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Pike Fishing The Pike fishing at Belle Isle lends itself very well to all the recognised and well-known methods, especially with having the availability and mobility of excellent boats with first class outboards and equipped with anchors, to explore and fish the many hundreds of acre’s of the upper Lough Earne system a combination of river style, small and large Lough fishing is on the doorstep. However there is a great deal of bank fishing available for either static bait fishing or wandering with a spinning rod. Recommended, successful and well-tried and tested methods are as follows. Float fishing on a running rig in the moving water with the normal baits such as roach, mackerel, sprat, herring, whiting etc is very successful due to the fact that a great deal of water can be explored and covered. 12ft 2.5lb test curve rods with free runner style reels loaded with a minimum of 15lb mono are recommended, along with sliding float rigs and barbless treble hooks. Static float fishing also works well in the back eddies and Loughs, utilising the same equipment, along with static ledgered baits, suspended or on the bottom, when fishing this method it is recommended that attractants are used with the baits. Trolling is a very versatile method and again very successful in covering a great deal of water, care must be taken in certain areas where there is boat traffic, the same tackle for static and float fishing can be used and would recommend the use of a fish finder/depth sounder if available along with portable trolling locks to attach to the boat but neither essential. Lures or baits can be trolled Lure Fishing is a very successful method at Belle Isle, a stout 10ft spinning rod with a reasonable ball bearing spinning reel capable of loading with at least 10/12lb mono is recommended. As the water is generally clear and the fish are well renowned for being sight feeders, floating and sinking plugs work well, the Rapala Shad Rap is highly recommended, bright silver spoons and other such lures can equally work very well and the diversity of water conditions lend itself to experimentation. Jerk Bait Fishing has taken many good Pike and does tend to seek out the bigger fish, but not as many as other methods, the specialised Jerk bait rods available of 6ft to7ft with a multiplier, loaded with 25lb braid are recommended, Lures of Hot Orange, Rainbow trout and silver and blue patterns work well, however many other colours have been successful. It is recommended that anglers who have never fished Jerk Baits before gain advice before departing in techniques and buying the right tackle and traces. Fly Fishing, again a specialised technique and advice should be gained for novices, an 11ft single-handed grilse type fly rod capable of casting an 7/8 floating or sinking line is recommended with at least 30yds of backing line on the reel. Fly leaders of braid or stout nylon of 30lb plus should be used and bright gawdy Pike flies along with mouse patterns have proved successful. All the above methods can be fished from either boat or bank and we strongly recommend that un-hooking mats, weigh slings, large fine mesh knotless landing nets, good quality forceps are included in the anglers equipment as the policy of conservation, safe and careful handling and catch and release of the Pike is thoughtfully adopted and we discourage anglers retaining Pike in keep Sacks. Bream Fishing Feeder Fishing this the most successful method by far for the Bream, Feeder rods of 12ft with medium to heavy tips are recommended, however swing tip and quiver tips can be used. The Bream are not shy so fishing very light is not necessary, fishing with braided line is now considered the normal, for good bite detection and direct hook-ups, with hook length of 4lb or 5lb and size 16 to 18 spade end hooks. When fishing with corn size 10 to 12 is preferable. Open-ended feeders of 1oz are more than adequate. Float Fishing is also a very good method for taking bream and can be a great deal of fun once the fish have moved into the swim, again fishing fine is not an issue and the larger waggler floats, reels loaded with 5lb mono are recommended with the same hook sizes as in the feeder fishing, 12 ft stiff action float come waggler rods are the norm. Pole Fishing is often adopted especially for anglers wishing to match practice and brush up on pole techniques and with so many bream to be caught, sport can be fast and furious. 12 mt poles with a stiff action, along with larger scaled up pole float rigs are recommended and the advice is to tie up and prepare the rigs before fishing. General Coarse Fishing Along with the fantastic Bream fishing, there is some amazing roach, hybrids and perch fishing, in fact one of the problems encountered by the dedicated Bream angler, is getting through the roach as they often take the bait on the drop before it gets to the Bream and the Roach fishing should not be discounted as large bags and sizable specimens are often taken and many an angler have had fun filled productive angling days fishing for these species and all the methods mentioned previously can be adopted in catching these fish, boats and bank fishing is available in abundance when engaged in the general coarse fishing. Recommended baits and tackle, hook baits such as coloured maggots, caster, worm and corn all work well. Ground baiting with fine brown simple breadcrumb, mixed with corn, hemp and caster is very much the standard. We advise at least 12ft knotless fine mesh large keep nets and many anglers bring two as catches of 250lb plus are not un-common. Continental style seat boxes with adjustable legs for fishing in the water are also recommended, but not essential, along with a decent sized landing net. Here at Belle Isle we are very conservation minded and do ask that every care is taken in caring for and looking after the fish, especially when returning large net full’s back to the water. Swims at Belle Isle can be pre-booked and pre-baited and bait and tackle can be purchased very locally at Dave and Norma Ensor’s guesthouse Aghnacarra in the nearby Carrybridge, there are also other well stocked tackle shops in Enniskillen where local licences can be purchased. Game Angling For the angler wishing to go Game Angling we have within striking distance Lough Melvin renowned for Salmon, Trout and the little known species of Gillaroo and Sonaghan, also the nearby Coolebrooke river has excellent fly fishing for trout. Belle Isle is happy to organise and advise on the game fishing within the area. Belle Isle Estate |
