing available. David is a widely experienced fly fisher having fished in many locations like Alaska, the Bahamas, and Belize to mention a few. David is also a regular customer of SEAi and has been bass fishing with me now for four seasons.

The weather in the run up to our two day expedition proved to be ideal and on Sunday as temperatures dropped to below zero I made the dash to Peadar’s house some two and a half hours away. David was to meet us on Monday morning and we would go straight to the fishing. Temperatures had dropped overnight to well below freezing and on monday morning as we headed towards the first location, along and over rolling backroads, the sun rose slowly into a perfect blue sky. Launching the boat was an adventure and as we headed down the little river heading into the lake, shoals of roach and perch were active all around us.

Water temperature was reading between 3.3 and 3.8 degrees so sinking ines were the order of the day and we headed towards the leeward side of the lake into the sun. We were fishing for some 10 minutes before David had his first fish to the fly and thats the way it continued for most of the morning and into the early afternoon. Fish on then fish off as we had hit after hit in the glorious winter sunshine. Yes we went through quiet patches too but we had eleven fish to the boat and probably missed as many if not more again. Anticipation was already building for tuesday.
Tuesday dawned a little cloudier and windier and Peadar had us lined up for a new location that had a reputation as an excellent fly water. I changed tactics slightly on this occassion and shortened my leader to less than 1.5ms of .6mm fluorocarbon and a 20 cm wire trace. I also increased the size of my fly and was fishing with a giant 25 cm beast, at times it felt like I was casting a wet sock. The tactics paid off and I had some wonderful fish take the fly. It was good times for David too and as Peadar worked around the lake we continued to take fish in many key areas.

So over the the two days of fishing we took 22 fish all on the fly to the boat. Water temperatures varied from 3.2 degrees to a positively tropical 4.4 at its best. The fish performed in little windows and tactical placing of the boat and the fly produced the best results. I'm back working with Peadar next week and we will keep you informed of our continuing adventures.

Landing Gear

Rod - Redington CPS #9
Reel- Danielsson - LW #6/9
Line - Jim Teeny T300 and T400
Leader - .6mm Gamma Fluorocarbon (1.5ms) and proleader
Flies - as above up to 25cms

FISHING THE TIDAL RACE! PIV

Part Four- You, your boat and the fish
Over the years you meet a lot of very interesting people. I happened to meet John Devereux owner of the Celtic Lady when I was much younger (12) when I was deep sea fishing with my father. I met him as an adult for the first time during the early autumn of 2003. At the same time I was guiding Clive Gammon for bass fishing in Wexford. Not that Clive needed it of course - for he had been fishing here with Des Brennan since the early nineteen fifties.
I was fishing in the company of legends. John is the oldest serving coxswain in the history of the RNLI and Clive well......we were fishing the race using live sandeels. John and I have fished the race ever since aboard the Celtic Lady, regularly catching some superb fish, having great fun and even experiencng some scary and of course frustrating moments. We learned and probably, for the first time in these waters witnessed a lot of new fishing together.




For us working at the race, it was about boat positioning, lure choice, presentations and then re-positioning - a constant learning process. In all the years we have bass fished so far, with so many fish and experiences, we have learned that the boat and its presence and position is the singular most important factor for success. Not only does it influence your fishing but it also influnces the fishing around you, and other boats also affect you. Very few people understand this and hence the fishing is often not at its best or even non existent. Fish are spooked and driven elsewhere by many simple factors - so simple sometimes people cant see them and then everyone looses.
photo of Clive courtesy of Terry Thomas.

Do you find yourself dreaming?

FISHING THE TIDAL RACE! PIII

Part three - Reels

To your right is Julien LaJournade, editor for Voyages de Peches. Pictured here during the summer of 2003 at the tidal race in Wexford, Julien was and continues to be of great help to SEAi. It was though his inspiration and support via his magazine and the many lure fishing techniques that he gave me, which helped SEAi develop in its early days. Now even today, six years later on, he is still very interested.

I distinctly remember the first day we fished on the boat, it was the first time I had seen a Shimano Stella. It was also the first time I had held a fixed spool reel of such high quality and state of the art engineering. Today I can see why its still the main choice of the worlds top sportfishermen.

Out here, the fixed spool rules for advanced lure fishing and only quality will survive. I'm not saying you need to rush out and spend 800 euros on a FS spinning reel but some time spent and invested wisely before your choice is made will pay off in the long run.

Recommended Reels: Shimano Twin Power, Daiwa Certate, Shimano Stradic.