That hateful east wind has continued to blow all week. A miserable breeze as far as any angler in the west of Ireland is concerned, it seems to put the fish off the feed altogether. OK, so we have had a lot of dry, sunny and even warm weather of late, if only the wind would shift around to a southerly quarter. Today was the same, a cool, steady wind out the east blew across the greening farmlands, only today there was some cloud cover to go someway towards mitigating the bad wind. I decided I had to go fishing. No ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’, I was going and that was the end of the matter.
Down the long road to Athlone first, where maggots were purchased, before I took the old N6 road and then cut off for Shannonbridge. Another turn off down a narrow road which cut across the old worked out bogland, replete with twisted railway tracks and rusted machines abandoned in the brown wasteland. Over the ancient bridge across the swirling depths and there I was at my destination. I had been tipped off about this spot there where the roach gather at this time of the year, so I was hopeful of bent rods. Gear was decanted from the car then lugged to the very end of a floating pontoon. My still healing left arm ached horribly but I made it and carefully set up the rods.
I have not fished at Shannonbridge before but I know enough about the river to realise it would be deep and flowing strongly even in our current low water conditions. I set up the short feeder rod first and cast out before setting up the 13 footer. I’d agonised over even bringing a float rod with me today and when I tried to set the float is became apparent I should have left it at home after all. There was 20 feet of water in front of me, far to deep to contemplate fishing a conventional float. I toyed with the idea of fishing a slider but I felt this was a swim which simply screamed feeders and so I changed the float set up and tied up a small feeder instead. Look, a 13 foot float rod is not the ideal weapon for feeder fishing but it would do me for today.
A few cruisers were moored up to the pontoon, the one closest to me sporting a french tricolor which fluttered daintily in the wind. Pleasantries were exchanged with the occupants, then a dog walker and finally with a couple who were just out for a stroll. All the while my craftily presented maggots on size 18 hooks were studiously ignored by the fish. I ate a sandwich and pondered my options. Perhaps I would have been better trying a spot further down river? In the end I decided to stick it out where I was. Maybe an hour passed before the first knock came, but I missed that one. Twenty minutes later I missed another one and I was beginning to think I was even rustier that I had I hoped to be. The third bite hooked itself with no intervention on my part and a lovely roach came to hand.
From then on the fish came pretty regularly. The fishing was not hectic but the roach were all of a good stamp. I continued to miss an awful lot of bites though, something I can’t say that I could see a reason for. Maybe the hooks were a bit too small but I use 18’s a lot and don’t normally miss so many bites. The fish I did land were all hook far forward in the mouth, the majority of them just nicked on the top lip. All the roach were in great condition apart from one which had been in an altercation with mr. Pike. Apart from the roach a had a lovely, if somewhat small perch (who had of course swallowed the hook).
Fishing a feeder on the float rod meant touch legering and this produced my best fish of the day, a hybrid of about a pound and a half. While I love that old fibreglass ABU rod I am beginning to hanker after a new, much longer float rod. The benefits of a 15 or 17 footer are obvious but the expense of these lovely rods is holding me back from investing on one.
Over the winter I had cleared out out my coarse tackle and refilled my hook length box. I also pre-tied a good few feeder rigs and those jobs made fishing today more pleasant. Just being that little bit better organised made the session more relaxed and I am telling myself to keep my gear in good order from now on.
I drove home via Ballinasloe and Tuam, as recommended online but I doubt if it cut the journey by more than 10 minutes. Every river and stream I crossed was at summer level and with fine, dry weather forcast for the coming week there will be no rise in any watershed for days to come. With a half box of maggots left over from today I will sneak out for a short early morning session somewhere close to home over the weekend.
Claretbumbler 