The windswept waters of Lough Corrib, an expansive lake in Ireland's County Mayo, wasn't what they had expected. The fly fishing techniques were rather odd and quite arduous. But for a fly fishing team from Case Western Reserve University, it was the angling adventure of a lifetime.
The windswept waters of Lough Corrib, an expansive lake in Ireland's County Mayo, wasn't what they had expected. The fly fishing techniques were rather odd and quite arduous. But for a fly fishing team from Case Western Reserve University, it was the angling adventure of a lifetime.
Chemistry professor John Protasiewicz and student Evan Maynard were one of two U.S. teams competing in the Lough Corrib World Varsities Trout Fly Fishing Competition Aug. 28-29. The team captain, CWRU English professor John Orlock, was along for support, and to take magnificent photographs of the 44,000-acre Lough Corrib, Ireland's second largest lake.
"We were one of 13 university teams, all invited because of some form of fly fishing in their curriculum," said Orlock. "We certainly didn't realize just how they fished for big trout there. It was quite a learning experience."
A Plain Dealer article featuring Orlock, who had introduced fly fishing literature and actual fly fishing in a University Circle pond to an English class, was instrumental in CWRU getting an invitation. Orlock chose the two best CWRU fly anglers he could find. Protasiewicz is a steelhead trout fan and Maynard a stream trout specialist in California.
Case Western Reserve University student Evan Maynard (left) and chemistry professor John Prostasiewicz are in front of Lydon's Lodge Hotel in Cong, Ireland, ready for the opening round of the Lough Corrib World Varsities Trout Fishing Competition. Most trout fishermen wade streams or rivers and cast a fly. On Lough Corrib, fishermen traditionally drift in a boat and cast with the wind using a four-fly rig on fly line with a 25-foot leader.
It is a style of fishing that has been around for a couple of hundred years and rated the best way to hook a wild brown trout that could weigh more than 30 pounds.
"The casting was pretty difficult," said Maynard, 19, a sophomore from San Jose, Calif., studying aerospace engineering. "The retrieves were even more of a challenge. You had to strip line like a mad man, bringing in about three feet of a line at a time before the boat drifted over your line."
Helping each team was a ghillie, or guide, who had traditional wooden boats with an outboard motors. Their ghillie, Frank Costello, would control the drifting boat while standing tall in 3- to 4-foot waves, using a long shaft to control the outboard motor.
"All of the trout fishing was catch-and-release," said Protasiewicz. "The winning team caught 22 trout, and we caught three. The ghillies are so concerned about the health of the trout, they had them measured and back in the water almost before you could blink."
Fish pictures were not an option.
"We couldn't have begun to plan the trip without the support of CWRU's Dean Cyrus Taylor and Dean Peter Whiting," said Orlock. "They may have thought we were a little crazy, but they saw the benefits. And Blair Cameron of the local Orvis store was especially generous with funds and equipment.
The anglers stayed at the Lydon's Lodge Hotel in Cong, a tiny town of only a couple of blocks. After nightly dinners, the fly fishers shared angling tales over a Guinness at the Lydon's Bar, a highlight of the adventure.
"We brought a huge selection of flies, including dry flies that never saw water," said Protasiewicz. "The only fly that seemed to work was a local wet fly, the Claret Bumble."
The top fly of the Lough Corrib World Varsities Trout Fly Fishing Competition recently in Ireland was the Claret Bumble, for a couple of centuries a local favorite of local fly fishers.It was not surprise the top two teams after the two-day competition were local Irish fly fishermen from the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology and the Limerick Institute of Technology. Unsettling for pro teams from countries like Finland and Great Britain that were used to international competition, a University of Montana team captured third.
"The scenery was just beautiful," said Orlock. "They filmed "The Quiet Man" with John Wayne there in 1951. The area is famous for the Ashford Castle, once the Guinness family estate. We'd love to fish there again, now that we're familiar with the techniques."