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May 2012
(these reports are displayed as most recent first)
29th May
With May drawing to a close the weather has become very hot.
The Roach have spawned and gone, and the fishing has slowed down accordingly. Peter and Chris had a go on the backwater on the Shannon with mixed results, Chris had plenty of Roach before being destroyed by a Pike which ended up eating his keepnet and breaking his rod! Peter started slowly then moved to a new swim where he caught Roach steadily before a small shoal of Bream arrived and he caught a brace of them as well.
Meanwhile down in the bog... an Emperor Moth was seen sunning itself before the Skylarks spotted it and moved in for lunch, we did rescue it and move it to safety. There was an explosion of White Wave moths and dragonflies and the first blue butterfly was flying about amoungst a large group of Hummingbird Hawk Moths.
24th May
And now the Roach are back again !!!
Now that the weather has turned for the good, with temperatures in the 20's Chris and I drove across White Bridge today and stopped to look if there's any Life in the river. It was full from bank to bank with Fish and as far up and down the river as one could see.
Chris and Peter have enjoyed some great catches on the Canal and Coreen Forde over the last week.
Peter this lunchtime, was back from fishing a backwater on the Shannon, very excited about his catch and to top up his ground bait and a bite to eat himself then to return to this swim in record time. We will await the results with baited breath.
A Huge Congratulations to Tang Girls and Boys who won their Football Finals, the Girls beat Ardnagrath and the Boys beat Mount Temple, there were great celebrations all round!!
Down at Doonis Bog the wildlife has exploded into life with Water Scorpions breeding, Green Hairstreaks, Dragonflies emerging with 4 Spot chasers and Hairy Hawkers. The Grasshopper Warbler was reeling down in Seery's land and this years frogs are starting to appear. Even the local Peregrine has had at least two chicks.
23rd May
A report has come from the Tiverton Boys with a few Pictures of their recent angling holiday. The Boys found it difficult to locate fish on a lot of venues around Leitrim and North Longford mostly as a result of the weather, but finally they did make up for all the miles they did. With good catches of Bream from Lough Allen part of a 60lbs Bag, a picture of a good brace of Inny Roach from Chris one of 1lb 14ozs and one of 1lb 12ozs and a shot of Rob with some more good Roach. The fishing was far from being as good as previous trips but they were quite happy with their stay.
20th May
And Now They're Gone !!
The Roach at Shrule Bridge were there for a few days and were gone again, there were still the odd ones hanging under the bridge but the shoals have departed suggesting either a very short run this year or that the main body of fish have yet to make their way upstream.
Peter, Derek and Chris were down at Shrule Bridge yesterday only to find the Roach very hard to get, they picked up about 12 between them and despite them being decent sizes of between 12oz and 1.5lb it was hard work, at least the Peacock caterpillers were out in force on the nettles.
Peter was gone by 1pm and Derek and Chris gave up about 3pm and headed to the Canal, where they fished with some success managing a Tench and some Roach one of which was a good size.
17th May
With a low pressure finally on the horizon the fish are moving up the river Inny.
Chris and Peter headed down to Shrule Bridge and had some sport on the Roach for a couple of hours, nothing much over the 1lb mark so Peter packed up and headed for the Canal.
Chris stayed on and fished until dusk, trying swims from Shrule Bridge down to the sand bar but all of the fish were of a similar size. He finished off back close to the Bridge where he had a nice bag of Roach and Trout, the Roach were getting bigger as the evening drew in some of them close to the 2lb mark, not a sinlge Hybrid though.
He was joined by the Tiverton lads, one of whom decided to set up directly opposite him, both of the lads caught well and were still there when Chris left at 9pm.
The Roach are still making their way up the River and the Females are not full of Roe yet, a couple of the bigger 1lb+ Males were producing some milk but it looks as though it will be a few days before it all kicks off in earnest.
16th May
The Roach are finally at Shrule Bridge
After a long wait we finally looked over Shrule Bridge today and found shoals of big Roach looking back at us, they were not present yesterday so they are still making their way up to the breeding spot. Word has been spread and we hope that there will be anglers catching 2lb+ Roach tomorrow.
A cuckoo has also put in an appearance near us, one was calling away today down near Jimmy's house and flew towards the Salmons land in the late afternoon, hopefully we will get some photos of this ellusive bird soon.
Peter was out on the Canal today and had good fun catching small Tench and Roach, despite the drizzle.
13th May
Wind has moved to the West / South Westerly with no difference to the fishing what so ever.
The Devon boys are back again and are getting a few bits, but like everyone else they are struggling despite a lot of travelling between lakes, they will keep us informed.
Peter had a good day down at Shannon Harbour on Friday with Tench and Bream in good numbers, he returned the smaller skimmers and just kept the bigger fish for the camera. His high hopes were dashed though when he failed to get anything at Turmonbarry or at Shannon Harbour yesterday after doing 150 miles.
Doonis Bog has been showing limited signs of life with 7 baby Wrens and a small flock of young Great Tits, Whimbrels are in good numbers as are the Redpolls and Linnets. We also saw a fox cub (one of seven) towards Lanesborough.
10th May
Winds still in the North and bringing cold rain with some bright periods.
