Take The Bait

GO IRELAND:HERE'S SOMETHING FISHY going on around the country and there's never been a better time to be a part of it.

Angling makes for a great hobby and – let us not forget in these straitened times – raises the additional prospect of providing you with your tea. Unless of course, you're going to let your catch go again, which is apparently how much of it is done these days. Certainly, it's how things are going to be done at the first Irish Bass Festival ( irishbassfestival.com) which takes place this July in Tramore.

Not to be confused with a certain brand of beer, the festival is all about fish. More than 100 anglers will participate in the event, which is the brainchild of Cian O’Halloran and James Barry of Absolute Fishing, a local tackle and bait shop. The competition is open to anyone and if you fancy taking up the sport from scratch just to give it a lash – “you can get started with a rod from €50”, says O’Halloran.

The event follows April's Lough Ree Pike Festival ( activeirishangling.com) in Athlone, in which 164 anglers competed for prize money of €19,000. (There's no purse at Tramore, only bragging rights.) The Lough Ree event is organised by angling holiday specialist Dave Houghton, a former world champion fisherman.

“There is huge potential for these kind of events in Ireland,” says Houghtan, who is from the UK but lives in Donegal and has been bringing anglers to Ireland since the 1980s.

The only problem is if you don’t know about fishing it can be hard to figure out where to start, or what the differences are between the various types of angling out there – coarse, game or fly.

"There is definitely a gap in the market for members of the general public who want to find out about fishing," says John Quinlan who runs a fishing holiday business, Thatch Cottage Ireland ( thatchcottageireland.co.uk) in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry.

“If you go into any tourist office around the country and say you want to play golf or go horse riding, they’ll know where to send you, but they aren’t fully sure how to get people fishing.” It’s a pity because not only is it a relatively low cost sport but it’s a wonderfully engaging one too, he says.

“We specialise in lure fishing for bass,” he explains. “The appeal of it is that the lure stays at the surface, so you can see what’s going on in a way you don’t when you are fishing at deeper levels.” The other advantage of lure fishing, for some, is that there is no bait involved – no maggots, worms or bits of crab – just imitation fish made of metal that skim along the water attracting the attention of bigger fish, hopefully bass.

The optimum time to do it is very early morning, so you could be looking at a 4.30am start. Far from a downside, that’s the joy of it, says Quinlan.

“There really is nothing like having the sun coming up over the McGillycuddy Reeks behind you when you are on the shore fishing, it’s just beautiful.” A week’s stay in Thatched Cottage Ireland is €650 for full board and fully guided fishing.

In Mayo the Pontoon Bridge Hotel ( pontoonbridge.com), which is located on the narrow peninsula between Loughs Conn and Cullin, offers a "catch and cook" service, should you be so lucky as to bag one.

Given that it has its own fishing school, run by local angling expert Jack Melletteruns, you’ve every chance of succeeding. The hotel is currently running an offer of two nights’ BB plus a day at the fishing school for €150 per person sharing.

In the east of the country, Andrew Ryan's Clonanav Flyfishing Centre ( flyfishingireland.com) in Co Waterford provides tuition for all levels, including absolute beginners. One night's accommodation including guiding, permit, lunch, transport and equipment costs €275.

Accommodation rates at Ian and Glenda Powell's Blackwater Lodge and Salmon Fishery ( Ireland-salmon-fishing.net), also in Waterford, vary but start at €40 per person sharing per night. Fishing tuition starts at €25 in low season rising to €130 in high season. Glenda Powell is one of the highest qualified instructors in Europe. Her level of skill might be intimidating for novices but shouldn't be: "People who fly fish do tend to look down on people who fish with worms, but here at Blackwater we teach all the methods of fishing and are happy to do so," says Ian.