Seven Loughs for Seven Days 2010
CAVAN has water everywhere; in fact there is officially at least one lough for every day of the year according to the local tourism brochures.
Virginia
Lough Ramor is the first that most anglers come across as they speed along the N3 from Dublin and first time visitors will reckon that it is a huge water in comparison with fishing all year on their local day-ticket water. In fact it covers about 2,000 acres and is stuffed full of bream, skimmers, hybrids, roach, perch and lots of very big pike.
Local anglers love Ramor for its brown trout and they fly-fish from boats and catch plenty of fish in spring and September. I was taking to a pleasant ageing fly-fisherman on the bank when he startled me with a statement. “This lough is polluted”, he said, adding: “It doesn’t matter where you cast there are bream, bream, and bream!”
Thankfully he is right and nowadays there are occasional small angling festivals but more anglers than ever spend the first afternoon, or the last day of the holiday, trying to fill their keepnets.
There are two local guesthouses but a better holiday base is Bailieborough, about nine miles away, where there are a handful of excellent small lakes that are rarely fished seriously.
Gowna
From Wisbech to Cavan is a mighty journey by road, but a party of lads from Crown Foods Angling Club have been driving across to Holyhead and then on to Gowna for the past 20 years.
“Getting here is all part of the fun”, said organiser Roger Arch. “Each day we have a little sweep and swap between waters depending where is fishing best – and we get that information from Alan Smith who runs the Kingfisher Lodge BB”.
His guidance had worked wonders with plenty of fish despite high water levels and when I came across the lads at Derries Shore (part of the Gowna system) they were getting a bite every cast.
Roach and hybrids providing most of the entertainment and Peter Harrod got the edge after starting on red maggot but changing to corn on his loaded eight-gramme waggler. The rod was a 13ft Shimano Hyperloop rod, 4lb main line to a 2.5lb hook length, size 14 hook
We all have a favourite groundbait mix and Pete’s consisted of Van den Eynde Gold Pro in equal parts with fine brown crumb, which seem to keep the fish rooting about in his swim despite bright, calm conditions.
The scales arrived and after each of his five companions – and supposedly friends – had each given an opinion, he was granted 34lb 8oz.
Roger Archer got the overall best catch with 47lb 12oz while fishing on Stretton’s Shore, where he had a few bream to 3lb and the usual bits and bobs.
Belturbet
This small but busy town is located on the banks of the River Erne and is probably the best known Irish angling holiday centre with an array of guesthouses, holiday homes and outstanding river and lake venues.
The river system has a terrific influence on local angling because it runs in and out of most local lakes as can be seen from the excellent angling maps that are available for this region. Among them is Innishmuck Lough, which fell from favour simple because the access road became so rutted that only the largest 4x4s hand any hope of reaching the water.
But Steve and Pauline Rodgers from Hawthorne Lodge BB, called me to say that they now have a new road, car park and extended access along the shoreline that is open to all anglers.
What an opportunity to catch some decent bream this year. Obviously anyone staying at Hawthorne Lodge will be pointed in the right direction but the road is signposted from Milltown Village. You will discover a causeway that splits the lake into two, the left being deepest and running to about six metres (18ft), while the on the right is it shallower and around three metres (9ft).
“Of course the bream tend to be located in the deeper water by anglers feeder fishing”, advised Steve. “While pole and waggler are really effective in the shallower water where there’s loads of action from small silver, along with an increasing number of tench to 5lb”.
Andy Garside from Scunthorpe was on holiday last summer and spent two days tackling Innishmuck and on the second morning nagged 18 bream that averaged 6lb apiece.
This part of the Erne system is starting to produce specimen bream and there were several over 9lb caught during 2009 and reported on the Central Fisheries Board website.
Bawnboy
The tiniest of village with three pubs and one of them a dozen ensuite bedrooms and does a BB package, while 50 metres away is a charming self-catering cottage. But more important are the two loughs within a 10 minute drive – Bunerky and Brackley.
There is easy access, safe parking and comfortable banks plus very good fishing. My advice is to choose the shoreline that has on onshore breeze and fish boldly if you want to get among the bream and bigger hybrids.
Get out the largest cage feeder to lay a carpet of groundbait and then start working. There is no point sitting on Bunerky and Brackley waiting five minutes for a bite at the start of the session; if your tip hasn’t gone around within two minutes bring the feeder in again, reload and get it back in the swim. Once you have got the fish moving on to the feed there is time to put a piece of corn or a couple of small worm and git it a bit longer.
Ballyconnell
This lively town has featured many times in Angling Times and the lakes are very well know, particularly Cuillaghan, Killywilly and Derrycassan, but it is well worth having an afternoon and evening session Lock Two on the Shannon-Erne Waterway.
It is a terrific spot for large hybrids and some plump roach and probably best worked with a large loaded waggler along the far run below the lock gates. It is wide here and boat traffic has little effect from later afternoon on.
Cootehill
This popular angling town with its eight guesthouses and half-a-dozen holiday homes is surrounded by 25 loughs and the quality is so high it is hard to choose a favourite, though I would opt for Annamakerrig.
Annamakerrig Lough is situated in a scenic forestry area and the shoreline is shallow in places out to 10 metres and then there is a sudden drop. There is good fishing at the edge of the shelf and when levels are low it is possible to wade and fish.
The best pegs are along the roadside and there is a small point midway that is especially good for bream on a crumb feeder.
Killeshandra
Lough Eonish has the potential – along with huge shoals of fish – to provide staggering sport for anglers willing to make the effort. Anyone can walk on to any part of the shoreline and catch 25 lb of roach, hybrids and perch, but I have also witnessed big catch of bream, the best a shared catch of 400lb between three anglers. There is a lot of easily accessible shoreline but the real secret to filling your net with bream is serious pre-baiting, which is true of fishing across the whole country.
By Dave Houghton 2010
Courtesy of Angling Times
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