Monday 17th May - Week 8 will have to be one of the following,-

A - "Do or Die"

B - "Sink or Swim"

C - "Brighton or Palace"

Regular readers will note the third option is a joke because I'd rather die than choose that lot from Selhurst Park.

    There must be something about Mondays which makes me oversleep. It was nearly 10am before I rose and I wasn't too keen on fishing. Eventually, I trotted over the bridge and caught more tiny Roach and Perch on the slipway. I could only find enthusiasm lasting an hour so a drive to Red Bridge on the Inny was taken at 4pm.

    I hadn't fished this section for two years but walked upstream of the bridge to the cattle drink where there is about 8-9 foot of water. I'd like to say I bagged up but in all honesty, I had 19 fish in an hour most of which were around the 2oz mark. They were a mixture of Roach, Perch and Hybrids.

     At 7pm I was walking down the field at "Maladys" and had a wonderful evening session. A Roach of around 1lb 2oz was the first of three "netters" at 7.15 but at 7.50 I achieved a lifetimes ambition. We had to check the scales twice but it went 2lb exactly. I think it was August 1976 when I caught a 1lb 6oz fish on the Teise at Bayham Abbey so it has taken 34 years to get through the next barrier. I don't think I'd be telling lies if I said I have had possibly 600 Roach over a pound inbetween. I carried catching until 9.30. A photo will soon be on Peters Inny Page as I forgot my camera tonight. Luckily, Peter was on hand to catch the moment.

  Tuesday 18th May - Normally, I'm not one for turning down a good blow in the morning, but the south westerley winds were playing havoc with my stick float presentation. I
caught some good Roach up to 12oz or so before the waves just got too much. The rain came for most of the rest of the day so I had an afternoon of nothing.

     God only knows why I went out again tonight? For my persistance, I was rewarded with a 12oz Hybrid and 5 Perch. Incidently, Hybrids should be on the endangered species list, as I have only caught 5 over a pound at Lanesborough this year.

  Wednesday 19th May - Another late entry, not because I'm losing interest (that was weeks ago) but because I had a night out on one of the islands on Lough Ramor, Co. Cavan where I duly blanked, thus continuing my run of mis-fortune this year. The daily air temperature was rising significantly as the evening approached. I witnessed a huge may fly hatch on the lough and saw many Trout rising. Earlier in the day I had a number of fish on the navigation channel.

  Thursday 20th May - I arrived back at Lanesborough at 3.30pm just in time to be interviewed by RTE man Ciaron Mullooly with regard to the power station being off-line and the effect on local trade. It is supposed to be transmitted on Monday. Click www.rte.ie to see the interview next week.

     On the river tonight, I was expecting to see a lot of fish as dusk fell, but was rather dissapointed at what I saw. I had 16 fish whilst Rory Dunne caught more and bigger to give me a damn good spanking!

     The fisheries department have been out for the past three days evaluting the river. I saw some of the graphics on their laptop and was very impressed. The water temperature is 62f All their findings are readily available for viewing at www.wfdfish.ie but the published reports are always a year behind.

  Friday 21st May - From early on, today was destined to be extremely warm. very few vistiors during the daytime but two were on the navigation channel. Unfortunately, they left before I could find out what was caught.

     In the evening, I wasted two hours at "Maladys" for a Trout of 4oz with 2 Perch and a 1oz Roach. Back at Lanesborough, two lads were on the disabled swims but were blanking when I left them at 11.30pm. Below them, John Fryer from Gosport had a Bream of 3lb 2oz whilst his two fishing partners had little success. Over on the navigation channel there were a multitude of "anglers" using beachcasters with jingle bells as bite indicators. God bless "Lidl" for bringing angling to the masses!

  Saturday 22nd May - The overnight anglers had all packed up by the time I had a walk along the river at 08.30. There was no one out at all. I suppose one good thing that has come from the power station being off is the fish (what are left of them) should be safe from the "Lidl" brigade for another year. Being confined to the shop meant I was unable to see if anyone was catching, but as it was unbelievably hot this morning, I'm sure any fish would have been reluctant to feed anyway.

     I had a call late afternoon from Peter Wood, informing me of thousands of Roach under the bridge at Shrule. I had to have a look for myself, so shut the shop at six and drove to see the phenomema. It was quite unbelievable. I saw many Roach well over 2lb with some probably close to 3lb. Some anglers had tried with little success to tempt them into feeding. I had to have a go but also found it very frustarting seeing so many fish unwilling to take my bait. I fished until 10pm with only 9 Roach , 2 Perch and a Trout. The best Roach went 1lb 13oz with others of 1lb 11.5oz, 1lb 8oz and three others over a pound. Peter on the other bank caught as well.

  Sunday 23rd May - Another hot day resulted in a lot of casual anglers catching very little. Roach still on the spawning area around Shrule Bridge but very reluctant to feed as the Gosport 3 found out. John Fryer actually blanked! Having fished a morning session without a bite on a lake, this was quite disappointing. Imagine how he must have felt when we all went out on the mud island for the evening and didn't have a bite between us?

  Monday 24th May - That's it, - I've had enough, I should have gone home weeks ago. This year has been a nightmare. A complete waste of time and money. I must be mad. My last report, for what it's worth, - two lads claim they saw 4 "huge" fish from the bridge. Carp maybe? Or do pigs swim as well as fly? See y'all next year,- Paul