Last Friday 17th April while feeder fishing the River Barrow at St Mullins I had the pleasure of meeting and fishing alongside a kindred spirit, his name Thomas Cosgrave, like myself born in England of Irish emigrants who traveled over in the 1950′s, Thomas had recently taken early retirement and decided to move lock stock and barrel back to the old sod.
A competent angler Thomas surprisingly stated that although he has no regrets about retiring to Ireland he does miss the coarse fishing that he enjoyed in England citing that his coarse fishing experience on the River Barrow does not match up to the Irish fisheries board marketing blurb. With historical experience of fishing the river during holiday visits he categorically states that the bream/hybrid fishing has seriously declined with one very visible cause, predation emanating from within the eastern European community.
That said, we had a fine afternoon casting into a rising tide catching dace, a few plump roach and an odd trout tempted by four red maggot. Fishing eased over the top of the tide as is my experience and we called it a day round about six bells. The large bream and hybrids were marked absent which should not be given the time of year, the mild winter and the fact that Irish people do not eat coarse fish.
On the positive side Thomas and I exchanged numbers and we will definitely fish together again very soon, the local tench population had better watch out.
Tags: Angling, Co. Carlow, Coarse Fishing, Dace, Feeder fishing, Ireland, Red maggot, River Barrow, Roach, Sweetcorn, Wild Brown Trout
