Good morning from a considerably cooler Foxford (short video clip but you get the picture)

Temperatures have taken a big dip and with rain and North winds forecast it looks like we are in for a cool weekend. Water levels in the river are very low  0.19m at Ballylahan bridge and there does not appear to be many fish moving. Angling effort which is still restricted to those within 5km of the river is very small and any fish we are hearing of are been taken on the bubble and fly. I can imagine there’s a good build up starting in the estuary and we will have a run once we get some decent rainfall. It looks like that’s not going to happen for a while though.

The restrictions on movement change from Monday as does the rules for non-essential shops. We will be permitted to travel up to 20km and fishing tackle shops will be allowed to re-open with the necessary precautions. We ourselves will be opening the tackle shop on a limited basis with a counter service. Face masks and sanitizer will be provided and we will ask customers to observe social distancing. As our shop is small we may need to limit the numbers of customers. It’s all trial and error and hopefully it will work out well. Our main aim is to keep moving forward safely towards a full reopening. I was planning to fish Lough Conn with Mike tomorrow but with the forecast for strong Northerly wind I think Sunday may be a better day. There’s a mountain Lough in the Ox Mountains that I fished many years ago. Now that I have some bonus free time I am  planning to re visit. If I don’t get lost or eat by midges I will report in the coming weeks.