Monday We were there at the invitation of the Kingdoms of Down, who are doing all they can to promote tourism in that beautiful part of Northern Ireland. Which all sounds very grand until you break the package into the individual people who made our visit one of the most pleasant and friendly my old mate Eddie Bibby and I have ever experienced. And that’s saying something, considering we’ve had more fishing trips to Ireland over the years, north and south, than most people have had trips to their local canal. Our hosts were Oriel Angling, a new guiding service set up to promote the rich fishing to be found in the land that lay almost sans-tourist while ‘the troubles’ were rampant. That’s all over now, thank God, and it’s time to get this wonderful part of the UK back on track.
The guides behind this new service are Brian Connolly and Fergal Mallon, but they also have other guides to call on during busy periods and when other skills are required, including fly casting. Brian and Fergal are experienced pike, bass and game anglers, with the beautiful Carlingford Lough as their main hunting grounds when they lure fish for sea trout and fly fish for bass. As for pike fishing they have Lough Ross, Camlough Lake, the Newry Canal and numerous others waters in the counties of Armagh and Down where pike are plentiful and run to a respectable size. They currently have two superb, brand new boats, the smaller one a 16ft Orkney with a 15hp outboard motor, with sonar equipment, and a 19ft Orkney with 50hp motor, radio, GPS and sonar. All angling equipment, life jackets and baits can be supplied if required, with permits taken care of to ensure you have the best possible experience. Oriel Angling cater for individuals, family and corporate groups and clubs, no matter if you are a complete beginner or very experienced.
It was the people who made the trip the extremely enjoyable experience it was, rather than the plain and simple fact-finding trip it might have been. Brian Connolly and Fergal Mallon, our guides for the visit, had a great sense of humour, which was just as well considering you really need one if you’re in mine and Ed’s company. There is no place in our lives for miserable so-and-so’s, but Brian and Fergal fit in like a crafted dovetail joint. In other words they were just as daft as me and Ed. Yet, excuse me if I’m serious for a moment, I have to say they were equally as dedicated to angling as Ed and I and went about the catching of fish with all the determination necessary. Like us though, they realise that fishing should be fun, even if the determination to be successful is a serious matter. It was one of the easiest trips we’ve ever had, for Oriel Angling supplied the tackle and all we had to do was fly over from Liverpool to Belfast on Easyjet, jump in a hire car at Belfast International airport and drive the 50-odd miles to Dan Ryan’s B&B. All this had been arranged by Leisure Angling, the long established angling travel agent based in Liverpool. It all went like a dream and Dan Ryan’s B&B was no anti climax. It was modern, exceptionally clean and comfortable, and the breakfasts big and delicious.
It was at Liverpool’s John Lennon airport where the mould was made for trip, for the first laughter started when we got in the lift to go up to the next floor. We stood facing the door ready to get out, for we were running late and getting anxious. We felt the lift come to a stop and then this delightful electronic female voice said, “Please keep clear while the doors open.” So we kept clear and waited, and we mumbled, “Come on then yer ******, we haven’t got all ******* day!” Then the voice repeated, “Please keep clear while the doors open.” And we then raised our voices with more expletives, “For ***** sake just open the ******* doors then yer silly *****!” Not that it mattered for nobody could hear us…….
It was a lift with doors either side and the ones behind us had opened. People were walking past wondering why we were swearing at the door opposite. We crept off.
That was Monday morning, and we had that afternoon and all day Tuesday to fish, with Wednesday morning set aside for sight seeing before we flew home in the afternoon. Now, neither Ed nor me are spring chickens and we’d been up since 3am to get to the airport for 5am for our 7am flight. To say we were tired was something of an understatement, and although we tried hard to catch a pike in the few hours we had in the afternoon on Lough Ross with Brian it wasn’t to be. All we had then though were lures and jerkbaits and the recent drop in temperature pointed very heavily towards deadbaits. What a lovely lough though, a water we would love to have another go at when we are not so tired and have more time to exploit the big fish that lie in its depths.
That evening we had a great meal and a few jars with Brian and discussed what had happened that day and what the plans were for tomorrow. It was a laugh a minute, as it had been in all day, with Eddie recommending a lure he’d christened the Donkey Horn. Throughout the visit there were continual references to the Donkey Horn, which were always followed with the immortal words, “you’ll catch on that!” Tomorrow we had opted to fish the Newry Canal, calling first at the local tackle shop, Fabbs, to buy some frozen roach. Tuesday Mark Fabb, the proprietor, writes a fishing column in his local paper, the Newry Democrat, and he made me feel a lot older when he told me about the articles of mine he had read so many years ago. Mark is a mine of information and it’s well worth calling in the shop if you’re in the area to find out what the latest news is and which waters are on form.
