Fly fishing day at Bolgoda Lake

Last Monday, I have guided Hiraki san who was visiting his daughter living in Sri Lanka. Hiraki san is a trout and salmon fly fishing lover, then he booked a fishing day at Bolgoda Lake.

As the barramundis seems to be not very active these last days, we mainly focus to target the featherback and the mangrove jack.

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Early morning we reached our good spots for featherback and they were very active, rolling every where. Hiraki san was so excited to see all these fish rolling. After few minutes, he sadly missed his first fish of the day. I gave him some advice regarding the drift and the retrieve of his fly. Another featherback has took his fly, but again Hiraki san missed it. We try some others spots but the featherback were not keen to took again his fly. Then just before lunch time, I decide have a try on our mangrove jacks spots and on the first cast Hiraki san took a nice one. A bit later, he missed a bigger one and then caught a second fish.

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After lunch, I decided to took our chance to focus only on Barramundi spots, but the fish don't gave Hiraki san the opportunity to hook one.

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All in all was a nice day at Bolgoda, Hiraki san enjoyed a lot the fishing scenery and wildlife of Bolgoda Lake and he had fun catching our feisty mangrove jack. I know I will see you soon for another day fishing at Bolgoda

Head Fishing Guide - Nico

Fly fishing and GT popping trip for Japanese couple traveling in Sri Lanka

Hideaki san, his wife and their lovely daughter are a Japanese family living in Russia. They planned to spend 3 weeks holidays in the warm and sunny Sri Lanka for Christmas and New Year. As Hideaki san and his wife love fishing, they booked days fishing with us at Bolgoda Lake for fly fishing and at sea to target GT's on popping.

First day, they fished at Bolgoda and they have great fun with the mangrove jack and caught some nice ones. We tried to catch some featherback, but these elusive fish were not keen to play with them.

Second day, we went on sea and it was mainly Hideaki who was fishing. He had 5 bites and caught 2 Gt's.

I really enjoyed to guide Hideaki san and his wife. I have also done a bit of baby sitting with their daughter when they were fishing, but that was great time as she was so funny.

Thanks to come fishing with us and I hope to see you again somedays.

Nico - Head Fishing Guide

Fly fishing at Bolgoda Lake with Umpqa USA angler

Every season, I have the pleasure to guide Dave from Umpqa company for a fly fishing day. At the beginning, we have planned to have a go at sea, but sadly this day was too windy to fly fish. Then we decided to have a go at Bolgoda Lake.

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Morning was quite slow, Dave caught only an oxeye tarpon.

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In the afternoon the fish were more keen to play with Dave. After catching a small mangrove jack, Dave focus of catching a featherback on fly as they were well active in the evening time. After he dropped one on the first jump, he finally caught a nice one.

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Dave was so happy, to tick one of the fish he had in his bucket list.

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Congratulations Dave !!!

I know I will see you next season for another fly fishing day.

Nico - Head Fishing Guide

Expats Fly Fishing at Bolgoda Lake

Tiernan has been working in Colombo and like any good fisherman he brought his fishing rods, hoping to fish in his new country of residence. Tiernan is a fly fisherman, in the United States, he fishes in fresh water for trout, salmon and large mouth bass. He has also fished at sea for Redfish and other mangrove fish.

After three months without having gone fishing, Tiernan booked a fishing day with us at Bolgoda Lake. Guiding a fly fisherman is a great challenge for me. I know it’s possible to catch many of the species present in the lake on fly, but I never had the opportunity to guide a fisherman to try. In the past we have had anglers fly fishing and they’ve caught Giant Herring, Oxeye Tarpon, Mangove Jack and even Barramundi for the luckiest.

I met Tiernan at the villa, we had a coffee and prepared the fishing equipment. Tiernan was well equipped, but I took my fly rod and my fly box just in case. We headed out at around 7:30 am and started fishing on our Barramundi spots. The weather was perfect and the surface of the water flat. We saw Oxeye Tarpon rolling in some areas, Tiernan missed 2 and we are headed to another spot for Barramundi but there was no activity. Then I decided to go on our favourite spot for Featherback. When we arrived we saw plenty of these “knife fish” rolling on surface, Tiernan couldn’t believe his eyes ! Unfortunately he didn’t have any bites from this elusive fish but he caught a very nice Giant Herring.

It was time for a lunch break back at the villa. In the afternoon, Tiernan wanted to try the morning spot again for catching a featherback. At the spot there was the same activity as the morning, the Featherback were rolling on surface, but this time I gave of Tiernan a favourite fly of mine. An orange & yellow Enrico Puglisi. On his second cast, right where a Featherback was rolling, two strips and bang ! Fish on !!! First Featherback ever caught on fly at Bolgoda Lake !!!

Congratulations Tiernan ! After that we changed spots to try again for Barramundi and Tiernan caught a nice Mangrove Jack to finish his fishing day.

It was a great trip that has given me more confidence to guide fly fishermen at Bolgoda Lake. If you are travelling in Sri Lanka and would like to have a couple of days fly fishing at Bolgoda Lake give us a call !

Nico - Head Fishing Guide

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A couple from Alaska try fly fishing at Bolgoda Lake

Brad and Melissa arrived at Bayou of Bolgoda on 08 February 2015 to try out fly fishing at our Lake Fishing destination in Sri Lanka.

Day 1: Fishing the last two hours of daylight

2 fish for 3 bites. Clients, Brad and Melissa from Alaska arrived in the afternoon and wanted to fish the two last hours of daylight. It was quite windy so the fishing was done in a small bay where they managed two small GT on their fly fishing equipment before it was completely dark. They were excited to try the fly fishing on the lake as they had very light tackle, with a weight of just 4-5 weight on each rod. They had also brought one sinking line and one floating to be able to try all different depths, getting their thin 5lb leaders where they wanted them.

Day 2: Crocodiles and adapting fishing to Bolgoda’s environs

4 fish for 14 bites. The day started early at 05.30 with a flat surface and spotting many big crocodiles on the surface very close to the boat. The first fish were a couple of nice Mangrove Jacks around 35cm close to the prawn traps, with a strong current keeping the cloudy water at a steady pace. We also managed to hook a small Tarpon in amongst the small floating islands of vegetation where the fish seek refuge. The tarpon took on a small bright streamer on the fly fishing equipment, which was the method of choice for the Alaskan couple.

The evening brought rain, but they managed a fun fishing with streamers for jumping Giant Herring just outside the resort in the dark hours.

Day 3: Lures and Fly working well at Bolgoda

9 fish for 12 bites. Same as the day before the fishing began early in the main lake with sunny weather and calm conditions and it produced 12 bites before 10.30 in the morning! The fishing was great fun with many Mangrove Jacks taking both lures and flies hard. At one point Brad caught 2 Mangrove Jacks at the same time on the same lure, a small white and green wobbler close to the small temple island in the middle of the main lake and Melissa caught the largest “MJ” of the trip at over 2kg, taken on a chrome colored lure right next to a big rock. This is always a good feature, holding many fish at various depths.

The evening brought with it a storm and heavy rain, and the couple made the decision to head back early.

Bolgoda is a truly unique destination. The environs and the species make the lake a versatile fishing environment suitable to casting lures and fly fishing. Once you’ve spent a couple of hours working out how to adapt your style and technique to the lake you’ll be rewarded with a fun and exciting fishing experience.

Daniel Anderson - Swedish Fishing Guide