Monday, 13 February 2012

Blog History 2010 - 2011




Chris Haines reports from the Rye in June.

 I was out again last Tuesday evening and had two trout around 8-9 oz on olives. There was plenty of trout rising but I struggled to hook them. They seemed to be feeding on those very small white flies.Does anyone know their name and what fly pattern I could use imitate them?

Last night (Thursday 2nd June) I got out for some more fishing, again plenty of fish rising but I could not figure out what they were taking. So I got side tracked taking photos of the local wildlife. I only started catching after the sun went down. I had two clonkers on big sedge patterns. The first trout was 15-16oz and the last fish was two pounds and this fish fought like a demon.


Chris Haines wrote:

I took a short 3 hour session on the Rye last night (30/05/2011) between 8 and 11pm. I haven't been fishing the river in three weeks because of the wind and rain of recent weeks, unfortunately the river is still in desperate need of rain. It is amazing how fast the nettles and reeds grow at this time of year. The river has changed so much in three weeks! There wasn't much of a hatch on last night and the temperature quickly dipped after 8:30pm.



Martin Murray caught two mayflies mating today 8th May. Martin's house is almost on the bank of the Liffey at Leixlip and he keeps a close eye on the river. These two mayflies landed on his sleeve while he was at the back of his house. Its great to see Mayfly hatching in Leixlip. Lets hope the trout think so too.



On the 17th April another leg of the trout league was held on the Rye and was well attended. The water level was very low and the fishing was not easy. Dave Gadd won this leg of the competition. A lot of his fish came to the hawthorn fly. As you can see from the comments on this blog it is a good idea to have a hawthorn fly in your box if you are fishing the Rye these days. The fish in the photo was caught by Alan Doyle a few days before.



There was a great turnout for the first competition of the year. The water was just right and running very clear. The usual fry up was organised. Some members had not been seen for many months and there was a lot of catching up to do. Peter Doherty took a break from work and fished for a short while. He landed a salmon of three pounds and five trout before he went back to work . Jason Nolan won this years event. Good catches were reported the early season fishing on the Rye has proved not to be missed yet again.



The first competition of 2011 for Leixlip & District Angling Association will be held on Sunday 20th March. This competition is also known as the fry on the Rye because traditionally there is a fry up before the competition. Anglers meet in the north west car park behind Intel at 10am for breakfast. Fishing will be from 11 am to 3pm. As usual we encourage anglers new to the Association to come along. The social side of the gathering is far more important than the competitive side.

The section of the river below Kilcock Village has maintained a Q rating of 3-4 since the year 2006 when it was Q2-3. This rating means it is  slightly polluted. The aim of Leixlip & District Angling Association is to achieve a Q rating of 4 for the whole river. A rating of 5 is  achieved by pristine streams on mountain tops. A macroinvertebrate sample is taken to analyse water quality. This work is carried out by Aquens on behalf of Intel Ireland Ltd.
The annual pike competition in Carton Estate marks the end of the season for Leixlip & District Angling Association. This years competition was held in glorious sunshine. There was a chill factor due to the wind but all thirty -four anglers were in good spirits. There were a good number of junior anglers, two of whom got on the scoreboard. There were about ten pike caught and Jonathan Watkins retained the trophy for another year.
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The  AGM of Leixlip & District Angling Association will take place on Wednesday 17th November at St Mary's GAA Club,  Leixlip at 8 pm. The AGM is held in the room behind the club where the fly tying is done. A motion received for this year's AGM is that the Rye Water should be fly fishing only for one year and reviewed at the end of the year.

The Last Chance Competition was held on Lough Owel. Anglers met at Jack Doolan's at 10.30 am and fished until 6pm. The conditions for fishing were perfect but the highlight of the day had to be the fry-up at the pump-house. Fish were hard to come by, with many recently stocked fish coming short or just nipping at the fly 


James Ward  and his dad Jim  were out in Lough Owel on 4th August and James caught two lovely trout. The first one was 1 3/4 lbs and the second one was 2lb exactly. The  previous night Jim was out with John Brennan and caught a mighty fish 2 3/4 lb.  Two were caught on the  Green Peter Goss (wet) and coming to dark they switched to a big Murrach (dry).




