Articles

Flying for Pike
Flying for Pike With an old mate Dennis Hollinger is an artist, a very good one in fact, and also a keen amateur photographer. More important than that, he’s one of my oldest friends. In fact, he was best man at my wedding many years ago, but I won’t hold that against him.     I recently had a morning’s work in Enniskillen, and it would have been silly not to drag the boat down with me for a few hours budgie chucking about the Erne afterwards. I asked Dennis if ...

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Exploring the Erne
Fly Fishing for Pike Down on the Erne I took a run out with usual suspects Glenn Drennan and Andrew Wolsey, exploring yet more of the Lough Erne system. It’s a huge expanse of water and daunting to realise a life-time is just not enough to un-lock all its secrets! As the forecast gave little or no wind for today, this would hopefully be a fly only venture.     Although jerk-baits were brought along as emergency back-up should weather conditions deteriorate, the forecast was...

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Targeting Ray from the shore
Targeting Painted Ray from the shore This winter season must be my leanest angling period of my adult angling career! Fair enough some missed trips can be blamed on the weather, but the rest lies simply with not having time. As I plan to sell my house this year, a complete re-decorating schedule (by me) has unfortunately had to take priority and angling has definitely been placed temporarily on the back-burner!   As temperatures plummeted towards the end of the year, I longed to get out...

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Shore Trip To Kerry (and a back-up plan!)
Trip to Kerry With the shore-angling season (what season?) in the North slowing down dramatically, it was with high hopes that Big Phil, Andy Jones, Neil Thompson and myself met in Belfast, packed the jeeps with every piece of tackle we owned, and pointed our wagons south-wards.       The pre-arranged angling holiday had been planned months in advance by the lads. Due to other commitments, it was only at the very last minute that I knew I could join them on this adventure, an...

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Gilty Pleasures
My Gilty Pleasures After several failed attempts at targeting an Irish Gilt-Head Bream, the summer of 2013 finally rewarded Andy Wolsey and myself for our efforts. What a fantastic species this fish is! It is not only visually stunning, the metallic silver flanks and iridescent bronze shoulders, and that bright gold bar between the eyes, but also physically stunning. The powerful turn of speed once hooked can suitably be described as “electric”.   Our initiation into this sp...

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First Trip of 2015
Pike Trip First outing of 2015 Well, we are into another year of angling with all its dramas waiting to un-fold, lost fish, missed opportunities and hopefully special days when everything falls into place, where that fish of a life-time sits safely in the landing net.     Who knows what angling achievements are on offer for the new season, but unless we get out there and try, we will never find out! To keep the momentum going, Glenn, Andy and I got off our fat arses and ventured o...

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A chance to guide again
A chance to guide again Life, it has been said, is made up from a series of meetings and partings, and that is the way of it, and none more so than in the angling world. My pike angling connections in the Longford area began last year, when Mark Corps, Inland Fisheries Ireland, introduced me to Kevin Lyons during an angling survey. We had the good fortune to stay in the superb Melview Lodge, run and owned by Kevin and his wife Jane.       Looking at the photographs on t...

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Fulfilling a promise
Fulfilling a promise Many years ago, I was lucky to be introduced to two anglers from Cork City. They were Sid Kennedy and Ross Macklin. They took me under their wing and were instrumental in many of my specimen Carp captures on their local water, Cork’s famous Lough. Both lads are experienced anglers and specimen hunters, and over the years, I am pleased to say, we have become good friends.       This year, both Ross and Sid have amassed an enviable array of spec...

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Cork City Carping
 Cork City Carping There is an ancient legend regarding “The Lough” in Cork City. It is said that during a celebratory banquet, a beautiful palace owned by King Corc was flooded by spring water.   The towers and buildings may still be seen below the surface by those with a sharp eye, and the spring will not recede until someone retrieves the golden water vessel that caused the problems in the first place!       The trip Unlike this story of Irish myth...

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Targeting River Pike
Targeting River Pike Targeting Pike on the fly, from boat, shore or float-tube is arguably the most rewarding method available to the Pike angler. However, as exciting as these fabulous predators on the fly can be, I understand that this is not every Pike anglers’ cup of tea. The majority of “pikers” on the Irish angling scene prefer, and do extremely well with standard lure fishing, trolling and dead-bait tactics, and rightly so.       These are the ...

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