Expensive in Ireland? That's a load of Boloney

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Peter Bishop

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Why do those who promote Irish angling holidays always base their prices on 4 anglers in one car!

Tell me, what sort of car can you fit 4 hefty Guinness drinkers, each with a suitcase/bag, a huge box, platform, trolley, holdall, rod case, four hundred weight of groundbait between them and 4 gallons of maggots turning to casters on trays!

I couldn't fit that lot in a minibus never mind a car,yet all these companies promote their prices on that basis.

Last time I went my mate and I filled a Ford Seirra Estate with gear and bait, so the deal ended up costing us a lot more than the up front brochure price.

When are these companies going get real and come clean about the feasibility of fitting four fat anglers in car for 7 nights?

Anybody ever fitted four anglers and gear in an ordinary car? (Hummers dont count!)
 
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trev matthews

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I fitted me my mate and two kids + our kit into my Zafira, My mate was a bit of a hummer but we put the windows down a bit.
 
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ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)

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They do it like that because thats the way the ferry companies price their crossings to the tour operators ....

...and if you look at the prices quoted by Leisure Angling they are for 2,3 and 4 in a car
 
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Peter Bishop

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Agreed ED, but Leisure Angling KNOW you can't fit four angler in a 'car' with all their gear for a week in Ireland, so why make that the headline price?
Because it looks better in the advert than ?180 etc....
Why not say its ?300 odd for a car plus two anglers, and cheaper if you can squeeze in two kids...
 
Graham Whatmore

Graham Whatmore

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Twas ever thus Peter and I think the ferry prices to Ireland are a rip off anyway, an enormous rip off at that. The only way to get a reasonably priced fishing holiday is to book a package through the likes of Anglers World which, even with the extras for say two people only, is still far far cheaper than booking a private crossing which is in excess of ?200 just for the ferry alone. With a package you can have a weeks B&B including the ferry for not much more than that and remember it is always cheaper to travel on a Sunday rather than a Friday or Saturday.
 
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fred hall

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I've got to agree that the ferries to Ireland ain't cheap and there is absolutely no question in my mind about the cost of living increase over there in recent years. When they joined the Euro it rocketed.
 
GrahamM

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Quite right Graham.

And Angler's World now own Leisure Angling....
 
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Peter Bishop

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Didn't know that Graham. Whats happened to Dave Houghton? That was his company wasn't it?
All, I appreciate travelling by the companies is a better deal, it just irks me a little that the adverts focus on how cheap it is for FOUR anglers rather than the two who can reasonably fit in one car.
 
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ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)

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It was Daves wife Angela who started the company.......

Dave left his job and went to work with her

I worked with them for about 14 years -- in fact I'll be staying with them in Ireland in a couple of weeks time

Anglers World only bought the trading names ......


Peter
You'd be surprised how many DO travel 4 in a car .....
 
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Ric Elwin

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I wonder how many people still make the trip across the water to fish in Ireland.

In the 70's 80's and nineties there was cheap Guiness, Bream and Pike a plenty.

Now? They have over-inflated prices, as the EU viewed the country as 'poor', so taxed other countries, such as the U.K., to improve the country's wealth.

So now, a pint of Guiness costs 5 Euros in Dublin, and a house costs more than one does in London.

At the same time, German tourists have denuded Pike stocks to such an extent that the Shannon system isn't worth fishing for them.

And the Bream shoals are a shadow of what they were 20 years ago.

Why would anyone bother with the expense of travelling to Ireland? Nostalgia perhaps, I can't think of any other reason.
 
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Robert Woods (ACA)

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Sad to see decline in Irish fishing. I've spent many a week at Dennis Breen's in Balinamore and drunk a few Guinness in Wrynn's bar. Even caught a few bream as well.
 
Graham Whatmore

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Its not true the fishing in Ireland has declined to the point it isn't worth going, far from it, but whereas years ago you could fish anywhere and catch bream (the 100lb bags were never a realistic goal for every angler) you now need a bit of guidance by the local experts. They know where the fish are, at what times to fish and the bait to use and it doesn't cost you a penny for that information, even better stay at the place run by one of those local experts.

The days when you could enjoy a casual breakfast and then toddle off and catch loads of fish and then return to a night of guinessing are, in the main, finished, if you want to catch fish you have to put yourself out a bit and fish at the times dictated by the fish not the guiness. There are loads of quality roach in the Shannon now whereas it was bream and perch only and a surfeit of bream is one of the reasons I stopped going, I was fed up of catching them even though they fight a lot harder than their English cousins.

I would definitely consider hiring a boat on the Shannon for a week now and then I would get to fish wherever I chose and not have to worry about long hard walks. Fish early morning then have a tour round during the day, maybe a late seession as well, wifey does the cooking and I do the fishing, seems a sensible arrangement to me, I commend it to the house.
 
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Matthew Keating

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Peter- Dave Houghton still works 'for' Leisure Angling- in fact I speak to him regularly about these promotions etc- but the arrangements are different now that the co. has changed ownership. He's living in Ireland now.
 
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Peter Bishop

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Matthew, please convey my best wishes to him when you next see him.
Dave did a back cover 'review' for my book and is well respected around Merseyside-indeed he still does a column for the Echo. Didn't know he'd moved.
 
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Robert Woods (ACA)

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Hope Dave is doing well. His wife worked with my mother. I enjoyed fishing the "smaller" waters round Balinamore catching virgin bream.
 
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fred hall

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I have to agree with what Graham says above re big bream catches. Whatever the reasons, and I've come to the conclusion that there is no one simple explanation, the bream numbers have declined dramatically. I also suspect that it is only the last 2 or 3 years that the advertising literature in Angling Times, holiday company brochures etc have acknowledged that fact and the people I feel sorry for are the Irish guesthouse owners who relied on anglers' trade for their bread and butter.The Irish government appears to be like our own in that they ignore such problems for as long as they can then you get some useless knee jerk "initiative" which isn't seen through.
Right, now for the good news! As I proved to myself with a weeks fishing on the Gowna system last September if you go with the intention of catching what fish are in front of you, in this case nice roach and hybrids, you can still thoroughly enjoy it. Ironically, I also caught 5 good slabs in amongst the smaller stuff. This is hardly earth shattering news agreed but rather better than the previous 2 trips to Cavan.
 
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