26th – 28th April: David had landed all ready to go until we got the weather forecast, all Doom and Gloom…….Windy, Showery, all from a Northerly Direction for the next 2 weeks.
Peter was out at strokestown pond where things were very quiet apart from a small bag of Roach and Rudd. John Wilson was on the canal at Branigan’s where we joined him for the afternoon session, later joined by Dennis, this was my first outing of the season and I Failed Miserably with not a single bite. End result was Dennis with 3 Roach and a Tench, John had 1 Roach and a Tench and David had 1 Roach and a Jack Pike, I came last!!!.
David and I met up with a couple of lads, Wayne Russell and Kevin, from the UK in Ballymahon overlooking the River Inny and wondering if the Fish were up that far yet as they have travelled to all know venues along the river. We had a great chat and suggested other spots along the river and excess points on Lough Ree to which they could launch their boat. With boats in mind, David and I launched my boat at Tommy Foxe’s and set it up with a sounder so that David can check out the report of a Hugh amount of fish out in the Lough, nestled in “The Hole”and getting ready to move into the River, This happens each year and if anglers are here at this event they will be in for a good time.
This evening the 28th David is out checking the entrance to the Inny to check on any movement of Fish, will keep updating any news… ( a couple of small Perch)
29th April: This morning David and Chris (fresh back from Majorca) was off out in the boat to see if things were moving, they used the sounder up the Inny and located only one school of fish which turned out to be Perch, but they were a handful, still Dave did manage a good impression of Al Pacino:
They even tried trawling in Lough Ree but without a nibble and the wind made it impossible to continue so they came back here soaking wet and set off for the Canal at Branigan’s only to find that there were a lot more anglers than there were fish, Denis and John had spent the day there and managed one bite each. Dave and Chris matched this achievement with one bite each and no fish again.
I was e-mailed late last night from the boys from the UK with very good news of Fish moving into the river in the upper reaches of the Inny, awaiting more news.
Mervyn was in for a big drop of Scrumpy, celebrating his award for the best late lamb producer in Longford.
We heard our first Grasshopper Warbler today in Ballymahon, which is 9 days later than last year and this seems to tie in with everything else, the Green Hairstreaks are a lot later and no cuckoo are in the area yet. Perhaps this is why the fish are so late running this year, the weather is grim and doesn’t look to be improving any time soon. At least we still have some scrumpy to drown our sorrows with !
John Coles
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