I spent they day building a donkey shed with Jimmy, it seemed a better idea that wasting my time fishing.
Peter and Chris headed off to Correen Forde yesterday where they spent a few hours catching Roach, Hybrids and Perch; they found the fish very obliging compared to the River Inny where the only thing moving is the water.
8th May
The weather turned to cyclonic with thunder and lightening, now it has turned back to Northerly winds and low temperatures again.
Philip has headed home without ever seeing the Roach on the Inny, despite using the sounder up from Tommy's they never saw a single Roach only Trout going for the mayfly.
Phil and Chris were heading off to ConnyBeg when they bumped into Peter who advised them to aim for Correen Forde so they turned around and ended up having a great days sport on the Roach and Hybrids. They never took a keepnet and wished they had, both taking out over 50 Roach each. Nothing big just an average of 8oz but great fun after all of the other disappointments.
Peter cut a new swim on the Canal and raked it before prebaiting it for a couple of days. He then settled in for a session and caught two Tench around the 3lb mark along with a good bag of Roach.
5th May
The cold temperatures are still affecting everything and NE winds are not helping at all, despite this we did have word this morning that Wayne has had more success on the upper Inny:
"Good news at this end of the Inny. The roach entered the Inny from Derravaragh and Loch Kinale. The river was full, shoals stretched for hundreds of yards, topping everywhere. I believe they run on the full moon, the evidence again backs this up. Yesterday Kevin, Tony and myself had over 120 lbs between us. Including a bream on the float. Water levels are still desperately low. Off to the Inny again now. "
Hopefully things are looking up... (They are Not down here, Chris and Philip went up the Inny with today with a Fish finder, which found next to nothing, just some Trout on the surface and one small Jack Pike that fell to Philip. Not a Roach anywhere to be found from Tommy's all the way up to Shrule Bridge!!)
Philip, Derek and Chris were out at Branigan's Harbour yesterday and had a small bag of Tench, Roach and Perch despite cold conditions and rain.
Sam and Willy popped in yesterday with Ashley, their daughter, who is a rapidly growing star. Ashley Tubridy has appeared on the Late Late Show and has had a lot of success with her singing career.
Peter has been very quiet, he visited Coreen Forde where he had a great result with the Roach and others, he was pestered with large Pike.
3rd May
Weather is brighter today and a lot warmer with a gentle wind from the North East, Dave is finally off home having decided that it was no longer worth drowning maggots.
We did have some good news from the local fisheries Officer, Paul Bourke. After Dave and Chris left the Canal, Matt Nolan from the fisheries board went up and had a chat with the other fishermen and found that there were 4 tench being kept in a very small keepnet, these fish were safely returned to the water at the insistence of Matt; Excellent Work !! The bye-laws do state that no fish over 25cm may be killed and all 4 of these Tench were well in excess of that.
We also had an email from Nick Price who sent us a copy of the bye-laws which can be found here.
It is very refreshing to hear of affirmative action being taken and we do thank the fisheries board for its prompt action which almost certainly saved these fish.
Paul did mention that 'the coarse fish federation are still pushing the department to change law 806 to a complete no kill of coarse fish'. Anyone who feels strongly should write to their local TD.
Should anyone see fish under 25cm being kept or killed, or fish in excess of 4 per angler then please report this to Matt Nolan on 087 2429417, he is based in Mullingar.
For More information we would suggest contacting Paul Bourke, Angling Information Officer on 018842674
2nd May
David and Chris had a few hours out in Inny Bay, trolling for any Pike - Chris had 2 jacks and David has still to wait until the next trip. From there a visit to Branigan's Harbour on the Canal for the rest of the day, they had good Tench fishing but were distracted by some other anglers who were seemingly taking Tench on the float and not returning them to the water, the fisheries board were informed and did come down to have a look, however the visiting anglers from an area in Eastern Europe had put four Tench into a landing net for over 5 hours and are apparently quite within their rights to keep and kill 4 coarse fish each every day, at this rate there will not be a fish left for anyone to catch. The law needs changing if Ireland is to keep any fish!!!
It was excellent that the fisheries people did respond so quickly but it is crazy that they can not legally stop people killing 4 coarse fish per person per day, that means each person can take 1,460 fish per year without any recourse at all. WHY ???
The only upside to today was seeing Whimbrel arriving on the Inny and hearing our first Cuckoo at Ballymahon.
Peter did not venture out Tuesday and Today is his Shopping day, the plan for the 3rd is Correen Forde …………
May 1st
Yesterday was horrendous ,Very cold winds from the North / North East and Rain.
David and Jim were up the Inny in the boat with the sounder on, only to locate a pocket of small Perch.
The lads from Halifax called at my door with tales of Woe, they were to fish Tom Fox's but on being told of what we found it would have been fruitless. So I repeated some news of Coreen Forde and Dunamon Bridge, both venues on the River Suck, there were catches of Roach from both spots.
Dennis had his last days on these venues and had some great fishing at Correen with good Roach a couple weighing in at near the 1 lb mark along with Hybrid to a 1.5lbs Dunamon Bridge :- on pegs 1 and 2, he managed to keep out of the wind and was successful in his catch.
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