River Suck

Wexford-Bass

Anyone being catching any pike recently, heading up this weekend around the castlerea area.. was thinking of taking the rods with me, for a few hours... any ideas where to go?

Kess73

I will be looking for pike this weekend, but will be doing so on the Shannon near O'Briens Bridge. I have a bit of a Captain Ahab type quest with the place after losing a really big fish there last week.


There are some real giants in that stretch, so I tend to fish one rod with larger than average bait, and the second rod is either with a regular sized bait or used with a lure.

The fish I lost was on my "big fish" bait and I had it on for almost twenty minutes.

I will be back to try and try again though. I want my first 30lbs+ pike, and either this stretch of my favourite spots on Lough Derg will eventually give me one. My biggest from the area to date being a 27lb beauty.

Wexford-Bass

What bait do you use? I only ever spin for them.. would be interested to know the bait, might give it a go. Usually only do sea-fishing, down here in Wexford, but since I married into the area. I tend to bring the rods when visiting...

Kess73

I love lure fishing for pike, but all my best fish have come from using dead baits.


My biggest was caught using herring, and I have tended to catch most of my larger pike using herring or whiting. I find using a whole herring about 1lb in weight or a slightly larger whiting as perfect for my rod that I put out to catch my dream fish.



Mackeral is my next choice, and then smelts. These I tend to use on my regular rod, because I know that although when my other rod gets a run my heart starts to pound, it will not get runs on every trip, so my smaller bait rod is there to tempt everything from a jack to a giant hen.



I tend to ledger my deadbaits on most of the Shannon spots that I like, and normally use a float setup when on Lough Derg.


I am quite fond of trolling with a large copper spoon when boating on the Derg as it gets good results, especially in the more coloured sections of the water there.

Wexford-Bass

Many Thank for the information Kess, will try out the mackeral bait, have a pile of it in the freezer.. Will report back on tuesday with hopefully good results...

Regards

demanufactured

catch and release...and strike early to avoid deep hooking.

premiercad

Fished the Mid Suck near Ballyforan this weekend. Some really good looking pike water. Caught and released a few nice pike all under 10lbs but I've a feeling there are bigger out there! I'll be back!:rolleyes: All caught on smelt deadbait rigs.

Going to Lough Derg this weekend. Anyone got some shore access spots to fish as I've no boat like the last time I fished it. It's a huge body of water and it's hard to know where to fish it. A general area to concentrate on will do me if people d'ont want to give away hotspots;) PM please. I'm thinking either Dromineer or Killaloe. Weather forecast is for breezy south westerlys and heavy showers. Would Pikers online here fish a lake with an offshore wind or onshore or go find a sheltered bay instead?

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

No point fishing the suck in the next week or two. After the rain sat night the river is sky high and unfishable unless you have a boat.

Just a heads up!

premiercad

Thanks Frank, The banks are wet enough on an average day but after the rain we had this weekend Id say the river is in the fields!

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

premiercad wrote: »

Id say the river is in the fields!

It sure is!

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

Another heads up on the suck, forget about fishing it until dec at the earliest. Full winter flood, which takes around 2-3 weeks to go back to fishable conditions. And more rain is on the way

premiercad

Thanks for the heads up Frank. I though as much! I'm heading to Roscommon the weekend and had the pike gear all packed in the boot:mad:. I'll have to do something else with my time. Was in clonmel yesterday and if the Suck was anything like the Suir you could find a Pike in the front door of a house!!!:eek:

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

Afraid the suck is going through its biggest flood in the last 20 years! Its out on the road on the galway side of ballyforan, cars cant pass it. i doubt anybody will be able to fish without a boat until xmass, and thats if we dont get too much rain

sickpuppy

Worst flooding ive seen in my life more than 20years over 30 seen my parents house on the news witha foot of water in it.
Were over 200metres from the main river but closer to a small tributary
be the new year before its fishable near ballinasloe id say a slonga s we get 6 dry weeks :pac:

Doc Farrell

sorry to hear about the flooding puppy! what a mess for so many people.

i'm wondering about all these new housing estates built on or near river flood plains....

