lough erne dinghy fishing

[dan]

sometime soon i fancy taking our rubber dinghy out on lough erne, any advice that i might need whilst taking it out.

[bitsinbobs]

going there thursday ,,,,u taking upper or lower ? both are very dangerous , u needa good motor if it blows a wind

[MAC]

Big lakes like the Erne, Corrib or Mask can be very much like the sea. Once the wind gets going you will be looking at big waves very quickly. A small Dinghy will be ok, but only in the best of weather.

Kev

[slowarm]

I spent three years living in a house on the side of Lough Ree and as MAC said big lakes can get very much like the sea in the wrong conditions. I spent many an evening looking at white-tops rolling across the lake and watched some of the lake/river cruisers struggling to make headway against the wind ( a lot of this stems from the fact that there is a governor on the engine to prevent the vessel travelling above a certain speed.).

The problem with a dinghy is once the wind reaches a certain strength the body of the dinghy acts like a sail (as was happening with the lake cruisers mentioned above) and you need a good engine HP to counteract that. Most dinghy's can only take a very small engine, if any at all.

[dan]

going there thursday ,,,,u taking upper or lower ? both are very dangerous , u needa good motor if it blows a wind

lower lough erne.

[bitsinbobs]

dan , if u r thinking of going out to the open lough nothing less than 15ft and 5hp motor , happened to me years ago wind blew up , motor was not able to keep us off the shore (which was an island ) i ended up in the water with a rope round me to stop the hull getting smashed, will never forget that

[dan]

i was thinking about going into the wee bays and shallow areas of the lough for pike and trout.

[MAC]

not a bad idea Dan, but only in the best of weather. Any wave action at all will make it tough going.

Kev