I sometimes feel a twinge of jealousy as i read some of the accounts of fly fishers when they describe their outings ...even early season ....." at 2pm there was a hatch of LDO's and I took 4 trout in quick succession on an olive Kink , and finished the session with 3 pounders on a grhe " ...etc etc....

I've only been river fishing about 2 seasons and this year was my earliest ever start ( yesterday )

The river looked dead ( Mulcair/Bilboa in Cappamore ) .....very low....freezing cold.....in 3 hours i caught 5 trout, very small, saw one pathetic dun floating down river ( i failed to catch it, pathetically) but managed to catch the best of them (1/2 pound, thin thing ) on a Griffiths, my usual default dry......not a bad day incidentally, about 10 degrees.....

Would this be a fairly common start...I have to say the river looked dead as something very dead indeed, perhaps not helped by the work that the Fisheries Board did on it 3/4 of the way through last season involving tractors and big rocks.

( Well done guys ) .

Any thoughts on this type of early season start ...typical fare??

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Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.

Thats typical..very little going on this time of year and especially as the temps are low and the rivers and lakes even lower. It traditionally picks up after St. Patricks day. Those reviews your reading are probably on stocked or managed rivers in England.

Cheers Stylie, when i looked at the trees and saw the buds hardly there, it made a bit of sense that so little should be happening. So I'll take 5 trout on a first outing !

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Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.

I empathise with you fully spider. I had my first outing this week and mananged 3 trout, the best a lively half pounder which is a bonus on thye wee river i fish. I too remarked how lifeless and dead the river seemed and also noted the coolness of the water on my breathables. I had 2 more brief trips getting a tiny single trout each time and think i will leave it for now as the whole thing seems slow and almost "too soon". I had a run in with a mink which livened things up no end if thats any consolation .

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Fortis Sub Forte Fatiscet. The brave yield only to the brave.


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