Ireland Fishing

What species of fish would i stand more
chance of catching in Ireland in MAY
and where would be the best place to
fish (about 1 hour from Dublin)

Lough Derg on the Shannon in County clare should be fishing very well in May for Bream and hibrids. I am going there in April and so I can let you know how and where is fishing when i get back. If you are interested in going there I can give you loads of info and tips on how and where to fish.

Lough Derg is more than 1 hour from Dublin though......

What you want is some of the tench fishing in County Laois
look here :

http://www.barrowvale.com/abbeyview/fishing.asp

Derg is 62 miles from Dublin.

joskin thanks for info and yes i would be
gratefull of any help you can give me.
Good luck and tight lines when you go.
Cheers.

Ok trevor.
I have been going to Ireland a couple of times a year for quite some time now and we have found that the Killaloe end of Derg offers some fantastic bream fishing. Idealy you need a boat as there are not to many areas thet are accesable to fish from the bank. We use a boat to get to some of the more secluded swims and to pre bait the evening before we fish. If you dont have your owen boat there are plenty of places in the nearby villages of Ballina and Killaloe where you can hire one. I would recomend that you contact a guy called TJ at TJs tackle shop in Ballina and book a days fishing with him as he runs a great guide and pre baiting service. for a cost of around ?20-?30 each he will pre bait a swim for you the day before you fish and then collect you in the morning in his boat and drop you off at the swim and then come back for you later that day. You will need Waders and platforms as you will need to wade out around 20 yards in order to fish most swims. If you decide to do your owen thing and dont want to wade or use a boat you can fish from some great platforms at a noted hot spot called Two mile gate about 2-3 miles noth of Killaloe on the western shores of the lough. Idealy where ever you fish you need to pre bait the night before, if you have access to a boat it is best to put some marker floats out at the distance that you will be fishing and then bait the area with a couple of sacks of calf nuts and a sack of flaked Maize this is generaly enough prebait to bait a swim large enough for 3-4 people to fish one rod each. The calf nuts and flaked Maize is available from most animal feed / hardware shops in Ireland and it comes in 25KG sacks. this may sound like a hell of alot of grounbait but the sholes of bream in Derg are absolutly huge and can wipe out a baited swim in minuets. if you do not have access to a boat and want to fish the platforms at two mile gate you will have to use Bread crumb to pre bait, the platforms are large enough for two people to fish from each platform. I would recomend that you put out around 50 cricket ball sized balls of Bread crumb laced with plenty of Corn,Hemp and Pellets, this should be enough pre bait for two anglers. When you fish over any baited area the next day I would recomend that you use a cage feeder filled with Bream 3000, Casters and hemp. and worm or caster on the hook. if you fish this way you should not go wrong, like i said i have been going there for 10 years now and have always had between 40lb and and 300lb of bream per day per person. if you would like any other info ie phone number for TJ places to stay etc I am more tan happy to help. You should also check out the Shannon reigonal fisheries board web site at www.shannon-fishery-board.ie you will find weekly fishing reports for lough derg. check out the course repot for 2003 in April last year people were catching bags of bream to over 500lb per day in April.
Good luck
Ross

joskin, please write up your trip in may as i am going to lough derg june 1st and would love to know how its fishing pike ,bream and trout as i intend to fish for them all i am staying at killaloe and have booked a boat so getting about should be ok
thanks

Thanks Joskin you have given me plenty to think about and for taking the time to help me I will get back to you when I have been and let you know how I got on Thanks once again for advice. Trevor

Derg is 180 kms (about 120 miles) from Dublin. It's a 3 hour trip if you are lucky!

I do the journey regularly and it takes around an hour and a half to get there from Clondalkin (dublin 22) and that is travelling in a fully loaded transit van. it is well worh the trip. I am sure that you will find some great places to fish that are closer to Dublin if you dont want to make the journy to Derg but I would strongly recomend it.

Perhaps someone else would like to give us all the benefit of there irsh fishing wisdom.

Crickey, that most be some van! We go every year in a transit and we have never reached Scariff in less than 3 hours from dublin. It is definately 120 miles so, you are averaging 80 mph, which is some going on those roads!

I haven't fished anywhere close to dublin myself, but I've heard part of the canal are decent?