99cm
After arriving at Castlehamilton late in the evening, it was too late to inflate and arrange our new keeper float tubes.
Although we were all tired, everyone was very keen on heading out and letting our pike flies hit the water. We decided to head to a stretch of river where we could fish from the banks and where we caught some nice fish last year.
It was nearby and ideal for a few hours until it got dark. Fishing started off rather slow, but after a while everyone caught/lost or missed the first few pikes of this trip. It was almost dark when the troops started gathering at the end of the stretch we were fishing.
I came last and fished a spot near a small overhanging tree, where all the others had also tried their luck before. At the end of the first retrieve my silver flasher fly was hit hard and I immediately saw it was no small toothy critter.
After a 10minute fight, running up and down the river, the pike was tired and finally have up. What better way to start a Rodtrip than by hooking and landing a fat 99cm Irish River Pike!!
93cm
We started the day fishing a small, shallow but rather long lough in the company of a French friend who was also staying at Castlehamilton.
After a few hours of fishing and only one serious hook up by our French friend (he said it was an absolute monster pike, but it unhooked itself) we decided to stop for lunch and move to other lakes.
From the place where we parked our car we spotted a small lake in the distance. It was quite far and hard to reach. We would have to cross a few meadows and gates to get there. We decided to give it a go.
After arriving at the spot we spread out over the lake. Fishing was absolutely crazy, we caught 5 decent pikes in less than 15min. I myself immediately caught a fat 93cm pike that put up a crazy fight into the lily pads. The pike all hit our flies very hard and without any hesitation.
We thought we arrived in pike fly-fishing heaven. Unfortunately our dream was soon interrupted by an old angry man on the bank shouting “Private Lake! Get out!!” We didn’t want any trouble, so we soon left the spot.
At this day we still don’t know the real deal about that small lake, but it was quite a (way to short) experience
