The Anglers Rest - A plaice :-) for fishy tales - it was HOW big !!

taking tomorrow off to go fishing.
thinking of the avonmore river near rathdrum.
or Lough Ouler near glendalough.
decisions, decisions.

hard to believe there's probably one another half dozen fishing trips for wild brown trout this year. where does the summer go?

ended up fishing on the estate of that well known nationalist Charles Stuart Parnell. Bought my ticket in Gala in Rathdrum for a fiver then paid another fiver to park inside the coillte run forestry. a very beautiful place.
of course, as usual, didn't catch anything, but nothing was rising....!
still, what a location.
drove by lough Ouler in the Wicklow hills and it was completely clouded in, if i had have gone up there I would have been on the news as 'idiot gets lost in hills again'.

just finished work so my boss is letting me off work on saturday. so this weekend will be my goodbye to the season. i think i'll try to get another lesson from the battle of britain pilot on the Boyne. or perhaps head up towards the blackwater in kells.

i'm looking for a pretty little river with a good old fashioned b&b next to it. in the kind of location suitable for a 30's Hitchcock movie. looking forward to this, will mooch around the internet for the next hour.

not by choice seafields, can't get away.
my little river the Nanny closes Sept 15th.
was going to get a lesson from the battle of britain pilot David Whitren tomorrow but his club's stretch is a foot under water.

wil try to get out another half dozen times.
going to West cork early tomorrow morning, hoping to sea fly fish near rosscarbery if the weather permits. hehe!

SeaFields wrote: »

If you are heading that direction bring the trout fly gear. There's a lake there called Ballinlough lake, just north of Leap. I have vivid memories of the legendary Jim Maxwell, a renowned fly angler, showing me how to cast a fly when I was about nine or ten. I think there are permits in a b+b close to the lake and theres a healthy stock of brownies in the lake stocked at bout 1/2 pound. Its a gorgeous spot but i haven't been there in five or six years.

great advice, was gonna visit shepperton lakes nearby. might try the b&b too. tyvm.

oh please god don't let it rain all day.

SeaFields wrote: »

If you are heading that direction bring the trout fly gear. There's a lake there called Ballinlough lake, just north of Leap. I have vivid memories of the legendary Jim Maxwell, a renowned fly angler, showing me how to cast a fly when I was about nine or ten. I think there are permits in a b+b close to the lake and theres a healthy stock of brownies in the lake stocked at bout 1/2 pound. Its a gorgeous spot but i haven't been there in five or six years.

seafields i heard from a local angler that ballinlough lake is no longer stocked and that the angling club has disbanded. Also there's a beautiful lake near reanascreena called Corran lake which is a stunningly beautiful lake on top of a hill, but because of litter, damage, open gates etc the local land owners have closed it off.

now this should be depressing but these lakes are so stunning and angling is such a wonderful past time that I'm convinced that these lakes, along with all other lakes, will be treasured and properly respected by future generations. they are literally priceless. And they get along just fine without us humans, thank god.

the angler i was talking to was forced to sell his boat by his wife because he was spending to much time on the water that it was destroying his making a living. i think he still sneaks away when he can....

I was talking to an english angler today on shepperton Lake and he said that Ballinlough is open if you have the permit given out to fish shepperton, he said it's all under the remit of the SWAFB.

got no fishing in again because as soon as i touched a rod, in the boot of a broken car on the back of a lorry it would start to rain.

i went down to the Long Strand near Rosscarbery and it lashed down just as i was tying on an unsuitable fly for sea bass.

i found a beautiful labrador who had a phone no on her collar so i rang the owner and she was very grateful. i shared a bun and a packet of chicken flavoured crisps with her, the dog that is, not the owner.

five hours in the truck and here i am. now i have some pictures of ballinlough lake (the lake part of the name is redundant, isn't it?) and Shepperton Lake. excuse me while i fiddle with these.

well lads,
its all over, the season on my little river is finishing tuesday the 15th. I hope you managed to get out. I was out each day and i have news. I think i've finally started to fly fish. I got plenty of takes on a size 12 Olive Klinkhammer dipped in floatant. I studied the water first, watched the fish, stood in better spots, allowed the fly to drift down to the fish, and didn't rush anything.

