German angling journalist Uwe Pinnau reports on his annual fishing trip in Ireland…
As almost every year around Easter, me and my mates took the chance to travel to Ireland, awaiting a good pike fishing in a new area. Our homebase for the week was Longford’s Melview Lodge, a nice and cosy place owned and managed by Kevin Lyons, an avid angler himself who knows what he’s talking about and what his guests have to do to succeed finally.

Conditions on the mighty Shannon and a connected lake were quite well, sun was shining and no sign of flood and low temperatures like in years before. Just the eastern winds were not really perfect, but we are used to rougher conditions and felt happy and satisfied. Kevin’s reliable and solid Sheelin boats gave us a good and safe feeling when we hit the waves and helped us to fish the way we wanted to, without taking any kind of risk.

Fishing started a little slow and pike didn’t seem to be in a hot feeding mood, but the results increased since we got to know the spots and venues better day by day.
Lures worked along the reeds or shallow bays produced a couple of pike and were quite useful as an indicator for good spots to fish with deadbaits later on.

Streamers on the flyrod proved to be a deadly weapon in these sunny spring conditions and my mate Christian caught numerous pike when he stripped in flashy patterns.

Deadbaits like roach, hybrids, perch, lamprey and mackerel were the good choice we expected them to be and brought some decent pike up to 93 cm and 101 cm!
Some strange but solid runs on deadbaits left us staring on the surface, wondering what might have happened, because we couldn’t manage to set the hook even on a single attempt. Talking about it later we drew the conclusion that it might have been big trout.
All in all we caught around 100 pike, many males and even some fish which obviously didn’t finish spawning yet. To make a long story short we had a brilliant time and it was far too early when we had to leave again.
Uwe Pinnau
Go fishing…
Situated just off the N4 near Longford Town, Melview Lodge Guest house is right in the heart of the Upper Shannon and many surrounding lakes. The Erne Waterway with its many Loughs and Lakes is only minutes away. Kevin has 19 years experience of fishing in Ireland and is happy to offer a guided tour on your arrival, and to advise where the on-form waters in the area are. We can arrange your bait order so it’s here when you arrive. Melview offers free use of 17ft lake boats with engines to our guests (pay fuel only) and Kevin is happy to assist with any pre-baiting requests. Maps and other information regarding fishing are also available.
Kevin Lyons
Melview Lodge
Drumlish Road,Clonrollagh, Longford, Co. Longford
Tel:+353(0)43-33-45061 Mobile:+353(0)87-268-7441
E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.melviewlodge.com