A few lads had decided to have a series of not to serious canal matches on a stretch
that was once famed but is now rarely fished. Close to Leixlip so local enough for me with a bankside
drat at 18.00 hrs. The stretch is 15 mins from my house so I was delighted to be asked if I wanted to be involved. The plan is to fish it every Friday for the Summer months and by then we'd get a good idea of what, if anything, was still there.
I drew an end peg, no 48 on the stretch so was happy as I headed to the peg. It's a really nice stretch
and from the minute I arrived atmy peg I though I'd be OK. What I didnlt know was that peg 49
was getting fished very regularly by one of the competitors and within minutes of the all in at 19.00 hrs
it was obvious there were fish sitting there. Eoin Schweppe had landed right on them and had a great first hour, I on the other hand was geting a few fish but nothing to keep me in touch with him.
We're fishing 3 hour matches so theres not much time to catch up or make serious changes so I kept plugging away with my initial 3 lines.
At the end of the 3 hours, Eoin had easily won it but would my small bag register. As it turned out it
did and I was 3rd overall after Eoin (1st) and Bob Hume (2nd).
The weights wern't great, I had 11 fish for 1.5lb (ish) but with only a couple of dry nets it seems there
are still fsh there and we'll therfore continue to give it a go over the next few weeks,
Monday, June 20, 2011
Time for the commercials
No, it's not time to make a cuppa !!!!
Rob got the really good news that he had been selected for the Leinster Junior panel to fish an interprovincial match in early July so we decided to give the commercials a go. Toomans in
Leitrim was first up and we headed off with dreams of carp pulling elastic all over the lakes.
We were accompanied by Gary Kearney and Ron Durkin and arrived bright and early only to
find the match lake alive with spawning carp !!!!! Not much chance of a bag of carp there we decided, so
we elected to fish the bottom lake. Lovely place, nicely tucked away on the site and swims were bagged.
The 4 of us settled in and were soon joined by Ollie and Derek from FTI along with a friend of theirs.
There was a couple of fish thrashing about in the middle, but that was going to seter the 7 of us.
What did deter us was a complete lack of any action around our various swims. Derek was doing OK on maggots and was getting fish quite regularly, the rest of us were getting nothing except frustrated.
A bite to eat and Gary, Rob and myself figured we might aswell move. So up sticks and back
to the match lake where things had quitened down a bit. We gave it a go here for a couple of hours and eventually I managed to tempt a bite.
A decent scrap ensued but there was allways only going to be one winner,
That was it for the day, we packed up shortly after and headed for the long drive home knowing that we were back at the same venue the following week with gang from FTI AC.
The week passed and plans were made to fish the venue differently on our second visit. After spawning the carp were feeding on naturals, so mags, caster and worm were the chosen bait for the return trip. Smaller rigs were tied, i.e. smaller hooks and floats.
16 of us arrived and everyone was in good form, the usual banter ensued and after a draw which saw me on the end bank with a big wind straight at me and lashings of rain to accompany it.
I had decided on two lines only, one close and one at 7m. The line close in was 4 maybe 5 feet
at the bottom of the shelf and the 7m line was considerably deeper, probably twice as much.
Choppies and caster on the near line had me land an orfe and a skimmer in the first 15 minutes.
It all went downhill from there and nothing I tried would tempt anything. Several, cold and wet
miserable hours later I'd had enough. Pleasure fishing ?? pleasure my arse.
It was dammned hard work and had it not been for the surroundings and the company it would have been a complete disaster.
A week off work and we're going to give G'Town a go, hopefully that will restore our
faith in commercials,
Rob got the really good news that he had been selected for the Leinster Junior panel to fish an interprovincial match in early July so we decided to give the commercials a go. Toomans in
Leitrim was first up and we headed off with dreams of carp pulling elastic all over the lakes.
We were accompanied by Gary Kearney and Ron Durkin and arrived bright and early only to
find the match lake alive with spawning carp !!!!! Not much chance of a bag of carp there we decided, so
we elected to fish the bottom lake. Lovely place, nicely tucked away on the site and swims were bagged.
The 4 of us settled in and were soon joined by Ollie and Derek from FTI along with a friend of theirs.
There was a couple of fish thrashing about in the middle, but that was going to seter the 7 of us.
What did deter us was a complete lack of any action around our various swims. Derek was doing OK on maggots and was getting fish quite regularly, the rest of us were getting nothing except frustrated.
