Ross Macklin reports on a great session in Westmeath…
Lee Angling had a super guided angling session in Westmeath at the week end with a crew from the UK. After fishing extensively around Ireland I know a few areas outside of Cork that fish well at the end of the season so it made sense to bring some avid UK specimen hunters to one such mark to have a break from Leeside. Harry Zammit ‘aka the piano man’ his best friend Steve and his son Jason hit a shoal of monster bream and hybrids. I pre-baited the swim with 75 kilo’s of pellet, hemp, corn, maize and crumb and set the scene for the fish to feed. The first night the high pressure came in and I feared the worse given dropping temperatures and clear skies nets are generally empty. The fishing was painstakingly slow and only some decent roach of 1lb and a couple of tench to 5lbs which for professional guiding at the level we offer doesn’t cut it.
After checking XC Weather I saw a pressure drop coming and informed the guys it could still fish. Many anglers don’t watch the weather but the lads knew overcast nights and warmth in the autumn can mean success. Hold on and let’s see guys I said and reasurred the lads there were plenty of big fish present and the virtue of patience would pay dividends. After spending one night pre-baiting and a second night on the swim I had to head home for Cork to the day job. I really wanted to stay and had a feeling the session would turn with the warm air flow and surely enough the lads started to catch. After receiving an email from Harry this morning I smiled and saw that indeed it turned very sweet. The guys finished with 50 fish that included 15 tench and a large bag of specimen bream and hybrids.
As Harry put it, Steve and Jason moved close together to keep the bait tight and hammered out the swim with Steve whacking out an awesome bream at 8lb 5oz and numerous other big fish including a 6lb tench. Jason was also rewarded with a monster 5lb 14oz hybrid roach bream that was the biggest in his catch. Harry’s biggest bream was a 8lb two tone and a 7lb 15oz bream respectively and he continuously hit quality bream on worm.
Given that these fish were spawned out how big could they have been in the spring? I guess we might find out next year. The lads used a custom ‘Terosid’ rig designed by myself, Sidney Kennedy and Terry Jackson… which the lads agreed is a superb self hooking rig for specimen coarse fish and has now caught 3 double figure bream from Irish waters.
Ross Macklin
Lee Reservoirs Angling Services
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Lee Reservoirs Angling Services have started a new angling guiding service for pike, ferox trout and any coarse fish of your choice on the Lee Reservoirs.
Boats available for rental on previously untouched water as no boat rental has been available to the public before now.
Be sure to visit their new website www.leeangling.com for a range of guided angling options in the Lee Sytem.
Ross 087 920 8742
Sidney 087 281 6778
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