Shannon

Have just seen Henry Gilbeys programme on fishing the Shannon about 25 miles (sorry am old so don't do kilometers) He and Julian Shambrook both caught thornback rays and Henry also caught a couple of nice bull huss.

Has anyone any tips on fishing it, as in best bait, rigs etc, also is it a distance venue or will my type of cast of about 70yds do.

Any help will be appreciated

hey, the episode where he caught thornies and huss was in labasheeda on the clare side, near moneypoint powerstation. i'm not sure of the exact spot, but......
http://www.shannon-fishery-board.ie/gui ... seamap.htm
from what i've been told, and a bit of guess work, i think he fished around mark 21 on the above map. i've never fished the mark myself, but maybe some of the local lads on the forum might have more info on the area for you. also defenitely email henry himself, he's a totally sound bloke who will give you all the details you want
henry@henry-gilbey.co.uk

hope i was some help?
Patrick

oops, might have given the wrong mark there, my apologies! they could have fished around number 22. i'm sorry about the sketchy details, but give the man himself a shout, and he'll put you on the right road!

I think it was at Aillroe shore. You have to get to it through the little white gate. I fished it in December and nearly lost a rig a cast. Its a dirty spot and rotten bottom rigs would be useful. There was lots of weed there also at the time.

Hi
It was the Aillroe shore you refer to, but he said that it was clean ground you are fishing over, i think about 40yds out.
There are several ledges on the way in so you have to keep it all moving quite fast on the retrieve i quess.
What distance was you fishing at?

Thanks for the help, Patrick I have emailed Henry, but as yet haven't had a reply, but he is a busy man, I think you may be right about it being mark 22, anyway i hope to give it a go very soon.

Sean you were probably casting a lot further than i will, hopefully it wont be too weedy

Wayne thanks for the tip, I shall wind in as fast as i can then.

Just a few other questions

Are the tides strong? Or can i get away with a plain lead
Is mackeral the best bait?
Is there a pub nearby for the guinness?

grip leads best otherwise everything will be on the move, and will only stop when its suitably snagged..... you know the next bit! fresh mackerel is a must to give yourself best chance. he caught ray on the flood and bullhuss on the ebb. i spoke to a fella who watched em make the video and he reckons those fish shown were only half the story...... they had alot of fish but they fished the flood and ebb for them, ie 10 to 12 hours fishing! i think a pulley rig may be useful here, reel in fast with rod tip held high when no fish on, when you have a fish on, that will keep lead out of trouble in most cases. i am gonna give it a throw for a few hours down on 11 june, would prefer flood but i dont think i will have tides right for me. good luck, booner

My Experience of fishing these type of marks in the Estuary is you can fish on all states of the tide but really harsh tide runs will kill the fishing but some days the fish just don't turn up. Huss will be caught while the tide runs on the flood or the ebb as long as its not to hard. Its not a simple matter of fishing at high tide and low tide. I've fished in glin and had to wait while the tide ran all the way through low tide and didn't stop until well into the flood. On getting snagged experiences can be funny. You can fish a mark one day and lose nothing and the next day you lose on every bloody cast. Heavy grip leads will leads will stop losses but you really have to see some of these tide races in action to know nothing will ground your bait. A 70yard cast will get you into fish in most of the marks but don't under cast at it can be very rocky close in from alot of these marks. Whatever you do bring a box of squid and bait elastic to wrap baits up. When crabs are on the feed on these marks you lose your bait in seconds.

there you go, donagh just managed to sum up pretty much every venue on the shannon estuary in a couple of simple lines! good man! i've been trying to do that for weeks!

Interestingly( I think)
All the navigation advice for the estuary states that the majority of the outflow of the shannon is directed southwards, and that the currents are far stronger on the south shores than the north.
They advise sail vessels to navigate from the north shore when coming up the estuary on the ebb.
This does seem borne out when you see the tide races at places like Tarbert and Carraig island. As donagh knows, no amount of lead holds bottom at the peak of the ebb in these places
For what its worth
Kev

Mainly fish the south shore and as Kev says due to the Tarbert race most marks are unfishable on the ebb. Glin can be ok depending on the tide flow ( the last time I fished there on the ebb the water was stagnent until low tide when it started running. Interesting to hear the difference between the two shores. As for carrig Island its hard enough to hold a lead on a flood let alone an ebb.

Donagh

Thanks for all the info, I shall try not to lose too much tackle, however if i get down to a couple of leads, I might go to Killimer where apparently although the fish are supposedly smaller, its a relatively snag and weed free mark, also being a beach somewhere to erect my beach buddie if I need to have some shelter.

Regarding bringing a box of squid, i have a slight problem, I am going to be camping, and will have no way of keeping it frozen, but bait elastic yes I am well prepared and have 4 spools of the stuff.

Has anyone tried using swimfeeder, when ray fishing? Over here some people swear by it, whilst others seem to catch without.

What time of year did Henry do the filming?

Ah yes and one last thing, what are the best hooks to use? I don't want to lose a fish cos the hook straightened out. I lost a double figured smut last week cos of that :cry:

Kev,someone has been doing their homework since buying a new boat :) Have you taken it out yet?

Hey Col
Boat goes into Kilrush marina tomorrow and the first trip according to met eireann will kick off Sunday.
Then I get to find out how the gps/dsc radio all work. Its hard work being a novice, and exciting at the same time.
If I dont post Monday, send out the coastguard for a small boat on its way to Greenland
Kev

Best of luck with her Kev and have a good day out.

hi lads..good man kev hope all goes well,,,just looking at the weather i think the shannon is due a spell of westerlies that wont do you any favors but either way my advise would be to fish inside money point power st..opp the hot water out fall the first red floatation ring/box you pass when you enter the area fish under this as close as you can to the Pier legs ((but)) be very care full as a change in tide or wind could cause you to swing at anchor with potentially grave consequences,,ie cracking your hull of the peir,,common sense will guide you in this situation and several tries may be needed,,myself and rob fished there a few weeks ago and we had conger ,ray and dogs((((((((fresh macko)))))))),,,but we lost conger around the 30lb mark,,they fight like stink tighten up your drag and hold on,,and make sure your end tackle is well tied/crimped etc,,,we are off to belmullet next week for specimen brill and turbot and anything else that we can manage to hook intoiiiiii :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

Thanks for that Phil.
Where did you get the fresh mackerel?
I heard from a friend who was out on a charter boat at the end of last year, that they were moved off that spot by "officials" of some sort in a rib, who said that the outflow was closed to anglers.
My friend and the skipper were unsure exactly who these guys were.
Good luck on your brill hunt

Kev

I'd doubt your supposed to fish here still. If theres a boat on the jetty there will always be a safety boat in the water that I presume they are the officials that told the charter to move on. If you've ever seen total fishing there two snippets from the hot water outfall. One where their plugging for the smallest school bass I've ever seen and another for conger where they make a big deal about how the fillet of mackerel is put on the hook. It produced few strap conger that weren't anything to write home about but the charter skipper claims to have seen 60lb conger swim around there. I don't know about that but theres still good conger fishing to be had from the coalyard and I'm told that conger to 40lb have been seen swimming here. Shore competition results from the bend to the west have been poor enough in recent years but I'm told it used to be a cracking spot. Three bearded rockling specimens are claimed from here every year and I know some have been caught over the kg in competition. We're fishing here next Sunday so if your out there I'll give you wave :-)

BTW I usually see boats drifting out in the bay west of here.

Donagh