Fly fishing the River Sullane

Happyhunter

Hi all.
I've recently bought a season ticket for the Sullane In Co Cork. I don't have much experince river fishing, nearly all my fly fishing has been done on still water for wild brownies.
I've been down to the river a couple of evenings over the last two weeks and had great fun, though littles success! I had one trout , small but beautiful.

There's me standing in the river with fish rising and jumping all round me but they don't seem to be interested in anything I have to offer (or how i'm offering it). any advice would be greatly apppreciated.
One spercific question I have is, if I'm covering a rising fish with a fly across the river and the is a section of faster flowing water between myself and the slower section of water where the fish is lying, how do I stop the faster section of water whipping my fly line downstream making my fly scream a cross the surface of the river like a miniture water skier? If you get what I mean.

Happy Hunter.

ironbluedun

Happyhunter wrote: »

Hi all.

One spercific question I have is, if I'm covering a rising fish with a fly across the river and the is a section of faster flowing water between myself and the slower section of water where the fish is lying, how do I stop the faster section of water whipping my fly line downstream making my fly scream a cross the surface of the river like a miniture water skier? If you get what I mean.

Happy Hunter.

I assume you are talking about dry-fly fishing?....the dreaded drag when the current pulls the fly-line causing the fly to skate or drag, its a big no no....but it can be hard to stop, it really depends on the pool in question and how you approach it...
in my experience, generally speaking, its better to wade, if possible, and approach slowly casting upstream short casts with no or very few false casts, keep as much flyline off the water as possible..use a long leader.....in most situations when you fish upstream there is less of a tendency for drag,. if the fly drags or skates it is very unlikely that the trout will take it. your fly should drift downstream on a dead drift like a natural floating in the current, you must achieve this without the fish seeing the fly-line in the air during false casts, landing or floating on the water, or the fish seeing you, not easy but comes with time.

again it all depends upon the pool and section of river, some parts of the river are more suited to wet fly tactics which are much easier.

experimenter

One of my favorite river dry flies... CDC F Fly..



Can you tell us what your typical setup is..

What weight rod & fly line, length of leader etc...

stylie

Below Macroom has been know for big fish caught well after dark.

A local method with a fly and minnow used to be a real killer, the minnow was attached like you would attach maggots to a Secret Medicine for Sea Trout, and fished very gently and slowly anywhere from the bridge down. Sure its illegal now though

SeaFields

As what stylie says the sullane can produce some monsters. I have seen "once in a lifetime" trout both landed and lost there. I was the victim of the latter.

Fish sedges after dark OP. Don't bother going don't there until late in the evening - just before dark. And use a strong leader. Stronger than you might typically use for brownies.

Happyhunter

experimenter wrote: »

One of my favorite river dry flies... CDC F Fly..



Can you tell us what your typical setup is..

What weight rod & fly line, length of leader etc...

I use a 9' 6'' rod with 5# wf floating line and a 10' leader of 4lb florocarbon. The one wee trout a did catch was on a small olive klinkhammer.

Going to head back down there tonight maybe try the wets instead. Will let yea know how I get on. Thanks for all the advice so far.

Happy Hunter.

Happyhunter

Much better results on the wet fly. Had four trout tonight, 3 on a dunkeld and one on a bibio. Biggest around 6'' long. Going to have to get a lot more experince before I start fooling the bigger and wiser fish. Ther's a big difference between loch and river Fishing. I have a lot to learn.
Can anyone recomend a good easy to understand book?

okedoke

I fish the Sullane quite a bit. This time of year you'll get good fishing all day long. The stretch by the new bridge is very productive even though it gets hammered and you'll get some nice fish there. The easiest water when you're starting out will be faster broken water - there is two nice riffles below the new bridge - fish a big bushy dry fly on this water and you'll catch.

The two tributaries of the sullane (I can't remember the names right now - one joins the river by the Mill before Macroom and the other a few kilometres beyond the town) are lovely streams and a bit more manageable when you're starting out.

Happyhunter

Thanks for the advice lads, seems it payed off. Here's a couple of trout from the Sullane from wednesday evening. The bigger of the two fish is my best river brownie yet weighing in at 1&3/4lb. Chuffed to bits!! What a fight. A great evenings fishing.

Happyhunter.

okedoke

Can't see your image but a 1.75lb river trout is a cracker - well done

Happyhunter

Thanks. I'm having trouble getting the images up. Have got them to photobucket but can't seem to get them up here. Any ideas?

Happyhunter

http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/cc425/struan2345/River%20Sullane/DSCF0906.jpg

http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/cc425/struan2345/River%20Sullane/DSCF0908.jpg

http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/cc425/struan2345/River%20Sullane/DSCF0907.jpg

okedoke

Beautiful trout - in photobucket go to the image in your folder and under it a few boxes will appear - click on the Image Code, copy this code and paste into your post

Happyhunter

Thanks okedoke.



This is the average size of trout I pick up there.

Happyhunter

Sorry wrong pic.



This is the average size of trout I pick up there.

Hunter21

Ive no experience with dry flies, but have used black and silver spider, black spider with great success about 8 to 10.30pm any evening. Also use a coachman, think its good when pitch dark. Even if I couldnt catch a cold on a particular evening on those flies Id put on a bloody butcher and without fail I (or you possibly) would catch a nice few trout. The bloody butcher I feel only has success just as the sun goes below the horizon. Ive pulled big brown trout out of the blackwater using these 4 flies. Hope this helps, let me know if you use it and how you got on.