I RECEIVED a text the other day from David Murphy which read ‘check your emails’. Now that can mean only one thing thought I to myself, he’s caught a decent pike.

A few days before Christmas David had been discussing buying a new pike kit – ‘I’ll bet that he has purchased said tackle and christened it on his first outing’. Opening up the wordless message sure enough there was an image attached, and opening it revealed a fine double-figure pike displayed by one very happy angler.

David had got a heads-up about a small lake not too far from where he lived. Carrying a stock of coarse fish to include rudd, roach and perch, word had it that lurking in its shadowy depths also were some very large pike. Not one to rest on his laurels, David hatched a plan.

Armed with frozen dead roach, David arrived at the venue early and after a bit of scoping decided to set up in a likely corner close to some reed beds. Setting up his matching Shimano pike rod and bait runner reel to which he attached a wire trace, David baited up with a dead roach and cast into a deep hole close to the reed beds.

To cut a long story short, it could not have gone better for him, as by lunchtime the intrepid angler had hooked three pike and landed two. The first was a jack pike around five lbs., followed shortly afterwards by a serious fish well into double figures which David lost at the net.

Read the full article: http://www.enniscorthyguardian.ie/sport/other-sports/predatory-pike-a-fantastic-quarry-2984586.html
Enniscorthy Guardian, 10/01/12

COVERT mobile cameras are being rolled out along the State’s rivers and lakes in a bid to clamp down on poaching.

The state-of-the-art CCTV equipment is being introduced for the first time following a successful pilot scheme launched in north Dublin last month, the Irish Independent has learned.

Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), which is operating the scheme, said the technology will help its officers respond more effectively to incidents of poaching.

“Primarily we want these cameras to be covert and we don’t want people taking too much notice of them, so they can do their job without being broken,” a spokeswoman said.

“It’s really about working smarter, getting the best use of our resources because they are reducing all the time.

“We get lots of reports and we try to investigate all of them, but it’s not always possible to get the right evidence or somebody might mistake what they’re looking at. So this will be to verify what they’re looking at.”

Read the full article: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/hidden-cameras-rolled-out-to-snare-poachers-2982874.html
Irish Independent, 09/01/12

ANGLING NOTES: WITH more than 25,000 claims recorded since its inception in 1955, the Irish Specimen Fish Committee database is one of the most valuable and long-running sources of information of its type in the world.

Great credit is due to the committee for its dedication over the past 56 years, which culminates annually with a presentation of awards. Each year the report is eagerly awaited by anglers who endeavour to catch and record the biggest fish of each species.

The 72-page glossy report for 2011 is beautifully presented with more than 50 colour photographs and catch details for 587 specimen fish including four new records. This is a far cry from, say, the 1983 report of dull unassuming type and not a photograph to be seen in its 32 pages.

Renowned specimen hunter Terry Jackson made the headlines with a new record roach/rudd hybrid of 2.1kg caught in the River Lagan, Co Antrim, on maggots. Terry went on to record six similar specimens from the same venue. His record roach of 1.425kg from Drumacritten Lake in Co Fermanagh 10 years ago still remains intact.

Red Bay in Co Antrim continued to set the pace for many of our marine species. Jan Vrieswijk from Holland created a new record for blackmouth dogfish of 1.33kg and Albert Koawenhourn, also from Holland, pipped the one-year-old record for spur dogfish by just 0.17kg. Of the 107 specimens claimed, 78 were caught in Red Bay.

Read the full article: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0109/1224309999129.html
Irish Times, 09/01/12