Irish fishing adventures from the past Part 4 (final) - Arva Co. Cavan

When we were in Ballyconnell West Country anglers Kev Rowles and Nigel Franks were fishing a few miles south of us in the Arva Festival.
We decided to go there the following year but pleasure fish around the area instead of going into the Festival.
We stayed at the Breffni Arms Hotel in the town which was great. What we found though and because the Festival was on we were limited as to venues. Five or more venues are used in the Festival, some have split sections i.e. over two lakes due to access.

On the first day we fished Garty Lough which is a two minute walk from the Hotel right in the centre of town. Access is again a problem but you could get 5 pegs in aside the concrete jetty. We were told the roach fishing was very good so set up wagglers.

The lake was not that deep as far as we could see as the tops of lilies could be seen flapping in the breeze. Plumbing up we had about 4 foot. Loose feeding caster and hemp brought the roach in, lovely samples averaging 12 oz, never experienced roach fishing like it. In the years that followed we always pleasure fish this lough and last year it was even better with hybrids and skimmers also showing. We have had trout as well. Speaking to locals this was the only access to to lough.

Here are some photo's of Garty from over the past 4 years......

That first year in Arva we also fished the top end of Glasshouse Lough, the deepest part and usually good for bream. We had a few but not a lot despite fishing it about 3 days on the trot.

Steve was in to bream early but they didn't stay

Gulladoo Lough narrows fished well for roach on the pole or waggler. There is a good head of bream in the lower Lough but we didn't get any.

The Breffni Arms were we stayed was also the HQ for the festival so we could see the daily results, the following year we went back and fished the Arva International Festival for the first time.

An average of 70 anglers book into this event some of them are over the week before for the Gowna Festival and also stay on for the King of Clubs the week after. It's about 130 Euro to fish the festival over the 5 days and the money is very well spread out. 

Venues over the 5 days include, Glasshouse, Gulladoo and 3 area's of the Gowna system which is huge. Last year due to high water levels some other obscure venues were added. That 1st year I did pick up a couple of sections, the 2nd year another couple and last year a Lake win. Steve and Tony have also picked up so pretty good given that some of the anglers have been going to this area for 30 years.

You do get the odd bag of bream but it's the hybrids and the roach that make up most of the weights and at times it does turn into a fish race especially on Upper Gulladoo. The pole appears to be the dominant method if the weather allows fishing at full depth for the roach and half depth for the hybrids. Last year was horrendous with strong winds and I broke my No. 8 section.

You need to average about 12 kilo per day to end up in the top 10 but to be honest Section or Lake wins more that satisfy me.

The social side of the festival is a bit quiet and you don't see that many out and about as some really take it serious. Most of the anglers are from the Nottingham and North East of England but some French and Dutch also take part. 

We are planning to return this year but have delayed booking up due to the COVID 19 situation.

That conclude's a trip down memory lane concerning my Irish Fishing Adventures, let's hope there are many more to come.

Here's some photo's from our Arva Festivals....

no dip no weigh

my first Irish tench

A few too many!!!!!

Irish fishing adventures from the past Part 3 - Ballyconnell Co. Cavan

Following on from Part 2 the next Angling Centre we tried was Ballyconnell in Co. Cavan our first visit there was back in 2012. The obvious place to stay was the Anglers Rest which is a Guest House, Pub, Restaurant and for a while had a Tackle Shop as well. Irish Bait and Tackle (Maggot Farm was just up the road as well.

The Anglers Rest is owned by Irish International Francis McGoldrick and his family.

Ballyconnell is quite a small town but there are some fantastic fishing to be had in the surrounding loughs, namely Brackley, Bunerky and the famous Garadice which is only a short drive away. The Woodford River also known as the Woodford Canal runs through the town and forms part of the Shannon Erne Waterway. Enniskillen to the North is about 18 miles up the road.

Access to the Loughs in this area is pretty good but like most venues in Ireland you can only get access to a very small percentage of the shore line.

In the beginning and due to the weather we concentrated on Garadice Lough, the Church Shore section were there are lots of good pegs and you can park alongside most of them.

