The last month or has been busy getting final footage and editing done for a few projects with Anglers View Media. This has meant I have done little fishing aside from being asked to arrange a few days for a group of American musicians over in Ireland with Kelly Clarkson for her concert in the O2 Arena in Dublin.
Some of the group were here during the summer and fished with me on some lakes for trout. This time they wanted to fish for pike. On the first day Kelly’s boyfriend Brandon Blackstock and I headed for midlands and we started on a river which was clear but running high. Most American anglers love to fish lures and Brandon and I had plenty of action throughout the day from the boat on small lures including Rapala shad raps and soft plastic shads. Some small pike and a few nice perch but the bigger pike avoided capture although we did see one very big fish break the surface and we both reckon was well over 20 lb and would be a specimen for an Irish river. We covered this fish with lures and wobbled dead-baits but to no avail. We fished till dark before packing up.
On the second day Kelly Clarkson’s sister Alyssa had a day free from the concert work and she decided to get out fishing too. It was her first time in Ireland and with only a few days here she wanted to see and do as much as she could.
Pike were on the move but the first two fish were hooked and lost, again on light lures. Then Alyssa eventually hooked a fish and landed it, this time a perch. For a few more hours we tried all the lures in the box, but had no more strikes.[slideshow gallery_id=”5″]
On the way back towards the car in the late afternoon, I decided it was worth an hours dead-bait fishing. We set the floats about 5 or 6 feet and fished roach and herring. The water was slow close to a bridge, and we were only float trolling about 5 minutes when the first fish took. This turned out to be a small pike but the 2nd take proved to be a better fish. After a short but exciting fight mostly in the reed beds along the riverbank, Alyssa landed her first decent Irish pike. The fish was about 12 lb and was certainly bigger than the small-mouth bass Alyssa was used to fishing for back home. A quick photo and the fish was released. rj