A bite to eat and Gary, Rob and myself figured we might aswell move. So up sticks and back
to the match lake where things had quitened down a bit. We gave it a go here for a couple of hours and eventually I managed to tempt a bite.
A decent scrap ensued but there was allways only going to be one winner,
That was it for the day, we packed up shortly after and headed for the long drive home knowing that we were back at the same venue the following week with gang from FTI AC.
The week passed and plans were made to fish the venue differently on our second visit. After spawning the carp were feeding on naturals, so mags, caster and worm were the chosen bait for the return trip. Smaller rigs were tied, i.e. smaller hooks and floats.
16 of us arrived and everyone was in good form, the usual banter ensued and after a draw which saw me on the end bank with a big wind straight at me and lashings of rain to accompany it.
I had decided on two lines only, one close and one at 7m. The line close in was 4 maybe 5 feet
at the bottom of the shelf and the 7m line was considerably deeper, probably twice as much.
Choppies and caster on the near line had me land an orfe and a skimmer in the first 15 minutes.
It all went downhill from there and nothing I tried would tempt anything. Several, cold and wet
miserable hours later I'd had enough. Pleasure fishing ?? pleasure my arse.
It was dammned hard work and had it not been for the surroundings and the company it would have been a complete disaster.
A week off work and we're going to give G'Town a go, hopefully that will restore our
faith in commercials,
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Bless me father for I have sinned
It's been 3 months since I updated this !!!!!!!!!!!!
These few photos belong with the last post but damned if I can figure how to insert them in the right place.
Suddenly It's June and Spring is gone in a flash. Everything seems to be going by so quickly and the fishing has been hectic. The canals are calling and between Enfeld Club matches, the Senior and Junior canal
champs it's "all out" to use a term, on the canals. It's fair to say we're both quite happy on a canal and we both enjoy our days on them. In no particular order because I can't remember the order, the Senior Canals were held on Enfield stretches so I was happy that at least I'd have an idea of what was going to be needed. The days before had myself and a few Enfield club members out with the rakes, strimmers etc to get the two selected stretches in good shape. Day 1 was on Ferns and allthough I drew at the right end I didn't draw up far enough. Peg 11 and it proved difficult enough, for whatever reason I couldn't get any decent fish and nothing off the bottom, so all I had were blips from mid water and that was never going to be anything like good enough.
Rob was with me for the day and after a couple of hours he came back with news that Seanie Ward was baggin on Peg 1 and he bagged all day. His finishing bag was a cracker at over 8kg.
I packed up after 5 enjoyable hours knowing that unless I drew an absolute flyer the following
day, it was game over. My final few blips after day 1,
Day 2 was on Longwood and the talk before the draw was that low numbers would be best so when I
drew 38 out of 42, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
In the car driving to Longwood I knew I'd have nothing to go for and when I got to the peg
it was confirmed. Possibly the most featureless, barren peg I've ever seen, never mind fished.
Any other day you'd go right past it without a second look, so I settled in and decided the best bet was to go for a section place. That wasn't going to be easy, looking up the stretch theres current and previous
international anglers any of which could easily batter me. In front of me theres a bed of lillies going out
about 5 foot and then theres nothing. Not so much as a leaf right over to the far bank, not a thing to hold
fish so from the begining I figured there was none there. I wasn't far wrong not a bite off 3 lines and the only way I could get anything was by fishing mid water and scratching for blips, again !!!!
I did manage a few and in talking to the lads along the section I was managing as much if not more than them.
Plan "A" was coming together and a section place was looking on the cards.
So it turned out, I had .75 of a kilo and was looking good with only 2 of the lads to weigh in and both of them claiming they had very little. Pat Bartley pulled a net of blips from the canal and it was going to be close.
He only went and had .76 of a kilo, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Next was Brian O Donoghue who had .74 I think, whatever it was it was less than me so second in my
section and I'm very happy with that. It's a bit of coin to cover the weekends cost but even better was the idea that I could actually do it. I had a section win the previous year which I allways thought was more down to luck than anything else, so getting placed again and from the middle of a crap section, I'm happy.
These few photos belong with the last post but damned if I can figure how to insert them in the right place.
Suddenly It's June and Spring is gone in a flash. Everything seems to be going by so quickly and the fishing has been hectic. The canals are calling and between Enfeld Club matches, the Senior and Junior canal
champs it's "all out" to use a term, on the canals. It's fair to say we're both quite happy on a canal and we both enjoy our days on them. In no particular order because I can't remember the order, the Senior Canals were held on Enfield stretches so I was happy that at least I'd have an idea of what was going to be needed. The days before had myself and a few Enfield club members out with the rakes, strimmers etc to get the two selected stretches in good shape. Day 1 was on Ferns and allthough I drew at the right end I didn't draw up far enough. Peg 11 and it proved difficult enough, for whatever reason I couldn't get any decent fish and nothing off the bottom, so all I had were blips from mid water and that was never going to be anything like good enough.