The hybrid fishing on the tip was fantastic and we had the odd dog roach and big skimmer but no proper bream.
I think we had bags of between 30lbs and 40lbs from Garadice which more than satisfied us.

Dale H netting a skimmer on Garadice

Turtle also got among the fish

On that first visit the weather improved from the middle of the week and Francis recommended Burneky Lough. This was prior to it being used in the World Pairs and access was a bit limited. Once you were on the shoreline it was fine, the walk wasn't that bad to be honest. It's a huge Lough with only a B type road if that running alongside it.

How big?

The roach fishing was fantastic, proper sized fish and we had some lovely days on the waggler. Mr. Pike also gave us a bit of trouble.

Some of the roach Steve and I had

I fished the Woodford River a couple of times and had some nice hybrids on the pole holding back with a 12BB Crowquill. Dale and Turtle fished down near the Lock and had plenty of roach.

I think we stayed with Francis twice, bumped into Bob Nudd and Baz Smith one night as they were fishing the World Pairs which was on the same week.

We always had our evening meal in the Anglers Rest, the food especially the steaks are superb. We did have the odd pint in the bar but used two other pubs up the road. One was a Sports Bar run by two young guys who told us a story about the previous owner. Apparently he had Sky Sports via a rouge device and painted the pint glass icon in the bottom of the screen with tippex! That was until he got caught lol. We used to play darts in there during the week but they had a band on at weekends. It was mainly for younger people to be honest but Dale managed to befriend a few of the older ones after practising his First Aid skills on one of them after he some how spilt his head, god knows how.

Turtle getting stuck in to a meal in the Anglers Rest. He was on a diet that week, no chips but had garlic bread instead!!

Molly Maguires pub was were we usually ended up and on a Friday and Saturday they had a duo or single singer, Country and Western. The first thing I noticed was a gun and a couple of hand grenades over the bar and as you looked around the walls there was more memorabilia about a certain illegal paramilitary organisation commonly known by 3 letters!

One of the duo's at Molly's

During that time property in the area was really cheap. On the opposite side of the river from the Anglers Rest there were blocks of apartments totally empty and they hadn't long been built. In fact I remember an advert in the local paper offering buy one get one free!

It is a lovely area with another angling centre Ballinamore just down the road.

Irish fishing adventures from the past Part 2 - Inniscarra Reservoir Co. Cork

Following the publication of Part 1 I was astounded concerning how many people had contacted me and telling me their own stories about Bailieborough . A lot even stayed at the same B & B and some even knew a couple of my mates that I went with.

I have also been sent a few more photo's ....

Steve with one of the nice brown trout we caught from Ramor

Turtle was self isolating back in the early 90's

Dale O with one of the many pike that troubled us on Drumkeary

Me out on Ramor 

OK so here's Part 2.......



In my previous post I wrote about my adventures around Bailieborough. I'm not sure how many times I went there but it was quite a few. I think we stopped going there after Brid and John were away when we wanted to go one year and we booked into the Bailieborough Hotel which wasn't quite the same plus a couple of our regular Watering Holes had closed as well.

It was decided to give Inniscarra Reservoir a try down in Co. Cork. I think 6 of us went, Steve Vernon, Tony Humphries, Dale Harvey, Andy Bryant aka Turtle, Leigh Wakefield and myself. Although these were more recent than the trips to Bailieborough my memory is a little cloudy about them so here goes.

I think we went twice but it could have bee three, the first time we went from Swansea to Cork which was a 10 hour overnight sailing. It was a a bit of a wreck and by the sound of the crew's accents was a Russian operation. Although there is free travel for both Irish and British Citizens between the two countries you are advised to take some form of photo ID. The van I was in got waved through the check point prior to boarding but the other van got stopped and Dale didn't have any ID, he was allowed to proceed eventually. The Ferry stopped running after the first trip so the second time we went Fishguard to Rosslare.

The route from Cork Harbour to where we were staying in Macroom took just over an hour as opposed to the 3.5 hour trip when we had to drive from Rosslare.

When we first went it was just pleasure fishing and we stayed at Coolcower House which is an old style country house, I think two sisters ran it.

