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Right time, right plaice
By Malcolm Rogers
Malcolm Rogers looks at the beautiful loughs, rivers and coastal spots that make fishing one of Ireland’s oldest and most enduring tourist activities.
 Until the mid-90s or thereabouts, the majority of British people never would have considered a holiday in Ireland. The average Brit knew little of our country and cared even less. Then suddenly Ireland became cool, and nowadays it seems you’re as likely to hear an English accent in Dublin as a true jackeen.
But before the floodgates were opened and something like 200 planes a day began flying the routes from Britain to Ireland and bringing visitors daily to our shores, we had a sturdy band of committed visitors.
Even during the hard years of the Troubles up North, or the days of subsistence economy in the Republic, anglers continued to visit Ireland for the fishing. The lure, so to speak, was its 9,000 miles of rivers and streams, 600,000 acres of loughs and 3,000 miles of punctuated, dramatic coast line.
These doughty visitors had long ago realised one thing — whatever your interest in angling, whether game, coarse or sea fishing, Ireland has it all. Some of the greatest names in the angling fraternity have fished here including, it is rumoured, Jeremy Paxman, Jack Charlton, the late Queen Mother, Martin McGuinness and Chris Tarrant (although not together).
The cognoscenti have always known about Ireland and angling. Huge swathes of water, good clean banks and a wealth of fish to keep your lines tight. For goodness sake, you can even fish for pike in the middle of Dublin — from the banks of the Grand and Royal Canals.
You don’t have to be a professional angler to enjoy the delights of fishing in Ireland. Basically all you need is patience and bait — and to be receptive to the stillness and beauty of your surroundings as you sit on the bank waiting for a bite.
Hooked on the sport
As a land with some of the most lightly fished waters in Europe, the whole island offers some of the best coarse fishing experiences available anywhere. Wild peat bogs laced with rivers and loughs, the best known being the Shannon and the Erne.
There’s also an astonishing choice of tributary and rivulet, river and branch water, lakelet and lough. And most of it is free!
Coarse fishing in Ireland is mainly for pike, bream, roach, and rudd. Whether you’re fishing in a big river, such as the Shannon or the Bann (the river which basically cuts the North of Ireland in two) or a medium-sized waterway such as the Barrow you’ll be able to find a secluded spot to unpack your gear, get your tackle sorted, and enjoy both sport and surroundings. And you can be there in a few hours.
You could fly from London or Manchester to Belfast first thing in the morning and by lunchtime be ensconced on the banks of, for instance, the River Moyola.
Rising in the rolling Sperrin Mountains in Co Derry, the Moyola twists and turns for best part of 30 miles through moorland and meadows into the biggest freshwater lake in these islands, Lough Neagh.
Lough Neagh has the largest wild eel fishery in Europe, as well as being the home of the dollaghan, a unique species of migratory brown trout which is actually more like a salmon in its life cycle.
That’s the sort of breadth of experience you can expect in these parts.
Game fishing in Ireland is mainly for salmon, trout and sea trout. For these you’re going to have to forsake the tranquillity of the riverbank for the excitement of a boat, or plunge into the waters equipped with waders in pursuit of these wild native fish.
As Yeats said: “To the waters and the wild”, and indeed there is a sense of wildness in pursuing your quarry in a way which has been done for centuries.
Salmon, brown trout and sea trout caught in a wild environment taste superb. Take a boat out on Lough Neagh and you become part of the landscape, or go in search of Atlantic bass in Donegal Bay and the only thing which will upset your calm is the sudden exhilaration of a catch.
The season up North generally runs from February to October depending on what you’re after — you can fish for grisle or silver sea trout in Lough Erne, or go for something even more exotic in Lough Melvin, where catches include the exotic sounding sonaghan, ferox and gillaroo.
Amongst the best salmon fishing is that to be found in the Foyle system, running east and west form the Sperrins — the easterly salient eventually reaching Lough Neagh.
Or you can head down south and wade in the Munster Blackwater, trying to tempt the rainbow trout onto your bait.
Fish and ships
Sea angling is another kettle of fish entirely, so to speak. You, your friends, the skipper and the crew of a chartered boat can hunt out wrecks that are home to denizens of the deep such as conger, ling, pollock and coalfish.
We’re talking about 50 feet down for the best catch, so you’ll need to be prepared to brave a bit of a sea journey and the odd swell on the sea.
All year round you’ll find somewhere to fish off Ireland’s 3,000 miles of rugged coastline (did you know that Ireland has 25 per cent of the EU’s fishing area?)
Ireland’s waters, especially to the south and the west, are warmed by the North Atlantic drift, so they can be fished from spring until late autumn for species you’d only expect to find in the summer: trigger fish, red mullet, red bream, sunfish, amberjack — all in all in Ireland you could catch over 80 different species of saltwater fish.
Charter boats are available right round the island — although deep water boats which can take you shark hunting tend to be centred on famous centres such as Westport, Fenit, Kinsale or, in the North, Ballycastle, Portrush, or Portstewart. Tuna Charters (00353 74 9738377) operating in Donegal Bay regularly record fish of over 100lbs.
Blue sharks usually appear in Donegal Bay from mid-July onwards and can be caught in significant numbers until late September. But just in case you have a taste for shark-pie or the like, forget about it. As soon as the sharks are caught, they’re released as part of a conservation programme. (By the way Tuna Charters can also arrange accommodation — and yes, they do fish for tuna too).
Fisherman’s friends
Fishing, although normally thought of as a solitary pursuit, can provide great social contact. You might be tempted to enter one of the many fishing competitions (often part of local festivals), as famous for their convivial atmosphere as for their impressive catches.
The majority of these are fly-fishing competitions, but you’ll probably be able to find a band of devotees interested in exactly the same type of fishing as you are, and who will be happy to let you know what festivals, clubs or competitions are taking place.
To get the very best out of your Irish angling holiday, you’re probably better off trying a limited amount of locations. Most experts recommend that for a one week holiday for instance, two or three carefully selected venues would be sufficient.
As regards equipment and bait, Ireland has a network of tackle shops, usually located in the main angling centres. A wide variety of coarse angling baits is available from these, and the shopkeepers are usually invaluable sources of information, and the odd bit of advice. Such as once you’ve opened a can of worms, the only way to re-can them is to use a bigger can (Equally as true in a metaphorical.sense as in a strictly angling sense).
For many anglers the camaraderie is the thing, for others the catch is the most important, while for some it’s the total experience.
Sit by a riverbank all day and you’ll see most of the inhabitants of the environs pass you by at some point — swallows skimming the water’s surface for insects at dusk, performing aerobatics which seem to deny the laws of physics; a kingfisher darting along the river, resembling a piece of rainbow hurtling through the sky; the odd otter surfacing in the deep pool, or a stoat disappearing into a clump of rushes.
Add into the mix that anglers’ hotels are often the friendliest and most charming places to stay in, and you have an irresistible mix.
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