Fly Fishing on the Dodder

spaceHopper · 12-04-2011 10:15PM

love to fly fish wrote: »

Anybody out on the dodder lately any luck. The water is very low.

One small one on a nymph clase to dark last week lots of fish there but you need the right fly and as has been said the water is so clear that they aren't fooled easily

dOWN BY tHE RivEr · 13-04-2011 04:50PM

caught two nice brownies down rathfarnham on the spinner. lovely. kept them both for my dinner. goin down for more tonight!:D

thehamo · 15-04-2011 07:10PM

Was out today by busy park. Water was very low and gin clear. Managed to get a good few fish all the same. Landed about 6 and missed countless takes/off the hook etc. All taken on nymph.

Hardly monsters tho, biggest about 5" long. Anyone know where I can get the big fella's??

thehamo · 19-04-2011 11:05PM

out again today. Missed a load of rises on the dry but alas, no fish. Was down by dodder park area. water was very low again and super clear. Fish however were rising readily to a tiny little green midge that were in abundance. Smaller than anything I had in my fly box but still managed a few rises on a size 20 olive. Serious head of trout around the 3/4 pound mark, I counted easily 20 all within 50 metres of each other. One big lad about 1.5 lbs rising too but had next to no interest in my presentation!!!

jack01986 · 26-04-2011 08:42PM

Got out for a bit today after work. Got down to the river at Clonskeagh it looked at bit refreshed from the rain this morning which was good, and there was plenty of fish rising about the place. Spotted what looked like a better fish rising beside a branch in the river spent a few minutes watching it rise and it seemed to be taking fairly consistently. Put in a few cast that fell short, then got him on the fourth attempt luckily, he took off downstream into the current and gave a good account of himself got a little video of him in the water but didn't have enough time to get a photo of him out of the water. Was happy with my first fish from the dodder this year, tried for a bit longer but no joy. Got him on a size 16 deer hair sedge with a 6x tippet was fishing it new-zealand style as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbfC7aKQvs8

Doc Farrell · 28-04-2011 09:44PM

methinks u are showing off your new optio w90!

coolwings · 28-04-2011 11:08PM

I love those underwater fishing video clips.

jack01986 · 08-05-2011 10:48AM

I was using my go-pro hd Doc Farrell, there might have been some showing off;)

It was fairly awkward trying to film the fish and play him at the same time have to get some sort of mount so I can hold it into the water. Will try get a longer one next time.

jack01986 · 15-05-2011 02:52PM

Was out around Milltown today for a couple of hours today only picked up a couple of smaller ones around the dropping well. Walked down towards the bigger weir further down and rose a few more small ones but couldnt connect to any of them, after another missed strike put the line back down on the water and the biggest fish I've seen on the dodder took my fly. I tried playing him for a few mins and he jumped a couple of times and felt very on the end of the line he looked to be close to 2lb and he eventually spat the hook. I was gutted he got off. Flogged the water again for another while but no joy.

Cdub · 16-05-2011 10:12PM

Guys, any salmon caught on the dodder these days?

coolwings · 17-05-2011 07:25AM

A few come into it.
Unfortunately with the weirs impeding upstream migration, their spawning areas are very limited.
If the weirs were modified, there would be cracking sea trout in the Dodder, which is perfect in all other ways for sea trout, and more salmon too.
Dodder weir fish passes is a project which I would hope to lobby for at some time in the future.
The weirs are spaced in such a way, that each weir breached, starting from downstream, will double the spawning area for migratory fish. Since the spawning area is the limiting factor on their numbers, they will double their numbers by themselves with no stocking required if the fish passses were built.
Amazing that fish passes have not already been fitted, but that's how it is right now, and why it's a trout stream with the occasional rare seatrout/salmon.
It needs pressure put on, and maybe a sponsorship by private sector, like eg some fund raising to match public funding, and motivate/ease the constraints on the powers that manage our waterways.

