An Irish Angler's World

Plump roach, dace, hybrids, and pike, graced a relaxed first session of 2013 fishing an urban location on the River Barrow downstream of Graiguecullen. In flood for the previous week, the mighty Barrow had dropped substantially, with pike in mind David Murphy and I searched a backwater to see if old esox was in residence. On arrival we could see that Dave’s friend Robbie Lacey had set up for a spot of feeder fishing, indicating bait fish present we tackled up in earnest.

Feeder fishing castors close to a line of over hanging trees on the far bank Robbie started catching, albeit intermittently some plump roach along with an odd dace and small hybrid. David and I set up float fishing rigs baited with dead roach and cast them towards likely spots. An hour in Robbie called that a pike had taken a roach he was reeling in. The fish held on for about two minutes then let the fortunate redfin go. Taking the cue I dropped my bait upstream of Robbie’s swim, no sooner had the orange bung settled when it bobbed then slowly dipped under.

Counting to five I leaned into not much to be honest, a small jack indignantly thrashing on the surface while spitting out my roach bait. Quickly netted and released, it was a pike at least so the session was properly christened, now for its mother. A while later fishing close to a harbour area an unmerciful commotion caused me to turn around. Witnessing the foaming aftermath of a predator attack in jig time I re-positioned my roach bait in the water. Bait fish hopped in the air as a large green back snaked a foot below the surface, instantly my float disappeared.

Counting to ten with no sign of the float coming up I leaned, the rod coming around solid then nothing, float and empty trace surfacing seconds later. Having used a large bait which the jammy pike had obviously grabbed but not turned in its mouth. Should I have waited longer who knows, one thing’s for sure its hunger was satisfied because it didn’t come back. No matter an exciting moment which punctuated a fun first day on the river.

On a not so nice subject though but it has to be said, Carlow County Council need their collective hand slapped. The area fished was an absolute health hazard due to the amount of dog excrement present. A wonderful location to teach kids coarse fishing is rendered a no go area due to the complete lack of civic responsibility shown by users, residents, and the powers that be. Please sort it out immediately…….

Lough Muckno, Co. Monaghan, adjacent to Castleblaney has the potential to be the best natural coarse match fishing venue, not only in Ireland, but in Europe. Dubbed, “The Killarney of the North“, this beautifully located 1000 acre water is absolutely stuffed with fish, to include massive shoals of prime roach, large bream, and monster pike. With a variation of marks along its undulating and varied shoreline to keep the most discerning coarse angler happy for a week, Muckno is an angling tourism resource just waiting to break free.

Dutch coarse angler Christiaan Kooloos knows this only too well, having organised a successful week long trip to Muckno for twenty Dutch match fishermen last September 2010, he repeated the exercise and brought a group of sixteen, to include twelve of last years crew, this September 2011. Joining the group for their opening couple of days, I enjoyed some good fishing in excellent company and a humbling lesson in the art of coarse match angling to boot, “these guys are good.”

Pegging the top section of Concra Wood for a practice session on Saturday, the rules were “twenty meters maximum distance”. A strong south westerly wind and showery conditions made life difficult for the pole men and by half time all were on the feeder. Using maggots supplied by Laurence Higgins of Standard Bait (UK) fishing was patchy with the end pegs doing best. Roach, bream, hybrid, perch, and skimmers made up the catches with top weight of 6.5 kgs going to Henk De Graaf on peg one.

Day two dawned windier and overcast with showers persisting throughout the day. Undaunted the group drew pegs and fished a pairs competition, having never match fished before yours truly was in the hat and boy did I get a lesson. Again, although the lads tried the pole it was the feeder that won out. With no limits to distance I commenced fishing at thirty meters and hit fish from the off, mainly roach and a few skimmers. Quickly it became apparent that those either side of me were catching at a rate of two to my one and this lasted throughout the day. The concentration and speed was pretty intense and these guys kept it up for five hours. It was fun, and different, but I’ll stick to my pleasure fishing. That said match fishing advances methodology and tackle design so it has its place, and boy did I learn some useful tricks, unveiled it has to be said after lines up.

Floating maggots are now in my armoury should I need them along with one or two other wrinkles which I will keep to myself. For the record Henk De Graaf won again with a bag of 9.2kgs. Species caught included roach, bream, hybrid, perch, skimmers, and trout. Most fish were targeted at thirty meters and regular feeding with special crumb, sweetcorn, and casters produced decent spells of activity. With White and Black Island earmarked for later in the week the guys should see some quality fishing. Here’s to the weather holding.