Rye Wildlife June 2010
Lawrence Breen wrote,

I have attached a photo of a nice Damsel Fly which I took on Sat Night last. The river was alive with all kinds of wildlife and myself and my son Luke spent a magical 2 hours before dark. Lots of Trout rising all around to tease our unskilled efforts. I have identified it as a male Banded Demoiselle Damselfly. It was perched with some other males on some vegitation at the side of the river where it waits to attract passing females.
Intel Trophy Fishing Competition Friday 18th June


The Intel Trophy Fishing Competition will be held on Friday 18th June. Anglers should meet at 7pm in the NW carpark behind Intel. Fishing will be from 7.30pm to 11pm. Fish over 8 inches will count and it is the total length of trout caught that is recorded. The Rye is very low at the moment but it is still holding a good head of trout. Brian Coffey won the competition last year with a great catch on a sedge pupa.


Chris Haines writes.

The attached photos are various fish caught very recently on the Rye behind Intel, all trout are released of course.


Chris Haines writes.
 
Chris Haines writes.

Good to see that we can post the odd photo of trout from the Rye on your blog. The blog is looking great now. Well done!

The attached photos are various fish caught very recently on the Rye behind Intel, all trout are released of course.
Good to see that we can post the odd photo of trout from the Rye on your blog. The blog is looking great now. Well done!


 
John Brennan reports the story of an angler catching two pike at the same time. By all accounts one pike was being reeled in at Carton Lake when another pike attacked it and the angler landed both pike. If you look closely at the first pike you can see the teeth marks of the second pike. I think the gillies at Carton have probably surpassed themselves with this achievement.


Chris Haines writes.

Good to see that we can post the odd photo of trout from the Rye on your blog. The blog is looking great now. Well done!

The attached photos are various fish caught very recently on the Rye behind Intel, all trout are released of 
course.
The mayfly trip to Lough Corrib  is organised by Aidan Crean and is open to all members. This year's trip was great fun as usual with the accommodation and arrangements being superb. Fishing conditions were quite good with the exception of a wind coming from the north. There was some fly up in Oughterard Bay but the fish were not 

Leixlip Anglers in conjunction with Leixlip Town Commission, Tidy Towns Association and local residence associations had a big clean up along the Rye Water last week. Leixlip Anglers responded to the challenge with great enthusiasm and effort. The other groups involved were taken by surprise by the amount of anglers that turned out to help. They were even more surprised by the amount of rubbish taken out of the river by the anglers.
John Brennan sent me a few pictures of his recent catches before they were safely returned to the river. It  makes great sense to take pictures of your fish rather than bag them. I know that many anglers are doing this already and Leixlip Anglers would like to encourage it. If you would like to send me some of your fishing pictures I will try to put them on our blog. Send them to the club email address above.


On Saturday 17th April my son Donal had his first outing on the Rye. It was a beautiful morning and fish began rising fairly well at 1.30 pm. He covered quite a few fish, all quite small I suspect, but was unable to make contact with any of them. Then he hooked into  this  beautiful trout which was in excellent shape.


The first Jnr outing this year was held on Sunday 9th May, four Jnr members and some seniors turned out for the day.

It was very bright and the river was at summer levels very hard fished, but that didn`t stop the Jnr members catching, they had one fish to hand on a gold head and a couple of fish got away, all had some action even if it was only their fly being followed by a fish




The second fishing competition of the trout league was held on Sunday 18th April. Conditions were ideal for a bit of fishing. There wasn't a great rise of fish but they remained active from 11am until well after 2pm. Most of the lads fished nymphs and some persisted with the dry fly. There were a lot of salmon parr in the process of turning into smolts which is a great sign for the future of the Rye as the main spawning river for the Liffey salmon. All fish were returned carefully to the river.

The Salmon Leap Pub seemed a fitting setting for the recent presentation of a framed photo on the occasion of Donal Connolly stepping down from the committee. You may notice that the photo presented to Donal by Aidan Crean was taken when Donal won the Fishing competition in Lough Owel last year with a fine wild trout.Donal was pleased on that occasion but I think he was just as pleased by the thoughtfulness of fellow committee members especially Brendan who picked the photo and had it framed.

The Mink is a member of the weasel family. The species found along the Rye is the American Mink which is bigger than the European Mink. Mink are  escapees from mink farms which were established here in the 1950's. In general mink are about 18 to 24 inches in length, including its bushy 5- to 7-inch tail,.  Their typical habitat includes streams and rivers. I observed mink along the Rye about five years ago but it is only this year anglers are reporting a marked increase in numbers.







The St Patrick's weekend competition, the first of the year, was held on Sunday 21st March. The day started as usual with a fry up. The day was perfect and there was a great turn out for the competition. The angling dress code was much improved from former years and members of  Leixlip & District Angling Association now look like a thoroughly professional bunch. Many different methods of fly fishing were used on the day. Jonathan O Brien was the winner with a lovley trout 12 ½ inches.





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