Mission Almost Possible; Catching char on the fly as a survey method.
Fran Igoe

On May 22 2000 three intrepid members of the ICCG made an attempt at catching char on rod and line in Irish waters. This follows the recent successful adventure by Fran to Austria where he met up with veteran char researcher and very capable drinker Dr. Helmut Kummer. Proof that char could be caught by unusual methods other than maggots was the order of the day, and boy were these methods unusual. So the time had come to test the possibility here in Ireland. To that end these sprightly lads set off on a sunny Sunday afternoon, after a very late Saturday night, in search of char.The day started off well with lots of photos taken of char lakes.

The Likely lads; Myles Kelly and James Allison

A great deal of time, Fran's fault, was spent fishing a small lake called " Mamean" but not a sausage was to be had. So the mighty trio ventured off onto Lough Athry where char have been recorded on rod and line in the past. The "bould" James attempted fly fishing into a gale force 7 wind while Frano and Mylo took the lazy man's way out and tried the dap. Dapping is a traditional method of fishing for trout, especially around the month of May when the mayfly hatch out on Irish trout Loughs. Normally a mayfly i.e. Ephemera danica or a daddy long legs is secured onto a hook, some of the fishing line is either made from floss or has floss attached to it so as to catch the breeze. The insect bounces and skids across the water in a very natural way with devastating effect. However on this occasion we didn't have any daddies or mayflies to hand,so we had to settle for a small dry fly. The lake was quite dour but as the evening progressed things livened up a little and hey presto a take, a sip more like it, gentle without the aggression of the brown trout. Then it was gone. A short while later close to the same spot the same thing again happened.

These takers were no brown trout, and as there are no roach in the lake that we know of, elimination of the usual suspects points to the char. Was our hook too large, did we strike too soon? We don't know but we're going back and next time hopefully....! Even though the mission wasn't a total success the scenery made up for the empty bags. But if you want to give it a go, make sure to bring insect repellant or plenty of cigarettes; the midges are cannibal thirsty out here.

Lough Athry, Connemara Pony in the foreground,
sheep on the shore.