Regular readers will be fed up hearing me banging on about how much I hate Christmas (nothing has changed, I still despise the whole crock of shit), and how I am planning for the coming season. Well, so far next season’s plans are very much up in the air due to a number of factors.
I have not ventured out with the rods for many weeks now, partly due to other commitments but also because the weather has been pretty crap. It has either been blowing a hoolie or bitterly cold, neither of which are likely to induce roach or bream into feeding frenzies. I have started tying up some flies, partly topping up on favourites which were running low, but also making some new patterns. My infamous wooden lough fly box had deteriorated from it’s usual disorganised state into utter chaos over the course of last season so I spent an afternoon trying to restore some semblance of order. I’ve also emptied an old aluminium fly box and am busy refilling it with barbless salmon flies in anticipation that they will be all we are allowed to use on many fisheries next season. From that will can guess that, unlike 2024, I hope to get back into salmon fishing after a couple of years away from that branch of the sport. I missed my days on Carrowmore and Beltra and have decided I’ll dust down the rods and reels for ’25, presuming at least some of the river systems will be open. How many salmon will be there is another matter entirely. Figures for this year from the board indicate only a little over 171,000 fish entered Irish rivers. To put that into some sort of perspective, the figure for 1975 was 1.7 million fish.
I had great plans for doing more fishing in Northern Ireland next year but I am hearing rumours that the department are not going to stock any of their waters in 2025. If that is the case I will limit myself to just the odd trip to do some coarse fishing, with lough Erne high on my list of new venues to try out. I have read that Erne has a huge stock of roach and that they are of a high average weight, so that sounds worth investigation on my part. Fermanagh is less than 2 hours drive away for me and the whole county is littered with excellent loughs and stretches of river which I’d love to visit.
Now retired, I should have more time on my hands but we will see how that works out! Certainly there will be day trips to the midlands where I can fish the canals for tench, rudd and roach. There are a couple of specific trips being planned too, ones along the lines of my ’32’ project, but not so extensive. I have invested in a new tent, the old one being too cramped for a geriatric like me. So overnighters are now a possibility. I have thought about a bivvy to make night fishing possible but I think I’ll stick to just using the tent as cheap overnight accommodation if I am fishing far flung venues during the days.
Closer to home, I will rekindle my love of river trouting, both on the streams I know and by trying out new ones. While the trout will be small, the challenge of winkling one or two out makes for fascinating angling. Again, the old trout fly boxes have been inspected and found wanting, so I’m making up wets, drys and nymphs to replenish them all. The river Robe was miserably poor last season but I have seen that before and the river can come alive just as quickly as it switches off.
I’ll probably moor my lake boat on the Corrib for the start of the season then move her to Conn before the mayfly. Corrib, although patchy, was the best of the local loughs last season so I am taking a punt next year will be something similar. Conn is always a late starter for some reason. I have seen huge hatches of buzzers in some of the bays on Conn but the trout showed no interest in them during February and March. What makes this all the more puzzling is Cullin, joined directly to Conn, fishes best in the early months.
As I did very little fishing this year it was hard to know just how bad the fishing was around here. Most anglers I know echo my own experience and are glad to see the back of the 2024 season. Having said that, a small number of fishers seem to have done OK so there is a degree of hope for the coming season. While I’d like to be optimistic about the coming year it does require a fairly big leap of faith that the unrelenting decline in Irish angling will miraculously be reversed in 2025.
I am also considering what to do with this blog. With very little fishing being done of late there has not been much to write about. I don’t post something every time I go fishing anyway, believing that readers can only stomach so much of me saying the same thing on every post. My fishing on the local loughs usually involve me going out alone in my boat, fly fishing and or trolling for a few hours then motoring back to where the boat is moored. My coarse fishing is also pretty basic and repetitive, meaning there are only so many ways I can spin ‘caught a few silvers on float and feeder’.
Having said that, now I have retired I will be fishing more frequently and hopefully trying out now places, new methods and possibly catching more fish. That in turn should provide me with more fodder for these pages. I want to get back into doing a bit of sea fishing for example. Spinning from the rocks for pollock and mackerel used to be great fun and I wonder if the fishing for them is still good? Re-acquainting myself with fly fishing in saltwater for sea trout is another target for me. Stuff like that might be of interest o some of you. Maybe I need to rethink how I structure my posts so they are more detailed? Ideas on a postcard………….
Over the next couple of weeks I have a number of jobs to do which I have either been procrastinating about or have legitimately planned for the holiday period. For example, both of my oars fell apart last season and need repaired. I have a few reels which have to be serviced, two rods with whippings which require attention and I also have to fit in my annual fly tying material dying day(s). My list of materials to be dyed grows steadily throughout the year until around now, when I commandeer the kitchen and stink out the house while staining a range of furs and feathers. These are typical of my ‘to do’ list for the holiday period, so I’ll get Christmas out of the way and hunker down on the above tasks (and a few more). For now though, my 2024 angling is over. I want to wish all of you a happy and peaceful holiday and screaming reels for the coming year.
