Strangford Lough Seatrout Sessions - March 2011.

People: Myself, K2 & Pookie5488

Dates: 1st, 5th & 8th March 2011

Tide: Incoming tide

Weather: (Mixed) Dry, bright, cold with light showers

Methods used: Spinning, bottom fishing & fly fishing

Bait used: Worm

Results: 4 Seatrout


Report

After fishing for the Seatrout at the end of last season and having some good crack, K2 and I decided that this year we would target them as soon as the season opened at the start of March. We figured it would give us something else to target in the Lough rather than just mullet and it would also keep us occupied until the mullet returned later in the year.


Tuesday 1st March 2011.

On the first day of the season K2 headed out for an early morning session. He wanted to try out a few new plugs that he had bought to see the action of them in the water so he had the perfect excuse to go out. He drove to the mark and once there he began trying a few spinners to see if there was any sign of fish about.

He walked up and down casting and retrieving his spinners covering as much ground as possible. After being at it for a while with no sign of any fish being present, he swapped over to a smaller spinner and after a few casts with it he felt something hit and realised he had hooked into a fish. It took the lure quite close to where he was standing wading in reasonably shallow water and immediately he could see it was a Seatrout as it jumped out of the water a couple of times trying to get itself free from the hook. Playing it gently he managed to get it landed safely up onto the shore. He quickly unhooked it and released it back in alive and well.

He fished on for a short while after that with nothing further to report and so he packed up and headed home. Mission accomplished, he had caught his first Seatrout of the year and was well happy.


Saturday 5th March 2011.

Today I was able to join K2 as I was off work for the weekend which was great. We were also joined by our mate Rob, a very keen fly fisherman who fished with us last year quite a few times for the mullet in Strangford. We all met up at the chosen mark and after a quick chat at the cars we got our gear ready and headed down. The tide was still on the way in when we got there. K2 and I fished with worms while Rob used his fly rod.

This was our first trip out this year at this particular mark and so we didn’t know what to expect with it being so early on in the season.

K2 was first to get his line into the water. Rob and I were standing chatting away and looking at the flies he had been tying over the winter when suddenly we noticed K2 grabbing his rod. He was into a fish on his first cast, we couldn’t believe it! We stood and watched as he brought a nice wee Seatrout in and got it landed. K2 unhooked it and I took a quick picture before it was returned back into the water and swam away.

(Below is a picture of K2’s first fish of the Saturday session)


Without further hesitation, Rob and I stopped the talking and began fishing as well.
A short time later, K2 had hooked into his second fish of the day. Like the first, it jumped out of the water a few times before he got it landed. Again a quick picture was taken by yours truly before it was released.

(A picture of K2’s second fish can be seen below)


So, at this stage K2 was 2 fish ahead - Rob and I had some catching up to do! I did get a couple of knocks throughout the session on my rod but nothing came off them.

Rob had several takes on the fly rod but no hook ups. Then he changed over to one of his own flies that he had tied and as soon as he began casting with it, he got an instant take. His fish was on only for it to throw the hook on him and get off as it jumped out of the water. We were disappointed for him that he didn’t get to land it but at least he hooked it in the first place, that’s the hard bit so he was happy enough.

We all fished on for a while after that but things went quiet and so we all decided to pack up and head home.

The time flew in and as always the banter and crack was brilliant. And although not being the biggest he has ever caught, K2’s fish gave him some great sport and crack on the light tackle he was using. A good day out was had by all.


Tuesday 8th March 2011.

With abit of time free in the afternoon, K2 headed back to Strangford to try for the Seatrout. Again, using worms, he cast out his rod and waited. Things were quiet and slow at the start but then half way through he got a good bite. He began to reel in and sure enough he had another fish on. He got it in, it was another nice wee Seatrout. He unhooked it and took a quick picture.

(K2’s fish before being released can be seen below)


Nothing much else happened during the remainder of the session and so he finished up and left for home.

nice couple of trout there paula and co.there still small enough yet but give it a few months and the bigger ones should be knocking about

well done paula nice report and great fishing norman

Good start to the season
Well done.

nice couple of trout there paula and co.there still small enough yet but give it a few months and the bigger ones should be knocking about

Thanks Brian. As you said, it's early days, the season has only started, there's plenty of time to get a few bigger ones further on in the year It was good to get the season off and running with a few fish.

well done paula nice report and great fishing norman

Thanks Alan. As always K2 shows me up and catches the fish. It looks like this year for me is going to go something like last year did, him catching the fish and me netting them for him and taking the pictures, aww well, at least I am good for something I guess!

