Early September trip to Lough Beagh 2012
Left the house at 7am on 4th September to pick up the trout fishing mate Mark, the sky was clear blue and not a breath of wind.
Not the most ideal conditions for trout fishing, however by the time we had driven the 60 odd miles to Donegal the weather had changed.
It was now blowing a blustery force 6 with showers and broken sky.
Things looked a lot better, if not a bit too rough.
We met Michael from I.F.I at the jetty and small hut half way up the lough, he sorted us out with permits and pointed out a couple of hazardous rocks, and then left us to it.
Fantastic scenery, a very beautiful place to fish.
Having received some advice from other members of the forum, we headed to the southern end of the lough to fish around the in flowing river mouth.
Having drifted up and down both eastern and southern shores of the bottom end of the lough with out so much as a pull, we decided to drift along the western shore right down as far as the 'Bell'
This drift was not that easy for the wind had picked up and was blowing us along faster than we could strip the flies. So we limped along quite close to the shore, knowing that we were fishing over 'deep' water we didn't hold out much hope. But as we went further along there was a few smaller 'bays that we tried, it was in one of these that the top section of my rod flew off out after the flies.
Now in normal circumstances this would be a problem, but on this occasion whilst pulling in the line, hoping the fly would catch in the top eye, the line suddenly started pulling back.
A seatrout of nearly 2lb was struggling with the Delphi silver on the point. After a nervous few minutes the top section was retrieved and the trout played on the 3'8" section and safely landed. Being well coloured it was returned.
View from one side of the lough accross to the Castle and Gardens.
A few small brown trout later, we decided to head back down the lough and try a drift along the Eastern shore.
With lunch taken on the rolling wave. We made our way back down the lough.
Now due to the direction of the wind this was going to have to be a bit of a 'zig-zag' drift.
A change of fly from a claret bumble to a foam bodied daddy for the top dropper, nearly brought instant success. With only 10-15 yards of line stripped out and still not really fishing, there was an almighty swirl at the Daddy, I'll never forget that large white mouth as it appeared under the fly. Alas it didn't connect, but as I was reliving the event to Mark, he shouts "I'm in" and his rod buckles over as he lifts into what is a good fish.
Some ten minutes later after an epic battle, with yours truly having to get on the oars to avoid crashing it to the rocks on the shore, the fish making it's way under the boat twice and the line getting stuck in between the gap at the edge of the seat and the side of the boat.
This fine 5lb trout was safely landed photographed, weighed and returned.
Well done to Mark. It really wanted that size 8 Green Peter
Due to the distance we covered whilst playing the 'big' trout, we decided to repeat the drift, we weren't disappointed, no monsters but a few small brownies and the odd sea trout.
Some spectacular takes with trout jump 2 feet in the air with the foam daddy in it's mouth, an unforgettable evening, had more than made up for the slow morning.
Mark with a typical Sea trout from around the 'Dump'
Our last drift of the day took us down past the castle at Glenveagh, one can only imagine what the fishing was like here when the castle was occupied.
I'll be back again this year to see if it's still recovering.
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