A Cautionary Tale!

A Cautionary Tale!

As Bill doesn't get to fish for Salmon very often, we decided to try our luck on the River Moy for a couple of days, but it was the usual story, we should have been there the week previous, when the Salmon were crawling up the rods. The highlight of those two days was the sighting of a Corncrake. The damn thing had been driving us mad all day with its constant “Crek, Crek”, so I decided I needed to see our tormentor. I spent a couple of hours hunting it down with my video camera until I finally got a very brief glimpse of its head in the lush grass bordering the river.

The Twin Islands

We decided to cut our losses and try a bit of trout fishing.

Having the luxury of a 16' boat on a trailer, all we needed was a decent slipway and we were off.

Another close friend, John, had just the slipway we needed on Lough Carra and it was here we fished for a few days during the mayfly hatch. The first couple of days weren't very productive and the only sizeable trout we caught was hooked outside the mouth. As it was Bill who caught it I insisted he put it back, which he reluctantly did after various threats of exposing him in the angling press as a “snagger”.

Our third day started off well with a nice oily ripple and the odd trout sipping in the Mayfly. We set up a drift onto Lynches Point, where we had seen a few trout rising consistently to the fly close to the reedbeds. However, after a few drifts into the hot area, we had a another boat cut right across our drift and ruin any chances of catching in that area.

We had met a couple of other anglers from Donegal earlier in the week: they were staying at John's house. They were quite elderly and had a wealth of experience and tales to tell about fishing on the Carra: So when we saw them heading to the Twin Islands for lunch, we decided to join them. I would point out that the oily ripple had changed into a slightly heavier swell from the south as we headed for the Twin Islands. After an hour the Donegal gentlemen headed out again for another hours fishing before they headed off home. We decided to have a bit longer ashore and another cup of tea. As it turned out this was a bad decision, as the wind had really picked up and was literally howling up the Lough by the time we were ready to go back out.

We took the decision to stay put for a while and let the wind abate before heading back to the slipway. There were a few fish still moving in the shelter of the island so we tried a bit of bank fishing to no avail. All the time the wind seemed to be getting stronger and stronger and of course the temperature was beginning to drop as well. We decided to try to find some shelter and soon came across an old hut in amongst the trees. At least we could get out of the wind and thoughts of having to huddle together for warmth were quickly and happily dispelled, or were they? Both Bill and I are non-smokers, so neither of us carried matches or a lighter. Neither did we have a Ray Mears flint kit or even two boy scouts to rub together to create a fire. To make things worse some other anglers were on the parallel island and had a roaring fire that was very visible through the trees! We felt even colder!

Then suddenly Bill spotted a single Swan-Vesta match on the floor of the hut and our hopes soared. Not wanting to miss our chance of heat we sought out all the dry combustible material in our tackle bags and found some dry sticks and branches ready for the match to be struck. With the materials all in place we sheltered the match as we drew its red head across the old matchbox we had also found and the red head fell apart: IT WAS TOO DAMP TO STRIKE!! OH NO!!

Luckily we could still see the funny side of life and after several minutes of hysterical laughter, we consigned ourselves to a night together in the hut.

The day dragged into evening and the wind was now at its height and all hope of getting back to the shore seemed to be draining away. We decided to tackle down and rope all the tackle into the boat for safety while we waited and hoped for a drop in the wind, this proved to be a good move, as at around 9.30pm the wind did seem to have dropped a bit. We noticed that the other anglers on the other island had gone, so we decided to try our luck. With everything tied down and waterproofs fully zipped up we pushed the boat out onto the Lough and started the engine and gingerly nosed our way out between the Twin Islands. We were soon meeting the full force of some massive waves and began to doubt our sanity but we pushed on. Freezing water was spraying into the boat and the shock was taking my breath away. I was unable to use the power of the 25hp outboard and just accelerated whenever we found a flat spot between the waves. My biggest fear was the boat would be blown over as we crested some of the huge waves as even with Bill's considerable weight in the bows he seemed to spend an awful lot of time way above me sitting in the stern. After what seemed an eternity we eventually reached the slipway and safety. The relief on Bill's face was obvious and for one awful moment I thought he was going to kiss me. Luckily he just wanted to give me hug and thank me for saving his life [?].

After loading the boat onto the trailer we popped into John's house to let him know we were safe and well. He was about to inform the Garda we were missing out on the Lough, so it was as well we dropped in to him.

Did it burn down?

The gale force 10 winds of that day caused major disruptions, with all flights into Knock being cancelled and ferries to the UK cancelled as well.

The second piece of good luck for us, the first being escaping with our lives intact, was the guests John had been expecting, were delayed by 24 hours and all the food that was prepared for them had to be eaten.

How could we refuse!

There are three morals to this tale:

1. Never go afloat without an Inflatable Life Jacket!
2. Never go afloat without getting an accurate weather forecast!
3. Never go fishing without a means to start a fire should you need one!

Colin Brett

Post Script: On a recent visit to Lough Carra and the Twin Islands, I found the hut was no longer there! Could it possibly have burned down?