fishing news with brian mc gourty BACK

FISHING REPORT by

Andy Gaskell, Poplars A.C. Warrington .

00 44 1925 231787

or UK 01925 231787

Lough Allen/Herons Shore,Drumshanbo,Carrick-on-Shannon.

Herons Shore is located on the south east tip of Lough Allen,this area has bream to 4lb+ and plenty of hybrids and roach. The shoreline is between 5 and 14ft deep. Pegs 1 to 7 and pegs in front of the mooring posts in the high numbers are the best. A good time to fish is May/June when the fish pass Herons Shore and move into Johnny Wynnes Bay to spawn.

The first person you need to contact before fishing Lough Allen is Brian McGourty, he’s the local angling guide, he will advise you on pegs to fish,pre-baiting, bait and the best tackle to use. He is a friendly helpful character, just ask for him in Drumshanbo village and people will point you in the right direction.

Herons Shore is one of the best shorelines on Lough Allen, and probably one of the best in Ireland , but you do need to know how to fish it. The shoreline is accessible by car but we always use a boat which we hire from Brian. You get the use of a boat and engine for the week for a very reasonable price. Herons Shore has a long shoreline at one end is the car park and at the other end there is a wooded area with four pegs on it.

These are my favourite pegs but if you don’t have the use of a boat it is a good 200yd walk. On these pegs the water is up into the trees for most of the year so you do need waders and a platform. The pegs have been cut out by Brian a couple of years ago and are very easy to fish from. If you are stood on the pegs looking out into the Lough there are 5 posts stuck up out of the water, use these posts as markers for your feed. The night before we start fishing the pegs we pre-bait, this usually consists of 3 Sensas buckets full of ground bait on each peg, which is 75% brown and 25% white crumb, we also add a couple of tins of liquidised corn, casters, hemp and pellets just to attract and hold the fish overnight! A good trick is to drip feed out into the middle of the Lough, this attracts fish and they follow the trail of ground bait straight to your baited area.

When we arrive the following morning I usually put 5 or 6 balls of just brown crumb into my swim just to top up. The ground bait mix I use in my feeder is normally 50/50 mix of brown crumb and ‘Sensas Bream 3000’ or

‘Super Bremes’. The tackle for Herons Shore is feeder rod/waggler rod and pole, but most of my fishing on that particular set of pegs has been on the tip although I have had some good bags of roach and hybrids on 9m pole to hand. The tip set up I use is a Daiwa CNXL 13 still water, this is a good rod for this type of fishing, this is combined with a Shimano Stradic X 3000 loaded with 5lb Maxima. I normally use a 0.12mm hook length and a Kamasan 14 or 16 barbed hook depending on which baits I am using. My terminal tackle is a simple paternoster rig with a 3 ft tail and I always use a big Drennan open end feeder. Do not use a cage feeder on these pegs because just before the posts about 30 to 40m out there is a ledge and you need a feeder that will come to the surface quickly.

In May 2002 we fished these pegs for four days, stick with the pegs you choose – don’t swap and change pegs if you have a bad first day! Eg my catch weight was 35lb, second day 65lb, third day 93lb, fourth day 100lb+ ! Stick with the pegs, they will produce.This year you could catch bream and hybrids on corn, maggot and caster but the big bream seem to want a full worm on a size 14 hook, this got you a bite almost every chuck.

Start fishing by casting out about 5 yards past the mooring posts and clip up, this is an easy chuck with the correct gear. In your ground bait put a few lumps of corn and casters this keeps the fish occupied. A good tip is to use a target board as the light can be a bit difficult and a board helps you to see more bites. The bites vary from complete wrap-arounds to a quarter inch pull on the tip, the latter are normally bigger bream. Keep throwing in the same area and you will get plenty of bites, don’t spread your bait about too much this will break up the shoal. Don’t forget to pre-bait every night before leaving.

Stick with the above and I guarantee you will have an enjoyable weeks fishing on Herons Shore . To fish these pegs is a pleasure and a great angling experience you will never forget. That is why we return year after year. The fishing is great, the people are really friendly and Brian McGourty is the the best angling guide around, contact him on your arrival in Drumshanbo and you wont be far away from a good weeks fishing on Lough Allen. If you need any more info on Lough Allen/Herons Shore contact myself in England or Brian McGourty.

Tight Lines!

Andy Gaskell

Poplars A.C. Warrington .

Pike fishing on the lake improving due to mild weather January. Michael took four pike over Christmas largest 16 lbs.

This section of the website is designed to provide the visiting angler with hints and tips on the correct tackle and tactics to use and the preparatory steps you should take prior to your angling holiday here.

For a coarse angler to have a fruitful fishing experience, some guidelines should be applied for best results. This is especially important for the angler visiting for the first time as the correct tactics are integral to success.

Before you arrive you should plan carefully to select the venues you intend to fish. If you are fishing for bream, hybrids and roach etc several days will generally be needed to allow pre-baiting sufficient time to work. One consideration could be to contact your accommodation provider/bait stockist to arrange pre-baiting prior to your visit or I can arrange. This way the venue will be well prepared for you so that on your arrival and you can get into the action straight away. The only down side to such an arrangement is the possibility of another angler taking over the swim you have pre-baited.

On a river or loch careful plumbing should be done beforehand to find features where fish are likely to congregate to feed. Pre-baiting requires a mix of brown crumb and some continental groundbaits laced with casters, hemp, squats etc. It is important to have sufficient quantities of groundbait and bait for the fishing period.