Rob was with me for the day and after a couple of hours he came back with news that Seanie Ward was baggin on Peg 1 and he bagged all day. His finishing bag was a cracker at over 8kg.
day, it was game over. My final few blips after day 1,
drew 38 out of 42, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
In the car driving to Longwood I knew I'd have nothing to go for and when I got to the peg
it was confirmed. Possibly the most featureless, barren peg I've ever seen, never mind fished.
Any other day you'd go right past it without a second look, so I settled in and decided the best bet was to go for a section place. That wasn't going to be easy, looking up the stretch theres current and previous
international anglers any of which could easily batter me. In front of me theres a bed of lillies going out
about 5 foot and then theres nothing. Not so much as a leaf right over to the far bank, not a thing to hold
fish so from the begining I figured there was none there. I wasn't far wrong not a bite off 3 lines and the only way I could get anything was by fishing mid water and scratching for blips, again !!!!
I did manage a few and in talking to the lads along the section I was managing as much if not more than them.
Plan "A" was coming together and a section place was looking on the cards.
So it turned out, I had .75 of a kilo and was looking good with only 2 of the lads to weigh in and both of them claiming they had very little. Pat Bartley pulled a net of blips from the canal and it was going to be close.
He only went and had .76 of a kilo, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Next was Brian O Donoghue who had .74 I think, whatever it was it was less than me so second in my
section and I'm very happy with that. It's a bit of coin to cover the weekends cost but even better was the idea that I could actually do it. I had a section win the previous year which I allways thought was more down to luck than anything else, so getting placed again and from the middle of a crap section, I'm happy.
All good in the hood, well almost !!
April had us out and about with mixed results and constant reminders from the fishing Gods
that for every good day there'll be bad days too. It's part of the draw of it all I guess, never quite knowing
whats going to happen. Will the float go under ? Will the tip go round ? Did I get this right ? Did I get
that right ? Theres more to this aul fishing lark.
A thoroughly rotten canal match with Enfield had us heading for a different stretch of the canal the following weekend after a suggestion from a couple of my fellow competitors. Maybe they were winding me up !!!
A Saturday afternoon session on a venue I'd only once fished before saw very little coming to the net.
Rob had a few perch on his "I will get a bite, worm tactics". I had little better until a surprise dip of the float and loads of elastic suddenly on show resulted in this wee surprise.
It really was a bonus fish and made mockery of allways having to get things right. Any Tench I've ever had before came off the bottom, this lad had a swipe at my "blips rig". A single pinkie on a size 20 drennan hook
fished closer to the surface than to the bottom. Still I wasn't complaining, cracking good scrap on
no.4 elastic and a very light hooklength.
We called it a day after that but decided we'd put in a bit of bait and re visit early the following morning.
Less said about it the better.
A couple of weeks later and theres an FTI get together on Muckno, one of my favourite places.
With the draw of the venue itself and time with the gang from FTI, heading up the road had me in a great
mood and really looking frward to the day. Ne'r mind as they say, a really poor day unfolded and I packed
up fishless after a few hours. I had 2 tough hours on the pole, a couple of time was holding on for
all I could. I should really have packed it away earlier but I wanted to try a few things, none of which worked. Back to the fishing wagon and out with my trusty feeder gear. Thanks to Karl for the few bits
I needed and soon enough I'm blanking on the feeder as brilliantly as I was on the pole.
After a fishless hour I packed up and headed home. Like I said earlier, theres allways bad days.
Not sure where this one fits in but after a long time trying I finally got Golden Balls to leave his pole at home and we headed for a well known match venue in Cavan. We'd fished it before on the match stretch and had good results on the pole. Today was a feeder only day and to make sure we only brought 1 feeder rod with us and it was to be Robs first time fishing this method. We clipped on a wee lead at the start to get his casting sorted and after looking like we were good at 40 turns we clipped up and set about getting some bait in to the swim. The casting wasn't great and as it turned out hitting the spot at the original distance was
proving difficult so we abandoned that line and moved back to 30 turns where fairs fair, Rob was hitting the spot pretty much ever time. To compliment the feed going in on the feeder I was catapulting on top of every cast and boy was I glad I did. Three great hours on that line and bite after cracking bite saw him bagging
a very nice 26lbs of roach, hybrids and skimmers. Jammy little git had a right good introduction to it, allthough I did have the odd cast, well I had to demonstrate for him the odd time, insert smiley here..............
that for every good day there'll be bad days too. It's part of the draw of it all I guess, never quite knowing
whats going to happen. Will the float go under ? Will the tip go round ? Did I get this right ? Did I get
that right ? Theres more to this aul fishing lark.
