Not too bad of a morning in Foxford pretty still, slightly cool and we had some rain overnight. The river is back down to 1.7m at Ballylahan bridge but there’s still a lot of water around. It looks like we are going to have some cold weather for a while, no harm to get away from the wind and rain for a while. I had planned to take a spin up to the river Drowse on New Year’s Day but having been in Sligo on Saturday night and seeing the rainfall I had a feeling it would be a wash out. I received a phone call from an old friend on New Year’s Eve and after talking to him I did not need further convincing that it would be a wasted journey (Thanks Roy).
Instead, P.J and I started the new year with a session on Lough Cullin and a cold session it was. One very noticeable change from our last visit was the amount of bird life on the Lough. Obviously winter visitors, there were flocks of ducks and plover performing aerial exhibitions all day, nice to see. We did not catch any fish but at least we made the effort and got out, that is a good start to the New Year.
There was an early season fish caught on January 1st and as far as I know it was approx. 8lbs, caught and released by Donegal angler James Kenny on the river Lennon in Donegal. Well done James.
Wednesday afternoon saw us heading to Belmullet to fish one of the many beaches out there. The beach we wanted to fish on the exposed western (Strong Westerly wind) shore was to rough so we opted for a calmer venue in Blacksod Bay. An ideal looking venue, we fished the last two hours of the going tide and into dark with the first two hours of the coming tide. Not a single bite, I just hope this is not a sign of things to come in 2024. We did enjoy our time out there and fish or no fish I would do it again today. I will however wait for a calmer day and go fish the beach we originally planned to fish, it looks brilliant.
Judging by the phone calls we are getting, there is a lot of interest in the coming season. There seems to be optimism out there and anglers are ready to make a start. It will be a while before we are in action on the Moy but there’s a lot of angling to be had. Early salmon rivers, Put and Take fisheries, Pike and Sea, we have it all on our doorsteps. I have come to the conclusion that as angler we are spoilt. Time and weather are our enemies though, we don’t have enough time and the weather in general is shite.
