Carrickmacross Coarse Angling & Junior Development invite you to their “Something Fishy” event at Market Square Shopping Centre, Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan.
The event starts at 10.30am and finishes at 5.30pm. Come see the Live fish in fish tanks and enjoy the fun filled information day. Free tickets on the day for a draw at Lisanisk Lake on Sat 12th May.
Suitable for children, wheelchair access and car parking. For further information contact Kieran Roche at 087 3538501 or e-mail [email protected]
For further events see www.faw.ie
Aer Lingus Regional and Flybe are now operating flights from Waterford Airport. By June the airlines will offer daily flights to London, Southend, London Luton and Birmingham as well as six flights a week to Manchester. Flybe will also be jetting off to Paris, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh and Glasgow from Waterford, via Birmingham. No excuses, the South East awaits !
The Irish Angling Development Alliance (IADA) reports that a number of coarse fishing matches were held at Castleblayney and Ballybay over the weekend. On Saturday 28th April 2012 18 anglers participated in the Lurgan Open which was fished at White Island on Lough Muckno. All anglers fished the feeder at 40 to 50 metres in strong blustery conditions. Catches consisted mostly of roach which were present in good numbers in contrast to their absence in recent weeks. Some good weights were recorded during the match and the results are as follows
1st Jim Mc Allister Lurgan 21 lb. 4 ozs.
2nd Brian Mc Shane Lurgan 16 lb. 12 ozs
3rd Stevie Wright Lurgan 14 lb. 4 ozs.
The following day Sunday 29th April 2012 saw the 1st leg of the Ballybay Summer League which was fished at Baird’s Shore, Ballybay. Conditions were tough with extremely windy and blustery conditions forcing all participants to abandon the pole in favour of the feeder. Despite the unfavourable conditions some nice bags were recorded and the results are as follows.
1st Seamie Winters Ballybay 14 lb 4 ozs.
2nd Noel Mc Nulty Lough Muckno club 13 lb. 1 ozs.
3rd Gary Mc Clean 7 lb. 6 ozs.
Again, all catches were made up predominantly of roach with a few hybrids here and there. A number of local anglers involved in fishing the classic unfortunately could not make this event due to a clash of dates but they will be joining the league at the next outing when a 20 angler group is expected to be in attendance.
Danny Wyse tell us “Bass angling has been patchy and a little uncomfortable in the biting wind, I long for some warmth to lift the spirits.
We’ll get over the below-par fishing as soon as the weather improves, its the poor conditions for stock recruitment that I find most disappointing. If we keep getting this wind direction at this time of year , we could find it having a negative impact on various species including bass.
A lot of the bass in the Cork area seem to have spawned already this season. Instead of warm southwesterlies gently blowing the fertilised eggs towards the shore and into harbours , lagoons and estuaries, where good nursery conditions for the growth of basslings are found , we have a situation where practically the whole of the spring has seen blustery offshore winds driving everything out to sea.
What the survival chances of a bass egg floating miles off the Mizen Head are, I don’t know ? My guess is none. Especially given the distance offshore that they might be bobbing about in these 50 kilometres an hour winds. I’m no scientist but I don’t think 2012 is going to be remembered as a successful breeding year . Lets hope this doesn’t become a regular pattern , looking at Windguru and other sites is almost becoming painful.
My prediction in the last post came true as Derek Kenrick a member of WCAD made the Irish International team that will be competing in Holland later this year. He was a member of the 2010 team that won gold so will be a valuable member of this team . This years team also looks strong and will be more than capable of having a say in the event , good luck to all those involved .”
26th – 28th April: David had landed all ready to go until we got the weather forecast, all Doom and Gloom…….Windy, Showery, all from a Northerly Direction for the next 2 weeks.
Peter was out at strokestown pond where things were very quiet apart from a small bag of Roach and Rudd. John Wilson was on the canal at Branigan’s where we joined him for the afternoon session, later joined by Dennis, this was my first outing of the season and I Failed Miserably with not a single bite. End result was Dennis with 3 Roach and a Tench, John had 1 Roach and a Tench and David had 1 Roach and a Jack Pike, I came last!!!.
David and I met up with a couple of lads, Wayne Russell and Kevin, from the UK in Ballymahon overlooking the River Inny and wondering if the Fish were up that far yet as they have travelled to all know venues along the river. We had a great chat and suggested other spots along the river and excess points on Lough Ree to which they could launch their boat. With boats in mind, David and I launched my boat at Tommy Foxe’s and set it up with a sounder so that David can check out the report of a Hugh amount of fish out in the Lough, nestled in “The Hole”and getting ready to move into the River, This happens each year and if anglers are here at this event they will be in for a good time.
