It was late Friday evening when I noticed a message from Kuba asking if I would accompany him to Ardaire Springs.  No problem, and as the forecast was for cold calm conditions I reckoned there was a chance of a BIG fish.  As usual I set up 2 Hardy rods, one with a floating and one with sinking line.  Two of Kuba’s friends were there and Mick, Martin and Dave arrived shortly after.  Kuba and I started off with bloodworms and his friends opted for lures.  They were first into the fish . . .

. . . .but then Kuba hooked up on the worm.

I was into a bow at the same time!

There were a few fish moving subsurface but not a lot was being caught.  I decided to switch to the sinker supplied to me recently by Waterford Angling & Outdoor and added a dropper.  I put a Tarantula blob on the dropper and a mini booby on the point.   A cast or two later and I was into something serious on the Tarantula.  Ned was beside me and caught sight of the beast.  He and Martin quickly removed their lines from the water and Ned offered to land the fish for me.  After a good battle a superb double figure brown was in the net . . . CRACKER!!!

A few photos and Martin measured the fish at around 75cm (and it wasn’t even straight!).  It was time to release the fin perfect beauty.  What a start to 2024!!!

After that I didn’t fish too hard, trying a few new flies and tactics for the future.  Kuba and the boys had a few on lures and Martin had some nice fish on his secret buzzer.  The odd trout was taken on buzzers and worms fished deep and really slow.  Quite a few anglers fished the lake and I doubt anyone had more than 8 trout which is exceptionally low for this fishery but although quantity was down on this occasion the quality certainly made up for it.