Good morning from a bright and sunny Foxford. Well at least the weather is good so we should be happy about that. The river is coming into nice condition and the fish are getting a good rest . At this stage a lot of the fisheries on the Moy have taken the necessary step and temporally closed (until April 19t at least). We ourselves have closed the tackle shop to the public but are still working on line www.themoy.com . Some people think these are drastic or dramatic steps but if we look at the big picture they are nothing. We all need to do our part to combat the rapid spread of Covid 19.

I’ve done another little piece for our junior anglers which you can see below. I was very pleased to receive some emails from adults who are sharing the info with beginners, Four Irish, one from the u.K and one from France. That’s six beginners at least that i know for definite and if you share it with one more numbers will grow. Its not to late to get involved, give it a go. All you have to do is share (even if isolating you can still email or post ) the very simple lesson and help the beginner through it. Put your name in the blank spots, add few pictures and use your imagination. It might just help someone through this difficult period.

Hi again

It’s been a week already, wow that went fast. I think it’s because I was looking forward to chatting with you and planning some fishing. Anyway, remember last week you picked your Fishing place.

Don’t worry if you didn’t get around to it there’s plenty time. Have a little chat with ………………… and see if they can suggest a good spot.

My spot

I have a few fishing places. I don’t really know why but I call them “my Spots”. My first spot is the River Moy, it has Salmon and Trout in it. I also like Lough Conn.  Lough Conn is a big lake with Brown trout, Perch, Pike, Eels and probably other fish that I haven’t discovered yet. Occasionally I go to the ocean and try fishing there; I’ve caught Mackerel and some little flat fish.

You  and …………… know more about your fishing spot but I’m going to guess that there’s trout, Perch, Pike and eels in there and if it’s the Ocean I reckon there could be Mackerel . Am I right?

If your still not sure what fish are in there why not ask ……………. do they know, or if possible you could perhaps Google it.

Our Fish

Ok, so there are quite a lot of anglers in our little club here and there’s even some from England and France. We don’t all know what Salmon, Trout, Perch, pike and eels are or what they look like so ill explain and we will also need to know how to catch them!

Salmon: Salmon are normally pretty large fish and are silver. They are pretty smart and are difficult enough to catch. When we are lucky enough to hook one it puts up a big battle and is lots of fun. Salmon taste pretty good but sometimes it’s nice to just let them swim away again after we have caught them. We call this catch and release. You could get a quick picture of you and the Salmon saying good bye to each other. Ok, fish don’t actually talk but I have a big imagination J

Trout: Trout are the same shape as salmon and are normally smaller. There’s 3 main types. Brown Trout like I fish for in Lough Conn. Sea Trout which swim up our rivers from the ocean. Sea trout are normally bright silver in colour. Then there’s another brightly coloured trout called a Rainbow trout. We don’t have many Wild rainbow trout in Ireland. Most are grown in special ponds and we fish for them in “Stocked “fisheries.

Try to find a picture of each so that you will always know the difference. Why not draw a picture of each and colour them in. Brown Trout are sort of light brown with a golden belly. Sea Trout are Bright Silver with a black back. Rainbow trout are Very colourful with rainbow colours along their sides.

Pike: Pike are also fish just they come from a different family than trout and Salmon, so they look different. They are still fun to fish for and can sometimes be very Big. Pike are a greeny colour with some other white and gold markings. Pike eat a lot of smaller fish and have very sharp teeth. They are smart fish. They know that because they are green if they hide in grassy or weedy parts of the lake or river other fish will not see them. As the smaller fish swim past where the pike is hiding the pike that can swim very fast strikes and eats its prey.

Now there’s an idea if we want to catch a pike. We can use bait that looks like a small fish. Aren’t we clever!

I’m not going to tell you what shape a pike is. They have large heads with big mouths, lots of teeth. They can swim very fast and are green. Draw a picture of a pike then afterwards see if you can find a real picture and compare Your picture and the real picture.

Perch: Perch are beautiful fish. They are a green brown colour with red fins. They have a very special Dorsal fin (that’s the fin on a fish’s back). The perch has a sharp spinney dorsal fin which it uses as a defense for when other fish (like Pike) try to eat it. We need to be very careful when we hold a perch so that we don’t get a nasty stab from a spine on its dorsal fin. We sometimes take a perch home and cook it for tea but like all other fish we should only take some and leave most of them in the water.

Eels: Eels are very interesting fish. They look a bit like a snake but not as scary. They grow very slowly and live for a long time. We find them in lots of rivers and lakes and at certain times they go to the Ocean. For some reason or reasons the number of eels throughout Europe has declined and they are now protected. This means we cannot fish for them; sometimes we will of course catch them by accident. When we do we should release them without harming them. Hopefully the scientists will discover why the numbers are in decline and we can help fix the problem.

OK, you have a lot of Drawing and colouring to do and if you have time, some pictures to find.

For next week we best think about how we could catch some of these fish?

Which would you most like to fish for?

What bait could we use?

I Know 🙂

You go think. Bye for now