jack01986 · 17-05-2011 08:07AM

coolwings wrote: »

A few come into it.
Unfortunately with the weirs impeding upstream migration, their spawning areas are very limited.
If the weirs were modified, there would be cracking sea trout in the Dodder, which is perfect in all other ways for sea trout, and more salmon too.
Dodder weir fish passes is a project which I would hope to lobby for at some time in the future.
The weirs are spaced in such a way, that each weir breached, starting from downstream, will double the spawning area for migratory fish. Since the spawning area is the limiting factor on their numbers, they will double their numbers by themselves with no stocking required if the fish passses were built.
Amazing that fish passes have not already been fitted, but that's how it is right now, and why it's a trout stream with the occasional rare seatrout/salmon.
It needs pressure put on, and maybe a sponsorship by private sector, like eg some fund raising to match public funding, and motivate/ease the constraints on the powers that manage our waterways.

I think this would be a brilliant idea Coolwings, I often thought that there is some serious potential for the dodder as a sea trout river and to have one so close to a city centre would be pretty exciting as well. Ive been looking at all sorts of websites recently about improving rivers and flow etc for migratory fish. There have been some good articles in trout and salmon over the last two months on how to improve flow in rivers to make it better for spawning as well as coping with weirs.

To summarise the article about the weirs they tested a section of river in england with a weir and fished above in the slower pools and below in the faster water. The faster water vastly out fished the slow canal like stretches. I'm no expert fisherman but Ive had a similar experience while I was fishing the Dodder. I'm sure these stretches could be improved on and in combination with some fish passes the Dodder could be a serious river to fish in.

stevenmu · 17-05-2011 08:33AM

jack01986 wrote: »

To summarise the article about the weirs they tested a section of river in england with a weir and fished above in the slower pools and below in the faster water. The faster water vastly out fished the slow canal like stretches. I'm no expert fisherman but Ive had a similar experience while I was fishing the Dodder. I'm sure these stretches could be improved on and in combination with some fish passes the Dodder could be a serious river to fish in.

Trout anyway love the fast water just after a weir. It's highly oxygenated which is good for them and good for insect life. And the flow will carry lots of food straight to them. They can hide out of the flow behind a rock or obstacle conserving their energy and pop out when a tasty morsel drifts by. When the water's low and clear in the Dodder you can stand and watch them, they lie almost perfectly still even in fast water, pop out to grab something, and pop back in again. It's good for fishing too because the fast disturbed water hides leaders and covers up splashes etc.

(not that I ever catch anything in water like that, but that's a different story

)

jack01986 · 17-05-2011 08:41AM

stevenmu wrote: »

Trout anyway love the fast water just after a weir. It's highly oxygenated which is good for them and good for insect life. And the flow will carry lots of food straight to them. They can hide out of the flow behind a rock or obstacle conserving their energy and pop out when a tasty morsel drifts by. When the water's low and clear in the Dodder you can stand and watch them, they lie almost perfectly still even in fast water, pop out to grab something, and pop back in again. It's good for fishing too because the fast disturbed water hides leaders and covers up splashes etc.

(not that I ever catch anything in water like that, but that's a different story )

Ye Im in the same boat there as well:rolleyes: its pretty good at hiding those mistakes on my cast. What I should have said as well is that they were of the opinion that there are far fewer fish in the slower pools and that rises we can see could potentially be the same fish moving position.

coolwings · 17-05-2011 09:09AM

The food production of the river is in the riffles. The pools generate much less food, but provide cover for larger fish (talking about trout here not coarse fish species).
If there are too many weirs, and the river is all deep pools, it becomes more sterile as a producer of game fish.
The ideal is almost all riffles to produce aquatic insects and the foods that eat them like minnow, stickleback, shrimp and so on. And then to have deeper rocky depressions dotted around to provide cover for big trout without having to have huge long still pools.

thehamo · 17-05-2011 09:20AM

What kind if fly would you fish in the weir pools? I've tried a nymph a few times but no joy but I'd well imagine there are some big fish I'm by the weirs

coolwings · 17-05-2011 09:44AM

I usually match the hatch.
But in my case that could a 16 floating midge on one extreme or a sunk 1" minnow fly on the other.

jack01986 · 17-05-2011 03:56PM

There is some good information from the http://www.wildtrout.org/ on river and habitat improvement.

