Reader's Stories

Resuming the pursuit of Old Mossyback by Karl Bohan
Resuming the pursuit of Old Mossyback I could feel the chill in the crisp morning air as I made my way up the mist shrouded hill towards the entry point of the forestry. Energised by my racing imagination for what possibly lay ahead, I was oblivious to the weight of the gear I was carrying which is often the case on route to the water’s edge. Once I crossed the ditch into the forestry’s Borders I was enveloped in darkness. As I continued my ascent up the hill I could feel the spo...

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Common Skate from kayak by Graham Smith
Common Skate from a kayak! We got a good one! Hi all. Yes you read that right, following on from our last success of landing a common skate of 37lb there was nothing else for it but to do it all again. Well the weather  forecast finally settled down and myself and some of the lads decided to hit the skate mark near Malin head. Plans where made and the final head count was Mike Henry, Brendan Moyna and myself.     The launch The three of us met up near Malin and go...

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Make mine a Bass by Mark Corps
Make mine a Bass! Even though it was late October, these looked like near perfect fishing conditions. The sky was clear and – unusual for last year, I enjoyed the feeling of the sun's warmth on my back. What a cracking day, not a cloud to be seen and the sea almost flat.       The only negatives were a slight colour to the water caused by the previous few days swell and an annoying breeze that kept changing its mind as to the direction it would travel. Oh and of cours...

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Fishing with Kids by Martin McGowan
Fishing with Kids. The beginning of something fantastic! It’s that time of the year again, when the weather should be cooling down a bit, and also time for an increase in the layers of clothing we would have been used to wearing during the summer months.     But for the middle of September that is not the position we seem to be in. Don’t ask me why, but we are getting an extended summer. So with that I decided to take my small boy Aaron fishing, a break from the homewo...

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Trigger Happy by Craig Murphy
"Trigger happy" I recently spent a week in Kerry on the picturesque island of Valentia. We rented a house on the Portmagee side of the island, close to the island bridge. We were in an idyllic spot to see what the island had to offer and to travel around the mainland sightseeing.     Having never been to Kerry before I did a lot of scouting around marks I had found on the net and worthwhile hotspots given by fellow anglers. In order to keep the peace with the other half, I kept t...

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Kilterry Ledges by Peter Foster
Kilterry Ledges Every so often a lucky angler discovers a mark that appears never to have seen a rod and line before, one such spot was discovered on a recent trip to the Shannon Estuary in Ireland’s South West. A great many words and expletives have been set to paper extolling the virtues of this fabulous river as it stretches for over 200 miles from Lough Erne in the North to it’s estuary in the South West before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. It’s by far the longest st...

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Shark fishing at night by Sidney Kennedy
Sharks in the dark Over the years I have often dreamt of fishing for sharks at night, it has been proven that they are definitely more active during this period. In one day-light angling session I have landed nineteen sharks, I often imagined how many sharks I could have landed if I was fishing the same way, only at night.     As the weather had been reasonably settled for the last few days and nights I got a phone call from my friend Ross to see if I was available to go on a nigh...

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Last Days of Summer By Karl Bohan
   Late Summer Tench With a few days booked off work to do some Tench fishing I could hardly believe my luck when I saw the forecast.  A drop in temperature along with winds reaching gale force and torrential rain up to two inches a day, I thought just my luck! But as they say the show must go on, so with my van loaded up and enough supplies to do at least a few days I was on the road for the two hour journey to my chosen destination, an average size lough of about 100 acres tha...

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My First Tope Trip by Simon Gibson
 My First Tope Trip Well what can I say that I know about tope fishing? Well as it happens not an awful lot! Coming from a pike fishing background anytime I came into contact with a sea fish, it was when I was putting size six treble hooks into it and using it as dead-bait.       Over the last few years I decided to focus on all fish of specimen size (specimen fishing) if you will, and when the opportunity came for me to try my hand at some seriously big fish ...

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Summer dreaming by Bill Brazier
Summer dreaming The dawn chorus was in full swing. As I pushed the old punt peacefully through the bed of sentinel-like bulrushes and lily pads which encircled the forgotten lake, my face was tickled in sparkling, dew-laden cobwebs. The freshness of the early summer air was nothing less than invigorating. Despite the sun still being shrouded by a thin veil of mist, surely such a start to a day would make anyone appreciate life.     The stealthy glide to my chosen swim was not app...

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