Shannonbridge Fishing Report …Dated 6^th June 2007

A fine week weather-wise turning into welcome sunshine for the latter half meant that the river levels dropped down from a mini flood conditions to much more acceptable levels for farmers, fishermen and the wild birds such as the corncrake.

Phil Lloyd from Chester fished the Grand Canal at Pullagh on 29^th May in fine weather and used red and caster to catch 18 lbs of fish including bream to 3 lbs and hybrids to 2 lbs on a pre-baited swim. His friend Alan Taylor fished alongside and used casters to catch 7lbs of bream and hybrids.

Cliff Greening from Guildford fished the River Shannon at Shannonbridge on 31^st May in sunshine for pike. He was unable to buy dead bait and would not kill a small fish for dead bait. So he went to Nicky Nugent, the village butcher and purchased a white colly vegetable. From this he selected a length and added hooks and cast out. Soon a 12 lbs pike fancied the offering and was hooked and landed after a very good fight. Of course Cliff returned it alive.

Local angler William Kelly used his boat to go trolling for pike using spinners / lures between Clonburren and Clonmacnois on Sunday and caught 18 pike ranging in weight from 3 to 12 Lbs.

Paul Weaving from Gloucester was coarse fishing on the Shannon on 31^st May and lost a lot of swim feeders. He used a spinner and caught a 20 lbs pike which Paul reckons had eaten his feeders earlier.

Ralf Behnken from Bremen fished the Shannon on 1^st June and used a dead fish as bait to catch a pike that measured 80 cm.

His friend Sasisa Siemer caught a 54 cm pike when fishing in cloudy conditions on 29^th May.

Pieter Jacob from Berlin fished Lough Ree on 30^th May in windy conditions and used a blinker to catch a fine brown trout that measured 65 cm. He promised to send a photo to the Shannon fishery report. George Stokes and party favoured fishing on the Grand Canal because of the river levels. On his last day 2^nd June he fished at Clonmacnois for four hours in sunshine and used feeder and casters to land 80 lbs of fish. This included one fine slab bream, roach to 3.5 lbs, hybrids to 3 lbs and all fish caught were over a pound weight. A belated birthday present for George as he always tries to be on holiday in Shannonbridge to celebrate his birthday on 22^nd May. This year the self catering he uses was booked for that week but in 2007 George plans to be fishing and celebrating his birthday in Shannonbridge and has already booked his accommodation.

George’s friend Bill Aspbury from Walsall fished alongside George at Clonmacnois on 2^nd June and used ledger and caster to catch four fine bream with one slab weighing 8 lbs.

Seventeen year old Daniel Devery from Ballinahowen reported that on 6^th May while fishing with a spinner at Clonmacnois he caught a 23 lbs pike which he returned alive.

Bill Reeves from Bath fished at Shannon harbour on 3^rd June on a hot day and used red maggot to catch tench to 3 lbs. Too hot for fishing. His wife Mary Reeves fished alongside using red maggot and caught plenty of roach and hybrids in the sunshine.

Their friend Terry Norris also fished with the Reeves at Shannonharbour and had a good evening catching roach perch and tench with red maggot as bait.

Colin Tear from Windmill A/C Birmingham fished on the Shannon on 5^th June in very sunny weather and used a combination of corn and red maggot to catch a 43 lbs bag of roach/bream hybrids to 3 lbs.

Pete Price his fishing friend fished alongside and used the same tactics to catch 25 lbs of roach/bream hybrids.

Good news for the tench in the area. The hot sunny weather has raised the temperature of the rivers and for the past two nights smoke has been coming from the local power plant stack. Hopefully hot water will soon be flowing from the outlet into the River Shannon. .