The fisherman’s Mecca on the Mask

MAYO is something of a fisherman’s Mecca. This reporter should know, having lived by the shores of the great Lough Carra for the guts of 25 years. In all that time, dozens and dozens of fishermen came and went through the doors of our house, where my mother ran a B&B for many years.

The visitors’ routine was simple; breakfast in the morning, fishing all day, porter in the evening. They were warm, hail and hearty gentlemen.

They came from the four corners of Ireland and the UK, they had a great sense of humour and they were totally at ease with life. They came back year after year after year, for the mayfly and for the trout, pike, salmon and mackerel – basically, anything with gills.

The love of fishing brought them to Mayo. What kept them coming back was camaraderie – that’s a word we’ll keep returning to.

Right next door to our home house stands a holiday home owned by a good family friend. Though domiciled in his native France, his heart is rooted to the shores of Lough Carra. Every May without fail, he arrived on the first sniff of a mayfly.

The next day there’d be another parked up. The following day there’d be five or six vehicles and a rake of boats outside a house that often slept 16 at the height of summer. Sometimes we’d even put them up in spare rooms in our own house.

Taking the plunge

THIS reporter has gone fishing the odd time, but never really got a sense of why Mayo’s rivers and lakes have captured the hearts of so many anglers.

In various interviews the declining number of fishermen has often come up in passing. So when the 65th World Cup Trout Fly Angling Championship rolled into Lough Mask, I decided it was time to finally investigate.

Off I set one overcast Wednesday evening for Cushlough, just outside Ballinrobe.

I counted over 70 vehicles, including a good few UK registrations, but very few fishermen – not for long though.

I was quickly acquainted with Joe Cusack, President of the Trout Fly Angling Championship, a man who’s been fishing Lough Mask since he was child.

“I was the winning boatman here in 1958 at 16 years of age – on the oars, no outboard engines,” he said.

This year, over 400 anglers came from far and wide to take part in the World Cup.

The numbers aren’t quite what they used to be, the competitors are getting older and the lake isn’t fishing as well as before, but the Mask is still one of the finest lakes in the land.

“There is no comparison with any other lakes around Ireland than with this lake, or Lough Corrib for that matter. They just love this great lake. It has 22,000 acres of the finest of brown trout fishing,” Joe explained.

_{Joe Cusack, President of the Trout Fly Angling Championship (Pic: Trish Forde)}

Klaxon call

FIRST started in 1953, this competition is one of the longest running and most popular in the country. At the height of its popularity, it drew over 700 fishermen who packed out every bed in the locality.

“It was great for the town. It used to be absolutely hopping that weekend in Ballinrobe,” recalls retired publican Luke Carney, who served pints and meals to hungry anglers for 27 years.

From behind the bar counter in Carney’s Bar & Restaurant in Ballinrobe’s Abbey Street, Luke saw firsthand what makes this competition so special.

That word again: camaraderie.

“I supposed the fact that they were prepared to sit in a boat all day, they were quite prepared to sit and relax in the evening. They just enjoyed meeting up and talking about the ones that got away and they might get tomorrow,” Luke recalled.

“The ones that got away were always bigger than the ones they caught, no matter how big the fish was they caught,” he added with a chuckle.

“It was always a lovely atmosphere. It was a jolly and there was never any hassle. I never heard them complaining.”

Back at Cushlough, at bang on six o’clock, an almighty klaxon peels across the lough, and an armada to put the D-Day landings to shame quickly descends upon the shore.

A chorus of chatter, leg-pulling and back-slapping fills the summer air, and before long the board beside us is nearly filled with freshly caught bounty.

It’s a tough day for some, a great day for others. That’s fishing for you.

 _{Oliver Whickham (Partry), Fergal Commican (Rosscahill, Galway), Jim Stafford(Brownstown) and Frank Brady (Partry) (Pic:Trish Forde)}

Friendships

ONE man I meet has being fishing the Mask for 12 years, another has been doing it for nearly 40. So why have they kept coming back?

“Ah sure the camaraderie and the friendship with fellow anglers and all that, what else sure?” said Gerry Kenny from Ennis, who calls the World Cup ‘one of the best competitions in Ireland’.

“It’s like a sort of a bug,” said Keith Fleming from Bessbrook on the east coast of Armagh, with an accent you couldn’t mistake.

“I do say every year that I’m not coming back, but I do come back!” he chuckled.

Pat Winning from Cork city agreed.

“It’s a bug. It isn’t all about catching fish. It’s about taking part,” Pat told me.

“They come from England, France, Germany. You meet the same people here year after year,” said Philip Kavanagh from Ashbourne in Meath, echoing a sentiment expressed by many.

“There’d be a great aul’ atmosphere and a bit of craic,” said Terry McGovern (no relation) from Belcoo in Fermanagh, who hasn’t missed a competition in 35 years.

“The only sad thing is there’s a lot of the older folks… like Robbie O’Grady, Sean Maloney, big Denis O’Keeffe, all good friends of mine, that has passed on. And it’s not the same from May. We miss them lads here.”

But those still fishing know the craic is still there.

“It’s the camaraderie, it’s the boys, it’s north, south, east and west,” said Islandeady man Tom Carroll. “It doesn’t matter who you are if you are a fisherman.”

I must head out to Lough Carra sometime myself.