First outing of 2025

In the words of D:Ream – things can only get better.

The first outing of the year is always a tricky one, isn’t it? Where to go, what to fish for, what day to pick, get any of the variable wrong and your season is off to a bad start. I had put off fishing so far this year simply due to the cold weather. Whatever about the fish, the icy conditions certainly did not tempt me away from the fireside and on to the bank. Old age plays a huge part in decisions like this, as a young pup a bit of frost would not have concerned me in the least but that is all a long time ago. The cold snap is behind us now and the forecast for Tuesday was sort of mild in a damp kind of way, so it seemed to be as good as it was likely to get.

With no salmon fishing open yet close to me I dusted down the coarse rods for my inaugural piscatiorial adventure of 2025. I decided to play it safe and fish the canal at Keshcarrigan, a spot which has never produced many fish, nor any big ones, but then again I have never blanked there. A few small roach was all I expected to encounter and if that transpired I’d be more than happy. The first trip is all about getting myself into the right headspace and sorting out any wrinkles in my gear. I hoped to pick up a tub of maggots for bait, but at this time of the year that can be a problem, so I took bread and sweetcorn with me as backups. Those of you who have read my earlier posts will know that I am intending on trying corn more often for the coarse fish this season in an effort to overcome the hoodoo that bait holds over me.

At this time of year it would possibly have made more sense to fish a river rather than the canal. Moving water requires the fish to burn energy at a higher rate than when they are in still water, meaning there is more chance of them feeding. Roving the banks looking for a few roach felt like too much work for me though, so I opted for the luxury of a concrete stand beside the canal.

I’m wrestling with a conundrum when it comes to my feeder rod these days. Since I took up this coarse fishing lark I have used bank sticks when fishing from the open bank or simply lying my rod on the stand when one is available. While the bank sticks work OK the same cannot be said of my faffing about on stands. I am never happy with the line of sight, the way the feeder always seems to be in the way nor the ability to adjust the angles of the rod to meet conditions. The question is, do I invest in a feeder arm for my chair or do I go down the road of a rod pod instead? I am leaning towards a pod at the moment, mainly because I suspect anything attached to my chair will inevitably be subject to movement every time I am anything other than stock still. Also, a pod would be a flexible solution which I could set up in different ways to meet specific conditions. I’ll make my decision soon and let you guys know which way I was swayed in the end. Either way, I want an alternative to just leaving my feeder rod lying on the wooden or concrete stands which are common over here.

A pair of rods were to be used. An eleven foot float rod paired with a fixed spool reel loaded with six pound mono was going to be my prefered weapon. I also brought along a repaired feeder rod which I had broken years ago but fixed up but not tried out. I figured it was time to see if my handiwork was up to scratch and this outing was of little consequence if it turned out my repair was crap and the rod broke again. Another fixed spool with more six pound mono completed that outfit. I toyed with the notion of bringing along a ‘back up’ rod should the scarred feeder rod meet a grizzly end but I figured this was not going to be a hectic session of continuous bites and hooped rods. If the feeder rod failed I would just fish on with the float.

It was with that sweet combination of anticipation and trepidation that I loaded up the Toyota and set off down the road to Leitrim. Part of the whole process of going fishing for me these days is finding out on the water side what I have forgotten to pack. There is always something, usually a little bit of kit that just limits me a bit on the day, but sometimes I leave something essential at home. Last season I once left my fly reels at home and only found out while setting up at the lough (the second time I have done that). A few years ago I even forgot my rods! What would it be today I wondered as I motored along the wide and relatively quiet N5.

Carrick-on-Shannon is normally busy, but the streets were largely deserted on this foggy Tuesday morning in January. The marinas on the Shannon were full of course with the summer boats all moored up for the winter, squeezed togethers at the wharfs like bloated sardines. I park the car in the same place every time I go there, just a short walk from the tackle shop. Such small familiarities are important to me, I like that certainty of my habits. Stiff after the drive, I hobble along the street, empty plastic bait box in my hand, then up to the tackle shop. It was shut. Bugger, no maggots for me then, and no wee extra either. I would usually buy something else while in the shop, a bag of ground bait, a packet of hooks, that sort of thing. Not much but I figure that anything must help as running a tackle shop in Ireland must be a huge challenge in these days of internet shopping. Sadly, such purchases will have to stop now I have retired and money has become a precious resource for me. Anyway, I probably own more hooks, floats and such minor angling paraphernalia than I could use in ten lifetimes.

Now in a funny way I was not too upset about the tackle shop being closed as it would now force me to use other baits. In the car I had tins of corn and a loaf of bread, both stashed there for use today at some point, but now they would be called on right from the get-go. Off again across Leitrim, the mist still clinging to the fields and old stone houses by the road.

My chosen spot lies but a few yards from where the canal widens into lough Scur. The nearest lock lies about a mile to the east and when there is traffic you can get a bit of water movement as boats use the lock. Given the time of year though I had grave doubts any boaters would be cruising.

As for terminal tackle, I went for a small waggler and a 6 inch hook length of four pound double strength nylon to a size 14 spade end hook on the float rod. It would do to start with and I could always drop down in line size if required. By way of a trial, I attached the waggler to my main line by a small snap link swivel rather than threading the line through the loop on the end of the float. I am thinking this will make changing floats a lot easier but we will have to see if there are any negatives to this simple set up. I’d fish bread on the float, something I have only ever caught rudd on.

A small feeder with a twizzled boom to another 6 inches of four pound double strength and a size 12 was tied on the feeder rod as I would be fishing corn on this one. I mixed a little ground bait and added a few bits of corn as well as some vanilla flavouring, packing this into an open ended feeder then hooking two ears of corn on to the size 12. My rough plan was to try and tempt roach on the float fished bread while the feeder was intended for skimmers.

I fished away like this for a couple of hours, the feeder hugging the bottom and the float drifting slowly from left to right, presumably because the Inland Waterways lads were bleeding water out of the canal further to the East. I’d estimate the canal was a good twelve inches above normal level and the water was very, very cold. Casts were made, small adjustments carried out to depth and a couple of very small balls of corn laced ground bait were tossed in. All was to no avail though, not so much as a nibble came my way despite what I considered to be reasonably good conditions for the time of year. I pushed away the niggling thought that I would be catching if I had maggots and concentrated even harder on the float and feeder rod tip. Neither was in any way disturbed. Another hour passed with still no offers so I decided to call it a day.

I drove home trying to figure out why I am so useless with bread and corn. Other anglers do very well with both baits, but I couldn’t elicit a bite on either to save my life. I am not going to give up though, I just need to practice more and have a little belief. Instead of going onto the bypass, I drove into Carrick-on-Shannon on the way home and, guess what? The tackle shop was open! I went in and bought a pint of maggots in the hope I can fish again this week. The owner swore he had opened up at 10am but there must be something wrong with his chromometer because it was twenty past ten when I was stood disconsolately outside that morning. I snapped the opening times so I have them on my phone from now on.

Lessons learned? Maybe a phone call to the tackle shop before I had set off would have been a good idea? Not to worry, at least I have some maggots in my bait fridge now. The wee link swivel to attach the float worked a treat so I will keep going with that for now. The cheap rod bands I bought off TEMU for the float rod worked really well too. The big take away for me was I need to get out more often. It was absolutely lovely sitting by the canal today. The whole year stretches before us, so let’s make the effort and hit the waterways as much as we can.