An anglers diary

Found this anglers diary online.
60 years of angling on the coast of Meath.
Well worth a read no matter what part of the Ireland you fish.

Angling in Ireland: an enduring passion of more than 60 years.

http://researchrepository.ucd.ie/bitstr ... sequence=2

Brilliant read,thanks for posting.

Great read ,but very sad what we've thrown away

Great read there, sad to see the steady decline in fish numbers.

I agree with you lads, it is sad.
Sewage and surface water run off full of pesticides, nitrates and phosphates has played a big part.
The entire Meath/Fingal coastline is one of the most intensively farmed areas of land in Europe.
Add to that; industrial pollution, over-fishing, climate change and that disaster waiting to happen (sellafield).
It's no wonder we don't even get a decent run of mackerel any more.
That said; there has been ground made in relation to nitrates and some of the sewage problems have been addressed (but not enough).
The amount of chemicals available for farmers to spray has dropped significantly and the good news is the trend looks set to continue.
There have been better than recent, catches of flounder, bass and sea trout along this stretch of coast in the last 3 or 4 years.
Is it because of the improved water quality or is it just cyclical?
Let's see how 2016 pans out!

Happy new year and tight lines.

Thanks for posting monkeywrasse, I found it fascinating reading due to so much overlap with my own angling history; my first use of a proper rod and reel, bought in Harbinson's of Drogheda, was at the tower, Mornington at the Boyne mouth.(Also my first blank!). I then developed some ability at Clogherhead catching mackerel and lots of dabs down the side of the pier with an occasional garfish and mullet. I also fished for rudd in old flooded quarries and trout on worm and spinners, Devon minnows etc. In my time I have seen rivers decline through excess nutrients from slurry, silage effluent, diesel spillage from fuel laundering and river drainage works. I'm sure I must have seen Ronan at Clogherhead at some stage.

Thanks for posting monkeywrasse, I found it fascinating reading due to so much overlap with my own angling history; my first use of a proper rod and reel, bought in Harbinson's of Drogheda, was at the tower, Mornington at the Boyne mouth.(Also my first blank!). I then developed some ability at Clogherhead catching mackerel and lots of dabs down the side of the pier with an occasional garfish and mullet. I also fished for rudd in old flooded quarries and trout on worm and spinners, Devon minnows etc. In my time I have seen rivers decline through excess nutrients from slurry, silage effluent, diesel spillage from fuel laundering and river drainage works. I'm sure I must have seen Ronan at Clogherhead at some stage.

I'd say you more than likely crossed lines with him once or twice in your time in Clogherhead .
The effluent run off from farms has done a lot of damage. Sure the banks along most of the Boyne is one enormous cattle farm.
Bad land management and ignorance. For the most part any effluent spills nowadays can be pin pointed back to source, but the Diesel thing, well that's something the authorities seem to be able to do fek all about. The only solution to that is to scrap the coloured diesel alltogether, every road user, haulage truck or machine operator uses the one diesel and give rebates on fuel purchased back to the commercial sector annually or quarterly, something alone those lines.