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April 05
(these reports are displayed as most recent first)
30th April
Overcast and chilly but very good condition exists on the river leading to milder conditions toward the evening.
More anglers arrived today making a grand total of 13 fishing from Tommy’s as well as many more from Leeds and South-sea. I was making my rounds today starting at White Bridge were I met 2 lads from South-sea who were well into the Roach, fishing the far bank on a Stick Float at around 4ft. made contact with fine Roach around the 1lb. mark.
Two more lads from Leeds were near the bridge having slightly less effect on the fish but still had plenty to show for their efforts. Peter Woods fished Ballymahon Bridge for a couple of hours to find good size Roach, Trout, 2 good Perch, 1 small Chubb and a Minnow, this made him hyper and he rang me to tell me the news.
The Bristol Boys were up the river via my boat to the Spot were they had such a good evening yesterday found it very different with very little to show for all my fuel consumed, having tried “The Ponds” firstly only to be disappointed by the lack of fish. This will not deter them from going to “The Pub” and discuss their day out over several pints of “The Black Stuff “
Two French lads were taken to Doonis by Tommy for the Pike and made a great day of it with a grand collection of Pike. Lanesbough is still crowded with anglers on “The Hot Water Stretch” all bagging up. Rodger Burrows and 4 pals landed today and made a dash upstream to “The Sand Bank” for a quickie, found fish eagerly awaiting them to start their holiday on a good note. Lets hope this continues and the fish builds up over the next few weeks.
28th / 29th April
The weather as turn out good after the Gale we suffered on Thursday only to abate around early evening leaving a great evening.
The Bristol Boys landed in this harsh weather but they were determined to go fishing and fishing they went, down to the river via Malady’s and were into fish straight away. All using small leads and feeders because of the wind, baited with either Red Maggots or Corn were soon into good quality Roach and Hybrids, most of the Roach were Females heading up stream to the shallows.
The results were very good with Roach in excess of 1lb. 8ozs and Hybrids around the 3 lbs. mark. Friday the Birmingham Boys landed and spent their afternoon checking out venues and sorting tackle, meanwhile the Bristol Boys were heading for the Fishing Grounds upstream in 2 boats from Tommy, (it’s a lot easier than humping tackle down to the river).
Same thing happened, as the evening approached the fish became more interested more so than mid-day (4.30pm until Dusk) Heaps of Roach / Hybrids / Perch and some small Bream fell to Float tactics in much better weather conditions leaving the Lads well Pleased.
April 26th / 27th
Two days of good fishing weather little wind and the odd shower, very Mild.
Frank and Peter enjoyed more superb Roach fishing at “Malady’s in a few hour netted 40lbs.
The Bolton boys were at it in a boat on the river but failed to make any headway on the catch rate.
A report came in from Robbie from Northern Ireland 'A weekly update - Friday fished most of the day with 4oz fish to play with, then prebaited and fished the night until 2am I had 55lb with 2 bream the biggest 6.75lb with a mixed bag of good hybrids and roach. My friend Keith Norman also from Kilkeel had 44lb with 2 bream the biggest 6.5lb. The next day we hired a boat and visited the cut with no sign of any fish we headed up the Inny and fished nearly every bend and likely looking spot for roach with no luck only a small trout to Keith. That night we decided not ground bait to see what would happen Keith had 19lb and I had 44.5lb No Bream and little Hybrids mostly good roach, Personal Best; mine 1lb 12oz and Keith 1lb 11oz.'
25th April
Weather really warm, up to what we’ve had recently, but wind still in the East.
Despite the easterlies the 2 lads from Bolton, Duncan and John made it to Doonis with the aid of Tommy’s 4 wheel drive and had a terrific days fishing on the Roach with a total of around 80-90 lbs leaving them highly delighted with the fish still feeding as they headed back for dinner.
Word from Lanesbourgh “Hot Water” stretch, is that there’ loads of fish being caught amongst a good many anglers.
Frank took time out to try Malady’s this evening and walked into a great deal of large Roach, trotting down at about 6ft baited with red maggots mid stream he found the fish every cast making a great total come the end. Having rang Peter about the presence of fish, Peter turned up and sat in and was catching fish up until dark.
Could this be the Start of the new season.
I myself did a round trip with the sounder to “The Ponds” this afternoon and was surprised to find Pockets of fish milling about so I informed Tommy and await more news if anyone has got a mind to give it a few hours.
