Ballincollig Old Reservoir

Hey Calerbass,

The reservoir is about 4 miles South of Ballincollig in the Ballyburden Beg area. Its pretty overgrown & not really managed at all unfortunately. It was originally built as a reservoir to serve the old army barracks, but when it was no longer needed just fell into disrepair.

It used to have a good head of Carp in the 15lb+ bracket, but they introduced Bream into it some years back & there was talk of a disease coming with them that wiped out a lot of the larger carp. You'll still get a good days fishing of carp around the 8lb mark & some decent bream - some pike as well.

Its also been badly hit by poachers etc recently & just needs some tlc.

No permit needed, just a bit of determination to get into it !!

Have fished there before. It takes effort, but there are some good fish in there.

There are some very good pike there that are not over fished and who have had a good supply of food, so sizes are good.


Have seen some carp that I would put in the low double figures there, and the bream fishing is good. Some good perch there too, and I remember there being roach there.

look up www.carpfishingireland.com and look at the old posts, some of the cork lads on there will help genuine anglers, no probs

I know that there was an electronetting survey carried out by the SWFB about ten years ago. They found all of the species mentioned already and some tench too. However it was less overgrown back then which would make things a hell of a lot easier. keep us posted on how it all goes...best of luck!!

shocker95 wrote: »

Hi lads, I’m living near this reservoir and currently looking to do some pike fishing (I’m strictly a catch and release angler) and looking for some good sport close to home. Has anyone had any luck in fishing this reservoir throughout the years ? If so what methods did you use ?.

Thanks,
David

Many moons ago when this reservoir was a trout fishery I once saw an old fella who I think used to live in the old house by the entrance catch a huge rainbow trout with a roll of orange twine, a wine cork (float) and some fishing line attached to a hook and he used a snail as bait.

Later when there were carp introduced there were some much bigger Carp than 15lbs mentioned previously in the Lake.

I met anglers from the UK who used to come over to fish this reservoir. Back in the day they used to pitch their tents and fish weekend sessions.

If you do plan on fishing there be careful there is a big drop within 2- 3 feet of shore and it is very very deep.

Dunno what the fishing is like now but I hope this helps

I caught a rainbow there years and years ago with sweetcorn was about 3lbs
I thought I read somewhere that somebody have bought the land where the old house was and they don't leave anyone fish there anymore i could be wrong tho

shocker95 wrote: »

I have read somewhere that a woman does come down every so often claiming it’s their land but I reckon it’s Just to keep people off the lake.
I reckon the rainbow trout are long gone but it would be nice to find a pike lying around the Lily’s. Wish me luck !

Let us know how you get on there i never knew there were pike in there thought it was only bream tench and carp

Decoy2 wrote: »

I've never heard of a single Pike, or Perch, from Ballincollig, and I've fished it a good few times and know many of the local Cork Carp anglers.
Yes, they're used to be big Carp in there, low 20s was the best I heard of, but they were all immigrants from The Lough. I don't believe the stocking of other coarse species was to blame for the decline in Carp in this water, poaching by the usual suspects and the movement of Carp to other waters by Irish anglers were to blame, but competition from Bream & Tench did the Carp no favours in terms of growth & spawning success.

There likely are still some Carp in the water but access is all but impossible as the local residents/landowners no longer want anglers on the water. Do let us know how you get on though. As there has not yet been a reply I think it's safe to assume you haven't yet managed to wet a line?

Silly question but how did Carp migrate from the Lough? It's a big lake so if introduced it must have taken years for them to reproduce. Caught my first couple of rainbows in this reservoir on spinner... that was just after the lake went into disrepair and it was free to fish.

Decoy2 wrote: »

I've never heard of a single Pike, or Perch, from Ballincollig, and I've fished it a good few times and know many of the local Cork Carp anglers.
Yes, they're used to be big Carp in there, low 20s was the best I heard of, but they were all immigrants from The Lough. I don't believe the stocking of other coarse species was to blame for the decline in Carp in this water, poaching by the usual suspects and the movement of Carp to other waters by Irish anglers were to blame, but competition from Bream & Tench did the Carp no favours in terms of growth & spawning success.

There likely are still some Carp in the water but access is all but impossible as the local residents/landowners no longer want anglers on the water. Do let us know how you get on though. As there has not yet been a reply I think it's safe to assume you haven't yet managed to wet a line?

.
Ahh the memories.
Done some unbelievable fishing up there. Started not long after the Carp eh "found their way in". ðŸ˜
Those original strain were unbelievable fish. Nothing like them.

Originally after the trout the Carp were stocked with Tench which had no bearing on the Carp.

However the bream were introduced by the match anglers off Inniscarra. Bloody ruined the place.

As for the poaching, well, the Irish anglers wanted them for their own waters closer to home, the not Irish anglers wanted them for dinner.

I think one of the only other places that has them now is Inniscarra.

That lake in ballincollig is one I fell in love with very fast, and still love the place. Been years since I was up there..
Technically you can still fish there, but the landowners make it hard for you to access it.

Such a huge shame what's happened to it. If I ever came into big money, I'd buy it and restore it.
There's a similar reservoir out towards glounthane/carrigtwohill, but sadly only has those trout things in it.
.

Hi lads I didn’t manage to get up there yet but I am hoping in the next few weeks. A lad not that long ago fished up there and had very little success. 3 Gudgeon and a few takes on what he suspect’s to just be Rudd and roach as there in abundance up there.
He had no luck catching carp, bream and tench but let’s not lose faith.
As far as pike I reckon there’s none in those waters. When I do manage to go up there I’ll keep you all posted.

Tight lines