shad fishing st mullins 4/5th may

[Ronald]

People:Myself ,Davy ,Marty and his mate cliff with daughter lauren .

Duration:2 days fishing

Tide:

Weather:rain to start clearing to brilliant sunshine

Bait:various lures

Rigs:

Results:Shad ,seatrout ,brown trout .




Report:
After always hearing about the shad fishing on the river barrow we had eventually got ourselves organised ,everyone booked holidays from work and tamanian devils stocked up on .
So after leaving bangor at 4am on sunday morning with the car packed to the roof with tents/bivvys ,food and all the usual camping stuff we set of ,on arrival to st mullins at about 7.30 it was raining hard as forecasted but we knew this was to clear ,sitting in the car watching the other anglers hooking fish and losing just as many ( shad are masters at throwing the hook ) the rain started to ease so a quick decision was made to fish for a couple of hours before setting up camp on the village green .
The first shad fell to davy who had changed from the regulation blue and silver tas to a blue and pink tas Marty was next, and I was getting regular hits but no solid hook ups :cry: , eventually getting my first fish half an hour after everyone else had landed a couple of fish each ,this morning session ended up producing 11 shad for the 3 of us 5 to davy 4 for me and 2 for marty not bad for our first crack at shad fishing , so it was back up to the village green and set up camp ,by now the rain had stopped and it was brilliant sunshine . The afternoon was spent sleeping or going to the village pub .
When the evening tide arrived we made our way down to the river to find alot more anglers around and we could only fish further up river ,not a bad thing it turned out :lol: , we started fishing together but as time went on and not alot of hits we split up and went hunting further upriver , I stopped at a spot for a few casts a and the rest of the guys kept going I was there about 10 mins before I hit my first fish on a purple and pink tas and I was soon joined by davy then marty ,cliff and lauren , I managed to land 28 shad from this spot all on the pink and purple tas and my first specimen shad . I'm not sure of the other guys totals as they left me to it as they were knackered and headed back to the camp for some grub and relax .
Just after they left a couple of Foreign nationals moved into there spots ,I watched as one guy managed about a dozen fish which went straight into the rucksack :evil: I did think about approching him but as far as I know there isn't a bag limit on shad which is a shame as they are only good as a sports fish and no good for the table ,and also with these fish being so rare maybe they should be given a sports fish only listing as over fishing could do serious damage to a relativley small breeding population .
I moved on as the light was starting to go and I'd no head lamp with me but on the way back down the river I stopped in a few spots and had a few casts in each picking up a few more fish in the end I had 39 shad that day just couldn't break the 40 mark though if I'd landed all the fish hooked it would have been a different matter .
The monday morning came to quick and after a few hours sleep it was time to get back on the water for the early tide ,there weren't so many fish around and the water was a bit dirtyier , but we still managed a fair amount of fish again ,by now we were trying to shake the fish of at the edge rather than land them unless they were adecent size marty and cliff both had several 2lb plus fish and I foul hooked a cracker at 2lb 13oz which doesn't count for a specimen as it was hooked just behind the pectoral fin :cry: but still put up a fantastic fight clearing the water several times before coming to the net .
Again the evening session was poor compared to previous nights sessions but this could have been because of a combination of things, dirty water/alot of boat traffick/and a seal making an appearance .
That night a decision was made to up camp in the morning and head down to the coast after mullet and bass around dungarvan for the day before heading for home on the wednesday morning .
This was our first time shad fishing and we all agreed we'd definetly be back next year for another go at these fantastic fighting fish ,god knows what the fight would be like if they went to double figures ,mini tarpoon :lol:

Last edited by Ronald on Fri May 09, 2008 1:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Good Report, Ronald. Great fishing & pics. I've been promising myself a trip to St. Mullins for many a year.

Know what you mean about the protection issue. Found this some time ago [url]http://www.cfb.ie/fisheries_research/SHAD/article.htm[/url].
Don't know if anything else has been done in the area of protection since then.

