Canal fishing is regarded by many Irish anglers as a waste of time, just angling for tiddlers while being pestered by dog walkers. Indeed, the Royal Canal is often condescendingly referred to as ‘the ditch’ in some quarters, but I know different. Feeling a bit burned out after 7 uninterrupted days of sanding and paintingContinueContinue reading “Down on the ditch again”
Author Archives: Claretbumbler
Old rod repairs
A couple of years ago an old friend and I went fishing on lough Cullen one fine July day. My outboard would not pump cooling water, so we returned to shore, removed my engine and got his engine out of the old wooden shed. After lugging it down to the mooring and fixing it toContinueContinue reading “Old rod repairs”
It ain’t ‘alf hot
Another spell of fine, dry weather has settled over Ireland, making life hard for game fishers but presenting coarse anglers with long days and potentially good catches. I set the alarm for a ridiculously early hour and retired for a good night’s sleep with another trip to the midlands planned for the morrow. The heatContinueContinue reading “It ain’t ‘alf hot”
Secret venue
I am going to break with my usual openness and not divulge the location of a new venue I have discovered. It is in the Irish midlands and in a built up area, so if I blurt out where it is I am sure it will be cleaned out by the fishmonger brigade in aContinueContinue reading “Secret venue”
When the rain stopped
With the bulk of the house renovations completed I am now busy painting. Every square inch of the buildings, inside and out, have to be painted. This not an inconsiderable job and one which will take time. Prepping the walls, ceilings, doors and woodwork is a sizeable task on its own and that’s before IContinueContinue reading “When the rain stopped”
Buzzers
I don’t do a whole pile of buzzer fishing. It’s not that I have anything against it, I just don’t enjoy it as much as other fly fishing techniques. There is also the fact it works better on some loughs than on others, Corrib is buzzer central for example whereas it it hardly used onContinueContinue reading “Buzzers”
A day in the midlands
I could ill afford a day away from the house renovations, but I was feeling exhausted by the stresses and strains of the project, so on Tuesday I took myself off for a bit of fishing. There was a vague sort of a plan which sounded overly complicated even to me, and indeed the firstContinueContinue reading “A day in the midlands”
A strange sort of a day
Arm update: pain has reduced markedly when at rest, but any movement brings stabs of pain in the shoulder and/or elbow. My wrist ‘locks’ sometimes for no apparent reason and is sore for a few hours after that happens. On the whole though, there is an improvement. Having gone through a rough few weeks IContinueContinue reading “A strange sort of a day”
Premature end to my season
We were in behind Saints island when it happened, drifting fast in a lively south-easterly with me on the oars. Anyone who fishes the Mask knows this is a great area for trout and on that day the fish were rising to a sporadic hatch of greendrakes. The wind wasn’t quite right, pushing the boatContinueContinue reading “Premature end to my season”
Tackling tough conditions
When dreaming of days on the big limestone loughs I am willing to wager us fly fishers imagine clouds driven across the sky by a brisk south westerly, the warm air still damp from recent rain and trout splashing as they intercept hatching flies. While we do get halcyon like that sometimes, more often theContinueContinue reading “Tackling tough conditions”
Claretbumbler 