2009 saw the best Mayfly in years. Trout returned to the surface in large numbers splashing at hatching mayflies. Those that did not record good catches were happy to report great hatches of fly and large numbers of trout feeding. Not everywhere every day but consistently good hatches and rises through a three week period. The mornings saw the greatest activity with less fish moving later in the day. The Mayfly started in earnest on the 3rd or 4th of May and continued right up to the end of the month. In fact in June trout are still being caught on Mayflies.
Excellent bags of trout were recorded and virtually everything returned by guests at Camillaun. Johnny Mac and his 6 welsh anglers recorded 145 trout with just 31 retained. The Kieseweiser party had 48 with 33 returned. Pat Doyle, Dermot O’Mahony and Timmy O’Connor recorded 36 fish with just 9 kept. In addition the Priestley party had some excellent trout including one at 6lbs, 1 at 5lbs and several in the 2 – 3 lb range. Niall O’Connell and Stephen Ryan had 10 with all returned and Alastair and Graeme McLoughlin also had 10 all returned.
The fishing has been very good with fish coming to the dap, the wets as well as dry flies. Last year we saw the best fall of spent gnat on the lake for years and as expected hatches of flies are good this year. the trout are also feasting on the mayfly with all ranges of trout coming to the dap from small fish to trout of 5 and 6 pounds being caught. Anglers caught up to 6 or 7 trout in a day but respected the new regulations and in fact only brought one or two fish home for dinner. By all reports from the dozen or so boats out of Camillaun this is the best mayfly in 8 or 9 years.
There has been a good run of spring salmon into the Corrib this year the grilse run was not as good as last year.