First day of April. Where did March go? Still feeling ever-so-slightly under the weather from an excess of alcoholic beverages last night when the alarm woke me this morning I rose to complete some chores before heading off for a bit of fishing. There are fish being caught just about everywhere in the area right now but Ben fancied a crack at the Cashel River today.
Tea-coloured and running a couple of feet above summer level, the river looked very ‘fishy’ when we rocked up at a little after 11am. This river needs high levels to attract the fish in and we certainly had near perfect conditions today. Recent reports were less encouraging though and we had no confirmed catches to feed our optimism. Undeterred, we tackled up and set off upstream. Ben was using a recent acquisition, an old glass fibre ABU Atlantic spinning rod in a rather fetching blue colour which he had picked up at a car boot sale. For a rod that must be all of 40 years old it was in fantastic condition.
I commenced operations with silver and gold ‘Salmo’ Toby to give the fish a real mouthful. We chatted as the outboard pushed up gently up river taking in the glorious spring day and revelling in the new growth around us. A pair of Sand Martins swooped across our bows, the first I have seen this year and a sure sign that Spring has truly arrived.
It would be nice to tell you the fishing was fruitful but we blanked. that’s not exactly true as I boated a small Pike of around 4 pounds just as we were about to pack up. But there was no sign of salmon despite the perfection of the days conditions. No matter, it has been one of those days it was just good to be out in the countryside after a winter cooped up indoors.
Claretbumbler 