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 do a bit of fishing. By motoring on a bit further I came to the town of Ballinasloe, then just past there I turned off down a track to the Correen ford. This was always going to be a bit of gamble as the pike anglers haunt the ford all year round. The Suck shallows and sharply bends at Correen, creating a pool below an island which holds bait fish and thus attracts the pike. Not being interested in pike, I was hoping to find a quiet peg to try for bream and roach, with maybe an outside chance of a tench.

For those unfamiliar with the Suck let me give you an outline of the river. In its upper reaches the Suck is a lively wee stream, home to some nice brown trout and relatively under fished as it flows through rough, boggy countryside. It picks up numerous small tributaries, some of which are good trout waters in their own right. From Ballymoe onwards the nature of the river changes and it becomes slow, deep and meandering. All the way to where it joins the mighty Shannon is good coarse fishing, but the Suck is famous for one species above all other – Pike. Huge numbers of jacks live in the slow moving water and some of them grow to impressive sizes. It is these large pike which attract anglers from all over Ireland and further afield. Twenty pounders from the Suck don’t cause a stir and you need to get closer to thirty before any serious pike angler will take notice. The river is wide and deep, and largely fringed with dense reed beds, meaning boats are very useful for accessing all of the river. Trolling, dead baiting and spinning all account for large pike here and a growing number of fly anglers are targeting pike from the Suck. In addition to the pike there are perch, roach, bream and hybrids plus a small head of tench. The low lying marshy ground on each side of the river are known as the Callows, and this area floods every winter. Below Ballinasloe the river describes some wide loops then meet the Shannon opposite Shannonbridge. In summary, the Suck is generally wide and deep with slow currents as it flows through low lying callows.

What can I say about Ballinasloe? It is not a town I know well, having only been there a handful of times. It looks and feels like so many Irish midlands towns and if you just woke up in the middle of it you would be hard pressed to tell it from any other similar sized conurbations. There is a huge horse fair which is popular with the travellers each October, but beyond that I can’t recall any other obvious attractions. A newish marina in the heart of the town may help to invigorate it, but I suspect most boaters stick to the main channel of the Shannon and only few cruise up the Suck to Ballinasloe and beyond. I have a notion that marina could be stuffed with roach and skimmers in the winter time….

I have not fished the Suck before. It has been on my over-extended ‘to do’ list for years, but here was an opportunity to give this big river a try. In general, I am OK on smaller lakes, get by on small rivers and pretty much useless on big loughs and rivers. I’ll admit to feeling a bit overwhelmed by the thought of trying to catch fish from such a big venue. The weather gods tried to make things hard for me with a strong westerly wind blowing directly into my face. With the car parked I wandered over to take a look at the bank and judge where to fish. All I can say is there was nowhere I could easily cast into the river because that wind was so fierce. I hung around to see if it would drop any but if anything it felt as if it was growing stronger. Maybe I could find another spot that was a bit more sheltered? With tail firmly between my legs I jumped back into the car and retraced my journey back into town. From there I thought I could get to the locks where the motorway crosses the river. Off down a narrow road I went but all around me was flat, worked out bog. Turning around, I worked my way back and found a turn off that I had missed, so driving down there I finally found the river a little below where I had been aiming for.

A big green stile led over a fence to a steep bank and the water below the lock gates. The river proper was a couple of hundred yard off to my right but this spot was really sheltered. It was also narrow, the main river flowed fast just out of sight and this was the entrance to the locks so baots can pass up river. Would it contain any fish? There was only one way to find out and I gowned up, dragged my gear over the stile and set up on the slippery bank. After being nearly blown off my feet at the ford is was lovely to be out of the wind even if the steep bank was uncomfortable.

Tackle wise, the 12 foot general coarse rod was pressed into service as a feeder rod for the day, paired with a 4000 size fixed spool and 6 pound mono. The 11 foot float rod with 5 pound mono has sort of become my standard rod for waggler fishing, despite it being a bit on the short side, and it got an airing today on the banks of the Suck. Instead of hauling the heavy feeder chair with me I opted for the old seatbox and just crammed all my gear into that. That I looked less than professional is an understatement, but who cares as long as I was enjoying myself. For bait I had a pint of mixed maggots, bought the other day in Athlone. I also had some sweet corn with me if I felt the need to change from maggots. With bream as likely targets, I took along lots of ground bait, Sensas 3000 black lake mainly with some odds and ends of other packets and a dash of crushed hemp thrown in for good measure.

Ground bait is a subject I feel I need to pay more attention too. My deeply suspicious mindset means I view the brightly coloured bags of expensive smelly stuff as just another marketing ploy. Yes, I believe ground baiting is important, but is one any better than another? I don’t do enough coarse fishing to make a solid judgement based on my own experience, so I am left to rely on what has worked for me on rare occasions in the past or have read other anglers using successfully. The fact that I very often mix different ground baits does nothing to clarify the situation. It’s all a bit hit and miss.

Ground bait balls were lobbed in and I chucked out a couple of handfuls of maggots before setting up the rods. The roar of the traffic racing along the motorway only a few yards away was a bit of a distraction but I missed a bite on the first cast and landed a nice roach on the second. I soon forget about the cars! Taking the seatbox with me instead of the chair turned out to be a bad move and the steep slope was a pain in the hole, but I was not to know this was the peg I’d be fishing so I simply had to make the best of a bad job.

The water was about 7 feet deep in front of me and it was more or less still until a boat used the lock system. That happened on three occasions and when the lock gate was opened there was a rush of water which stirred up lots of weed. The next fish was a good hybrid, hooked a couple of rod lengths out. The familiar rhythm of casting, tossing in a pinch of maggots or a ball of ground bait, lifting into a fish then unhooking and releasing the hybrid continued for a while before a boat came down the river and upset the swim. It took about ten minutes for the fish to resume feeding and I’d catch a few before the next boat arrived. Bites were delicate affairs but my hooking ratio was very high (for a change). I was using size 14′ barbless hooks on both waggler and feeder rigs, my poor hooking during the last outing giving me the idea the size 18’s were just too small.

One very small perch came to hand, but otherwise it was all hybrids or roach. When the bites started to slow down I introduced more loose fed maggots and that brought the shoal back on the feed and raised the frequency of offers. While none of the fish were big they were of a lovely average size, none would have been less than half-a-pound and a couple of them were well over the three-quarters. I fished for three hours and managed 28 hybrids / roach and one perch for the session. I had packed up most of my gear and was reeling in a small roach which had grabbed the maggots, a tiny fish or only 5 or 6 inches. Behind it, rising out of the dark water came a HUGE perch. It made a half-hearted lunge at the roach but missed, then it slowly turned and swam back down and out of sight. That perch was between 2 and 3 pounds I reckon, a veritable monster by Irish standards.

Back in the car I took a wrong turning and drove a different road home. A few miles longer, but it took me through villages and hamlets I had not seen for many years. All in all, it was a good day, if a little tiring. With plenty of maggots left over I might sneak a quick session in the morning, but somewhere a bit closer to home this time.

I know I have talked about this before but never got around to it – I really should keep a spinning rod in the boot of the car so I can do a small bit of predator fishing on occasion. It would take up no space at all and would give me the option of chucking soft plastics or lures for jacks and perch if I felt like it. There is even a telescopic rod somewhere in the tackle room, so I have no excuses. It looks like I have found a wee job for myself this evening!