English anglers disappointed at fishing

There are loads of fish of all descriptions but they have all migrated to deep water lakes away from the more traditional fishing shallow lakes and rivers and this development is courtesy of the zebra mussel. Three English anglers who have been coming to fish in Cavan for years explained that the waters have gone clear in the shallow lakes and rivers and fish do not like such clarity and light because they are at a much greater risk from predators. Steve Tilzey, Keith Devine and David Hardy all hail from the South Manchester area and are very concerned about the fact that the angling in this region is not reaching its full potential due to the zebra mussel. They revealed that it may take a number of years for the mussel population to disappear when they have nothing to feed on. Keith Devine said it was his 20th trip to Ireland and, while the weather had been perfect, the fishing had not been good at all. On one day they fished from 4am to 10pm without getting a bite on a pre-baited area. In former years they had bags of fish in excess of 300lb each. They fished three pre-bated areas without much success. They blame the zebra mussel, predation and water management for the decline in fishing stocks in the traditional fishing areas. They pointed out that fish feed much better in coloured waters. They have seen a lot of clear water and lots of zebra mussels during this fishing trip. The shoals of fish have moved into the deep waters and anglers would need to go out in boats to attempt to catch them and there is no way of keeping the boats from moving. Keith, David and Steve said they wished to make it clear that the fish have not disappeared, but have just moved. The small fish are not in the shallow lakes and rivers either in the large numbers of former years. The small fish should be moved from the land-locked deep water lakes into the rivers and other angling lakes. For example, you could take 10,000 out of one of those landlocked lakes and put them out in a place like Rann. At this time mother nature needs a helping hand to restock the normal angling areas. The zebra mussel eats the small fish and not much can be done to eliminate it until it dies off when its food sources are gone. There are some roach visible but the bream have all moved.While they point out that there is no sport in the man made commercial fisheries in England; David Hardy explained that you can park beside these fisheries and you can even put in an order for a bacon buttie and there are tackle shops on the sites. Keith Devine said there is a wonderful tackle and bait shop in Killeshandra and the bait prices are better than in England and they stayed at McGoverns self catering accommodation at Loughinchin in Deredis. These three same anglers had an interesting experience in 2007 when they were fishing on the Tawlaugh lake between Cavan and Killeshandra. Steve Tilzey had netted a roach with a swim feeder bait and a fox arrived on the scene out of the blue and grabbed the fish off the hook and made off with it in a flash, as barefaced as you like. Keith Devine took a series of photographs of the incident. Steve Tilzey said it was the first fish of the day and he had just shouted out that he had hooked one. Then the fox then pounced and had its own catch of the day. The sale of the photographs to a UK newspaper payed for the men's fishing trip to Cavan on this occasion.