Irish tench fishing at Lough Coosan

[keora]

One of my favourite books is "Fishing for Big Tench" by Barrie Rickards and Ray Webb. What intrigues me is the account of the two authors fishing Lough Coosan (Garnafailagh?) and catching large tench in the 1960's.

You never hear of the water these days. Does anybody know what happened to the fishing? Did it decline or was it surpassed by other more productive waters?

Might be more due to people either not going to Ireland, and also not reporting their catches Keith!

I might be wrong but I dont think that as many anglers visit Ireland now, I myself went 4 times in 5 years, but havent been for over a decade!

Graham is the man to speak to here. He was there last year.

I fished there quite a lot in the 60s.

[GrahamM]

Myself and a several mates, including Eddie Bibby, have probably fished Coosan more than Barrie or Ray over the years, and mainly the famous L-shaped Bay.

Coosan is like many of our own waters in that when its tench were considered big it was before the gravel pit era. We were catching 5lb-plus tench which were true specimens at the time. Ray went on to break the record with a 7lb fish from the hot water of the Lanesborough power station stretch on the Shannon.

You can still catch 5lb-plus tench from Coosan but you don't hear about them because they're no longer classed as big fish.

It's a strange world is our fishing world. It takes just as much guile to catch the Coosan tench now as it did then, but get a lucky 8-pounder from a gravel pit and guess which one will be acclaimed as 'a great catch'?

Spot on Mate!

The biggest tench I ever caught from Coosan Lough went 5lbs 14oz

During the 60s, a 5 pound tench was to many, the fish of a lifetime. There were only three waters in the whole of England that produced 5 pound tench with any consistancy. One of them was Wooton Underwood, the other - Southill Park and the third, a gravel pit near Arlesey - Beds.

After returning from SA in 1994, I went on to fish a few gravel pits in the Oxford area. Not only did I lose count of the number of 5 lbs fish I caught, but I also lost count of the number of 6 and 7 pounders too. And I caught a fair few 8s on top of those.

In the 60s, a 6lb tench was a monster!

We went to Ireland to catch 5 pounders, fish we could not catch in England.

Old Dick Walker never caught a 6 lb tench in his life, neither did Fred J Taylor. Yet both were acknowledged as supreme tench fishers.

[keora]

Thanks for the information. I live near the northern limit of the tench's habitat, and to me a 5pounder is still a big fish.

In the 60s and early 70s a 5lb tench was front page news in the angling weeklies ...