Shadtastic!!

A plan was hatched a few months back to meet up with some mates
Marty, Austin and Cliff and go and try for some Twaite Shad.

The Twaite is a sea living fish which returns each year to spawn and are incredibly
good fighting and acrobatic fish and have been likened to an Irish version of the
almighty Tarpon

This is a species of fish that I had tried but failed to get before a good few years back
but I put it down to simply not knowing enough about how to best target them and a lack
of expierience on my part this year however was different.

The date was set and last Thursday, I finished work and headed down to meet the three guys
who had the camp already set and had very kindly given me space in the tent.
Plenty of banter and fair amount of beer was consumed that night and with an early start my
anticipation was rising with the possibility of getting to wet a line and maybe pick up a few of
these Shad.

Friday morning we arose to a decent enough morning albeit a bit windy so we headed down to the river
and Marty was first into the fish with a cracking specimen sized fish of  2lb 14oz

we fished on and I was next with my first ever shad not a big one by any means and a while
later I was into my first proper shad of 2lb 9oz......my first ever specimen sized fish

We had a few other fish that day but I didnt spend too much time taking photos
as these are an incredibly fragile and delicate fish that really should be handled with
great care and returned almost immediately.

The next day we fished again and we all had more fish.......

I did manage to get a nice sequence of shots of Austin bent into and landing a nice specimen sized
fish

That was Saturday and after a very tough days fishing it was time for a few pints and banter

Sunday morning it was early to rise and conditions were looking lovely with little or no breeze
to make a change and with some other mates coming down David ,Tomek, Kuba, and Dave
it had the makings of a cracking day.

We all met up and fished on

A truly fantastic day with everybody getting in amongst the fish and some really nice fish too with
our average size over the weekend being 2lb in weight

I also am led to believe that the majority of our fish were hybrids of the Allis and Twaite shad
with the only true Twaite I saw being caught without the need for a scale sample was from
David.....

A stunning looking fish with the characteristic black dots and rainbow colouration clearly visible


I did also manage some of the gorgeous albeit very ambitious wild Brown Trout that also live
in the river...

I feel I have to say that although the fishing looked like it was fantastic , we really put in some hard work
in some very tough and challenging conditions with very high winds and some very heavy rain and hail
making the fishing far from easy.

A truly cracking weekend and a massive thanks has to go out to the Marty , Austin and Cliff for showing
me the ropes, giving me some tips and tricks and also putting me up in the tent ......Thanks Guys

I enjoyed every minute of the weekend and I already cant wait for next year

Anyway thanks for reading I really could go on and on about this particular fishing trip but
as they say a picture says a thousand words.........

I really hope you enjoyed reading this blog as much as I've enjoyed writing it

Roll on next year..........

Tight lines

Jay