Just back from Cavan,Ireland.

[ws10fisher]

Just got back from a weeks fishing in Ireland. Myself and my two brothers stayed in Belturbet in Cavan. I am a regular visitor to Ireland as i love the Bream fishing. Unfortunately the fishing is the worst i have experienced in years. Water levels are really high. Up to eight ft in places. This combined with prolonged ice cold winds from the north have dropped watertemps considerably. Locals said that the Pike fishing had been dead all year. Last year they saw major periods of drought because of the prolonged hot weather. This year has rained its head off in ireland. The one extreme to the other has affected the fishing dramatically. The land is so waterlogged underfoot that it could take several weeks for the water levels to return to normal for this time of year. Even then the fishing is unlikely to improve because the severe rain has affected the spawning season. We caught fish that still had milt in them. This is in August. Obvious signs that the fish have not been able to spawn correctly. We didn't spot many fry either. Previous years we have seen loads of young fry in the shallow waters. If you are planning a trip to ireland then my advice is to wait till next year. An indication of how bad the fishing is at present is that two of us managed to blank on Killykeen and that was fishing single maggot on a size 20 hook and 2lb line. A feat in itself.
The only people we saw have any major catches were a few Polish guys who were netting the fish at lake Putiaghan. They were lighting fires on the bank and cooking and eating the fish on the bank. They made a lot of mess aswell and left quite a bit of litter including 2 small tents. Add to this that some German anglers were seen by locals using electrofishing methods to get the Pike out of the same lake earlier in the year. I would be suprised if there are any fish left in this lake. We did report the above activity but it appeared that the Irish fishing authorities were unwilling to do anything about it.