A thoroughly rotten canal match with Enfield had us heading for a different stretch of the canal the following weekend after a suggestion from a couple of my fellow competitors. Maybe they were winding me up !!!
A Saturday afternoon session on a venue I'd only once fished before saw very little coming to the net.
Rob had a few perch on his "I will get a bite, worm tactics". I had little better until a surprise dip of the float and loads of elastic suddenly on show resulted in this wee surprise.
It really was a bonus fish and made mockery of allways having to get things right. Any Tench I've ever had before came off the bottom, this lad had a swipe at my "blips rig". A single pinkie on a size 20 drennan hook
fished closer to the surface than to the bottom. Still I wasn't complaining, cracking good scrap on
no.4 elastic and a very light hooklength.
We called it a day after that but decided we'd put in a bit of bait and re visit early the following morning.
Less said about it the better.
A couple of weeks later and theres an FTI get together on Muckno, one of my favourite places.
With the draw of the venue itself and time with the gang from FTI, heading up the road had me in a great
mood and really looking frward to the day. Ne'r mind as they say, a really poor day unfolded and I packed
up fishless after a few hours. I had 2 tough hours on the pole, a couple of time was holding on for
all I could. I should really have packed it away earlier but I wanted to try a few things, none of which worked. Back to the fishing wagon and out with my trusty feeder gear. Thanks to Karl for the few bits
I needed and soon enough I'm blanking on the feeder as brilliantly as I was on the pole.
After a fishless hour I packed up and headed home. Like I said earlier, theres allways bad days.
Not sure where this one fits in but after a long time trying I finally got Golden Balls to leave his pole at home and we headed for a well known match venue in Cavan. We'd fished it before on the match stretch and had good results on the pole. Today was a feeder only day and to make sure we only brought 1 feeder rod with us and it was to be Robs first time fishing this method. We clipped on a wee lead at the start to get his casting sorted and after looking like we were good at 40 turns we clipped up and set about getting some bait in to the swim. The casting wasn't great and as it turned out hitting the spot at the original distance was
proving difficult so we abandoned that line and moved back to 30 turns where fairs fair, Rob was hitting the spot pretty much ever time. To compliment the feed going in on the feeder I was catapulting on top of every cast and boy was I glad I did. Three great hours on that line and bite after cracking bite saw him bagging
a very nice 26lbs of roach, hybrids and skimmers. Jammy little git had a right good introduction to it, allthough I did have the odd cast, well I had to demonstrate for him the odd time, insert smiley here..............
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Time for something different
After a coupe of awful matches it was time for Team Kavo to get back out and enjoy some
pleasure fishing. We decided to head to Athy to fish a well known canal stretch and I was planning on fishing rod and reel for the day. I've never really fished a running float and I know it's one part of my fishng that
I'd like to be better at.
Rob was on his trusty pole and started off in the usual way down there and balled it in, big time.
After an hour and only a couple of fish to show for it, it just wasn't happening. He tried a couple of different
rigs and floats but nothng seemed to make any difference.
I wasn't having much luck either and was struggling a bit with the stick float but I was figuring it out slowly.
It's become a very very popular venue this and no wonder with some great bags being the norm,
By mid morning it was like O'Connell street in the rush hour. Cars all over the place, anglers every few yards
and then an oile delivery truck turns up and has to get passed us all. Time to go we said so off to the river
a bit further down the road to Carlow.
On the way we decided we'd just have a couple of hours of Rob on rod and reel. We havn't given this
enough time to date but this year is the year for him to leave the pole at home and get going
with some different skills. We settled in a lovely spot, just sat on the bank and had cast after cast
with a stck float and let it run down the river. It was a lovely sunny day so everything was looking spring like.
Thats great but it does nothing for the fishing and with a wind constantly blowing the float towards the
near bank it wasn;t the best scenario. We stuck at it for a couple of hours and by the end of it Rob's
casting was getting better and better. Each cast was followed with a pouchfull of mags and all though we
wanted to practise more than we wanted to catch we still tried to make sure that whatever we did would improve his chances of getting a fish. Changes of depth, upping and lowering the number of freebies that went in with each run through didn't seem to make much of a difference.