Ronald...

you should have approached the lads...put a bug in there ear anyway :evil:

Great reading fella, keep them coming. some distance to travel and I'm glad you got your fish. well done. I would love to fish for them, am I right in saying they only hang around the river for a couple of weeks then move on

Great report :D

Fishing wasnt bad either :wink:

Hi,
Think we arrived just as you were breaking camp on tuesday, we only had the three fish on the day, but one was a specimen so i was happy camper!
Great sport fish, was wondering how long it would be before people would arrive and keep everything.
A Seal ! thats some way up river for a seal, suppose it was just following the shoals up-river.
I take it you were getting the most fish on the flood?
regards
screeming

Ronald...

you should have approached the lads...put a bug in there ear anyway :evil:

Problem is some of these people take offence and/or become aggressive.

One site member was abused by some of these lads because he threw fish back and would not give them over to them. Different culture, and I don't mean to be racist in any way with that comment.

I understand...suppose it helps when you have no respect for yourself and even less for others who abuse situations :?

Not trying to be a hard man but I have no problem approaching these situations and it can get a bit snippy if not handled right :lol:

I see abusing one owns natural resourses or resourses of an adopted country as being one of the most sick things :twisted:

From beer cans to litter to under sized fish!!

Foreign Nationals have to be told about numbers of fish been taken, there coming from a place where its the norm buts its the highest disrespect to come to another country and abuse it, we all know about declining fish stocks so if we dont say something to them who will???

Great fishing well worth the trip!!!

I understand...suppose it helps when you have no respect for yourself and even less for others who abuse situations :?

Not trying to be a hard man but I have no problem approaching these situations and it can get a bit snippy if not handled right :lol:

I see abusing one owns natural resourses or resourses of an adopted country as being one of the most sick things :twisted:

From beer cans to litter to under sized fish!!

Not sure I get your first remark hush1, reads like I don't have respect for myself and even less for others. I don't see where you make that out, but maybe that's just me, or maybe I've read you wrong.

The point I was making was you need to be careful if you do make an approach, to anyone, foreign nationals or otherwise. I have in the past 'advised' people, Irish and non-Irish, that they are breaking regulations or going against the norm, some listened some did not. Didn't get me head cracked either way. :D

great report Ronald, and some nice fishing. have never fished for shad myself, do they put up much of a fight :?: .......btw still having trouble up in this neck of the woods with foreign nationals, have done very little piking this year because of them.....

you read me wrong..I was chatting about myself!

You have to approach these situations being smart...but you must get your point accross :wink:

Trickey though...suppose I just dont have the patience to walk by a situation and say nothing and it probably will result a bad sitaution some day but you got to stand up for what you believe in.....

Cheers for the coments guys , as for the fn ,The main reason I didn't say anything was the lack of knowledge surrounding the amount of fish you are allowed to keep , there are no limits for shad and loads of other fish , and starting a situation that prob would have turned ugly ( I'm not very tactful ) didn't seem like a good idea on a river bank with no witnesses .
Maybe on hindsight a quick word and leave it at that would have been a better option , I might stick a poll up and gauge interest on a set limit for shad and get the ball rolling on some sort of protection for next years fish before it's to late ,as thankfully the shad will only be around for another couple of weeks whilst spawning .

good read there's always 1 mindless twit that knocks every fish on the head probably still didn't even eat them :D :roll:

excellent report ronald, pity about the over zealous fish nabbers, seems to be you get them everywhere now, even with the wealth of info in the public domain on declining fish stocks. but then again these people are the same who dump rubbish at roadsides and let thier dogs foul in public. i think they just could'nt care less. another example of the " so what, brigade". :evil:

tats nice fishing lads wud love 2 hav a pop at the shads bt can never find the time.

Nice one Ronald looks like it was worth the trip.

Dont Know anything about these fish. Was wondering is the Barrow the only river they spawn on? Or are they found on the Suir etc and the other tributories?
Has anyone ever caught them on fly tactics?

Anyhow good report - good fishing. Did you take any mullet / bass in dungarvan?
tm

Great fishing Ronald ...Well done !!!

Pity about the foreigners but this seems to be going on all over the country.Where are the baliffs when they're needed :evil: :evil: