Its been a while since I had a chance to do a bit of coarse angling but I have been lucky enough and welcomed the chance to have had a couple of outings recently in the Bailieborough area. My first of two outings was to Castle Lake on what was a beautiful mild evening. One of the few that we have had recently. The fish were literally topping everywhere and I decided to fish a very simple set up at a short distance, feeder at 20+ turns. The rig was a basic feeder rig with 24inch hook length to a size 14 hook. My ground bait mix was kept very simple as well with brown crumb darkened down with one of the dark lake mixes, it already had some particles so I did not add anything else except a few maggots. Hook bait , consisted of one, two or sometimes even three red maggots. Fishing into only 5ft to 6ft of water, I started with a few rapidly loaded feeders which thankfully started the fish off immediately and it was basically one a chuck for the next four hours. I missed a lot of bites as one expects when feeder fishing but not as many as usual. This was more down to the enthusiastic takes rather than my lightening reactions. I think that it would be fair to say that the bites were good and deliberate. During the session I managed to put together a nice net of around 30lbs consisting of some nice roach and a few skimmers and hybrids.
The next outing saw me on the town lake in Bailieborough, a venue that I had not fished for some time. There were a few anglers waggler fishing and catching some roach and perch. I opted for the same feeder tactics used on the Castle Lake. Fishing at about 25 turns the response to the feed was again immediate. Roach, skimmers and hybrids were the main species but an odd perch made an appearance. Again, all small fish but fantastic fun. The final weigh in showed 35lbs of mixed fish in what was an enjoyable day.
Water levels were higher than would normally be expected for the time of year but it did not seem to deter the fish.