Good start to the season
Well done.

Thanks Birdseye It was great to get out and fish the Lough again. The seatrout will give us something to do while we wait for the mullet to return.

Great report & nice Trout k2 you have some catching up to do Paula roll on April when the Pollock & Wrasse start showing up

Nice seatrout paula and excellent pictures. Nice way to start off the year..

exellent fishing paula, went out in search of your particular species and suceeded, well done

nice report, pity you didnt hook any but there is always the next time

Nice start to the season

hard luck paula but ther always next time,,good fishing k2

Great report & nice Trout k2 you have some catching up to do Paula roll on April when the Pollock & Wrasse start showing up

Thanks Brian. My job of being K2's photographer and nets woman is going to be carried on this year again by the looks of things, just like last year I bet you can't wait to hit the rocks for the Wrasse and Pollock, I hope this year bags you a couple of nice specimens

Nice seatrout paula and excellent pictures. Nice way to start off the year..

Thanks Mark. It was a long cold winter, it's good to see the brighter nights coming in and the temp rising abit. I haven't spoken to you since meeting you at the Angling show, I hope all is well with you and the family, it was great to meet up with you for a chat. Shame the show wasn't abit better.

exellent fishing paula, went out in search of your particular species and suceeded, well done

Thanks CIANDOWNEY It was certainly mission accomplished for K2, his target species was caught, it's the pity the same couldn't be said for me but I am not too worried yet, it's early days. The season has just begun. Fingers crossed for my next trip out.

nice report, pity you didnt hook any but there is always the next time

Thanks Martin. As u said there's always next time, and the time after that and the time after that for me to try and get one I met Jonny from the U.C.C on Saturday while out on my travels and got speaking to him briefly which was cool, it's always nice to put a face to a name.

Nice start to the season

Cheers seaotter. On light tackle even the small fish can offer you great sport

hard luck paula but ther always next time,,good fishing k2

Thanks polaris, we'll see what happens on my next trip out.

nice fish paula.good of you to concentrate on the camara work!! you will get yours soon i hope!

well done paula and norman great report and some nice fish there keep it up great to see

nice report, pity you didnt hook any but there is always the next time

Thanks Martin. As u said there's always next time, and the time after that and the time after that for me to try and get one I met Jonny from the U.C.C on Saturday while out on my travels and got speaking to him briefly which was cool, it's always nice to put a face to a name.

feel sorry for you

well done! first two are quite similar to a brown trout and third one looks like its been in the sea for a while as its lost its markings and became more silver.. nice fishin

Hi Paula,

Great report, great fishing too, well done. There is an interesting difference in your sea trout as the-ghost says. The first one looks a bit like a brownie but the tell tail (pardon the pun) black edge to the tail of a sea trout is clearly visible. The 2nd is very brownie looking, looks almost like a Lough Carra trout with its silver flanks and yellow tinges and fins, lovely condition that one. No 3 looks like a well mended kelt, extremely silver and lean.

Are there sea trout streams running into Strangford Lough, forgive my ignorance but not familiar with the lough, been there a couple of times but never fished it. Our biology teacher (a Mayo woman) used to organise bird watching day trips to Strangford lough when I was at school, thats really the only experience of the place I have. Fascinating place.

That looks like a good mullet in your avatar, what size was it? I hope to make a bit of mullet progress this season.

Cheers,

Cathal.

Yes good to get out again good day and norman got a few good fish great to see. As for fly they were very hard to get on the feed loads of fish jumping to the fly a few hook ups very annoying but fun. Thought good chance to try a fly i been working on and first casts fish on proper it took a run turned into us jumped and that close was able to see fly come out of mouth...gutted but thats fishing for you. Home to vice to tie a few more lol

very well done Paula and Norman, good start, nice couple of trouts there

Guys, had some difficulty with this last year convincing some that what I had caught in the same river were in fact Seatrout, Kerry, Norman, well down, great catch! This river I know well, and I don't believe it holds brown trout of this size. The sea trout smolts released into it, every year are not indigenous, they may well be mixing with the natural strain, so that might explain the variances. Or have you ever seen a Salmon that has been in a river a while, they colour up, almost beyond recognition. This makes the Grilse hard to distinguish from a large sea trout. Here's an interesting debate on the same thing on another forum, just have a read, and make up your own mind.
http://www.flyforums.co.uk/sea-trout-fishing/71428-how-tell-difference-between-brown-trout-sea-trout-4.html