Paul Waghorne reporting to Lanesborough has all the latest coarse angling news…
06 April: Josh fished near the bush and had lots of Roach to about a pound. The bites dried up towards the evening, just as I arrived of course. I struggled to get bites at the gusher so moved downstream. A couple of nice 4oz fish were caught before a Pike interrupted the session by taking a larger fish. I thought it was a Tench or Bream at first, but as soon as I saw it, my hook length gave way. The swim never recovered and although I had loads of smaller Roach below the bridge, an early bath was called.
07 April: In the evening, there were quite a few out on the banks, and whilst most were Piking, one sat it out on a feeder near the bush. He only had two fish in 4 hours. I think if he’d tried the float he would have caught considerably more. I set up above the bridge and found the Roach most obliging. Averaging 8oz with several around a pound, it was a wonderful two hour session.
Below the disabled section, Philip Gordon was catching lots of very small Roach, with 4oz or so being the best.

08 April: Brrr… That was a bit nippy at dawn, and with a thick mist seemed very quiet. First on parade was Frank Carty who opted the feeder on the bush. Fishing was slow, but his reward was the first tinca of the season. It was weighed at 3 lbs 9 oz and was followed by another of 3 lbs 2 oz – both were female.

I started at the bridge, but after 15 minutes with just a pair of sprats to my credit, decided to move to the gusher where not only did it seem warmer, but the fish were easy to catch. I had nothing over 6oz and although they were mainly Roach, there was the added bonus of several chunky Rudd and two small Perch.
It looks like being a glorious day and I expect the stretch to have many anglers present this afternoon. As the sun goes overhead, I think Noel from Co. Cavan who is fishing the stick float just above the bridge will do very well as the fish retreat to the the shade.
Has anyone noticed the moon phase? I’m going to make a bold prediction by saying that Sunday evening after the rise at 17:30, we will see a huge influx of fish coming off the lake as the evening progresses.
09 April: Connor Lowry had the best of the action with two Tench weighing in at 4 lbs 13oz and 5 lbs 5 oz both were female and caught in the same swim as Frank’s fish yesterday.

We discussed has to why these Tench have ‘appeared’ so early and came to the conclusion that as the Shannon never really flooded to excess this winter, thus resulting in the hot water stretch staying at a higher temperature than normal, some Tench stayed resident without disappearing into the reeds out on the lake.
I learned last week, that several Tench were caught all through November and December with one being caught on Dec 23rd!
Evening session – I was set up by six o’clock and started briskly, with most fish being hens of about 8 – 12 oz, but as the evening progressed, there were far more cock fish and of course, these were much smaller. I finished at 20:15 with 29 fish including two Perch. Lots of the hen fish were ready to spawn, so I believe it may be done and dusted by Thursday. There was an amount of surface activity which may suggest the Roach are moving with several fish turning in the navigation channel.
13 April: Not surprisingly, the bed was my best friend this morning. During the night, Connor and Dylan Lowry had a combined bag of just over of 50lb made up of a few Bream to 4lbs plus hybrids and two more Tench of 3lb and 3lb14oz. At this moment, there are a good few anglers using various methods, all having an amount of success. My morning walk found evidence of overnight spawning in the gusher. This hasn’t surprised me, as those fish entering the stretch in the last week have had a week of hot water and the cock fish must had a ‘bukkake’ time with the few hens present.


Also, Phillip Gordon fished the duckpond area and found some Bream before they got into the hot stretch. I just checked the water temperature which now shows 10.22c which is as near to 51f as can be, so it really will happen today. Blain Carberry was opposite me in the main navigation channel yesterday evening and recorded 55f which I think is about 11.5 however, transducer’s on fish finders usually only read the surface water and also, there may have been a small influence of the hot water on his reading.
Keep up to date…
For daily update on the fishing at Lanesborough see Paul Waghorne’s website: http://www.lanesboroughangling.ie/
Biosecurity
Due to the biosecurity risks posed by the Asian Clam populations anglers can only use the specially provided keep-nets, available both sides of the bridge – from the Daybreak Filling Station, Ballyleague and Bridie Holmes Fishing Tackle Shop, Lanesborough.