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

its the biggest flood in living memory (my two neigbours in their eighties have never seen or heard of anything like it), and i hate to say it, but in ballyforan and ballinasloe the water is still rising and will probably peak monday or tuesday, as they are so far downstream. The bridges in ballyforan and ballinasloe are in danger of collapsing. I was in ballyforan today to have a look, as I will prob never see the river as high ever again. The river is around 12 foot higher than summer levels under the bridge (in summer the water would be 3-4 feet deep under the bridge). the river is a bit higher on the upstream side, because of the 13 arches in the bridge, not all the water is be to get through. This is putting MASSIVE presure on the bridge. The river is out on the road on the roscommon side, which has never happened before. I got a few pics of it today, il upload them when im at work, slow broadband at home.

back to fishing!
As mentioned earlier, the suck is unfishable until 2010

Macspower

15 hour journey from Galway to Kildare..... WOW it's in a bad way.. spent 4 hours in a queue inot craughwell on thursday evening and evertually after many many detours I arrived in Ballinasloe to see people brushing water out their front doors... V V bad...

anyway SickPuppy and Doc you are both fish and should love the water!

premiercad

Just back from Ros after the weekend. You lads got a serious amount of water!! Took a look at the suck in Athleague and it was still a raging torrent and it had gone down an awfull lot concidering there were lads canoeing up the main street last week! Hope theres no more heavy rain this week and give people a chance to recover. Fishing is put well into perspective when you see what a flood can do to peoples lives!

coolwings

I reckon if they drained the Shannon all the way down to a puddle someone would build on an island in the middle and then sell it on ....

Sympathies for the people who are learning the hard way about this. I wonder will anyone sue developers for culpable negligence.

ironbluedun

Sympathies for the people who are learning the hard way about this. I wonder will anyone sue developers for culpable negligence.[/quote]

sue developers no chance of that.
i just hope now that there is not major pressure to drain too many rivers. Drainage schemes have done untold damage to fisheries in the past in fact some of them have not recovered from the drainage works. clean up the rivers, yes, turn them into ditches no.

premiercad

Local authorities are the people who zoned these areas (under severe pressure from lobbyists and developers) zoned land which is totally unsuitable for Housing etc. Greed on all sides led to this situation.


Global warming is also a factor though (I know it's the buzz word everyone has been using) but was talking to an 87 yr old woman who told me she had never in her lifetime seen water in areas she saw them in last week.

i just hope now that there is not major pressure to drain too many rivers. Drainage schemes have done untold damage to fisheries in the past in fact some of them have not recovered from the drainage works. clean up the rivers, yes, turn them into ditches no.

Agreed, Look at Kilkenny a few years back. Cost of drainage ran over 42 million and the salmon leap ended up killing the returning Salmon the first year before it was redesigned. The river looks more like a canal in some spots now.

kumsi

Anyone can tell that the river is in the fields yet in Shannonbridge?

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

the river is probably out of the fields, however, when the big freeze started, the river was in the fields, so there is a good chance there is a thick layer of ice on the fields. was in ballyforan today taking a few pics of the frost on the trees, and there was 3-4 inches of ice on the fields. il upload some of the pics

kumsi

Isabelle Rhythmic Usher wrote: »

the river is probably out of the fields, however, when the big freeze started, the river was in the fields, so there is a good chance there is a thick layer of ice on the fields. was in ballyforan today taking a few pics of the frost on the trees, and there was 3-4 inches of ice on the fields. il upload some of the pics

thanks Isabelle Rhythmic Usher for answer. I'm going to fishing on the suck river but, i don't now that is it good time?

demanufactured

Hey franks those pics are cool , i like the second one.

BtW you play music dont ya, seen your posts on the instruments forums a few times , 2 great passions, music and pike fishin!

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

i do yea! I do post there a good bit allright. band takes up a lot of time at the weekend, dont get to the river as much as id like

coolwings

Nice photos Frank. Thx for posting them.