Once
again we were glad to reach our stay after a longish drive.
The house with a charm of its own was situated in Lareen Park, according to the
tour operator it was "simple but appropriate" being evil-minded you could have
translated that to "in need of renovation but still habitable". The
River Drowes goes by close to the house and as guests of Lareen Park we where
entitled to fish it for salmon. I made use of that quite often especially before
breakfast, even though it was meant to be a family holiday. To say it right
away: I did not manage to catch one salmon in three weeks even though i did see
them jumping quite often and sometimes so near I am sure I saw them grinning at
me. One warm, dark morning I can memorize particularly well when two times a
salmon definitely reacted to my lure. I could see it following rigth under the
surface before turning away. That was about the nearest I was to success.
I
had better luck with the trout, but the population seemed not to be as good as I
had estimated after the first success. The largest one of 44 cm fell practically
to the first cast upstream with a self-made black and white willow leaf spinner.
After a few mighty jumps the figth was quickly over and I hand landed it without
trouble. A fish of similar size had gotten rid of the lure shortly before, rigth
below a weir but fell to a Toby look-a-like on
the next day. The trout tasted excellent, but because it seemed there were not
too many in the river and the fishing pressure was quite high (even though it
was mainly aimed at the salmon) I released all trout after that first one. The
river itself was really very beautiful, not totally natural, but built to
medieval standards: lots of ties from natural stones and wooden "boardwalks" for
the fishermen.
Perch In The Pike Lake
After
some half-hearted attempts at catching a trout in Lough Melvin had remained
fruitless, we asked the very friendly bailiff of Lareen Park, mister Shane Gallagher,
if we could use the boat on the "pike lake" Glenade. I made that a day trip with
my daughter. While I tested several
jerk-baits (The jerking retrieve made the little girl ask in expert manner:
"Daddy, did you hang up?"), I armed the 4-year old with a Hegene and within
short time, the first perch were wriggling on it. That made her mighty proud,
especially because daddy was catching nil with his gigantic lures! But endurance
was not her strong side, so soon I was left with the hegene to catch at least a
starter for tonight's dinner, which was not so easy, because we released most
perch for being too tiny. The highlight of the day (for her) was that the boat
was tied up on the shore in such a way that we had to take off our pants and
wade to get it through the shallow water. I'm sure we would have gotten a pike
or two with a little more persistence, but even in Ireland you have to work a
bit for your fish.
And More
One
of our family excursions took us to the harbour of Killibegs, where the largest
fishing fleet of Ireland is stationed. After a stroll through the harbour we saw
some children fishing for babies of several cod-like species with some sort of
mackerel rig. Quickly we took a rod out of the car and tied the universal weapon
hegene on and gave it to our daughter. It didn't take long and she could also be
happy about few tiny fish I identified as coalfish and pout. When her enthusiasm
was cooling down I grabbed the rod and dared to cast the 3 mteres long rig with
a 2,40 m rod (and a multiplier reel!), against my expectations it went quite
well and while the rig was still sinking there was a sharp tug which passed into
a fast figth. The fish did come off in the last moment but I recognized it as a
mackerel. A few casts later I got another strike like that and quickly passed
the rod to my daughter who mercilessly reeled in the fish which stayed on the
hook this time and made her very happy. The other kids are all trying to cast
also now, but we remain the only catchers of mackerel. After packing the tackle
we throw a last glance at the water and to our surprise we see a seal placidly
paddling through the port basin.
Once
again we were glad to reach our stay after a longish drive.
The house with a charm of its own was situated in Lareen Park, according to the
tour operator it was "simple but appropriate" being evil-minded you could have
translated that to "in need of renovation but still habitable". The
River Drowes goes by close to the house and as guests of Lareen Park we where
entitled to fish it for salmon. I made use of that quite often especially before
breakfast, even though it was meant to be a family holiday. To say it right
away: I did not manage to catch one salmon in three weeks even though i did see
them jumping quite often and sometimes so near I am sure I saw them grinning at
me. One warm, dark morning I can memorize particularly well when two times a
salmon definitely reacted to my lure. I could see it following rigth under the
surface before turning away. That was about the nearest I was to success.
I
had better luck with the trout, but the population seemed not to be as good as I
had estimated after the first success. The largest one of 44 cm fell practically
to the first cast upstream with a self-made black and white willow leaf spinner.
After a few mighty jumps the figth was quickly over and I hand landed it without
trouble. A fish of similar size had gotten rid of the lure shortly before, rigth
below a weir but fell to a 
After
some half-hearted attempts at catching a trout in Lough Melvin had remained
fruitless, we asked the very friendly bailiff of Lareen Park, mister Shane Gallagher,
if we could use the boat on the "pike lake" Glenade. I made that a day trip with
my daughter. While I tested several 
One
of our family excursions took us to the harbour of Killibegs, where the largest
fishing fleet of Ireland is stationed. After a stroll through the harbour we saw
some children fishing for babies of several cod-like species with some sort of
mackerel rig. Quickly we took a rod out of the car and tied the universal weapon
hegene on and gave it to our daughter. It didn't take long and she could also be
happy about few tiny fish I identified as coalfish and pout. When her enthusiasm
was cooling down I grabbed the rod and dared to cast the 3 mteres long rig with
a 2,40 m rod (and a multiplier reel!), against my expectations it went quite
well and while the rig was still sinking there was a sharp tug which passed into
a fast figth. The fish did come off in the last moment but I recognized it as a
mackerel. A few casts later I got another strike like that and quickly passed
the rod to my daughter who mercilessly reeled in the fish which stayed on the
hook this time and made her very happy. The other kids are all trying to cast
also now, but we remain the only catchers of mackerel. After packing the tackle
we throw a last glance at the water and to our surprise we see a seal placidly
paddling through the port basin.