Claretbumbler 
Hi there Bumbler. I’m Steve, living in Louisburgh and I’ve been following your blog and found it very helpful. I’m from southern England originally and grew up fishing for tench and rudd etc and have missed it a lot since living here. Been here since ’98 and I concentrated on sea fishing almost exclusively but in the last few years the sea has become empty (don’t bother looking for mackeral from the rocks these days, they’re almost nonexistant) So instead I’ve started making trips to Roscommon to fish the lakes for my old favorites. No luck with tench yet but had some great bags of roach and rudd and it really brings back memories. Hoping to do a few overnights this year and get a tench in the net. It’d be nice to bump in to you sometime, I don’t know any course anglers around here.
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Hi there Steve,
Glad to hear you have got something from the blog. Because I ramble across the different codes the blog has something of everything, meaning the fly fishers have little interest when I am rabbiting on about coarse fishing and vice versa. You will have gathered that I am a novice coarse angler so you will know much more about it than I do. What I lack in knowledge I like to think I make up for with enthusiasm!
I know what you mean about the sea fishing. It is pretty much useless these days due to the efforts of the commercial fleets. The days of hectic sport with mackerel, wrasse, pollock and rays are gone. Having said that, I am planning on doing a little bit of sea fishing this year, just for old times’ sake.
Roscommon has some excellent coarse lakes which I fish and I do a fair bit in Leitrim too. Sadly there is not much in the immediate area here in Mayo but I am happy to share my knowledge of the few lakes there are with you. There are tench around here but the stocks are very low, so finding them is a real challenge. I tend to fish for tench in Leitrim or drive down to the Royal Canal which has a good stock of tench in certain areas. These days lough Mask is rammed full of big bream which are being caught in numbers by local lads fishing from the western shore.
Since you are living in Louisburg you should think about doing some fly fishing on the Bunowen and Carrownisky rivers. Both have salmon and sea trout, not in any great numbers these days, but living so close to them means you could hit the rivers at just the right time when there is a spate and the fish are running.
Happy to meet up sometime for a natter over a coffee if that suits you. My email is colinmclean2005@hotmail.com and my mobile is 0892041081. Drop an email or a text and we can arrange something.
Best regards,
Colin
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Hi Colin, nice to virtually meet you. The situation with sea fishing is very sad. I used to have a boat and go out in Clew Bay and up to Achill which was especially good – 12+ species in a day. But it’s so bad now it breaks my heart and I sold my boat. Hence the return to course fishing. I do have a spot where I sometimes get bass and sea trout from the shore which is quite special – I guess the boats can’t get them!
I heard about the bream in Mask, I guess you need to know the right spots – it’s very big! The local knowledge is vital, that’s why I like your blog – I’ve tried a few places which you have written about, particularly the canal near Ballymahon. I went there with my brother who visits me here in the summer. Some other guys there had tench in the morning before we arrived, we stayed til dark but no joy and yet you got some in an evening trip – that’s fishing for you. We will keep trying.
So many lakes in Roscommon, I’ve tried quite a few now and found two or three spots I really like with good access and good fish etc but it’s so hit and miss trying new lakes especially when it’s such a trek to get there so I tend to go to the spots I like and know well.
I heard years ago that Cloonkeen near Castlebar has tench and I did try it a couple of times but the problem is midges! just when the tench come out so do they. Don’t seem to be bad in Roscommon for some reason thank god.
A meet up for a chat would be good, like I said I’m starved of fishing buddy’s round here. My phone is 087 6956638. Roll on May!
Steve Chapman
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I must admit, I love trying out new venues! I know it means I will catch a lot less fish and often blank because I don’t know the water but there is still something exciting about fishing an unknown water. I guess I’m used to the long drives (I worked away from home for many years). Ballymahon can be very good but the tench can be very fussy and I have seen me fish it in near identical conditions, bagging up one time and blanking the next. I am planning on trying some other sections of the Royal this year. The tench seem to be localised on that canal but there are usually lots of roach and rudd around even if the tinca’s are not there.
I’ll tell you all about Cloonkeen and the other tench fisheries I know in the area when we meet up. Have you ever tried Eaton’s Lake? I have yet to crack it, just catching small stuff so far. Very deep and rich, it screams bream and tench but I have only had skimmers and no tench so far.
Probably easiest to meet up in Westport some time. I am retired now so can be flexible regarding dates/times.
Colin
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Yes I’ve probably tried 15-20 different lakes (much less than you I’d imagine) over the last couple of years with mixed results so I tend to go back to the ones I know are good cos I can’t get out that often. I have a mystery chronic fatigue thing which limits my possibilities, but I’ve given up coffee for the new year and hoping that’ll help. I’m self employed, trimming horses hooves so I can plan my free time, which I have quite a lot of, I just have a lot of days when I can’t do very much at all unfortunately and the illness comes and goes like the weather so it’s hard to plan ahead.
There seem to be quite a few lakes affected by the dreaded zebra mussels. I spoke to a guy who was fishing his local lake (Roscommon) and said it’s totally dead during the day because of them but he still gets a few bream at night. I used to fish Derryhick for roach, skimmers and pike but that lake is dead now. I did get some roach in Levally last year though, that’s a nice lake. I haven’t been to Cloonkeen for years and now it has the big road beside it, kinda spoils it. I know they used to put big pike in there which they took out of Mask but I’m not really in to pike these days.
Yes, lets have a cuppa (not coffee) in Westport one day and chat fish. Look forward to it.
Steve
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