July 2026 – Claretbumbler

A morning on Finlough

Not the famous salmon fishery in the west of Ireland, this is instead a coarse lake near to Strokestown in the county Roscommon. I had planned to fish on Monday but the Mayo victory against Kerry the previous day scuppered that as celebratory drinks got completely out of hand. An alcohol fuelled late night renderedContinueContinue reading “A morning on Finlough”

Lazy Sunday morning

With a full week of ghillieing ahead of me, I made loose plans to fish on Sunday morning. An early start made sense so I had the gear all looked out the night before and set an alarm for 5am. Let’s just skip over that alarm (because I did) and move on to eight o’clockContinueContinue reading “Lazy Sunday morning”

Petition

https://swanireland.ie/take-action/ban-open-net-fish-farms/Please sign our petition to put an end to this destructive and cruel practice | Take Action | Demo Organisation Salmon Watch Ireland is affiliated to Sustainable Water Network (SWAN), who are commencing a campaign to end open net pen salmon farming in Ireland. Please sign and support the petition and share widely amongst family,ContinueContinue reading “Petition”

Happy in defeat

So I used to fish this small lake in county Leitrim for tench. Note the use of the past tense, as this venue had but one stand to fish from, the entirety of the circumference being covered by a 50 yard deep belt of rushes. That rickety wooden stand collapsed into the water a coupleContinueContinue reading “Happy in defeat”

Mayfield, parts 1 and 2

Part 1 I fished Mayfield lough in Claremorris earlier this year and caught a nice bag of skimmers and hybrids. With half a tub of maggots to be used up I decided to give the lough another try last Sunday morning. I had to pick up herself in Tuam around lunchtime, so Claremorris was onContinueContinue reading “Mayfield, parts 1 and 2”

Sucking and blowing

Despite the outrageous title, this post is just more musings of a fisherman trying to catch tiddlers on an Irish river. Family stuff meant I was dropping my other half at her sister’s in Tuam on Saturday morning, so being that far down the country anyway I figured it would be rude not to doContinueContinue reading “Sucking and blowing”