Regular readers will no doubt be fed up of my recent whinging about missing my trout and salmon angling this year due to work commitments. There is a positive to this though, I am getting to know the canals around me in the middle of Ireland a whole lot better. Even on those evenings when […]
Read More PerseveranceBack home. It is Friday evening and I have driven back to Mayo after another week away in the midlands. The days are flying by and it is hard to figure where this year is going. It was just the other day when I was scraping frost of the windows of the car each morning. […]
Read More Typical sessionsIt has been a tough week. The first few days back in the reality of my job after a holiday were never the best but work was unremittingly stark and even when I went fishing for a couple of hours things did not work out as I had planned. Such is life and the minor […]
Read More Of diggers and nippersA pleasant evening tempted me out with rod and line again but this session was a bit of a muddle truth be told. The Royal canal beckoned again but I wanted to try out a section that was new to me. I drove up to the stretch at Shandonagh Bridge, a few miles to the […]
Read More Wrong place at the right timeAs I widen my circle of potential fishing sites within range of my digs, the Royal canal around the midlands town of Mullingar has come under the microscope. In days gone by this part of the canal was famous for big bags of tench as well as some very good roach but the word on […]
Read More BallineaThe rain has been tipping down down for couple of weeks now in the West of Ireland. I had been fearing a drought after the cold dry months of January and February but the land has received a good soaking since then. Standing water in the fields and swollen drains bear testament to the change […]
Read More Rainy RoscommonI finally got out to do a small bit of fishing today, the first time I wet a line since last autumn. My plans to dabble with coarse fishing throughout the winter months came to naught and a thin film of grey dust had gathered on the boxes of tackle piled in the corner of […]
Read More A long time comingIn a sort of celebration of my new job I have splashed out on a reel. Not one of my usual second hand ‘projects’ that require refurbishment but an actual new one. The idea had been running around inside my head for a while now but I had yet to do anything concrete about it. […]
Read More New reelIrish canals are not on the whole held in high regard by anglers. Often referred to as ‘that ditch’, the Royal canal is the only option for me these days so I take a slightly more pragmatic view of it. The canal traverses the Irish midlands in long straight lines interspersed with odd turns, presumably […]
Read More Back at the ditchI was worn out, emotionally drained if you like. Thursday was a day of meetings and stress. OK so it wasn’t like I was being beaten up by a Tory whip (like some) but never-the-less I felt tired and needed to relax. I’d go fishing! Now this was sort-of pre-planned but the plans fell asunder […]
Read More Therapy
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