Daire Lynch reports on a change of plans that resulted in a completely unexpected catch…
It was a lovely evening, the last one of March, I had just returned from Dublin and thought it a shame to waste the evening, so was going to head out towards Leenane for a spot of Huss fishing. But after the long drive already, decided to just go local. So, off to the Cong River, Co Mayo with just my backpack, landing net and a pocketful of pike lures to see if any hungry esox were about after their spawning.
There was one fellow out fly fishing, in a hope for an early springer, but with the waters still very high, I didn’t hold out my hope for him. On I pressed, for an hour and a half, thrashing the water to no avail, seemed no fish about. I decided to head homeward as it was around 8pm and I wasn’t sure when it was going to get dark,not wanting to be strolling about the Cong Woods after dark.
One last cast I took, which fell perfectly to the dead water the far side of the river. I slowly twitched the 19cm Savage Gear soft 4play in Fire Tiger yellow back to me. Then a lovely solid hit mid river announced the end to the evening’s blank. I use heavy enough gear, strong rod and 60lb braid, as I never like to lose a lure in a pike. So I bullied the fish in rather fast, midway in getting a glimpse of the spotty flank and large paddle tail. It had destroyed the lure, gone to the bottom of the river, but worth the catch. A quick unhooking, even quicker snap and I released the fish, full of energy with no need to recover before swimming off, as you can see from the video.
A lovely end to a lovely day.
Daire Lynch
www.dairelynch.com
Watch the video on Youttube: https://youtu.be/I5Npr5_uVEk