Loch Allen has very big shoals of fish which require a lot of groun dbait to hold them in a swim. When this has been done with a shoal of bream, several keep nets may be needed to hold the catch. Once large bream are encountered it is not unusual to get bags of 70lbs to 150lbs in early May/June. Please do not attempt to photograph a large catch of fish such as this spread over the ground at the end of the day. It is better to select some of the bigger fish for a photograph and quickly release the others to the water unharmed. If you would like a large bag photographed you could consider spreading out on a plastic sheet at the waters edge and then quickly releasing the fish after photographing.

Some shore venues on our lakes can be rocky or uneven, please come suitably prepared with a leveling platform for your comfort. The following tips should be considered prior to and during your visit, or we can rent you a fishing boat with life jacks supplied

1. Only try a few venues, trying too many venues is a mistake. When a venue/s are selected pre-bait for a number of days. This is true of first time anglers.

3. Pre-baiting is essential for best results. Put in about 10lbs of ground bait the night before you fish. Ground bait should be well laced with caster, chopped up worms. Maggots serve little purpose as they bore into the mud to bury themselves.

4. Before you pre-bait, check the water depths. Many Irish lakes have a ledge where bream normally patrol in search of food. Once located the feed should be placed at the bottom of the ledge in the path of the fish.

5. Shoals of Irish fish are usually much bigger than overseas and therefore you will need extra feed to keep them interested. Steady feeding over the fishing session is necessary to keep the fish interested and ensure a large catch. Infrequent feeding will not allow the fish to settle and you are likely to lose fish from the swim.

6. Please do not hold large bream and smaller fish such as roach in the same keep net. Large and small fish don't mix well and should be kept separately. (Large fish often kill smaller fish)

7. Respect and observe our fisheries laws and respect all landowners property, leave no farm gates open and do not leave litter.

There is no need to bring your own bait as there are a network of Bait Stockiest around the area or I can arrange bait. If you do plan on traveling with your own bait take due care that it is not packed in soil or vegetable material which is prohibited by law. Maggots are best packed in sawdust and worms in damp shredded newspaper

Fishing Tips: The Loch Allen Region is one of Ireland's most prominent pike fishing areas. Pike thrive in the large undisturbed waters with large stocks of fodder fish such as roach, rudd, skimmer bream and perch. Best results are achieved by fishing on the surface/subsurface along weed banks in the summer, while deeper fishing will yield good results in the cooler winter months. During spring time concentrate near the riverbank and lake shore margins using dead bait. or spinning/trolling plugs or spoons. On the large lakes dead baiting from a drifting boat can be very effective.

Prime time for big pike is when the water temperatures are under 10 C, give or take. It is believed that once water temperatures reach these higher levels, big pike become somewhat stressed and the bite subsides. Sometimes these fish can be so stressed that feeding dwindles to almost nothing and weight loss will actually occur. However, small and even medium sized fish can still be caught; and in fact can remain quite active. They are much more warm water tolerant than the big guys are.

Winter fishermen, know that trophy time for pike is during the colder water period. Big pike feed actively in cold water. The longer a given body of water stays cool, the longer into the season that big pike stay active.

To grow big pike, another words to reach maximum growth potential, not only must there be the right food but proper habitat.

In regard to habitat, we need several types to produce giant pike. First we need shallow water with plenty of cover to serve as spawning and rearing areas. For the pike to make the transition to the next level, we need a deeper environment; the drop off along a weed edge for example. This will still provide cover and a larger source of food.

However, to make those transitions to really big fish, we need underwater humps and a deep open water environment with free roaming species like roach and bream. These ingredients can carry the pike to maximum growth levels.

Loch Allen has all the ingredients to produce trophy pike. Then, when is the best time to catch them during the open water season?

Without question, one of the top periods is the pre-spawn. Bays are the prime location for pre-spawn fish. And bays that warm the quickest get the first action. Bays that face the southern sun warm quickest and draw the first fish. Conversely, those that lay opposite won't turn on until later, thus providing one of natures truest safeguards, the principle of uneven activity. In all but the worst of years this ensures that there will be some sort of recruitment, thus guaranteeing the future of the species.

Pike prefer off-coloured, soft-bottomed bays with vegetation, which at this time of year will be carry over. Muck bottoms are better than hard bottoms, and darker is better than clear water. A feeder stream flowing into the bay aids warming and also introduces colour to the water. However, muddy water is not good.

Bays with a neck down, thereby separating and protecting them from the cold main lake waters are far superior to the more exposed type. There is such a bay just south of the Arigna river on the western shore of the lake.

Periods of steady warming weather will bring the fish towards the backs of the bays and continuously shallower. Cold fronts will bring them more towards the front of the bay; suspended in deeper water.

When the weather is of the steady warming variety, the fish will be at the backs of bays in shallow water. Using dead bait I like to work it stop and go, or jerk and rest motion, imitating the wounded minnow approach. The slow approach is the best as the fish's metabolism is not up to speed. You just can't be to slow with this presentation.

If I find I am getting a bunch of smaller pike, then I'll switch to spinner baits. Almost any colour seems to work, but red is my favourite. Once again, slow is the order of the day.

However, if the weather has been acting up and we've had some frontal conditions then I'll move out towards the mouth of the bay into deeper water and use the Rapala Husky Jerk, which is 5 and ½ " long and weighs ½ ounce. The same colours work, but don't get tunnel vision on colour. Don't be afraid to experiment, play around; you never know what might turn up.

If I need more depth, then I'll use the Rapala Countdown, which falls at a rate of one foot per second, giving me depth and precision at the same time.

I know I don't need to remind you cause none of us would neglect to sharpen our hooks, would we. I've learned that lesson the hard way, by loosing some monster fish. Don't let it happen to you. Good fishing.