This evening the 28th David is out checking the entrance to the Inny to check on any movement of Fish, will keep updating any news… ( a couple of small Perch)
29th April: This morning David and Chris (fresh back from Majorca) was off out in the boat to see if things were moving, they used the sounder up the Inny and located only one school of fish which turned out to be Perch, but they were a handful, still Dave did manage a good impression of Al Pacino:
Dave with a Perch
Followed by Dave without a Perch !!
They even tried trawling in Lough Ree but without a nibble and the wind made it impossible to continue so they came back here soaking wet and set off for the Canal at Branigan’s only to find that there were a lot more anglers than there were fish, Denis and John had spent the day there and managed one bite each. Dave and Chris matched this achievement with one bite each and no fish again.
I was e-mailed late last night from the boys from the UK with very good news of Fish moving into the river in the upper reaches of the Inny, awaiting more news.
Mervyn was in for a big drop of Scrumpy, celebrating his award for the best late lamb producer in Longford.
Mervyn with his award
We heard our first Grasshopper Warbler today in Ballymahon, which is 9 days later than last year and this seems to tie in with everything else, the Green Hairstreaks are a lot later and no cuckoo are in the area yet. Perhaps this is why the fish are so late running this year, the weather is grim and doesn’t look to be improving any time soon. At least we still have some scrumpy to drown our sorrows with !
Andrey Ryan had the privilege of giving a demo and spey casting lessons to members of the Clonmel and District Anglers Club. Despite the cold and windy weather, there was a great turnout. Great to see some many young members in attendance – a testament to the great work of the club. The demo and lessons mainly concentrated on Spey casting – both for beginners and experienced anglers. A great morning was had by all!
Great turn out for Clonananav club demo day on the Suir
It is great to see such enthusiasm for fly fishing for salmon on the Suir. Casting on the Suir Fishing in the rain Superb fish from the Suir
Andrew Ryan
Clonanav Fly Fishing http://www.facebook.com/Clonanav
Good fishing was had this week despite the weather. The cold north east winds have made fishing very difficult but we are still getting trout. These conditions suit Iron Blue duns and we have had good hatches of flies on the River. Casting was difficult but if you could get the fly out the trout are in eating form. Flies that worked well were Iron Blue duns, Klinkhammers, PTN nymphs, Snipe and Purple, Orange Partridge, Greenwells spiders etc
We had some fantastic fishing in Cahir close to the Swiss cottage. The water level rose slightly and good hatches of Iron blue duns came off
This week is again very wet and windy but conditions are to change from Wednesday onwards. Lets hope the beginning of May brings some changes and we get some warmer temperatures!
I headed out on Saturday evening for the last session of April as the weather for the last two days of the month looked to be too grim for fishing. There was quite a strong cold northeast wind blowing down the beach when I arrived. I had fished nights in Jaunary that were warmer! On the positive side there was a nice surf, not too big, just the size of surf that can produce good results on this beach.
I set up two rods; one baited with crab, the other with rag/razor on 4/0 pennel pulleys and was fishing by 7.30 pm. First cast I had a good tug on the rod with the crab. It was a 49 cm bass.
Last Bass of April
That was a good start so I was hopeful of a great session. However, it was not to be. The rod tips remained motionless. As the tide pushed in the weed became bad for a while but then cleared a couple of hours before high tide. But there was no improvement in the fishing. The only other bite I got the remainder of the night was a small coalfish.
I packed up at about 11 pm. The one bass I got brought my total for the month to 14 which was rather disappointing compared to 37 in April 2011 , After some very good results in the second half of March I have been anticipating some excellent fishing in April. This is normally one of my best months for bass fishing but the dreadful weather with constant cold northeasterly, northerly or northwesterly winds ruined any chance for a repeat of the results of last year. One would expect some respite from the cold weather and northerly winds over the month but the south/southwesterlies never came. The nights were very cold all month, some even frosty, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the sea temperatures were lower at the end of the month than they were at the start.
Last year at least half the bass I caught in April were on lures but this year all were on bait. I had a few attempts at lure fishing but didn’t see a hint of a bass never mind catching one. So over the last week I focused on bait fishing as I reckoned that gave me a better chance of getting a few fish. I am not sorry to see the end of April 2012, let’s hope May is a better month.
Jim Hendrick is looking for a ‘serious’ saltwater fly fisher to help another angler and himself make a short film about the experiences of fly fishing on the South East Coast
Requirements
Enthusiasm (endless)
Sense of humour (good or bad)
SW fly casting and fishing ability in most conditions
Lots of patience
Creativity
Knowledge of multi media technology
Similar state of mind (?)
Must love SWFF
Did I say patience
Lack of fishing, tackle or any other ego!
If you are interested then please don’t hesitate to contact Jim @ 0863444557
