Fly Fishing for Pike in Ireland from Float Tubes .....

 Floating on Ireland

 Reproduced here with kind permission from the author:

Chris McCully   www.chrismccully.co.uk

Sometimes I think I fell asleep some time in the recent past, then woke up in a weird parallel universe.  Last week I opened my eyes and there in front of me were 14 Dutch guys, one lady, and 15 Dutch belly-boats, all floating on Co. Leitrim.  I was, similarly, floating on Ireland.  And all of us, all day, every day, for the whole of a week, were fishing for Irish pike using fly-rods and streamers. 

            We were based in Ballinamore.  It’s a great base for pike trips.  In the vicinity are a number of different, relatively small loughs, all of which hold pike.  To the west there are the limestone plains of Co. Mayo, to the north the expanses of Lough Allen and Erne, while to the south-east there are the great lakes of the Irish midlands – Sheelin, Ennell and Derravarragh.  All of this pike fishing is within a 2-hour drive from Ballinamore.  

            Float-tubes offer many advantages to the pike fisher.  They’re cheaper than hire boats.  They’re quiet, pollution-free, and allow you access to underwater features – principally weed-beds and drop-offs – which would be out of range of a bank fisherman’s deadbaits.  In my view the prime advantage is that a tube allows you to cover particular marks (drop-offs, plants, rocky headlands) slowly, holding the craft in position by paddling, covering the water from subtly different, patient angles.

            There are some disadvantages.  It’s impossible to cover miles of water in one day, as you perhaps might want on a big lough, and therefore tubing is probably best practiced on relatively small stillwaters, or in the bays of greater ones.  Again, float-tubing can be hard work, particularly in a wind stronger than Beaufort 5.  It can be disconcerting, too, knowing you’re out there in a stiff blow in bags full of compressed air.  It can be exceedingly wet (but so can regular boat fishing); it’s probably unwise to go float-tubing in the depths of winter; casting range, even with a 10-weight fly-rod, is relatively limited; and in the same high wind, control of the streamer might perhaps be less than total. 

            The advantages outweigh the disadvantages, I think.  In terms of sheer excitement, very little in fishing can compare with hooking and landing a big late-summer or autumn pike from a tube.  Even a low double-figure fish – and during the past week we caught plenty of those – will prove to be a handful when hooked among pondweed and lilies, and the running, open, head-shaking play of these magnificent creatures, when caught on a single-handed fly-rod, really has to be experienced to be believed. 

            Our choice of gear had to be tough and simple.  This is an independent, rugged form of pike fishing that will test you and your tackle to the limits.  During the past week, for instance, we suffered at least three broken fly-rods between us, and these were rods from famous makers.  The stresses of casting big streamers from a tube in what were often high winds proved too much for the blanks.  Thankfully, my own Greys Platinum Saltwater XDA – a 4-piece 9-footer rated for 10-weight lines – proved utterly trouble-free and reliable.  A great rod, and although you don’t need to cast a long line from the tube, the rod also has sufficient speed and power to generate awesomely long casts should you need them.

            I coupled the rod with a Partridge S series fly-reel which has a first-rate drag, plenty of capacity, and lovely cosmetics.  There are those who’ll tell you that hooked pike never run, and that a fly-reel for pike streamer fishing is just a receptacle for holding a bit of line.  Don’t believe them.  Irish pike, are fast, tough customers.  Five days ago I hooked a fish which seized the streamer near a bed of reeds.  In her first unstoppable rush upwind she took out all the fly-line, plus ten yards of backing.  I paddled back to her in a stiff breeze.  Then she got into the biggest bed of pondweed and lilies she could find, and shed the hook…. At moments like that you need an entirely trouble-free reel with plenty of backing (50 yards minimum, and better 100). 

            Fly-lines were almost universally 10-weight intermediates, though floating lines were also employed.  Rio, Snowbee and others make superb fly-lines for this form of fishing.  I used a Rio Outbound, whose steep front taper means the rod will load quickly, minimising the need for endless false casting.

            The business end of the gear needs thought and care.  For total reliability and simplicity I’d plump for 5 feet of 40lb. nylon knotted to a 10-inch solid wire trace with a twist-link at the streamer end.  But I’m experimenting increasingly with titanium races, since these are so flexible that they offer less leverage to a hooked pike.  If you want to make such a trace, join a 12-inch link of 30lb. titanium to 5 feet of 40lb nylon using an Albright Knot.  Whip over this knot with thread, and smear the knot with epoxy.   At the hook end, knot the titanium either to a snap-link, or to a small sub-trace of solid wire, which last has been equipped with a twist-link.  Knotting titanium is ticklish, despite what the makers claim: I use artery forceps and pliers to draw the knot into an open loop (don’t draw the knot too tight), then whip over the knot and smear it with epoxy.  Allow to dry.

            And for the streamers?  Favourites were Bunny Bugs, Dubbel Dekkers and other rabbit-strip streamers tied on 6/0 or 8/0 barbless singles.  (The new Ad Swier Absolute pike hook, marketed by Partridge, is a grand strong hook.)  These have a magnificently sinuous action in the water.  The Dubbel Dekker, in particular, has a wide profile when seen from below by predatory eyes, and more than proved its worth in days of big winds and broken light.  Then again, on days of a smaller wave, and in clearer waters, I preferred to use the lighter, more user-friendly Flash Flies, tied on 6/0 barbed irons.  These streamers, which were invented by the Scandinavian angler Morten Valeur and which are described in Michael Jensen’s Fly Fishing for Pike (Coch-y-Bonddu Books, 2003), consist of nothing more than two bunches of tinsel or Flashabou spun round chenille at either end of the hook, leaving the hook shank bare.  They’re supremely light to cast, have plenty of flash and action, and can be fished beautifully among and above weed-beds at close range from the tube.  Draw the Flash Fly to the surface, look behind it for any predatory eyes, then allow the streamer to sink between the strands, fluttering as it goes…. I lost count of the number of pike that took at this point, within a rod’s length of my flippers.

