A very short session

I managed to squeeze in an hour with the rods yesterday. I was passing over the Shannon as I was heading back to Mayo from the east coast. In anticipation of just such an opportunity, I had stowed some gear in the back of the car and was able to try out a new venue for me, Tarmonbarry. This village is on the N5 road and lies between Roosky to the north and Laneborough to the south. Over recent years the tiny village has expanded as posh houses have been built, presumably many of them are second homes or are let out to the boaters. In a lifetime of whizzing along the N5 in both directions I had never stopped in Tarmonbarry until yesterday.

The Shannon is still high, but dropping after heavy rain last week. She froths and foams over the weir at Tarmonbarry, the brown waters churning for a couple of hundred yards below the dam. I thought there might be a chance of a few roach in the quieter waters off the main flow and mooched around to find somewhere to fish on the entrance to the marina. Sure enough, there was plenty of room at one of the floating pontoon moorings, so I set up two rods and began to feed in ground bait and maggots.

The water here is deep, I plumbed up to 15 feet in the channel. Fine for the feeder, so I set up with an open cage 30 gram feeder, a 4 pound hook link to a size 12 and baited with worm. The float rod would require a sliding set up to cope with the depth, a 4BB bodied waggler to a 4 pound hook length and a size 16 spade end for fishing a single or sometimes double maggot. Time went past without any signs of fishy activity, so I changed the feeder rig to a smaller, size 14 hook and the bait to maggots. Almost immediately that produced results, firstly with a missed bite then a fine hybrid of well over a pound. I thought I had taken a photo of this fish but it didn’t come out for some reason, so you just have to trust me on this occasion. Another missed bite on the feeder, then a roach on the slider followed by three more in quick succession before it slowed down again. For a venue which was new to me I was very happy with progress so far.

I decided to move closer to the main river, not because I was unhappy with the catch, I just wanted to reconnoitre the area. There was a stretch of open bank where I could get to the water’s edge so I fished there for the next 30 minutes or so. Once again, it was all quiet to begin with before the roach showed up. The feeder was king in this swim, taking a roach every third or fourth cast. Bites were very positive, the fish tending to take the maggots far back in their mouths. Although I fished on with the float rod it only got me a pair of the tiniest perch you have ever seen and an equally diminutive rudd. It felt like I had just started, but all too soon it was time to pack up and head back on the road.

So what did I learn in the 55 minutes I spent on the watery edge of the county Roscommon? Tarmonbarry looks like it has real potential, but it will take time and dedication to learn about it. None of the roach I landed were big fish, but you have to suspect there are some better roach to be had in the springtime around here. The marina was jammed full of expensive boats which are probably berthed there out of harms way for the winter, but I’ll bet it is a popular stop off for the boating community and so summertime will be best avoided by us anglers. I’ll return in April/May next year and give the area a good few sessions and get to know where the fish congregate. Apart from roach there has to be bream and in all probability a few tench. Of course, this being the Shannon there will be pike as well. All told, this could be a very productive venue if I put in the effort.