Low Key session

Having dried out all my gear after the last outing in the rain, I decided to risk getting it all wet again by trying for some roach on Lough Key. Famous for producing the Irish record pike back in the early nineties, (a good fish of just short of forty pounds), it also holds good stocks of bream, roach and hybrids. It is a bit early here for the bream, but I was hopeful I could find a few roach to while away a session.

Let’s start with a bit of geography. The whole north Roscommon/Leitrim area can be hard to understand for those not familiar with this part of Ireland. Very simply, the Boyle river enters from the western side of Lough Key, then exists the lough on the eastern side to flow via Oakport Lough and Lough Drumharlow to meet the Shannon just to the west of Carrick-on-Shannon. Lough Key is irregularly shaped with deeply indented bays and dotted with numerous tree clad islands. If there was good access to the shores of the lough it would be a very popular venue, but aside from the adventure park on the south shore, the lough is largely hidden away. Drivers whizzing along the busy N4 trunk road from Longford to Sligo can’t see the lovely lake at all. Truly, a hidden gem.

Gear wise, I brought the old 12 foot Shaky float rod and an ABU 10 foot light leger rod. I gave the ABU505 a rest, and used the Mitchell 206 with 6 pound main line on the float rod and a small Okuma Ceymar fixed spool on the leger rod. Bait was maggots as usual and I dispensed with ground bait, just loose feeding maggots instead.

The normal stop off in Carrick-on-Shannon for bait was timed for 10am when the tackle shop opens. then it was a short blast along the N4 to the turn off to the park. If you are an outdoors sort of family then this could be a place for you to come, there are lots of things to do like bike trails, kayaks for hire, etc. Lacking any sort of interest in such physically challenging sports, I just wanted to sit on me bum and fish for roach. I parked up, mindful that you have to pay for the pleasure of parking here (€6 for the day). A razor sharp east wind took me by surprise when I got out of the car. It was noticeably cooler than it was in Carrick, just a few miles down the road. I grabbed the gear and marched off (well sort of slouched really), to the floating pontoon and set up.

Home

I started quite close to the shore and plumbed the depth at roughly 4 feet. Maggots on a size 12 hook attached by 18 inches of three pound line to a small feeder was plonked a few yards off to my right and I began setting up the float rod. I had almost settled on my depth when the plummet snagged on something solid on the bottom. No amount of gentle pulling could free it and finally I snapped off the hook and plummet, not the best of starts. I find this is a common problem when fishing marinas and boating jettys, all kinds of rubbish appear to get jettisoned from the boats and creates a snaggy bottom in the immediate area of the pontoons. A new hook length was soon in place and I plumbed up again, but this time a couple of yards to the right of the snag.

There is no way of dressing this up, I blanked. I fed the swim, made small adjustments to depth so that I tried from mid-water to over depth, I dropped hook size on the feeder from a twelve down to a sixteen but nothing worked. I then moved to the mid point of the long pontoon which sticks out into the lake. I figured there would be deeper water there, and sure enough I plumbed nearly 11 feet in front of me. More feeding etc, etc. Not so much as a nibble on either rod. I was cold enough to start with but after a couple of hours I was properly chilled. The bitter wind would die away for ten minutes and then come back with bone chilling gusts. by 2pm I was considering my options when rain started to splatter around me, forcing a decision there and then. I packed up and trudged back to the car, thoroughly defeated.

I had almost finished disrobing and packing the car when an IFI jeep pulled up alongside me and the driver wound down the window, ‘any luck?’ We had met before somewhere else (I can’t recall exactly where) and he recognised me. ‘I only ever meet you on the coldest days’ he laughed. ‘No fish today for me’ and I told him of my fishless session. He said it was same all over and that he was talking to a pike angler yesterday down at Tarmonbarry on the Shannon. That poor lad had just finished his 16th consecutive blank! We bid each other farewell and I completed the packing then drove home, the weather getting wetter and wetter with every passing mile.

Blanks are part and parcel of fishing. I have yet to meet an angler who had never blanked. Sure, we all want to catch lots of big fish whenever we head to the river or lake, but life is just not like that. In a way, catching nothing sometimes makes us appreciate the good days even more. Taking on a new venue, in January, in a bitingly cold east wind was always going to be a tough gig. I could have sat at home in front of the fire and moaned about poor conditions but instead I got a bit of fresh air, saw some lovely scenery and learned a bit about lough Key which will stand to me the next time I go there.

I guess there are different types of blanks. Today was, in my eyes, a ‘proper’ blank – no bites at all, let alone a fish in the net. A day when I hook one or two fish but don’t land them is technically a blank, but it is not as soul destroying as a day like today was. Then again, exactly why any fish I hooked came of colours how I feel about a day. A slipped knot, poor netting technique or other self-inflicted losses are the hardest ones to stomach. Those disasters have happened to all of us and the misery of examining the curly end of a leader after a big ‘un has swam off is probably the lowest feeling us anglers have to endure.

Despite todays blank I will return to fish lough Key again. Summertime is out of the question and even weekends are probably too busy to get peace for some fishing there, but late autumn could be good. Perseverance is a major attribute of all the best anglers I know, and giving up on a venue just because of one blank is plain silliness. I have maggots left over after today and they are cooling in fridge now. If the weather is OK I will try to fit in a short session somewhere closer to home early next week.