Got some good info from the PDF's Ive attached. The third one has some good diagrams on improvig instream flow in slower sections of the river.

love to fly fish · 24-05-2011 02:00PM

fourmations wrote: »

it still quite early and surface activity aint great
(well its last thursday since i was there)

for wets... try pheasant tail nymph preferably gold head
and spiders (snipe and purple or partridge and orange)
and tiny tiny dries (small midges or dusters)

cheers

Hi fourmations

Do you fly fish at the bridge near the old mill or down from there as im not too far from the dodder park area 10 minute walk is it good fishing spot there any luck lately and what fly is works for you in that spot.

Thanks

fourmations · 28-05-2011 04:52PM

hi there

i fish along dodder park or at the dropping well usually
ive fished under the footbridge behind mortons a few times
thats a decent little spot

i fish dry all the time and dusters are no1 choice for me
followed by small f-fly and griffiths gnats
ive had them on small elks and olives too

cheers

jack01986 · 30-05-2011 08:54PM

Was out yesterday for a bit rose a few small fish but nothing connected. They were feeding on some some tiny white flies not sure what they are called maybe caenis? There was a good hatch of dark sedges as well but the fish didn't seem to interested in them.

mf100 · 31-05-2011 12:04AM

hi there,

i fish regularly on the dodder for brown trout on dry midges. i'm thinking of taking up a new challenge and heading downstream to try my luck at catching seatrout. i've no experience of this. has anyone tried this and, if so, any tips for this eg. where, which flies, what hook size and what techniques work best?

thanks very much.

jack01986 · 08-06-2011 04:22PM

Caught this today just before I got soaked in a rain shower.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cZrgdfn5Ts

Not sure why thats not working.

thehamo · 08-06-2011 04:23PM

blank picture there Jack unless thats what you were getting at:p

jack01986 · 08-06-2011 04:32PM

thehamo wrote: »

blank picture there Jack unless thats what you were getting at:p

It was close enough,

jack01986 · 11-06-2011 08:21PM

Out again this evening for a session did a bit of exploring around herbert park and found some nice spots, must have rose at least 15 fish and only connected with one of them. He was very silvery and my first guess was a juvenile sea trout but I'm open to correction. Moved up towards milltown and got a few more trout from some of the faster water around there. Used klinkhammers and elk hair sedges size 18 and 20.

wgsten · 11-06-2011 10:35PM

jack01986 wrote: »

Out again this evening for a session did a bit of exploring around herbert park and found some nice spots, must have rose at least 15 fish and only connected with one of them. He was very silvery and my first guess was a juvenile sea trout but I'm open to correction. Moved up towards milltown and got a few more trout from some of the faster water around there. Used klinkhammers and elk hair sedges size 18 and 20.

Pictured is a Salmon Parr.

thehamo · 11-06-2011 10:57PM

wgsten wrote: »

Pictured is a Salmon Parr.

Would that be denoted by the thumb like prints along its side? If so ive caught a few of these on the dodder

jack01986 · 11-06-2011 11:19PM

wgsten wrote: »

Pictured is a Salmon Parr.

That's pretty cool wgsten, thanks for that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSkOc4WuqJU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQMo2eddcVY

wgsten · 12-06-2011 09:43AM

Here is a picture of a wild Brown Trout for comparison. The thumb marks along the flanks are missing from the Trout. On the Salmon Parr the mouth is shorter and the tail fork is deeper.

Fly Fishing on the Dodder

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