Good morning from a relatively dry and very quiet Foxford. An eerie gloom has fallen on the town as people prepare and wait for the unknown. Following the Taoiseachs address on national radio yesterday we ourselves witnessed the “panic”. As most of you already know we have a fresh fish counter which keeps us going in the quieter times. In less than two hours we were out of fish. The normal questions like is it nice, does it have bones, can you skin it were replaced by one question “can I freeze it”. Scary times but we will get through it. It will have an effect on business but again that’s a minor detail in the big picture. As anglers I think we are already solitary creatures who like a bit of space so it may be an opportunity to do a little more angling. If just to get away from the doom and gloom on the radio and TV.

Water levels are high (2.2m at Ballylahan bridge now)and the weather is very nasty. The forecast is for more rain tomorrow so in reality there will be no fishing on the Moy for a while yet. Hopefully as we get through the next few weeks things including the weather will settle down a bit. For now we will continue opening the shop on the winter schedule and will keep preparing for whatever sort of a season lies ahead. Our website is up and running and we can be contacted by phone or email. I can say with some certainty that Fishing tackle shops will close down over this. It could not have hit at a worse time of year. We are all “Geared up” for the season ahead and Large tackle companies must be paid. Although as separate businesses we are in competition with each other, which in normality is a good thing and keeps us all on our toes.  I would urge all anglers who appreciate their local shop to support them now or they will not be there this time next year.

Im looking for suggestions for the Angling blog. If there’s a subject of interest please drop me a quick email and thanks for all the feed back to date.  rivermoy1@gmail.com

Stay safe and wash your hands 🙂