We had a busy few days promoting the Angling in Midlands last week and hooked up with some great angling characters from the home and abroad. Jason McCarthy was back out on the Lakes and landed some cracking pike and perch. Alan Thomas dropped down from Carrickfergus, and boated a few nice trout from Owel.Marc De Jong tipped over from Eindhoven in Holland and we had a great chat about the new Manchester United manager. It’s not all fishing. It’s certainly all hands on deck as we drift into the August bank Holiday weekend. Speaking of August we hit the front page of Pike & Predator magazine published in England, with our wonderful fishing here in Westmeath.
JASON BOATS A FEW CRACKERS. I teamed up with Mullingar lad Jason McCarty last week for a few days, and we had some sport catching trout pike, and perch. The first day we trolled and spinning across Owel, and boated good pike and lovely colorful perch. Jason also spent a day on Lene and had a lovely rainbow trout over 2lbs, on a Rapala Lure. Jason will be back on the Midland Lakes quite soon, and hopefully will catch some more super fish.
ALAN ON OWEL.Alan Thomas was back drifting across the Midlands last weekend and had a few nice days fishing. Alan is from Carrickfergus and his good lady is from Tullamore, so every weekend they drop down to meet the family Alan goes fishing. The Alan lad has had some lovely days in Lough Aishling Fishery in Edenderry, and also some enjoyable days on Owel.Last weekend we fly fished and trolled on Owel and had some lovely fish .The trout have moved out deep as water temperatures are up on 20 degrees. Plenty of small fish are on the move and a few big fish are also showing.
A DUTCH OF CLASS. With the World Cup over and the Premiership coming on line we teamed up with Eindhoven angler Marc de Long last week here in the Midlands.Marc was over in Dublin for a few days with his good lady and daughter shopping, and jumped ship to go for a days fishing. We only had a few hours but caught 5 perch, 5 trout, and a lovely pike on Owel.The photographs were gone on line straight away and hopefully we will have some more anglers from Holland dropping over quite soon.
JIGS & REELS. Nice to see the Midlands hitting the headlines in Europe’s top Angling magazine. Yes Jigs & Reels from Ireland have hit the front pages for the first time, and all going well it won’t be the last. Picture under the heading of “EIRA FORCE” is Italian angler Stefano Belisario with a huge Lough Ree Pike. The lads are regular anglers here to Mullingar, and stay in Kerrigan’s B&B and have adopted Mullingar as their second home. Its always a headache bring angling gear to Ireland, but as you can see Stefano had all the rods and reels loaded up in one hell of a tube.
WORLD CUP. Thursday July 31st the first qualifier of the 2014 World Cup fly-fishing championships take place on Lough Mask. It’s going to be a cracking weekend on Mask, and hopefully some of our top fly anglers from across the Midlands will do well. The qualifying days are from Thursday to Sunday over the Bank Holiday weekend with the final on Monday. Its fished out of Cushlough Bay if you are holidaying in the west of Ireland drop in and check it out.
PETER FISHING. Hard to believe the nights are closing in as we fish till dark on the lakes. The Peter fishing is producing some nice fish, and in the coming days some nice fish will be caught on Owel, Lene, Sheelin and Ennell just to name some of our super lakes. Denis Vaughan of Delvin is in top form on Ennel land I photographed him wit a lovely fish last week from Ennell.Its hard going on Ennell but the trout are top class.
MICK “HAUL” MALONE R.I.P.Unfortunally this week we end our angling report on a sad note. The Angling World has lost another great character with the sudden death of Edenderry angler Mick Malone. I only new Mick to say hello to as we met on Owel and Ennell over the years. On behalf of Angling Focus we send our deepest sympathies to Micks friends and family members.
CONTACT. Mick Flanagan
Mobile: 087-2797270
E mail mick@midlandangling.com
www.facebook.com/midlandangling