December 28, 2003
A little older, a little wiser - 2003 has all but passed us by. Global warming really does seem to have settled in. For the last couple of years, we have seen little or no frost or snow - winter water temperatures must be considerably higher than was traditionally the case.

Following the trend of recent years, duckfly arrived around St. Patrick's Day, 17 March. As last year, the actual quantity of fly in this part of the lake appeared to be down. Fishing at times was excellent but patchy and the lack of egg-laying flies meant that the season was rather shortened. The olives followed on the duckfly quite quickly so that we did not have that awkward gap which can sometimes occur in mid-late April. Again, following the trend of recent years, the olive fishing was particularly good to deeply fished nymphs and wet fly fishing. Conditions for good dry fly fishing never appeared to be quite right.

Mayfly appeared early - at the end of April - and the first two weeks of May provided some of the best mayfly fishing ever recorded at Grasshopper Cottage. In mid-May it started to rain and rain and rain. The lake rose rapidly, some 6-8 inches, and the weather entered a cold patch. Whether it was the conditions, or for some reason unknown, the good mayfly fishing came to an abrupt end by May 20. Fishing continued on in fits and starts but many anglers, who had left their fishing to this later period, were disappointed. Yet again, reports of good quantities of grilse (albeit very late) were not realised in our section of the lake. Again, I would consider it to have been a poor year for salmon and grilse fishing.

The weather improved dramatically in June, in fact, it improved much too much and water temperatures became quite high as we basked in the best summer we have experienced for many years. Needless to say this did not help the fishing but, it has been so long since we have had what we would call a "summer" in the West of Ireland, that we simply lay back and enjoyed it! Early July normally provides me with some lough-style grilse fishing but, given the weather conditions, this was virtually out of the question. What salmon/grilse there were very successfully hid themselves in the bottom of the lake.

I always enjoy fishing Lough Carra at this time of year and this year it provided me with some excellent sport. Dry fly, sedges, dapping, fry imitating, evening sedge and buzzer fishing - all provided an excellent alternative to Corrib. Anybody who has not fished the Carra really ought to make the effort to visit this magnificent, marl-bottomed lake. The flavour of what it has to offer can be seen on "Corrib Seasons" Part 3 - Autumn - Sedges, Daphnia, Terrestrials.

Back on Corrib, patchy mayfly and olive hatches continued in very localised areas right in to September. Good conditions for daphnia fishing were rare as good daphnia fishing requires enclosed, dull conditions. However, when conditions allowed, some excellent catches were recorded. In the fine bright weather, dry fly fishing with large sedge patterns and Daddy-longlegs proved worthwhile. Charlie Platt's magnificent 5lbs.+ trout, caught on the dry Daddy, springs to mind.

All in all, from a fishing point of view, not the best of years. Anglers had to be versatile in their approach and be prepared to move, not only around the lake, but to adjacent venues to get the best fishing. The weather remained dry well after the end of the season and we were quite concerned, coming to trout spawning time, that there would be adequate water in the rivers and streams. Fortunately, the weather broke just in time and excellent runs of trout were a testament to the fact that stocks in the lake remain good. As I write, the grilse and salmon are on the redds, in better numbers than I would have anticipated.

Wishing you all the best for 2004 from all the staff and gillies at Grasshopper Cottage.
Roy E. Peirce