I’d like to thank everyone who came along to the Club Day at Rathcon Lake, Grangecon on Sunday 29th April. It was a lovely day weather wise – although finding sheet ice in the car park at 9 AM was a bit of a surprise. Considering some of the rain that we’ve had recently Sunday was almost perfect – in fact a bit too bright at times for fishing – with a breeze coming along now and then. However there was fishing all day right through to 7 PM and we could have fished on! Obviously the lure of winning ‘Buggles Brexit Bung’ was a very strong incentive to some….
It was great to see new and young members fishing – Gavan Woods and his son Oliver put in several hours at the start. Frank Reynolds came along after lunch and Sinead and Seamus managed to stop him from fishing by talking about cub scouts, camping and the local landowners for an hour or so – careful Frank, you’ll end up with a place on the Committee soon! Sorry guys but I didn’t get any photo’s of you actually fishing though!
I have to say that sitting in the Club House mid afternoon with the sun streaming down, a hot cup of tea, piece of cake and discussing the ‘one that got away’ – life doesn’t get much better. In my defence – I have to say that this time it really was a monster! I think it was the same one that broke Ray Creighton’s hook later on….
As ever Dermot Page deserves great praise for ensuring that the day was as good as it gets. The lake is now stocked with both brownies and rainbows and both are thriving with fish to a decent size being caught. The lake offers a large variety of different fly fishing haunts – from deep (20ft plus) to shallow, narrow to broad, side of lake and points, pathways and banks, and is actually quite difficult in places to make a good cast. This all adds to the pleasure as it is not your typical man-made, featureless water.
Joe and Pádraig Heffernen were the first into the fish with several hooked and lost before a decent sized one was landed. They kept this up all day from all around the lake and ended up with 3 and 6 respectively -much to Joe’s annoyance (Joe says that he taught Pádraig everything he knows – clearly he is far too good a teacher!).
Now you see him, now you don’t! Seamus Buggle gets a close up view of how the Heffernans land a fish.
Ray Warrick took up a strategic position at the end of the point, and stayed there – 
and stayed there….
and stayed there…
Finally going into ‘stealth mode’ to catch several fish….
He is actually there – if you look closely enough! Well done to Ray for being the days most persistant angler…..
Now – Ray Creighton took up a spot opposite Ray W – on the basis that Ray W must have scared all the fish towards him… He does look happy doesn’t he – as he tries out his new reel….
Let’s put that into perspective – literally….
Oh – OK then…. take the zoom lens off…
Hopefully you can now see why this is such a great beauty of a lake…. plenty of local plant life generating places for bugs to live on – and fall in!
And Ray W continues to hold on to his prime spot!
Some more of the Heffernans in action –
And finally…. get him straight back into the water to fight another day!
Time for one last cup of tea, then pack away the kit and head for home…
and one last picture or two as the light fades…
Can I see Ray W still out there fishing?
Waiting for the fish! 
