advice on first irish trip

[Guest pete.g]

Myself and three friends are going to ireland for the first time in june,we are staying in arvarh co.cavan.Does anyone have any tips to give me as regards to areas to fish,rigs,best addtives to take such as brasem,whizzo irish bag-up ect.Any advice will be gratefully recieved.Thanks Pete.

[Guest Gaz]

Hi Pete There are so many lakes and rivers in this area I wouldnt know where to begin.If you are staying in Arvagh you are very close to literally thousands of loughs and rivers including the erne so you wont have any trouble finding fish.The biggest concentration is a few miles to the north of you around Belturbet and there is a big concentration of loughs in the Arvagh area if you don,t want to drive.I,m sorry I can't be more specific as I have not fished the area for quite a while.I normally fish Monaghan so I suppose it is something similar.Areas of note on the erne around belturbet would be the clooninny stretch and foleys bridge which are good for bream as well as all the usual species roach hybrids eels pike and perch.As far as I know you can hire boats at Putiaghan Lake about a mile or so from belturbet,where you will catch tench,roach and perch. My best advice is to get local advice on where to go when you arrive you,ll find plenty in hotels and guest houses and tourist boards. As for baits ,if you can groundbait a swim the night before a bream session it will pay dividends the next day.You need a lot of groundbait as the bream shoals can be really big. Again local advice on waters is really necessary.I find 90% of the time that I use red maggots sweetcorn bloodworm and bread on 14 16 18 hooks. I,m not sure if you use swimfeeders alot but we would probably use them more than float rigs lately .If we are on floats we tend to use large lough wagglers which you can pick up in any tackle shop. As for groundbait we use alot of red devil and dynamic although I think you can get special Irish mixes. I,m sorry I could,nt be of more help as although I fish every week I am purely a pleasure angler with a limited knowlege and I hope I hav'nt been trying to teach my granny to suck eggs.If I find out anymore specific loughs in the area I will let you know.Just one last thing ,make sure you bring a good map of the area as alot of the roads are just little lanes with no signs or directions. I'm sure you will enjoy your trip ,cavan is sort of a fishermans heaven. Tight Lines Gaz

[Guest Bob of Cov]

Pete,

I went to Arva last year.Although the weather was not brilliant the fishing was pretty good.I suggest you take plenty of brown crumb and one of the many bream mixes on the market.Baitwise white maggot,caster & worm are a far bet.

Tacklewise if you are using the pole fit it with powergum instead of elastic i found this a better way of playing bream.

I also suggest to go and see,

Eamonn Grey at the Breffni Arms he arranges alot of the festival in Arva he can supply you with maps and advice aswell as selling up the odd pint of the black stuff.

Eamonn can also supply you with bait.If you needed any tackle whilst your there Longford which is about half hours drive away has an excellent shop(what we call a tackle shop here)but the newsagent in Arva village can supply you with the basics.

The people are brilliant,the guiness gives you headache and you will have a great time.

Enjoy

[Guest Wazzy]

Myself and friends have fished Ireland for many years and around Arva for the last seven years. Send a letter with a SAE envelope to Paul Harris telling him where you are going and he will send detailed maps of the lakes in the area. His address is:-

 

Loveitts Farm, Brinklow, Near Rugby, Warwickshire, CV23 OLG.

 

Leisure Angling also do very good maps and the one for the Arva area is map no 1. There telephone number is:-051 734 2344.

 

Wherever you fish give it 3 days and prebait it heavily, preferably the night before you first fish it and then each evening. We prebait with mainly brown crumb with a bit of white crumb, brasem additive and sweetcorn. We take over loads of cheap tins of sweetcorn. We also take over some Sensas or Van Den Eynde just to put in the feeder whilst fishing through the day.

 

Some people won't agree with this next bit but we also take over signs which we leave in pegs that we are fishing to make other anglers aware that the peg is being fished and prebaited. There is nothing worse than starting to fish an area from scratch, building up the pegs, only to find that someone has seen you fishing and jumped in to take advantage of your hard work. Believe me it happens.

 

Most anglers respect prebaited pegs and in all our years fishing over there only once has someone jumped in the pegs we were fishing. In the long run it is beneficial to other anglers as we only fish pegs for 3 days regardless of catches. If we have caught well we will tell other anglers where we have fished so they can give the pegs a go.

 

Glasshouse loch is worth a try as is Church loch. Church loch is fished regularly so you can't leave sign's there but the pegs immediately over the second stile are worth a try.

 

If you ask Eammon at the Breffni the directions to the loch with all the birds on the island, and fish opposite the island, that is good bream fishing. Last time we fished there, three of us in a line had over 100lb, and the other lad had 98lb. The best weight was 179lb.

 

That is a few places to possibly try, but there is that much water to go at. The main thing is to prebait. You can catch nothing the first day and then empty it the next. I hope this gives you a brief insight.

[Guest bobbyf]

Enjoy Arvagh, we had a great time two years aago, if you like a pint go to the Mill Wheel as the Guinness is absolute perfection. As you will have seen from your other messages, the Breffni Arms hotel staff esp. Eamon Grey ,the owner, is a very friendly and helpful guy. One bit of advice, i ordered our bait from Irish Angling Services, the number escapes me just now, remember to order your bait for the day you arrive at Arvagh. We stayed at Farrangarve House, if you have booked there the landlady is one helluva cook and the food is excellent.

Try angling in Ireland website.

Good luck, Bobby f

[Guest Grimsby]

hi Pete

Is it worth going because Lee Porter

is going to kick your ass good look anyway

[Guest pete.g]

Firstly,i would just like to say a big thank-you to everyone who has given us what i am sure will be very helpfull advice.Secondly ,i didnt even know Lee Porter knew Bob Nudd let alone had been taking lessons with him!!!

Lets face it how else is he EVER going to kick my arse!!!

 

 

[This message has been edited by pete.g (edited 12 May 2000).]

 

[This message has been edited by pete.g (edited 12 May 2000).]