Today we were with Fergal, who had brought the 16ft boat with him to our meeting place along the Newry Canal. Now the Newry Canal is not like most canals, which were built for narrow boats. The Newry is big and deep for most of its length, being 40 yards and more wide and over 12ft deep in many areas. It was Britain’s first canal, built in 1741, a great feat of engineering that contributed towards Newry becoming one of the most important ports in Ireland during the 18th Century. Boats are not normally allowed for fishing on the canal but we had special permission. As we prepared to launch the boat we noticed there were scores of silver oblong shapes in the water on the slipway. They were press-out tablet and capsule packets. And they didn’t look empty. We looked round more and spotted a tied up carrier bag close to the side in a foot of water and full of what looked like hundreds more medication packages. As we fished it out with a landing net pole this guy came up to us and flashed a warrant card. Luckily the detective realised we were not druggies. We heard him phoning for assistance (someone with waders and a net) to come and retrieve the medication. Apparently it was the haul from a raid on a local pharmacy in Newry. We did the right thing though, and fished the stuff out for him and then launched the boat and got out of there, as they say in the best detective novels.
Today we were at the mercy of the wind, for much of the canal was covered with duck weed, resembling a long, perfectly cut bowling green. We couldn’t fish the area we wanted and motored off towards the locks and tried there, using float legered dead roach, but never raised so much as a sniff of a bite. Luckily though, the wind changed direction and within an hour or so the area we wanted in the first place, a natural ‘wide’, cleared of weed.
Within ten minutes of casting the roach deadbaits Ed was in, but what we didn’t realise was that 2 – 3ft below the surface was more weed, and this stuff was jungle thick and tough. The pike became weeded and no matter how hard we tried, involving moving the boat over the top of it, we couldn’t budge it. As a last resort we stuck the landing net right down to try to net pike and weed, but all we got back was the tackle. The pike had long gone, luckily with no hooks in it. We moved a few yards and fished a clear area, and from then on we couldn’t go wrong. No big fish but a succession of sporting singles, so many we had to phone Brian and ask him to nip into Newry to buy more bait for us.
What great sport we had with those fish that fought brilliantly for their size – tail-walking, under the boat, round the boat, with terrific runs typical of pike in deep and clear water. We were really disappointed when the weed closed in again and there was no time left to move the boat to another clear spot. Another great meal followed that evening, with me not doing justice to two huge fillet steaks stacked on top of each other. Normally I would have devoured the lot, but I’d picked up a chill and was feeling decidedly off side. I owe that restaurant another visit next year, that’s for sure. Wednesday Brian came to pick us up on Wednesday morning, but we had plenty of fuel to spare in the hire car so we went for a spin in that. We had two or three hours to kill before we had to set off for Belfast International and wanted to see a little of the sights. I mean, how can you go fishing so close to the majestic Mountains of Mourne and not go for a closer look at them? And Carlingford Lough, the northern shore formed by the coast of County Down, a narrow green strip of land lying between the sea and the Mourne Mountains which tower above the little Northern Irish towns of Warrenpoint and Rostrevor where the bass and the sea trout run plentiful.
Of course Ireland wouldn’t be Ireland without some kind of curiosity. This time it came in the shape of a gentle hill, but a hill nevertheless, on the Mourne, that rolls down to the gates of a water services enclosure. You drive down to the gates, apply the hand brake, switch of the engine, take your feet off any of the pedals and release the hand brake. You then proceed to roll back uphill! All the way, not an inch or two. No kidding, look at the picture that has in no way been edited to exaggerate the view. That’s exactly what it looks like through the windscreen of your car. Explanation? The direction of the slope has got to be an optical illusion – but what a cracker!
We had a look at a lovely salmon river and some more local sights, but all too soon it was time to head for the airport. We thanked Brian and Fergal for looking after us so well and also Dan and Mena Ryan for providing such a pleasant stay. I know one thing that is an absolute certainty, Ed and I will be back next year to sample the bass and sea trout fishing, and it will be in the company of two great guys, Brian Connolly and Fergal Mallon. Get on the Donkey Horn! CONTACT DETAILS Oriel Angling: Tel. 028 417 72775 |
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