Paddy Dunworth of Celtic Angling reports from the Maigue:
Good for photos… diabolical for fly-fishing. It’s gone beyond a joke at this stage with no rain for 3 months. This has made all of my usual beats on non-tidal sections of the Maigue or Deel unfishable. Such is the state of our rivers I’m now offering the opportunity to cancel for those who have booked fishing up to closing date on September 30th.
Adare has one of the farthest inland tidal reaches in Ireland and it has been a Godsend at times of extreme low water when I use the ebbing tide for sessions. It gives us 2-3 hours fishing an ‘artificial’ high level of water which mimics a slowly dropping river, but this is now compounded by the prolific weed growth which leaves limited pacey water for fishing. Weeds such as long thick bunches of Ranunculus are a natural feature of rivers but in periods of long drought the water drops to the weeds on the bottom and I suspect their growth is further encouraged by the sun being able to penetrate to the riverbed.
I’ve noticed crazy changes in weather patterns during the April-September period over the past 10 years, extremes of wet and dry weather, and floods when we would have drought, vice-versa. The South-East are experiencing the same as us here in the Mid-west, whilst the west and anywhere north of Athlone have had record rain levels, such a difference in such a small country must be another record for the climate change statisticians.
Eight-two years young Carl Liljenstolpe and his sons Eric and Mark from California are probably no strangers to heat and water shortages, they’re touring Ireland BMW-style for 10 days and their driver Martin Moloney delivered them to me at St Nicholas church at Adare yesterday for a short Intro to Fly-fishing session. Trying to divide the limited practical fishing water between 3 is difficult but as it was more about learning to fly-cast it didn’t matter so much with everyone needing to be together. I have some single rods out next week and that’s not so bad as the angler has the beat to themselves.
The Liljenstolpes worked up an appetite if nothing else and enjoyed lunch and guinness at the local Collins pub and eatery before continuing south-west to Dingle; beaten path, usually the other way around and probably related to the fact they flew into Shannon rather than Dublin on Monday – let’s have more of that!
PS Thanks to Niall Cleary and Martin Moloney of https://www.bestofirelandtours.ie
Go Fishing…
Notes: Based near the picturesque village of Adare (Ireland’s Prettiest Village)
