My Ireland Trip

[toma]

Ok. Going to try and get some pics and a bit of a report on.

Yesterday, as previously stated, Loughall Country Park was the venue. Big Colin, Ron ,Rons son Johnny and moi arrived at the venue for shortly after 9am. We had some of the gear kindly carried around to our chosen pegs by one of the greenkeepers in a golf buggy. A lovely looking 18 hole golf course is also contained within the country park.



The Crannog. Colin and myself fished over to this island, both using boilies and both getting nowt.

I fished the feeder and almost immediately had bites resulting in roach and perch catches.



My peg....................he is so messy without Mark there keeping him right.



Colin on his peg........................hit a few fish on his new float rod using waggler tactics.



Johnny on his peg. Shhhhhhhh................Losing my spinners and fishing for squirrels in the branches tired the wee man out.



After trying boilles and the method feeder with no joy I resorted to bashing a few roach on the pole.

I hit a good bream on the feeder using maggot hookbait.



All in all not a great days fishing for most of us.....................Beautiful venue all the same. A well kept fishery with helpfull staff. We all decided we wouldnt be put off by our performance and another visit will be organised. If we had one complaint it would be that the fishery doesnt open till 9am and closes at 8.30pm......................I dont know about you but I would like to fish outside both those times.

So homeward bound, quick shower, dinner, lift to pub by my good lady wife and a few cold, wet ones. Mark matey you were sorely missed ..............................as was your round of drinks.

Today. As arranged, up bright and early much to Rons delight and met up with Big Colin at Portglenone. From there drove on up to Gilmores Shore for a day of fishing on the Bann. Arrived and fishing for shortly after 7am.

River was running through surprisingly heavy and 50g to 70g was needed to hold throughout the day. I got peg1 as promised..................a cracking peg renowned for holding Bream. Colin went peg2 with myself on peg3.

I hit fish from the off, roach and skimmers. Colins swim and my own were slower to develope with the pair of us not even getting bites till a good hour and a bit in.
I by this stage had a bream in the net with a whole clatter of quality roach. Ron finally got bites and managed a couple of bream. Colin was still struggling hitting only odds and sods.



My peg and feeding station. Note that the very kind Mark had left us his brolly to protect the chef from the elements. How do we know it was Marks brolly?



Simple......................Mark writes his name on everything.

So after I served up a culinary delight of bacon and sausage sandwiches it was back to the fishing.



Colins peg.



Ron on his peg.

So the fishing continued till mid afternoon. Andy managed a good bag of fish by the end of play but unfortunately only two bream.



Mixed bag.



One of my bream which I think Colin was trying to stake a claim to. Would you argue with him?

Big Col had a bit of a stinker but still managed some good roach and skimmers.

Ron finished up with just the five bream and a mixed bag of roach and skimmers



Rons far too much of a modest chap but if you would like to ask me or Colin about the 15 minute challange Im sure one of the two will fill in the details for ya's.

And so to the end of day two. The best of it all is we are going back to the same venue, same time tomorrow!

[toma]

So into the third day and Ron, Colin and myself decided that Gilmores was as good a venue as any.................so all met up at 6.30am.

Todays pegging plan was me on peg1 AGAIN, Ron on peg2 and Colin on peg3.

The river was in good flow, a tad higher than yesterday but still fishable. As we set up and the first light of day broke through the rain started to fall. Not too heavy but a bit of a concern with the river already high. Thankfully it was only a few showers that we had to suffer and the sun finally broke through later into the morning.

Very, very slow start with next to nothing happening for the first hour but eventually Andy got the pan on and bacon chunk sarnies were cooked by andy. Colin "the sausage burner" avoided the allocated cooking chores for now...............probably just as well all the same.

A few roach were had by all in the early part of the day. It was hard to get a bed of feed to sit and fish over and sometimes difficult to hold your bait in the intended spot. Ron managed a bream after a while followed by another. Poor ol me and Colin struggled with bits.

As the day wore on Rons swim improved and I managed a couple more bream. One of which scared the living daylights out of Colin as it slapped its tail on the surface as I turned it from the reeds.

My swim proved hard work and a bit of makem cursing coloured the Kilrea air.

Colin managed around 25 fish, roach and skimmers.

I finished with around 16 fish, quality roach, skimmers and a stonking stripey.

Ron must have had devine intervention as my swim produced 7 bream and a good mixed bag of the usual.



Me on peg1. I think he is letting certain people know who the chair belongs too. Hello Mark.


Just in case your in any doubt Mark.


Colin on peg3.


Ron wearing my new lucky hat provided by Andy. Yours is in the post I think Mark.



Inside the net and the bream from peg2.


The tail slapper.......................and cause of Colins soiled underwear.

So tonight we are on babysitting duties while Shona has to work, back out tomorow morning. Three guesses where? I'm determined..............i want to get back on Gilmores to beat the bream.

[toma]

Part Four

Back to Gilmores Shore for day four, just Ron and myself went today, Colin was busy.

I jumped on peg one again and Ron chose peg three.Same tactics for the both of us, feeder fishing.
The river looked slughtly down from yesterday, and a little less flow.
Sport was good today, good quality roach, however the bream did not show in numbers, BUT i did manage one today. :fishing2:

Here she/he is



And in the net

.

Ron failled to get any bream today, much to his disgust.
Altho he did fair well with good quality roach,



We both done well with the roach,
A typical sized one from my peg



Last of all my bag today



Apart from this image, dont know what i was doing LoL

After we packed up we had to dash to meet up with Colin about tomorrow's match, the Big Fella has the day off for the match.

We dashed into Belfast Angling Cerntre for some last minute bits of tackle, 5.16pm, they close at 5.30

So with fresh bait for tomorrow the fish had better watch out

[toma]

Day Five, match day with Lower Bann Coarse Angling Club.

A decent turnout with 10 club members and two guests, the guests being Colin and myself.

Colin picked the hot peg, number one, i picked 6 and Ron picked peg 8.
Tackle up and a wait for the " ALL IN " shout, which came at 10.30.

First cast for me saw a roch, but i lost it at the net :-((, then after that it went quiet for an hour or so. I kept feeding at a steady pace, The fishing was very slow to say the least, that slow infact i dozed off on my chair . I awoke with a start. I continued to feed the swim. More roach came to me net, 7 in all and one gudgeon.

I walked to peg one to chat with Colin. He was fiaring well with roach. He had a 5lb+bag at the weigh in.
Ron done well on his peg, with 30 odd fish which weighed in at 6lb dead.

The pegs were all very unproductive today !!!!! but thats fishing.

Sorry no pictures, forgot my camera, and i also forgot my lucky hat

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Loved reading that and top thread looks a lot of fun

[perch_king]

well done lads lots off nice fish there keep it up

[pingu]

looked a fun week there , lovely report as well

dave

[Portland Pirate]

Cant be bad, 5 solid days of fishing

[toma]

Thanks lads, the earky morning starts did play havoc with the sociable side of things, erm, the local was missed a few nights LoL