I have just returned from Ireland, went from 14/5/15 to 23/5/15 including journey days in a group of 8 anglers based at Shannon Harbour, have been going since 1989 so know the local venues to fish at this time of year. We arrived to find the Shannon and Suck rivers in the fields and the weather was atrocious for the first few days of the trip with low temperatures, rain, hail and extremely high winds which improved slightly on the last few days
We still managed to catch everyday wherever we went. The days of 100lb bream bags are gone basically because there are so many roach on every single venue and in certain places I am sure the volume of roach in the rivers has pushed the bream out, in saying that the quality of the roach fishing was outstanding in quantity and quality with fish up to 2lb and the average size being 6oz - 8oz. I would say of our total catches 95% were roach, we did also catch pike, perch, rudd, hybrids, tench and the odd eel. On the eight days fishing we had we saw one other visiting UK angler.
There is still quality fishing to be had but knowing exactly where to go is a bonus and we did not really fish at the optimum times of early morning or late evening..
The Guinness has not changed though, it was magnificent!!!!