The house was at the top end of the reservoir and about 2 miles south of the town of Macroom. The gardens went down to the reservoir and it did look nice but you could see lots of tree stumps in the water. I have read reports from anglers who stayed there catching lots of big rudd on the waggler shallow.

There was a lot of Dutch anglers staying at the house, they had come over to fish the Festival staying for at least two weeks. They got the travelling right, most of them flew over as Cork Airport was 30 minutes away and they hired a couple of vehicles, their tackle was driven over by two of their mates.

At the house they had plenty of bait fridges in a shed. I remember we had order a lot of worm because at the time Inniscarra was throwing up big bags of skimmers and bream as opposed to the mainly roach nets of the present day. We put our worm in the fridges and they all died! Still not sure why as I keep worm in the bait fridge at home no problem. The Dutch guys kept theirs outside without a problem and from what I remember it was very hot as I nearly lost my lips through sun sores as the week went on.

The main fishing area on Inniscarra is around the village of Coachford 20 minutes from where we were staying. We had to pick up our bait from O'Callaghans Bar in the village as they were the main agent. When we went to pick up our bait we were told where we could fish due to the Festival being on. At this time access was a bit of a problem, the access has now been improved following the World Feeder Angling Championships held there in 2014.

We managed to fish the Graveyard, Garden Centre and some other section during that first week. it was lovely fishing. Lots of skimmers and some bream. It was all feeder fishing and corn seemed to be the best bait on the hook.

One of the local anglers also told us about a lough joining Inniscarra but there were not many swims. no problem Dale went into a hardware store and bought a saw. Fair play he opened up a few more allowing all of us to fish together. It was that quiet there Dale and Turtle left their fishing gear in the bushes for the following day.

While fishing the Garden Centre Section one day a carp broke the surface a rod length out continuously between Steve and I. I believe on the the same day I saw my first otter in Ireland swimming from our bank across to an island.

On the evening of that first trip we drank in the bar at the guest house with the Dutch guys, they can drink. After talking to them we decided to go back the following year and fish a festival.

I think the second time we went we stayed up in the town of Macroom in the Lakeland Hotel, maybe we stayed there twice, it was OK and there was a bit more life about the place but compared to Bailieborough it was quiet. There were live bands at the weekend and people used to come and stay there just for the Friday or Saturday night.

I had a family holiday travelling around Ireland a few years after and the Hotel had been turned into some kind of Hostel, looked run down.

The Festival was great although the only downside was Steve had to drop us all off to our sections due to only taking one big van making him late getting to his. Even when we were dropped off it was quite a walk and over fences etc. 

The draw was in O'Callaghans Bar every morning as well as the results at the end of the week. I done ok for my first Irish Festival picking up 2 sections but the Dutch guys cleaned up. I remember one of the Glamorgan Rebel Anglers Mal Entwhistle telling me I had done well for my first time. The next time I saw Mal was last year when I first went to fish Port Talbot Docks.

Most anglers appeared to stay in the Coachford area but at the time accommodation was limited.

We used to eat out in various establishments in the evening. Dale must have been hungry then as he ate two Chinese starters and mains.

Dale ready for his mains!

It was a nice place but I have no intention of returning at the moment.

Irish fishing adventures from the past - Part 1, Bailieborough Co. Cavan

Well with no fishing for a while I thought a few posts about my fishing adventures in Ireland wouldn't do any harm so here goes Part 1 of not sure how many .... as you will see it wasn't all about the fishing.

Not long after I joined the GPO as a Postman back in 1978 I became aware that they had an Angling Club (perhaps I'll do a blog about that in the near future). I didn't have a car at that point but the Secretary at the time Owen Edwards would give me a lift to the monthly competitions. It was a great Club and I made quite a few friends some of which I keep in touch with to the present day.

In the mid to late 80's, two of them Mike Endicott and Dale Oldland (Dale worked at Comet but relations / friends of members could also join) had made a few visits to Ireland for a weeks fishing staying at a B & B in Bailieborough Co. Cavan. Personally I had never heard of the place but I was assured the fishing was very good.

Come the 15th March to the 16th June there was a full close season in them days for coarse fishing i.e. no option to fish still water or canals like we do now (with the exception of the current COVID 19 situation). Mike and Dale usually went in late May.

