Monday, 1st March 2010 -  the start of the trout fishing season which opens the doors to the famous Lough Sheelin.  After deciding on an early 7pm start,  with a cold -5 over night frost and thick fog , I knew things were going to be hard and slow.  The water temperature was only 2.6 c and after trolling for most of the morning with no joy,  I decided a change was needed so I tried out the shallow bays, but still nothing.....

So back I went to trolling.   At 3.30am the Buster X lure was hit and hit hard....after a short while I knew it wasn't a pike but a good trout.  She went on some good fast deep dives and as she swam away I thought there was no stopping her, I applied some pressure and managed to turn her and she was now heading back towards me like a steam train, I kept winding as fast as I could but I thought she had slipped the hooks until the next thing I caught up with her and that made her angry as she nearly went air born, I brought the rod up high and slipped the net under her as she tired.  Even under water it looked much bigger than my last P.B and to my shock the scales went around to 15lb 4oz. The adrenalin was now going through my viens as I realised what had just happenend