I would have been better off using smaller flies but other than that I'm happy enough with my fishing. After 60-80 hours I'm just beginning to get the hang of it.

here's a couple of pics, needless to say, i didn't keep either of the little fellas.

edit: embarressed about the little guy, at least i pinched the barb down, hope i didn't hurt him too much...

looks like a nice spot.
annamoe getting a little expensive.

here's a great list of fisheries:

http://www.cfb.ie/fishing_in_ireland/putandtake.htm

is that a tumbleweed i see ablowin' through this forum?

very quiet, especially considering that this is one of the best islands in the world to fish and we're into that last week of most rivers...? spooky

got my dodder membership today, i think i'm the last member of the club since there's only a week left!

went to bohernabreena but there were families there (and a lot of drinkers) and i was looking for some peace so i drove to the source of the Liffey and listened to the gaa finals. filled half a bag with plastic and cans and left for home.

went down to the Dropping Well for a delicious pepper sauce burger and was going to take out the rod but i left the little trout in peace. may get a chance to fish one more time before Sept 30th but its not really likely.

i thought, by now, there'd be dozens of people like me around the country posting their own nonsense about disappearing into the natural world, maybe they're all out fishing!

resolution: next time i see someone making a mess and leaving it behind them i'm taking their reg plate numbers and calling the cops. tired of asking people to clean up their own sh!t.

what constantly amazes me is that a human trasher will drive for miles to find a beautiful place and then leave its own crap behind. is this a lack of education or is there something seriously amiss in the psyche of the human species that does not bode well for this planet?

On a wider scale what will happen to this planet when the population doubles and then doubles again. Is this the real face of Armegeddon, with so many billions living at a subsistence level, that the next time there's a major pandemic, or food shotage caused by disease (probably man made) there will be international revolutions that no state can control?

the irish are fortunate in that they are cut off from mainland Europe. we are protected by our isolation. i was in Barcelona for a weekend a while ago and was shocked by the poverty, thousands of North Africans and Algerians working in the black market, i even saw a genial mugging, two young guys just took the two older tourists stuff left on a table and ran off laughing. i understand that there is no dole in Spain?

if i were a poor French Algerian in the South of France surrounded by wealth and idleness i would be organising teams of people to flood the markets with whatever contraband people wanted. my point being that national borders are nonexistant in a time of crisis and many crises lie ahead and populations are expanding. history has been quiet in western europe for the last half century while the rest of the world has been changing at a speed never known in the history of man. i'm curious to know what the touchstone will be that will trigger the next mass exodus.

these are the thoughts you have when you end up collecting beer cans in the Sally Gap. :rolleyes:

in fact i apologise for the non-angling nature of this post, this is not the forum for these questions, but i'd be interested in other's opinions as to the long term effect of the misuse of our natural resources. here are three examples:

salmon farms run by wealthy men have destroyed salmon and sea trout populations. they are still running.

commercial fishing has decimated shore fishing. they are still trawling.

river anglers have emptied lakes and rivers without penalty, except for unenforcable fines. They continue fishing and killing.

the answer for me lies not in education but in punishment.

1. move the salmon farms out to sea or close them down.
2. send the Naval service in to confiscate boats fishing illegally.
3. prison sentences for littering and fishing without permits.

we've had since the end of world war 2 to educate our populations on all manner of subjects. zero tolerance cleaned up New York. it can clean up here.

feel free to disagree vehemently with me. it's only the internet.

all the fleas have gone on vacation!

just read my own post and thought 'there goes a guy who needs to go fishing'.

apologies for the rant. i won't do it anymore. but i will be nailing anyone i find pooping where i fish.

if there are char in it does that mean that they've been there since the last ice age?