Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)
Hi,
John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.
I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.
With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.
I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.
If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.
I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.
I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.
Thank you
Darragh Sherwin
Ferox Trout Season 2011
Season is already closed, but can't wait for next one
For the moment there will be more pike and perch fishing 
Enjoy watching
Tight lines,
Tomi
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Do you catch the majority of them trolling? I hope you've been to see the 26lb record fish in the natural history museum.
Cheers,
Patrick
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these fish are rarely taken on the fly although a hand full are every year from various locations around the country. THe biggest I have ever taken on the fly was a 12 pounder from Lough Owel and that was 10 years ago, caught the fish on the first weekend of the season using a nymph in about 40 foot of water.
Most of the ferox or at least the bigger ones are taken on dead-baits intended for pike. Or at least allegedly intended for pike
If you look at the likes of the Shannon region fisheries web page catch reports for the last 10 to 15 years, you will see this is the case for both lake and river. On the Shannon for instance, the biggest fish every year are taken on dead-baits, the same is typically true for the likes of the Corib and Mask too.
Its usually only for the mayfly or green peter hatches that these impressive fish even bother moving off the bottom of the water column.
The fact that they rarely move from the bottom of the water column explains why they are frequently caught trolling with downriggers.
If you are interested and do a bit of trolling, i can give you details of a very effective rig that I have used
they can be bought in the US, never found them in this country. They are however very easy to make. If you make your own traces for pike fishing, you will already have most of the items required.Cheers,
Bill.
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the one thing that stuck with me about the ferox i got on Owel 10 years back was the abuse I got for returning the fish
It took over 20 minutes to get the fish to the net as I only had a 4lb tippet on at the time and by the time I got the fish to the net; there was a crowd of lads gathered around in boats. I took a photo of the fish and returned to the water after holding it while it recovered. On letting the fish go, there was a chorus of "are you f***ng nuts, that’s the biggest fish I have ever seen on this lake". My take on it was that the fish was probably the bones of 20 years old, most likely regularly spawning in the streams that enter the lake and why the hell should it be killed. I asked this of several of the people throwing the abuse at me and the response was to get it mounted on plaque. I know I caught the fish, I have a photo to prove it, and can’t get my head around why the hell I should have it on a wall at home. Each to their own I guess, but that’s just my take on it.
I have been sea fishing with guys and the crew of us have taken tope that would beat the national record. To claim the record would mean killing the fish, so to hell with a record, the fish were returned. In one case, the skipper of the charter boat measured the fish, calculated the weight at over 95lbs, even allowing for the margin for error, this was a record breaker. The fish was returned alive with no discussion or debate. Only after she was returned, the skipper informed us that he would refuse to let any crew on his boat kill such a magnificent specimen just to claim a certificate.
There are a lot of people in this country, and not just from eastern europe, who will kill every fish they catch. I have witnessed people taking tench and bream from canals home for the table.
Fortunately there are enough people out there who practice catch and release too.
sorry for the rant
Cheers,
Bill.
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