My regular fishing mate Kevin Brown aka ''Brownie'' and I decided we would join them one year.

Well known Bristol match angler Ray Bazeley who worked part time in Veals Fishing Tackle shop at the time also ran an angling tour company in partnership with Mike Salisbury the owner called Topline Tours and it was through them that we booked our trip.

Mike and Dale must have travelled by car when they went on their own but because there were four of us we decided to hire a van. I hired one locally, it was some sort of Toyota with the gear change on a stick coming out of the steering wheel. It wasn't that big with 3 seats in the front but done the job as one of us travelled in the back (not sure that was legal at the time). Equipment wise we only had a seat box (plastic Shakespheare type) each, a rod holdall (one float rod and one tip rod plus bank sticks and landing net handle), a carryall plus a keepnet, waders and clothes.

Setting off on the Friday evening I picked "Brownie" up first and I always remember Val his long suffering partner helping him carry his tackle out to the van and then having words with him as he had taken the washing up bowl to mix his ground bait up in!

After two more pick ups we set off to Holyhead to catch the 3 a.m Saturday morning sailing to Dublin via the A5 after coming off the M42 Motorway stopping for a couple of pints before the pubs shut. I couldn't do that now and back then we had been at work all day as well! The song The Long and Winding Road springs to mind as that what it was up through mid to north Wales.

Arriving at the Holyhead Ferry Terminal (after stopping for a snack in an all night garage plus a few pee's in the hedge) there were numerous boarding lanes all full of vans and anglers, it was a great atmosphere. Lot's of Midland and Northern England accents.

I can't remember what Ferry Company it was but once on board there was more festivities due to the bar being open and a live band, yes at 3 a.m. unbelievable. In them days you could buy Duty Free and we topped up on a few things. Brownie was the only one who smoked so we bought our allowance and he bought them off us, more on that later.

When we arrived in Dublin it was a nightmare trying to get through the city, no mobiles with maps or sat nav's then and road signs were few and far between. Once you were out of the city heading up the N3 it was fine. The N3 in places was barely an ''A road'' and it took up about 2 hours to get to Virginia were I first saw the mighty Lough Ramor. We drove down to it's shore by a pub, it's now developed into the Lough Ramor Hotel. As I walked along I came across a Tackle Shop Owner from the Bedminster area of Bristol, Bob Talbot, how spooky is that. Bob and his mate were on their way back to Dublin to catch the day ferry home and he had stopped off for a bit of fishing while his mate was sleeping hung over in the van.

We carried on for another 10 miles and arrived in Bailieborough which was typical of most small Irish towns. Mike and Dale directed me up Kells Rd to our B & B called ''Drumlin" run by John and Brid Halloran. Brid gave us a very warm welcome and set about making us breakfast. John was a local police sergeant and was out on duty (just as well methinks hic!). Hearing my Northern Irish accent and Brownie informing her his mother was from Waterford ensured we instantly bonded with her.

Brownie, Mike and I

We quickly settled in and then headed down town to Raymond Lloyds to pick up our pre-ordered bait. Raymond was a real character, nothing was a problem and he dropped in the odd famous anglers name during the conversation, Frank Barlow being one of them who was also a frequent visitor to the area. Raymonds shop sold all manner of things from garden plants and equipment, fancy goods, toys, hardware and fishing tackle. If he had to do a stock take it would have taken months. Raymond was on the local Tourism Committee and down a lot to attract business to the town.

I can't remember where we went to fish first but over the week we had some great catches. We fished Lough Ramor, Skeagh, Castle and Drumkeary. The key was to fish the same swims 2 days running at least to draw the fish in on the bait.

It was a fantastic week and in the years following can't remember how many our group got bigger and one year 8 of us went in an old VW 17 seater mini bus, Still not sure how it got us there but it was cheap.
The guys who went over the years including those mentioned above were...Steve Vernon, Tony Humphries, Andy Bryant (aka Turtle because he hasn't got a neck, ex rugby player), Dale Harvey, Adrain Dennis, Leigh Wakefield, John Rowsell, Andy Hill.

