The 29th of December, another year nearly gone. Whatever about feeling older when a birthday passes there’s something about the New year that makes me stop and think. I visited a mountain lough earlier in the year with a friend. It’s a pretty remote location and not very easy to get to. On the way home we were chatting about our day, the beauty of the mountains, the fishing and how fortunate we are. A thought entered my head and without thinking I shared it with him. “In reality we will probably only fish that lough twelve more times in our lives” he looked at me with a look of shock “Fuck Mick, you know you’re probably right, Jesus.” Its not great when we can start counting down the fishing trips, but, it is what it is . Buy that new rod, take that time, get out and enjoy it.
Now that I have depressed you, I hope the Christmas is going well for you and you are enjoying it. The windy wet weather continues and so far, we have not had a chance to go fishing, that’s changing very soon. We did manage to get out for a nice walk yesterday. We headed west to Erris Head, the most northerly tip of the mullet peninsula. There’s a loop walk there and I would highly recommend it. Its not difficult and the views of the Atlantic are amazing. We were there in the aftermath of storm Gerrit and the sea was extremely rough which added greatly to the experience.
All the rivers are very high now, the Moy is at 2m at Ballylahan bridge and will rise more in the coming days. The Loughs are full and the tributaries are at bank bursting point. Personally, I like to see high water levels for the start of the season. It means that even if we do get a dry spell in April/May there will be a reserve of water to hold levels high enough for the Springers to run. Something we can look forward to, soon. The Drowse will be open on January the first. Water levels will be high but I reckon there will be a good chance of an early fish been taken. I’m actually tempting myself here as I write this, I just might give it a try. Will report 😊
Wishing you all a Peaceful and Prosperous New Year. Thanks from both of us for all your support. Here’s to 2024, I hope its good for us all.