Peter Gathercole falls for the beautiful trout of a sparkling river in Tipperary
FLOWING SOUTH THROUGH some of Ireland’s most fertile limestone terrain, the River Suir offers wonderful fishing for wild brown trout. Some of its most accessible beats are controlled by Cahir Angler’s Association, which was where I found myself last June in the company of Ian Gaskill, an accomplished angler whom I’ve known for years, and England International John Horsey. Cahir town bustles just off the M8 in County Tipperary in the heart of southern Ireland. It took a while to find a parking spot close to the Heritage Sandwich Bar and general store, which sold the fishing tickets. The shop was handy as we were able to get food and drink to keep us going on a warm day.
The section we were to fish runs through Cahir, which is dominated by its castle, built in 1142 by Conchobar Ua Briain, the King of Thomond, a region that equates today with the counties of Limerick, Clare and part of Tipperary.
Gaelic names with Anglicised spellings can lead to confusion. I think I pronounced the river’s name correctly as “sure” but found out it was spelled Suir. Similarly, after floundering around with “Ka-hear”, I was gently informed Cahir was closer to “care” — the H almost silent.
We decided to have a quick recce upstream before starting to fish. As we had little idea of what lay ahead, our hearts sank as we passed a long stretch of shallow, open water. It was liberally dotted with tall reeds, and though we could see plenty of trout, the river’s slow pace and silty bottom made it all but impossible to fish, or land a trout if one were hooked.
So, on we went, working our way upstream over stiles, past a heavily tree-lined section and then into a wider, more open reach, where we passed a solitary angler fishing from the other bank — rather successfully. With a hatch of olives in progress, he was picking off fish after fish. They weren’t that big, but every now and again his rod-tip would stay down as he connected with something substantial.
We carried on and eventually reached a much wider spot, deciding that this was as far as we would go. Although it was expansive, there was a strong flow and a few fish were rising. As this was our first day, we only had two hours, and as we didn’t have a guide until the following day, we decided we were wasting too much time. We dashed back to the car for the rods and a drink, and then spent what little time we had catching a few nice fish that sipped down our small CDC patterns. At least we had been able to get a taste of what the river had to offer.
