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June 05
(these reports are displayed as most recent first)
20th - 28th June
Weather still very warm and Sunny with very little rain, the river has taken on a sluggish look now with the flow next to nothing.
Still, this period started with good results with Peter, Chris and I who made the best of things.
Plenty of small fish above "Red Bridge" with the occasional good Hybrid thrown in and the Pike are very active also with several rip offs. The Hybrids are still coming in around last light in the "Entrance" with good sport to be had; Peter has been fishing his New Swim he made earlier with good bags of Hybrids and big Roach.
Frank is now back in the swim after his parents spent a few weeks on holiday, getting away from the aftershock he spent time on the canal with Peter on 2 occasions unfortunately the Tench are now on holiday with only 1 fish to show between them. Further trip to Ballykeeran proved the same.
With the weather in a High Pressure Mode it have put the block on catching any numbers of fish, Chris and I fished "Drum Lake" only to sit and watch the Tench playing in the margins and only managed a few small Roach with the odd Perch.
4 senior anglers staying with Paul Foxe has had a good holiday with some good catches of Tench in the earlier stages on the Canal followed by mix bags at other venues.
12th - 19th June
Weather has been very kind for us over the last weeks, with fine but overcast conditions.
Water levels are great and slightly coloured due to the odd shower, now we have longer daylight hours which add to greater chance of fish around the evenings.
"Tench Time" is what it's all about at the moment with some superb evening fishing on the Royal Canal stretches from AbbeyShrule to Mullingar. With average depths of around 3ft and the overcast conditions bring everything together as in the text books, Worms, Red Maggots and casters seem to be the favoured baits all along the Canal. Raking is a definite must if you want Tench. Peter Wood, Chris Martin and I has been at it every possible chance with great fish every time out, in the last week or so we've had well over 30 Tench up to 6 lbs, as well as great Canal Roach and good Rudd.
Peter has beaten his catch record with 15 Tench in a 5 hour session.
Besides the Canal there's been great action at the river mouth late in the day with large catches of Hybrids and Roach falling to Red Maggots or Worm/maggot on the small lead tactics.
4 lads; from the UK. Nob Bud, Van Van Shambles, Nev and Chris, all from Mars by the sound of things (Wigan) sent the following report:
'Day 1. Fished the river on pegs; 22/25 with mixed bags of Bream, Roach, Hybrids and Perch.
Day 2 ventured to Ballykerran and had great nets of Hybrids large Roach to 2.5 lbs. and small Bream no one had under 60lbs.
Day 3 A trip to Mullingar on the Canal turn out to be not too bad of a day with Chris having Tench to 5lbs. Bud and Shambles having plenty of smaller Tench whilst Nev (Snoozy) caught up on some sleep.
Day4. Fishing from the boats at the entrance at 5am until 10am found it very difficult in a strong wind, head-on, tally:- small Bream and bits. Moved into the river on pegs 5/8 with great sport, someone was snapped 3 times and 8 Bream were "Lost" "Semi Skimmed" is all I can say!!
Day5. Comments on Lough Patrick, is unprintable: - "Don't Go!!!" '.....
Pike activity out on the Lough Ree has improved with a great day out for a couple of local lads with a catch of 10 good Pike topping the 10 lb mark with a good helping of Sun Burn. Not much sign of the Big Rudd yet in the river but it is early days still, with more late hatches of May Fly there seems to be good Trout to be had in the river and out on the lake.
Sunday evening Chris and I spent 4 hours up until dark on the Canal, Chris had a great mixture of Pike, Perch, Rudd, Roach and 3 beautiful Tench, I did my best to stay away from the common species "hum"and concentrated on the Tench with bunches of Worms tipping the bottom and managed 9 in all and finished of with "Fish & Chips" and a couple of Pints at Lizzy Murray's.
1st to 11th June
Flaming June is what we got, with good temperatures and light winds Ideal for evening fishing and the Canal.
Not too many anglers around anywhere at this time, but the angling has turn out rather good in certain venues. The river has great fishing for Hybrids, Roach and good Perch at late evening and into Dusk with fish up to several pounds. Peter prepared a Swim right near the entrance in 15ft of water where he had outstanding fishing up until dark with 14 Hybrids, Roach of the 1lb bracket on several occasions.
Chris and I fished 2/3 swims on the lead and produced a good bag of Fish until the Eel population of Lough Ree descended into the swims.
Two Anglers from the UK had a great days fishing at 31/32 one of the days with Hybrids, Small New Bream and Roach making a good net of fish. Peter and I fished from the boat at 34 on Float tackle and Bagged a good amount of smallish fish along with a couple of reasonable Hybrids.
Chris has been plugging away at the local pond with great sport on Roach up to 12ozs.every time he visited this venue, then sat in Peter's swim on the river one evening and reaped in a great bag of Hybrids and 1 decent Bream.
My last outing with Peter was to the Canal near Ballynacargy between Abbeyshrule and Mullingar on the 9th June on what could be described as the perfect evening, here we Raked 2 swims close enough to be able to chat and sat back and waited, within 30 minuets Peter found himself being towed up the Canal with a super Tench 4/5lbs closely followed by another grand Tench. I had to wait for my turn, but it came with a super Tench on a super afternoon/ evening session resulting in Peter 4 myself 1 with the odd small Roach and Perch,
Peter claims to have found a
perfect additive for the ground bait and is keeping the Lid on his Bucket.
That's a Mate for you!!
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