Article first published in John O Groat Journal Scotland June 22nd

IWFF GATHERING 2007

Every now and again I get this terrible urge to cross the western seaboard and fish for the trout and salmon of Ireland.  Over recent years these highly enjoyable trips have varied from the moderately successful to the completely `skunked’ (a succinct Americanism describing an inability to catch fish!) and this year saw me determined to make the most of fishing in a part of Ireland never previously visited.   
The aim was to attend with friend Barbara the International Women's Fly Fishing (IWFF) Gathering at the excellent Pontoon Bridge hotel in the heart of County Mayo, one of Irelands most favoured fishing spots.  Accomplished women anglers from Alaska, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Massachusetts, Georgia as well as Wales, Ireland and Scotland met up to enjoy 3 days of intensive angling and of course plenty of the customary socialising that follows after the days fishing.  The fact that the hotel is extremely angler friendly with owner Anne Geary a past Chairman of the Irish Ladies Fly Fishing Association and her daughter Mary (head chef) captaining the international team for 4 years, also considerably helped the cause

Setting off from the harbour at Pontoon Bridge hotel

Wisely most of us had left husbands and partners at home to allow full time devotion to the art of angling and accompanied by highly knowledgeable gillies, members of the Irish ladies international fly fishing team and various other local worthies the assault on Mayo waters began.   First up was the Clongee beat of the famed River Moy.  Though this beat is not as publicised as the world renowned Ridge Pool in the middle of the town of Ballina (a beat with around a years` waiting list to get on!), the Clongee stretch is delightfully scenic meandering through the gentle green countryside near Lough Cullin.  The river here is wide but there are plenty of deep pools, riffles and glides.  Fishery manager John Ruane proved a font of knowledge in showing us the right spots to fish and the flies (small shrimp patterns) we should try.  The Moy positively teems with life with prolific stocks of salmon and sea trout along with copious brownies and a range of coarse fish including pike and perch.  In the end up though a couple of fish were seen moving as we waded leisurely down the beat, with temperatures hitting a Mediterranean 26degreesC and water on the low side the brassy bright weather conspired against us catching anything other than a nice suntan.   

  The next two days were spent boat fishing on Lough Conn one of County Mayo’s best trout waters.   The meet had been especially arranged to coincide with the tail end of the big mayfly hatch on Conn and hopes were high that the trout might be a little more obliging than the Moy salmon.  Tactics were discussed in detail including the use of those wonderfully tied Irish Green Drakes which were to be combined with flies from the Wulff range, Bumbles, Hoppers and of course Green Peters.  Just like in Caithness we were to fish these in teams of 2 or 3 on floating line and 6x nylon.  On the first lough day I was partnered in the boat by Mary from Marthas Vineyard USA, a saltwater fly fishing specialist more used to catching tarpon who was enjoying her first taste ever of freshwater fishing.  Gillie John explained that we should fish Green Peters and Bumbles as (typically) the mayfly had begun to lessen in number and the trout were moving more to the copious perch fry.  Drifts were undertaken all over this 9 mile water but with another day of boiling sun the trout were scarce and with 4 boats out only 5 trout and 1 small jack pike were caught. Still the informative chat with Mary on fly fishing in saltwater using Poppers and different `bait’ flies tied to look like small fish, more than made up for the lack of trout in our boat.

Lesley from Scotland slogs it out on a hot Irish day (lough Conn)

 For the second lough day I had Deb from Georgia USA for company in the boat and another (different) John to gillie for us.  Deb is a small river specialist and with the sun again beating down from a cloudless sky the conversation covering everything from dry flies to malt whiskey again proved much more interesting than the fishing.  Gillie John was not short of voicing his opinions either and despite my notion that maybe we should try some intermediate line wet fly in such bright conditions he was having none of it insisting that in such extremely difficult fishing circumstances we must persist with a team of 2 dries one of which had to be the Royal Wulff size 10.  In the end up all I got that day was tennis or should I say casting elbow from hurtling big Wulffs at a blank glassy lough, well at least the craic was great! 

Deb from Georgia fishes the River Moy

   The final evening’s dinner saw a chance to reflect over this meeting, a pioneering first in IWFF terms as only meets within America had been undertaken before, and there were several good points made.  It quickly became clear that though naturally everyone would have liked to catch more fish, the sharing of worldwide fishing fellowship and knowledge was seen as the main key to the success of the `Gathering’.  In addition the local knowledge of the Irish international ladies team and the marvellous Irish hospitality of the Pontoon Bridge Hotel added greatly to the occasion.   In fishing terms only the weather had proved impossible, everyone else had worked extremely hard to ensure we had a fine old time. - And happily but not without a touch of irony, those marvellous Irish flies I bought were not wasted as, on my return to Caithness, I find our mayfly up and was able to bag some really great trout off one of our local marl lochs. -

Roll on the next Gathering!