When Pike Attack!
Paul and I first met John Newman (aka, John the Pom) in his home in Tasmania in 2009. We had loads in common. We enjoyed the finer things in life such as Frank Zappa, moonshine, sealsfur, Hairy Castles, the local pub, The Sheep Shearers Ball and fly-fishing. With such things in common a life long friendship was inevitable.
John emailed me recently to tell me that he was going to be in Ireland in August and he wanted some information on where to go to catch a pike on the fly. As luck would have it I was going to be in the country at the time so a date was set to chase down a Corrib pike.
Sometimes a day afloat is as much about having the craic as it is about catching a fish. This was definitely one of those days. In fact, the craic was probably more important. The fishing was shite anyway. We put in a serious effort none the less. We went to parts of the 44’000 acre lough where John O Malley and myself had great sport in the past with fish to well over 20lbs. The big girls were not out to play however. On the bright side though, John got his first ever pike, and his second which got his first ever human (see pic!). The time-space continuum nicely in balance!
John and John, It was a great day!
Ronan..
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- John the Pom and myself about to take on some Corrib Pike!
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- John chooses one of O Malleys vast supply of pike flies!
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- “I’ll have this one”!! John had never caught a pike on the fly so that was the objective!
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- Success!!!
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- A happy man after succeeding in his mission. You my remember John from many of my Tasmanian blogs from a few years ago. He happened to be in Ireland while I was home so we drank Guinness and fished!
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- Two dappers enjoying ideal conditions for their sport..
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- A fantastic Corrib sky..
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- Another Pike for John Newman! But this one is very angry….
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- …the little pike jumped from Johns grip and tried to eat him, index finger first. It was like a scene from Sharknado.. only Pikenado! Terrifying…
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- One for John O Malley on the last drift of the day! No big boys out on that day which was a dam shame!!
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- The end of my last fishing day in Ireland for a while.
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- John takes us home. He knows every rock on the Corrib, even the one he hit passing on the inside of Mollies Rock. “Nobody should ever pass on the inside of Mollies Rock” he said..
