River Greese Ballitore, Kildare

Last Sunday I headed down to fish the river Greese in Ballitore Co. Kildare. The Greese (Griese) is a small fast flowing river with plenty of deep pools. Any time that I fished it before, the water was always gin clear with lots of aquatic plants which are good for insect life. Sunday was no exception. It was as clear as  the  chalk stream’s of southern England. It was still well down on the guage even after all the recent heavy rain we have had.

Guage at Bridge Ballitore

There were black gnats swarming all along the river which the trout were ignoring. They were confidently rising to a hatch of iron blue duns.  The day was dull with a very strong upstream wind and the ever threatening rain. I rigged the rod up with one of my own klinkhammer variants that I am trying out this year. They have worked well so far this season. The one I used this time was tied as an iron blue. I started fishing the small weir pool beside the old mill where several good fish were frequently rising to the iron blues. I landed two nice trout from there. The second one was particularly good. He swam up and down the pool  then thrashed around on the surface and in the end managed to put the other fish down.

Weir pool Ballitore

I then moved upstream towards Ballitore, where I landed three more trout and lost several more. I also landed a salmon parr. Its good to see the parr in the Greese. All fish were returned alive.

The Greese with its clear water is a beautiful little river which presents a challenge to the flyfisher. There is an active angling club that control the waters. (The River Greese Trout and Salmon Anglers Association). Permits are available locally from the supermarket Moone, the Sportsman Inn Timolin and the Shaker Store Ballitore.

Next time I will try to get down and fish the Greese during a night time rise  when the sedges are about.

Black Gnat's on the Greese

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