We'd been at it for a while when eventually on one of the runs down the swim. the float finally went under.
He struck and after a few short seconds had his first fish on a stick float, well pleased for him.
pleasure fishing. We decided to head to Athy to fish a well known canal stretch and I was planning on fishing rod and reel for the day. I've never really fished a running float and I know it's one part of my fishng that
I'd like to be better at.
Rob was on his trusty pole and started off in the usual way down there and balled it in, big time.
After an hour and only a couple of fish to show for it, it just wasn't happening. He tried a couple of different
rigs and floats but nothng seemed to make any difference.
I wasn't having much luck either and was struggling a bit with the stick float but I was figuring it out slowly.
It's become a very very popular venue this and no wonder with some great bags being the norm,
By mid morning it was like O'Connell street in the rush hour. Cars all over the place, anglers every few yards
and then an oile delivery truck turns up and has to get passed us all. Time to go we said so off to the river
a bit further down the road to Carlow.
On the way we decided we'd just have a couple of hours of Rob on rod and reel. We havn't given this
enough time to date but this year is the year for him to leave the pole at home and get going
with some different skills. We settled in a lovely spot, just sat on the bank and had cast after cast
with a stck float and let it run down the river. It was a lovely sunny day so everything was looking spring like.
Thats great but it does nothing for the fishing and with a wind constantly blowing the float towards the
near bank it wasn;t the best scenario. We stuck at it for a couple of hours and by the end of it Rob's
casting was getting better and better. Each cast was followed with a pouchfull of mags and all though we
wanted to practise more than we wanted to catch we still tried to make sure that whatever we did would improve his chances of getting a fish. Changes of depth, upping and lowering the number of freebies that went in with each run through didn't seem to make much of a difference.
We'd been at it for a while when eventually on one of the runs down the swim. the float finally went under.
He struck and after a few short seconds had his first fish on a stick float, well pleased for him.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Lord it ain't easy.........
After a few really good weeks when things had been going quite well. It was time for a couple of matches
and I was feeling good about my fishing. The first was on The Boyle Canal, a venue I knew very little about.
As it goes I still know very little about it as I had so little action. It was so bad I actually packed up with 45 mins to go and went to talk to the other lads. That was a first for me and something I'd never felt like doing before. Gary on my right and Shane on my left had had very little aswell and it seemed they just weren't
in front of us. The three lads on pegs 1,2, & 3 had a slow start, so slow Shane Dunne was up for a walk around after 30 minutes. The second half of the match saw things improve down that end and the three
of them finished 1st, 2nd & 3rd. I was delighted to see the end of this one.
The following week saw me on the road again but this time closer to home and to a venue I know
quite well. Yes it's an Enfield Club match so off down to the carpark for the usual pre match banter.
I really enjoy fishing there, more often than not the fishing isn't great but there is a good atmosphere
before, during and after their matches.
The section used was where I'd had some success in the Winter league so as we drove over to it
I was happy enough, even with a duff draw slap bang in the midde.
This one turned out to be a complete disaster for 15 of the 16 competitors. We've all fished matches
where theres been a few dry nets but 15 out of 16 !!!!
Brian O Donoghue winkled out a roach that was smaller than my little finger and took the honours.
It was another one of those days that reminds you how dodgy it can be fishing on canals.
Theres no doubt that there just wasn't any fish there. We all couldn't have got things that wrong.
To add insult, 10 mins before the all in was called. the wind which was pushing hard from right to left all
day caught hold of my pole and I ended up with a no 4 section snapped clean in two.
At 122 sterling for a replacement, it's time to send a few sections to the UK for repair.
and I was feeling good about my fishing. The first was on The Boyle Canal, a venue I knew very little about.
As it goes I still know very little about it as I had so little action. It was so bad I actually packed up with 45 mins to go and went to talk to the other lads. That was a first for me and something I'd never felt like doing before. Gary on my right and Shane on my left had had very little aswell and it seemed they just weren't
in front of us. The three lads on pegs 1,2, & 3 had a slow start, so slow Shane Dunne was up for a walk around after 30 minutes. The second half of the match saw things improve down that end and the three
of them finished 1st, 2nd & 3rd. I was delighted to see the end of this one.
The following week saw me on the road again but this time closer to home and to a venue I know
quite well. Yes it's an Enfield Club match so off down to the carpark for the usual pre match banter.
