Royal visit

Naw, not Charlie being pals with Trump, just me making my first trip to the Royal canal this year.

Like an itch that I just had to scratch, the Royal canal was calling me even though the local rivers are fishing really well right now. The day was promised bright, dry and warm but with a strong easterly wind, so fairly crap conditions for trout fishing and only tolerable for coarse angling. Rising early, I got all the usual jobs out of the way then headed east to Longford. I walked into Denniston’s a few minutes after they opened at 9.30 and bought a pint of maggots and some Sensas ground bait. Then it was back to the village of Cloondra and the harbour where I was hoping to encounter some tench.

One advantage of the Focus over the Yaris is the huge boot this old car has. It is cavernous, which may or may not be a good thing. The more available space the more tackle I will inevitably fill it with. It is some sort of law of physics. Anyway, I brought a float rod and a feeder rod, my chair and some tackle, so there was not too much this time (but I fear for future trips). Under an azure sky I set up at the only space where I could see clear water, the rest of the harbour being jammed with boats tied up three deep along all the quays. I’ll admit I was not overly impressed with my peg, it was at the badly silted far end of the harbour, a spot where I have never done well, but beggars can’t be choosers. Balls of ground bait went in, then some loose fed casters and finally regular pinches of maggots.

To say the fishing was poor would be kind, I failed to register a single bite over the next 2 hours. Nothing. Not so much as a nibble. The sun shone and the east wind blew, but little else took place. Around midday I called a halt to this fiasco and packed everything back in the car. What to do now? After deliberating for a few minutes I settled on driving over to Killnashee where the canal passes under a bridge. I’ve caught plenty of fish there in the past, and with nothing doing in the harbour I had little to lose. Parked up, two trips to lug the gear to a likely looking swim and I was back fishing in less than twenty minutes. Now the sun was in my face and the wind whipped along the canal from my right. I decided against ground bait here and stayed with just loose feeding maggots to try and pull a few fish to me.

The water here was strange. It was crystal clear but the surface was covered in dead catkins off willow trees creating a thick, pale scum which fouled everything it touched. In this light I found seeing the yellow tip of my peacock waggler difficult and I thought about swapping it for one that was easier to see, but laziness got the better of me and I just squinted in the sunshine instead. Not that much happened for an hour.

Finally, the float dipped and a wee rudd came to hand saving what had increasingly looked like a blank. More rudd followed, all of the tiny. Two roach were the only other fish stupid enough to take my bait. All fell to maggot except for two of the rudd which swallowed sweetcorn intended for tench. None of the catch were better than a few ounces. And that was it, 18 silvers in total. On the one hand you could view this as a dismal effort, but the fishing was only part of the day. It was a fabulous day to be out in the countryside with the bushes full of songbirds, swallows wheeling above me the the warmth of the spring sunshine to bask in.

So why was the fishing so poor? That incredibly bright sunshine certainly didn’t help matters, especially when you consider the canal is barely four feet deep. The East wind is a bad job too, I never have much success when the wind comes from that quarter. Water temperature is still very low for the time of year as well, so maybe it was a combination of these factors allied to the spawning season for the roach which might go so way to explaining the dramatically bad fishing. Or maybe I was just having a crap day and fishing poorly (highly possible). Whatever was going on, I still enjoyed my day on the towpath. The weather is forecast to turn cooler over the weekend so I am glad I made the best of it and had a day in the sun. The coming few weeks will see me busy ghillieing with limited fishing time for myself. It could be June before I am back on the Royal again, so let’s pray the tench will be busy rooting about on the bottom by then.