Ever since I was a young boy my Daddy and also my Grandparents have taken me fishing. My
grandad is 85 and granny is 82. They live near me and we regularly travel to lakes in Roundwood.
I caught my first fish there when I was only 3. We were in a boat and I caught it fly fishing. It was big
enough for me to eat and we took it home. Grandad said I should taste my first trout, and it was
nice.
When we go there now, we return our fish back to the water alive. This leaves them there to breed
again. Grandad says when there is plenty of small fish this is a good sign.
The water is very clean, and has lots of insects, and nice plants and weeds grow there. We see deer
sometimes drinking along the shore. Some other animals I have seen are an otter, lots of ducks,
kingfishers and grasshoppers in the long grass beside the lake.
When we go fishing, we often have a picnic on the shoreline. We always take our rubbish home. I do
not like litter and I am sure the animals do not either.
The fish in the lake are brown Trout and there is also minnow. The trout are small and the minnow
are tiny. I once caught a trout and it had a minnow in it’s mouth.
There is a fishing club there called Wicklow Anglers. I am a junior member. My dad is a member and
my grandad is a senior member. Every summer they have family days. I meet new friends there and
like the day a lot. We start by meeting up, then we fish for a few hours. There is a shoreline lunch
halfway through the day. Grandad cooks sausages and makes burgers.
Afterwards we fish for a while more and then meet afterwards. Every child gets a prize and there is a
trophy for the biggest trout. I have won this 3 items.
At one place along the shoreline there is some beehives. Local people look after them and there are
many flowers where the bees spend the day.
Sometimes when the weather is too rough to go out in the boat, we play in the shallow
water with hand nets. I have caught lots of minnow, lots of water snails and insects and also one
crayfish. Grandad told me this is a good sign and it means the water is clean.
When the fishing season ends, we all help put the boats away for winter. We then spend a day
cleaning the shoreline. We take any rubbish, especially plastic away and put it in big bins.
Last December I was lucky. Grandad took me up to a small stream near the lake. In the rocky water
we could see some trout splashing about. Grandad said they are going there to lay the eggs for the
next family of fish. He also showed me very nice birds there, called dippers. We waited a long time
but we saw them diving and running along the stones on the riverbed.
This is one of my favourite places to spend time. Grandad went fishing there when he was small and
so did my dad. Now we do it all together.
Noah Johnston Breen.