Fishing in Ireland – Page 5

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”

Carra competition

Those hardy souls who regularly follow this blog are no doubt fed up of hearing how much I dislike angling competitions and the fact that I have not fished them in twenty plus years. All this pontificating was never going to end well and sure enough, yesterday I found myself taking part in a fishingContinueContinue reading “Carra competition”

Sqeezing in a session

This spring has been like no other that I can recall. This week we are again basking in high temperatures under cloudless skies and fanned by the lightest of zephers. These conditions are wonderful for so many outdoor persuits, unfortunately trout and salmon angling are not on that last. With ghillieing work consuming me fromContinueContinue reading “Sqeezing in a session”

Early May on Conn

It feels like life has just conspired against my attempts to go fishing for many months now. It’s been one thing after another, the house, the weather or my health (or all three on some occasions). Even as lately as this week my plans to fish on Thursday were scuppered and I spent the dayContinueContinue reading “Early May on Conn”

Uisce Éireann at it again

https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2025/0409/1506769-fisheries-sewage I want to highlight another serious water pollution incident was brought to court. Uisce Éireann polluted a small stream which eventually feeds into lough Sheelin last May. Raw sewage was discharged into the Pound River, a spawning tributary of the Mountnugent River resulting in a fish kill. The problem is this is not anContinueContinue reading “Uisce Éireann at it again”