James Ryan and son Cian were out pike fishing on Lough Kinale in the midlands last week. They had never fished the lake before but had heard good reports so decided to give it a shot. They accessed the lake from Finea, which was not easy due to the reeds reclaiming where the river flows into the lake, but made it through eventually. Conditions weren’t too bad for the day, the lake being quite still with no wind and grey overcast sky.

They were spinning from their Sheelin lake boat when Cian, on only his second cast, caught a pike that they estimated to be between 15 lbs and 20 lbs based on its length of over three feet long – not a bad way to start the day!

Cian did catch a second small jack pike and James had a 5 pounder which, on another day would have been a great result for them, but all failed to match up to the first – needless to say all fish were safely released.