We never blanked and caught on Holyisland on Lough Allen, The Pump House on Lough Scur and On Lough Bran. Struggled on the River Shannon at The Mud Flats and on Keshcarrigan Lough. Best of the bunch though was The Boyle River where once again we caught mainly hybrids which ran, in my case, to 2 lb and Roach near the pound mark. It was also stick float fishing so was a delight.
We booked the holiday through activeirishangling run by Neal Houghton and stayed at Cryan’s Hotel which I can thoroughly recommend. While fishing at Keshcarrigan a car pulled along side our vans and out got Dave Houghton, Neal’s father. Now Dave used to run Leisure Angling in Liverpool years ago and once gave an Angling Show, spotlighting Ireland, at the Cheshire Cheese. Sadly, Dave has not been in the best of health recently, so it was good to see him up and about.
Keen for us to catch Dave got me and Pete Mac in his car a we spent a profitable couple of hours driving to nearby venues which gave us valuable info on peg space, species and recent form. For this we can’t thank Dave enough. He used to be a reporter for Anglers Mail so got his camera out and soon our fizzogs were on his Facebook page.
The weather was good, the food was good, the Craic was mighty, but the fishing could have been better. I am sure some of us will return.
“Tight Lines”