2013 A year in Review

I always enjoy looking back at my blog at the end of the year, it brings back some amazing memories of the season past.  What a season it was!  We were extremely busy this year despite the warm weather and low water.  Guiding was very busy with a new guide Kevin  joining our team.  Kevin had a fantastic season and was well received by clients. This article is just a snippet of our 2013 season, for more details you can have a look through the archives of our blog. The fishing this year however was really tough, water levels were the lowest since records began, so this made both trout and salmon fishing very difficult.  During the summer evenings however the evening rises for trout were epic. With such warm days the hatches were truly amazing and this in turn brought large numbers of fish to the surface to feed.  I had not seen such amazing evening rises in many years and in fact had thought they were a thing of the past. However this year proved me wrong! Salmon fishing was really tough this year, low water levels meant that fish were not entering the river in such large numbers, so numbers of fish caught were way down on previous year. However in the past few weeks the tributaries are full of fresh salmon entering the system to spawn.  This is really heartening to see.  It clarifies that is was just the low water levels and oxygen levels that were preventing them enter the river. Also in 2013 we increased our range of products in our store. We are now the largest Hardy and Simms dealer in Ireland, offering the largest range of both product ranges in the country.  We have also greatly increased our fly tying range in store, now stocking products from Veniard, Wapsi, Hends, Whiting, and many more!  

January

January saw us publish our 2013 catalogue, packed with the latest goodies. We print 10,000 of these each year and they are inserted in the Trout and Salmon, Irish Angler, Fly Fishing and Fly Tying, and Trout Fisherman.

February

This is always a busy month at Clonanav. The season opens on the Blackwater and we have several shows including Hooked Live in Citywest, Dublin, and the Angling Ireland show in Swords. This year we attended both and it is great to meet old customers and new.

March

Always an exciting month as the fishing opens on the Suir system on the 17th of March.  The weather this year was pretty good in March and so was the fishing.  Water levels were good and we even had some fishing rising even at this time of the year.

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April

April is when the fishing really starts to improve on our rivers, the days get longer and the temperatures rise. The fishing was really good at the end of the month, with some really nice fish being caught in the tributaries and in the main river.

We also had a Guideline open day with demos from myself (Andrew Ryan) and Guideline Powerteam member in Ireland Kieran Conlon. The day was a huge success with anglers travelling from all over Ireland.

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Also very popular in April and even now was the Demo youtube video using the Guideline Lxi 13'9 9/10 Double hander from Guideline.

May

May is always one of the best months for fishing here. The weather really improves and a lot of our regular clients come to fish. This year was exceptional with many of our old friends back to see us!  We also run quite a lot of courses in May including a Spey casting course at Fortwilliam Estate on the backwater.

The trout fishing was excellent with many of our regular clients having PBs during the month!

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June

The evening rises really started with a bang this year. I hadn't been fishing them much, but was getting lots of reports from local anglers calling in to the shop that the fishing was fantastic.  The day time fishing was also good and again we had some amazing fishing during the month.  We also held our Hardy/Greys open day with demos from Tom "doc' Sullivan hardy rep for Ireland.  This was a huge success with anglers from all over the country in attendance.  We held some clinics on the river with the latest Hardy gear. APGAI Ireland also held their CPD day At Clonanav.

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July

July saw temperatures soar in Ireland. We had a record heatwave, but we were really busy with clients.  This was the first time in many years we could wet wade.... note the milk bottle legs!  Water was low and clear, but the fishing was amazing. We could fish pools we never fished before with the low water and sight fish!  This is when the evening fish came into its own, huge hatches and rises of fish. We also gave several club demos and some courses during the month.

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August

At the end of July we got a little rain which freshened up the rivers a little this was badly needed as the rivers had become so low! We also did some filming on the Blackwater with celebrity chef Kevin Dundon at Fortwilliam estate.  Guiding once again was very busy during the holiday time of August, with many repeat customers returning.  It was great to see Jack Zagar back again, he had his first day spey casting in the sweltering heat. No fish, but his casting was amazing in just a day.  Ferdinand Rodrigues also had an amazing day catching his largest trout ever on the Suir![gallery ids="2493,2557,2584,2595,2598,2628,2622,2633"]

September

The last month of the season on the Suir and usually our best salmon month. This year the salmon fishing was poor due to low water, but we did manage to get a few fish. The trout fishing was still good and we also ran several courses during the month.  Guiding was also very busy with many regulars trying to get in some fishing before the season ended. One of the highlights of the month was Dod Fraser landing his first atlantic Salmon... and what a fish. His first on a double hander!

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October

Even though the fishing was closed on the Suir, we still did some guiding on the backwater which was open until 12 of October. The water remained low, and the fishing was slow.  Here is a nice video from October... The Clonanav Staff day out