OWEL PLEASURE ANGLERS: I meet some great characters from time to time in the angling world and our midland anglers are up there with the best. Charlie Greville, now a townie and ex-army man, originally from Killucan has his bread buttered on both sides. Charlie loves his bit of fishing and his wife Helen drops Charlie out regularly to fish on Owel. Helen is from Ginnell Terrace so we know each other quite well, but she would not stand in with Charlie for a picture of his prized catch at Tullaghan. In all fairness, the slagging would be a bit much for Charlie back in Matt Cullen’s in the Bridge Bar. We also met Tom O’Toole of Clogherinkoe in Clonard on Owel. Tom loves his bit of trolling and chilling out on the lakes and on that day Tom had a cracking trout of 5lbs 6oz.
PIKE ON THE LINE: Now that the trout season is closed we will turn our attention to the pike and perch fishing. Recently I had a few days on Ennell and already the perch have moved into deep water as the temperature drops. Naturally, the big predator fish are not far behind. If this lovely spell of weather continues, some super pike will be caught on our midland lakes. Mark Homes, who drops down from Dublin regularly, recently had a cracking pike trolling on Ennell and the mighty beast was in mint condition.
WORLD PIKE CHAMPIONSHIPS: Last week the World Championships Predator boat fishing competition was fished on Lough Ree. I was down for a few days and will have full results from this competition next week. I teamed up with Cian McCormack of R.T.E. and we did a spot of filming on the lake prior to the championships. Also ‘Ear to the Ground’ were on hand one day, and that story is for another day as they say. Anyway, the day I spent with Cian was priceless and we had some crack in the boat. Cian is originally from the Athlone area and has big contacts in and around the Jolly Pigeons area so I am told. We are planning another day out on the midland lakes and will keep you posted on this. The Championships were fished out of the Lanesbourough/Ballyleague surroundings and we dropped into Joe Cribbin at his Daybreak filling station in Ballyleague. Joe ran the Downs Inn and the Ennell Bar for years, and told me the kettle is always on for any of his pals from Westmeath passing through Ballyleague.