fishydreams

The weather people were right about the wind yesterday and it was a good call to steer clear of Mask and Corrib. Instead we headed off to a little lough called Ballinlough which is stocked with some brown and rainbow trout. There was nobody at home at the house where you pay for a day´s fishing and no telephone number to call and so we decided to take out one of the boats and offer to settle up at the end of the day.

I tend to judge wind strength with my hat. There are two wind settings; one is low strength which allows my hat to remain on my head, the other is high wind which results in the hat being blown off into the water. In high winds I leave the hat in the boat to avert this kind of catastrophe but get cold ears as a result. It´s not a great system but, then again, nothing is perfect. As the winds picked up and dropped off yesterday the hat migrated from the wooden boat seat to the top of my head and back again. View full article »

Our days here have settled into a familiar routine. If we had any brains we would be up at first light and looking for trout but this does not happen. We put the blame for this squarely on the shoulders of the Guinness brewery in Dublin. At dawn when the trout are active we are nowhere to be seen.

Breakfast is eaten at O´Connors just down the road from Mark´s place in Westport where we can steal a little internet and spend a little while in civilized company. This is where we are now. There is a toasted sausage sandwich in front of each of us, and a coffee to help kickstart the day. O´Connors is where we talk strategy and decide on a venue for the day´s fishing. View full article »

When it comes to trout fishing here in the west there is a choice to be made. One option is to fish one of the big loughs like Mask or Carra in the hope of picking up some potentially large trout while another is to head to one of the many small loughs which hold good stocks of feisty little fellas.

Having had a slow day on Carra the previous day, we decided yesterday that we would head to the hills and see if we could catch some of the small dark trout that live in the mountain loughs. View full article »

Every now and then my brother Sean and our old friend Mark arrange a little rendezvous in the west of Ireland to see if we can catch a few trout and yesterday we convened in Westport for this long-anticipated fishing trip.

Mark Twain once said that the worst winter he ever experienced was a summer in San Francisco and, while things are not quite that bad here, to begin to imagine summer weather in the west of Ireland it is helpful to consider winter weather in as a starting point. View full article »