The Luck of the Irish!!

Hi Paul and all at Lonsdale,  hope all is well.  

                                                                      I am just getting in  touch to share our experiences of  the truly fantastic  time we have just had during our week’s stay at the  park, and there’s only way to describe it, a session of a life time!

Straight from the off all 3 of us were catching carp, which was a bit of a surprise due to the weather conditions that we were faced with but it soon became clear that the fish were up for a feed, and as the days went on the fishing just got better and better.

Most of the time my Brother Aaron couldn’t keep a rod in the water due to constant double takes, he really did have them in a feeding frenzy, he ended up with a grand total of 59 carp ranging from low doubles to the biggest at 22lb 12oz, a cracking common, which I think is a fantastic achievement considering he was only fishing from just before first light to around midnight, mainly due to the fact that he was well and truly shattered from his constant hauling and needed a good night’s sleep.

Dad and I also had some excellent sport as well with Dad landing a total of 37 carp and 29 for me, with most fish ranging in the mid double, to high teens, again caught on a mix of Richworth and Lonsdale peach & pepper freezer baits over Lonsdale halibut pellet.

The carp weren’t  the only species on the feed as Dad soon found out when he decided to have a go for the pike, after witnessing the constant showers of roach scattering the surface trying to evade capture, and he wasn’t disappointed either, for he had regular takes on  float fished roach and mackerel. Again they came thick and fast in only a few hours fishing each day, and it’s here we have to give testament to you and all at Lonsdale for the superb condition these fish were in not to mention the fantastic average size of just over 12lb topped by the biggest going exactly 22lb.

 At one point he did have a much, much bigger fish on only for her to slip the hooks at the net, gutted wasn’t the word and when asked how big he thought she was he said he wouldn’t  like to estimate her size, but  it was a beast of epic proportions!!!

After experiencing the quality of pike fishing on offer Aaron and I soon decided to follow suit and have a dabble ourselves, and we too managed to bag ourselves a few toothy critters to mid doubles.

I have to say the pike fishing was one of the many great highlights of the trip as unfortunately here in N. Ireland the piking has somewhat diminished over the years due to reasons beyond the anglers control, so it was a real joy to experience  quality pike fishing again.

We even had a few surprises along the way as well in the form of a 1lb 10oz roach, a 19lb pike both caught on boilie a cheeky 2lb perch that had a go at dead bait much too big for it, 3 tench, 2 chub and a UFO for good measure, lol.

All in all an amazing week, and one we will always remember.

No doubt we will be seeing you in the new year, which can’t come quick enough even more so for Dad as he has a score to settle with the Beast!, all the best and tight lines,

                                                                    Michael, Ryan & Aaron Mcilwaine,

                                                                                     Belfast.

Thanks for sending us the write -up & some of the photos from your weeks stay.