I really enjoy fishing there, more often than not the fishing isn't great but there is a good atmosphere
before, during and after their matches.
The section used was where I'd had some success in the Winter league so as we drove over to it
I was happy enough, even with a duff draw slap bang in the midde.
This one turned out to be a complete disaster for 15 of the 16 competitors. We've all fished matches
where theres been a few dry nets but 15 out of 16 !!!!
Brian O Donoghue winkled out a roach that was smaller than my little finger and took the honours.
It was another one of those days that reminds you how dodgy it can be fishing on canals.
Theres no doubt that there just wasn't any fish there. We all couldn't have got things that wrong.
To add insult, 10 mins before the all in was called. the wind which was pushing hard from right to left all
day caught hold of my pole and I ended up with a no 4 section snapped clean in two.
At 122 sterling for a replacement, it's time to send a few sections to the UK for repair.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
The Marina
Last Saturday saw us head off to a place that Rob had wanted to fish for ages. I think it was a picture
of a decent perch that I had from it early last year that put the idea in his head. Now personally I hate
catching Perch slower to unhook, allways having to change hooklengths. With my match anglers hat
on they slow me down and I hate that.
Recent reports were good, with good bags being taken in matches the previous couple of weeks so it's fair to say we were both looking forward to it. The night before we got news that the river had dropped significantly and therefore the marina had too, so it wasn't going to be great. We toyed with the idea of going somewhere else but decided to stay with the plan, the marina it is.
An early start has us in Carlow at 09.00 hrs, if were after perch we needed worm and lots of it so
Carlow Coarse Angling Supplies was the first stop. A kilo of worm quickly sorted and we're back in the
direction of the venue,
We were lucky enough to get two swims beside each other and set about getting set up.
We both went for two lines, 1 for roach and 1 for perch. These were fed accordingly, the roach line
got fed with groundbait, hemp, caster and mags. The perch lines got chopped worm and caster with no groundbait. Both of us plumbed up at about 10m to find harldy 3 feet of depth, not great.
As the hours passed it became apparent that the "silvers" had in fact moved back in to the main river as all we could get were perch. Fair enough on the specific perch lines but even on what should have been
a roach line we were getting perch.
It was a wee bit slower than we'd both have liked but the sun was shining and it was all
very nice really, mucky but nice. At about 15.00 hrs it was getting very dark and ominous looking clouds
were gathering. We were going to get a soaking but we had said we'd fsh till 16.00 so we kept at it, eejits.
At about 15.40 the heavens opened and we got a 15 minute soaking, all the kit drenched and huridly
packed away in bits. We realised on the way down that we had no scales so agreed we'd use counters
at the end of the day to decide on who had done best, Rob had 29 on his and I had 37 on mine.
of a decent perch that I had from it early last year that put the idea in his head. Now personally I hate
catching Perch slower to unhook, allways having to change hooklengths. With my match anglers hat
on they slow me down and I hate that.
Recent reports were good, with good bags being taken in matches the previous couple of weeks so it's fair to say we were both looking forward to it. The night before we got news that the river had dropped significantly and therefore the marina had too, so it wasn't going to be great. We toyed with the idea of going somewhere else but decided to stay with the plan, the marina it is.
An early start has us in Carlow at 09.00 hrs, if were after perch we needed worm and lots of it so
Carlow Coarse Angling Supplies was the first stop. A kilo of worm quickly sorted and we're back in the
direction of the venue,
We were lucky enough to get two swims beside each other and set about getting set up.
We both went for two lines, 1 for roach and 1 for perch. These were fed accordingly, the roach line
got fed with groundbait, hemp, caster and mags. The perch lines got chopped worm and caster with no groundbait. Both of us plumbed up at about 10m to find harldy 3 feet of depth, not great.
As the hours passed it became apparent that the "silvers" had in fact moved back in to the main river as all we could get were perch. Fair enough on the specific perch lines but even on what should have been
a roach line we were getting perch.
It was a wee bit slower than we'd both have liked but the sun was shining and it was all
very nice really, mucky but nice. At about 15.00 hrs it was getting very dark and ominous looking clouds
were gathering. We were going to get a soaking but we had said we'd fsh till 16.00 so we kept at it, eejits.
At about 15.40 the heavens opened and we got a 15 minute soaking, all the kit drenched and huridly
packed away in bits. We realised on the way down that we had no scales so agreed we'd use counters
at the end of the day to decide on who had done best, Rob had 29 on his and I had 37 on mine.
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| Perch........... |
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| And theres more !!!! |
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