Here are a couple of photographs from Sunday at a fishery recommended to me by one of the Irish Ladies and Youth coaches. Rathcon has a spectacular setting and over the years has matured into a fantastic fishery with some of the hardest fighting fish I have come across. The set up is around 7 acres and consists of several lagoons interlinked by spits of land and bridges to give almost 90% access to the water and ranges from 4 to 20 feet deep with a dam wall at one end where the big boys lurk.
There is a fisherman's lodge with picnic benches and inside there are coffee and tea making facilities with the requisites supplied by anglers who are all to willing to share and a well documented returns book that shows how well this place fishes.
I think that Dermot and his dad, Peter, are to be congratulated for the work that they have put into this gem and the warm welcome that all fishermen receive from them.
This fish here provided the angler, Declan Whelan, with the catch of his life when it weighed in at a conservative estimate of 15 lbs. I was on the far side and when he hooked into it and it took me nearly 10 mins to get around with my camera when he had just got it to the net. I think that he is still shaking with surprise yet!
!0 Minutes after taking the photograph of Declan Whelan and the 15lb shock of his lifetime, I hooked into and landed a 10 - 11 lb specimen who stripped off line fast enough to give me line burn on my fingers before managing to stop him on the backing! Now why didn't I photograph my success?
A Diamond in the Emerald Isle
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you must of been gutted not taking a pictue of the one you caught 
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