olive upright dun
Last weekend I went flyfishing on the (upper) river Liffey at Ballyward bridge. When I arrived at the river it was dropping off after the overnight rain. It was a day of mixed weather, bright sunshine, strong winds and some cloud cover. I made my way down to the riverside and had a look around for any signs of moving fish.
I noticed that there was large olives lifting off the water. At first glance I took them as large dark olives but on close inspection they were olive upright duns. It was good to see these uprights as they are sensitive to water pollution and therefore a good indicator of water quality. I also noticed that the olives had drew the attention of several trout which were greedily snatching them as they emerged.
I tied on one of my own tying’s a Greenwell’s klinkhammer and tried my luck. Delicate casting was definitely not on with such a strong wind. It was more like chuck it and chance it. The Greenwell’s drew a blank as did several other flies. It wasn’t ’till I tied on a Tup’s indispensable that my luck changed. Even with the gale blowing and my cast crashing on the water I managed to land fifteen trout. Incidently the Tup’s also was tied klinkhammer.
Ballyward trout
I returned all fish to the water for another day. This is a nice location to fish on the Liffey but with it’s close proximity to the city it does tend to get over fished on the warmer days during the season. If it’s a peaceful quiet day’s fishing you are after it would be best to avoid fishing at Ballyward during school holiday’s.
Liffey at Ballyward
