Fry bashing?

Auldloon

There are a few places in the uk where you can get great sport on trout fry bashing at this time of year.
Are there places this happens in Ireland and does anyone here target them?

ironbluedun

not sure about 'fry bashing' but on the limestone loughs wild trout will feed on fry in the shallows, sometimes very shallow water, especially early and late in the season. The trick is to approach them without spooking them.

skipz

What is fry bashing?

bayliner

skipz wrote: »

What is fry bashing?

not sure myself, is it when the trout go on a feeding frenzy and gorge on fry in the shallows???

Auldloon

Yes bayliner that's about it. Have never seen it myself but friends of mine have. Its a big event on some of the large English reservoirs eg Grafham. Huge trout round up shoals of fry and push them into the shallows where they then surge into them catching some and stunning others to mop up after.
Like most fishing its all about being at the right place at the right time.

It apparently happens on some rivers also.

Rycn

Chuileog wrote: »

Yes bayliner that's about it. Have never seen it myself but friends of mine have. Its a big event on some of the large English reservoirs eg Grafham. Huge trout round up shoals of fry and push them into the shallows where they then surge into them catching some and stunning others to mop up after.
Like most fishing its all about being at the right place at the right time.

It apparently happens on some rivers also.

Cheers, i was wondering what the hell was goin on!

wgsten

I have seen Rainbow trout fry bashing on several occasions at one of the stocked fisheries that i fish during the closed season. Had good fishing with a fry pattern on those occasions.
wgsten.
http://www.irishflyfisher.ie/

Octopus

You'll also see this during summertime on any stocked reservoir where the water is used and the water level drops during the summer.
When the water goes down below the weed/grass along the edges it exposes the fry as they've nowhere to hide.

Watch for the fry suddenly leaping out of the water along the edges followed by a trout swirling. They plough through the fry shoal as fast as they can snapping at as many fry as possible and then they come back around to pick up the casualties.

I've had great fun fishing with fry immitations for these fish. Nice fat trout full to the neck with fry when you catch them. They hit the fly pretty hard too.

ironbluedun

I think this ‘fry bashing’ thing mostly refers to stocked lakes that contain rainbows. Wild trout tend to be more cautious in their approach to hunting fry. On limestone loughs in open water on occasion it is possible to see several large wild brown trout encircling a small shoal of juvenile fish or fry and feeding on them. But I have not seen them ‘bashing’ them. Whenever I have seen larger wild trout feeding on fry in a group it is a very very rare occurrence. The larger trout will encircle fry and feed on them selectively. The trout herd the small fry and feed on the ones that stray from the entrapped shoal…..I last saw this happen about 8 years ago when about 6-8 large trout were heading and tailing around the circumference of a shoal of summer fry, the fry in the centre of the circle came to the surface and went ‘ballistic’ darting and splashing trying to evade their captors. The case was were several larger wild fish acted together collectively to achieve a common goal (whether it is done consciously or not who knows)…this happens but in my experience this is a very rare phenomenon. Alternatively mostly single large wild trout will ‘stalk’ fry in the shallows nomadic style so to speak. and i suspect that is a far more common way trout feed on fry.

aidanf

What are some good fry patterns? I have a couple of wolly buggers would they suffice as a fry imitation?

ironbluedun

aidanf wrote: »

What are some good fry patterns? I have a couple of wolly buggers would they suffice as a fry imitation?

i dont use wolly buggers that often....not saying that there is anything wrong with them but many anglers do use them as lures/fry imitations and they do work well, just for wild trout i prefer,


claret and silver dabbler
kate mc laren
small zonker
blue zulu
silver invicta

of those 5 the first 2 i would go to are claret and silver dabbler and silver invicta........;)

cj salmon

I have seen this heading and tailing,and rainbows causing the water to boil on stocked fisheries in october last year. I was told they were feeding on buzzers sub surface,but after 2 hours with no action on a buzzer set up,and other fishers only picking up one or two i walked around the lake and observed one or two trout cruising in shallows and a lot of fry about,so i tied a floating fry pattern on and cast along the margins,,best to leave it almost static ,just a few short jerks.took 7 trout that day on that method,, some explosive takes...very exciting as you can see them stalk your fly,they seemed to be the bigger fish too!!

SeaFields

I have seen wild brownies do this on a river on cork (which will remain nameless ) It used always happen around late May/early June. The brownies would start nailing the minnow and perch fry very hard and sometimes it was like seeing mackerel breaking. Catching thirty or forty trout in an evening was not unheard of with imitation patterns, with a relatively large average size considering the diet of the trout. I did a postmortem on one decent sized trout one evening. He had 18 minnow/fry in his system including three in his mouth when he took my fly!


Most fortunately this river is somewhat isolated, has a very good club on it of conservative minded anglers so we can enjoy that type of sport every year.