I remember one year we fished Lough Ramor down in the Town section and as you looked along the line of anglers everyones rod was bent over. Big hybrids were plentiful and among them big bream. My best catch on Ramor was 109 lbs of hybrids caught on the feeder using a Silstar Traverse X rod with what must have been a 4 to 5oz built in tip (still got that rod), they were taking it off the rod rest and fought all the way to the net. The clutch actually went on my Mitchell 300 that week due to the abuse.
Ramor also had big wild brown trout in it and we used to catch loads and take them to the pub for the locals. On one occasion my tip went around and then I saw my feeder coming out of the water and a big brown trout on the hook, amazing.
That same year when we were weighing in one day a few Travellers came down and wanted the fish. I said no but to get rid of them gave them a hybrid for his fathers tea.

Me with a good bag from Ramor

One year only Steve and I went, the weather that week was awful but we were averaging 60 lbs a day.

Castle Lake did produce but only on certain pegs, Skeagh was steady enough but limitations regarding swims, Drumkeary was good but you needed to walk around to the far side through gorse were it was more productive.

One for the ladies, Brownie with a bream

We always went down to the pubs in the evening after a massive 3 course meal, there always seemed to be something going on. Although we visited most of the pubs our most frequent visits were to Kangley's and the Town and Country. Plenty of live music and talent nights plus we there there for .... and I know you're getting excited now ..... the first ever live showing of the video to Campaign for the  Pot Holes to be dealt with ... doesn't get any better than that! Well it did actually, one evening when talent night was on in the Town and Country, it was a bit of a rough old pub, everyone was pissed, the guy on stage was singing Its not the leaving of Liverpool for the 3rd year running, Brownie was telling everyone at the bar his mum was from Waterford and when I asked him what he wanted to drink he said ''I'll have a Guinness and a double Jameson. Will you now I thought, so I got him a Guinness. I went to the toilet and there was a guy pissed out of his head lying in the urinal laughing while his mate was pissing on him, unbelievable. Kangley's also had the added attraction of the Irish Sun Barmaid of the Year serving.

Tony, Steve and I with one of the many pints

I have mentioned Kevin (''Brownie'') a few times now but he was a laugh on them trips. Getting back to the duty free cigarets which we got on his behalf. He was a bit of a chain smoker in them days and I rarely took a photo of him without one in his mouth, one year I believe he smoked the entire duty free allowance of how ever many there was of us. Another time we caught the day ferry across and after arriving in Holyhead early ''Brownie'' went off to the pub with a couple of others. Later that evening after coming out of the pub he was as sick as a dog bringing up his stomach contents in the gutter, he blamed it on a bad pint of Guinness from Holyhead!!!
The next morning the contents of which he deposited on the road was cleared up, Bailiborough had a Street Cleaner who was also a character and looked like Freddie Boswell from the comedy series Bread you have to be a certain age to remember that, but here's what Freddie looked like....

The normal photo of Brownie with a fag in his mouth

The police used to go around the pubs at closing time telling everyone they had to leave. John our guest house owner was on duty one night and as he came around he gave us the nodd to stay there, others went out the front door and came back in via the back lol. John did come out with us one night and we didn't get back to the B & B until the early hours he was well pissed and got the Irish Whiskey out for a night cap which must have lasted another hour or more.

Another couple of funnies......

Andy aka Turtle always used to be in a room on his own because he farted so much but he would usually come in to someone else's room before going down for breakfast, do a silent one and then leave with a smile on his face.

Tony used to share a room with Brownie who was ex RAF and later Navy. Brownie gave Tony some advice ''don't bend over me to wake me up or I might strangle you''.

Saturday morning down in the town. Farmer and his wife come to town to do the shopping in a tractor with bucket on the front like a JCB. Farmer sits in the tractor and follows the wife up and down the shops, she comes out and puts the shopping in the bucket.

Drunk guy in Dicey O'Rielly's pub one night complaining that he got caught drink driving a few days a go. Another asks him how he was getting to work, ''driving'' was the reply!

Those trips to Bailieborough were fantastic, not experienced anything like it since.

In the years that followed I travelled to Coachford Co. Cork, Ballyconnell Co. Cavan and more recently Arva Co. Cavan so more memories to come.