            Into the float-tube with you come rod and reel, a floating fly-box containing half a dozen spare streamers, a couple of traces, a hook-stone, a piece of towel, some nylon, and a pair of unhooking pliers.  It’s wise to attach the pliers either to your person (via a D-ring on a waistcoat), or to the tube.  I use a length of plastic chain which has whipped and epoxied loops at either end.  You might also like to take a digital camera, and a tape measure.  The Dutch habit is to measure pike rather than to weigh them, and I think this is eminently sensible.  It’s speedier, safer, and kinder to the fish than weigh-sacks and scales, and here too the float-tube offers advantages.  You’re positioned close to the lake, of course, and it’s therefore often possible to unhook the pike in the water without handling it at all.  If a fish does need the pliers, then it will be close enough to your hand to employ a quietly efficient gill-grip. Lift the fish out, supporting it with your free hand if necessary; unhook it; measure it; return it, holding the pike gently by the side of the tube until it regains strength and kicks away.  This takes around 15 seconds, or maybe 20 if someone’s taking a photo.

            In Dutch terms, a fish of 80cms and more is a decent pike.  A fish of 100cm is a metervis, a specimen.  Depending on the time of year, such a fish will weigh anything between 14 and 20lbs.  Fish over 100cm are becoming seriously big pike, and if the tape shows 115cm and more then you’re usually looking at a high 20.

            I don’t like in-your-face statistics in any form of angling.  They seem to me like a form of angling pornography.  But if you insist on the numbers for a week’s float-tubing in Ireland, then as far as I could work them out the stats were something like 150 pike caught and returned over 5 full days fishing between 14 men and one lady.  There were two days when a cold front passed, a hard light shone, and fishing was tough for everyone, but on the remaining days, of strong westerlies and southerlies, we often did well, and every so often another bay of another Irish lough would echo to another cry of ‘Yesss….’  We fished a dozen different loughs, and there were plenty of pike between 75-90cm in the totals.  The three best were 105, 111, and 116cm.

            The last word goes to the barman at The Poor Scholar.  Standing outside the street door during his cigarette break he was confronted with the sight of a minibus which sported a belly-boat tied to its roof.   The craft sat up there like some sort of damp, truncated McMichelin Man.  The barman rubbed his eyes with his free hand.  ‘Youse go fishin’ in wan of thim?’  We sketched the advantages of float-tubing.  There was a pause.  The rain sluiced down.  The barman sucked on his cigarette.  ‘Well, boys,’ he said at last, ‘it’s the coolest thing I ever seen….’ 

Fact File

There’s plenty of good pike fishing within striking distance of Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim.  The town, which offers good local amenities, is within a 2-hour drive from Dublin.

 We stayed at Glenview Country House, which offers B&B and an evening meal.  There’s accommodation in the main house, and/or in two adjacent, well-equipped bungalows with their own kitchen facilities.  There’s plenty of storage space for float-tubes (there are at least three large dry sheds on the property), drying facilities for wet gear, and Glenview also have their own compressor, which makes inflating a tube (and keeping it inflated) the work of a moment.  Recommended. Tel: +353 719644157.  E-mail: glenvhse@iol.ie

 Ordnance Survey Ireland Discovery Series, sheets 26, 27, 33 and 34, will be useful.

 U- and V- form boats are readily available.  Buy the best you can afford, and if possible, try before you buy.  Outcast, Red Devil (Parton), Creek Company and Wood River make (or made) good craft.  Useful to keep the dry weight down: a tube of 7kg dry weight is transportable along with flippers, waders etc. without exceeding most airlines’ baggage limits (20kg). A clam-shell design travel bag is ideal for transport.  Snowbee make a reliable, tough and roomy model.

 Flippers.  Creek Company make purpose-made flippers which I find entirely adequate.  These attach securely over normal wading boots.  Others favour Speed Fins, or even standard diving flippers, worn over diving shoes or flats’ boots.  The choice is yours – but make sure you’re not going to lose a flipper, whatever system you prefer.

 You’ll need body waders.  I use Snowbee breathables and boots during summer and autumn, and 5mm. neoprenes during colder months.  That said, I rarely go tubing at all in winter.  I have no other excuses other than I’m getting old enough to wimp out.

 A good wading jacket is also an essential.  This should have sufficient capacity in chest pockets for you to carry smaller bits of kit on your person.  You might also like to wear a life-vest of some kind.  A halter-style, automatically-inflatable vest might just keep you afloat long enough to save your life if the worst happens.

 Hat, polarising glasses (plus a cord), sun cream and/or lip salve are other essentials.

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I’ve given three streamer patterns in the text whose tying might be unfamiliar to UK readers.  Here are the dressings: 

Ad Swier’s Passion for Pike, edited by Chris McCully, published in 2007 by Westerlaan Publishers.  Copies may be obtained from Coch-y-Bonddu Books, or direct from www.westerlaan-publisher.com/pike.html

The author Chris McCully's website is at:  www.chrismccully.co.uk

Copywrite for this article is Chris McCully's reproduction only with permission of the author.