News Flash....
Glenn and Peter from leeds had a terrific day at Lanesbourgh hot water stretch with Peter netting 130lb mixed bad followed by Glenn with 70lbs. Not bad for Yorkshire Men !!
April 21st to 24th
With the weather in a good mood Frank, Peter and myself set to work on the stages at Doonis with the river Inny not up to scratch at this moment. Loaded up with Timber, Pallets and Scaffold Poles we set off to Doonis and made our way along the roadway to where you have to cross the field to get to the waters edge… 50yds on the Car and Trailer sank to their Axels and there we were stuck good and fast.
Tommy Foxe came to the rescue with the aid of the Four Wheel Drive pulled the car out of the Mire and dragged the trailer to the water side. After 4 hours we had the stage erected, Ideal for 2 anglers in comfort. Peter and Frank had the first session on the evening of the 23rd and found that is was just right with the breeze behind them and 13 ft of water with the fish in a great mood, finishing up with about 15lbs of Roach.
24th April, 4 new anglers arrived at the river to fish swims 23/24 and 31/32. Glenn and Peter from Leeds fished “The Bog Hole”
with Duncan and John on 23/24
All 4 found things very tough going with just the odd small Roach and Perch in fact the only thing that was a bonus was the weather. Meanwhile over the hedge in Doonis Frank and Peter were at the Roach again, Peter was the first on the scene and Frank rushed off after a phone call from Peter (Now an owner of a Mobil Phone) saying there’s a million fish coming out, I was left on Frank’s doorstep finishing my cup of tea.
I was into more strenuous work having to launch my boat and set it up for the coming of anglers of my own; with the Fish Finder set up my first aim was to go out into the Lough in search for fish. After scanning all of Inny Bay found little in the way of Shoals of fish so I moved into the river, this was no different with no signs of mass fish just the odd pockets of small fish right up to White Bridge.
There were Phone calls from Peter, telling me they were into large Roach and a good handful of large Perch at Doonis. On telling Duncan and John, who had packed up early, the news they went off to see for themselves and are going to have a day over there tomorrow.
20th April
Good weather for fishing today with light winds from the East.
Peter and myself thought with the wind in the East it make sense to fish Doonis Lough, Peter was already at the venue and was having great sport with Roach when I arrived to shuffle in beside Peter. Float method was the order of the day, at 12/13ft. with a waggler sporting a dropper and 3 red maggots we soon found good Roach close to the bottom. It was a bite a chuck for as long as we were there with Roach of around 8oz and a few to 12ozs.
The swim is in need of renovation so we ended up moving large rocks to enlarge the platform with further work to be done with the aid of some Pallets to allow 2 anglers to have some comfort. I got the wet feet today!
18th / 19th April
The last 2 days has been dry and the river has risen quite high, winds has decreased and variable; temperatures are up also. All quiet on the bank at the moment just Peter keeping up his lust for “Bream”. No Bream but good Roach and Hybrids on the 18th from swim 22 on a rising river. Today 19th Peter found the going very poor only managed a small Perch after waking up to a hard Frost and an Easterly Wind which was slow to warm.
8th to 17th April
Weather has been very bad, Cold, Wet and Windy with the river showing its resentment for these conditions.
The new anglers were in attendance, Andy Ashcroft and friend Jason put in a great performance against the conditions with their dedication and determination to catch fish. The overall picture was not as good as last year regarding Bream but their catches included several Good Bream up to 6lbs. and many Hybrids all of good quality with a large showing of Big Roach (best Roach 1lb 14ozs) An early start with a late finish was their secret with time out in between, sticking to the same swims and pre-baiting.
The in between sessions found them on two occasion at Doonis Lough fishing from 11am until 5pm, here they found terrific sport with Roach of good quality, fishing from the “Old Trailer” having enjoyed their stay this year regardless of the lack of Bream.
Peter Wood on the other hand has been struggling on the river and at The Canal near Mullingar with very little to report.
Robbie Marsh and girlfriend Evelyn made the return to The Inny from Northern Ireland these last few days for a long weekend fishing overnight from the tent with great results, night 1 produced 100 lbs plus net of Bream (3) Hybrids and Roach, night 2 was interrupted by heavy rain at 3am but still managed a good bag around the 40 lbs mark.
I’ll sit here looking out the window at the Rain and wait for better climes.
