Well things didn't go to plan this April for me, I lost a lot of my days guiding on the water due to a car accident I was in. When you are in an accident, fishing is the last thing on your mind, but the main thing is everyone is ok, it's only a car and I can get back at what I love to do... fishing and guiding on the lovely Lough Arrow, Glencar and Lough Melvin. I'd like to thank all the well-wishers as well.

When I got back on the water Arrow has been in one of those moods with very high water for this time of year and cold winds blowing. Hailstones occurring in the middle of a duckfly hatch doesn't help a lot with fishing. As a result, the fish have stayed deep, so pulling a fast intermediate and DI3 lines have helped. I was anxious to try out my Fulling Mill range to see how they fared so we had on the Fiery Brown and Black Stimulator from my collection, and they accounted for quite a few of the fish caught. Over on Melvin, pulling over the shallows was best and on some days the fish came out to play, but overall the fishing was just not as good as last April.

The buzzer fishing also fell to this foul weather with just the odd day that suited. On the good days the fishing was pretty good, but unfortunately the next day the weather could change again so there was no consistency in the fishing. Another problem I came across this April was trying to find the duckfly holes with the water levels being so high on the shores. At times it was impossible to find that hole and get the right cast into it, but when you got it right you got your fish. Hopefully we can lose these cold winds and things start to warm up for next month and it's not like last May sitting in a boat in the middle of May with a beanie on your head with all the warm gear on.