I had a follow-up email from Robbie regarding the lack of bream which I thought was interesting so I am including part of it, if anyone has any comments about it or other points to add please feel free to send them to me here.
"Let me start by saying everywhere in Ireland people keep telling me the fish are disappearing and that they're not showing up at their usual haunts, many ... anglers come over, prebait and fish the next day with very little to show for their effort. In all of these places I night fish and always catch good bags of fish.
Bream, for some reason or another, over the last 5 years won't feed during the day unless in flood or strong winds. The reason I don't know but surveys have shown that the water in irish loughs is becoming clearer ,Maybe this is the reason. Zebra mussels are filtering the water maybe this is effecting the fishes feeding habits, who know's, but what I do know is that night fishing is the best way to tonne up.
Friday 15th april Prebaited swim 22 with 20 balls of groudbait started fishing at 7pm started catching at half 8 by 9 there was an abundance of fish in the river with about 3 fish rising every minute in my swim and up and down the river, I had a bite a chuck and stopped fishing at 3 o'clock when i had around 50 fish caught (100lb). good hybrids to 4lb roach to 1.5lb and 3 good bream 5.5,6.25 and 6.5lb all caught on double corn and 2 red maggots.
Saturady 16th Prebaited swim 22 with 40 balls of groundbait hoping for a large shoal of bream to come in (Big mistake) started fishing at half 8, there wasn't as much activity as the night before for 4hrs I had 2 or 3 line bites a cast with 4 fish making the net then at half 12 it took off and by 2 oclock when i tiredly packed up i'd caught 31lb of good hybrids all around the 3lb mark. I'd obviously killed the swim by over feeding "lesson learnt".
Although it would have taken heavy feeding to hold a large shoal of bream had they arrived.
Looking forward to next weekend as my friend and I are heading back down in search for the illusive lough Ree bream."
Thank you Robbie for those excellent points.
5th to 7th April
The weather has got progressively worse over these last few days with very heavy Rain, Sleet and even Snow has been forecasted from a Northerly direction. The river is rapidly rising and is coloured, with more anglers due this weekend things will be very interesting.
Peter managed 2 hours this evening on the river at Tommy's on swim 27 fishing Worm/Maggot on a small lead and landed 6 good Hybrids in worsening conditions also managed to destroy his umbrella (More Expense)
3rd April
Dennis from Abbeyshrule had a great day with top roach fishing although the weather was not too kind with heavy showers and a stiff breeze. Fishing float tactics at around the 6ft.depth with Red Maggots in midstream made contact with fish every cast also had the interest of a large Pike, his best Roach weighed in at 1lb 7ozs.
2nd April
Great day for fishing. with hazy sunshine and very mild conditions, little wind.
I spent an hour or so with Peter and the Norrish family down on the Inny at “The Pump” Malady’s this evening starting at 6pm. From the first cast fish began to come in with small Roach and Perch, later with better fish, Roach around the 1 lb mark and Hybrids up to 3 lbs. Alan had his work cut out with 2 children and the Wife all true novices and my dog Scully, so intent to catch on feeders, left him exhausted. Peter was in his element, directing all traffic, failing to catch much himself, a couple of small Roach and Perch. Alan was earlier at the river at 7am. had an outstanding Catch of good size Roach and Hybrids but all was over by 9am.
1st of April
Weather; overcast and mild, light winds with the odd shower.
Yes, the kids were up very early this morning waiting for Dad who was still getting over the night before at Lizzies and supporting a slight Bloom!! They did get under way eventually but found the sport very slow and decided to pull out and try Tommy’s at “The Bog Hole” Along with Uncle Peter, Fishing was slow to begin with but picked up about 4 pm with Hybrids being the main contenders for the Red maggots.
Peter had to fish below at 31 swim as well as being the main man for untying Tangles and unhooking their catch. Alan managed to get some real fishing in and secured around 40 fish Hybrids and Roach, whilst Frank fished at number 1 swim hoping to see any movement in the entrance of fish coming in from the Lough, Not to much was the remark from him and moved further upstream to swim 6 and on to 22 with not much apart for the odd small Roach.
Yours truly is still trying to catch up with 3 weeks of self abuse, Booze, Food, Bird Watching ( leaping over Rocks and Hedgerows all over Co Clare) and lack of Sleep, hope to be back in full fettle soon.
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