Melview Lodge, Longford Ireland

From left to right Hein van Aar, Mike Hermes and Terry Jackson

Thursday the 23rd of April 2009

As I woke up in the morning I realized, this is the day ! We are going Pike fishing in Ireland.
I could hardly wait. My buddy Hein, instructor, guide and riverkeeper Kvennan Norway and I took
off to the Airport.

After a smooth flight with Ryan Air out of Eindhoven in the Netherlands we arrived
at Dublin airport at about 5pm.We picked up our gear, loaded up the rental car and headed towards
Melview Lodge in Longford. It was an easy drive just under two hours but we had to adjust
to the lefthand driving, specially with the steering wheel on the righthandside. Luckily we
didn´t hit anything on the way over.

We arrived at Melview Lodge just after 8 PM and were welcomed by Kevin Lyons and his wife Jane.
As they figured we would be hungry after the trip they had a warm dinner waiting for us.
Fantastic ! And they were right, we were starving. After dinner we enjoyed a beer and a good chat
with Kevin before a good night sleep.

Friday, April 24th, 2009

After a great breakfast we started to gear up and load the cars to head to the lake.
Rods, reels, waders, fueltanks and much more. We hooked on the trailers and headed
towards what Kevin likes to call the `Mystery lake`. This lake ( No,I still don´t know the official name )
is packed with big pike and it is not uncommon to catch a double digit pike here. Pike over 30lbs
have been reported out of that lake. Hein teamed up with Kevin who acted as his guide and I teamed
up with Terry. On the first day we managed to catch 7 pike between the three of us ( Kevin didn´t fish that day )
In the afternoon we enjoyed a field tea with a nice lunch prepared and brought by Kevin.
After a great day of fishing we packed up and headed towards yet another very nice dinner.
In the evening we kicked back in the lounge, enjoyed a couple of beers and had a pleasant
conversation with the guys. The topic, fly fishing of course.

Terry with a nice hit

Saturday, April 25th, 2009

As we had such a great time we decided to go back to the same lake and again we managed
to get 7 pike. Although they were not huge that day ( average og 7 lbs ) they still gave us a lot of
sport.We had a bit of a struggle with the hard winds and rain, but who cares, because we are out fishing !
Hein teamed up with Terry and I teamed up with Terry´s buddy Glenn, who came down from
Northern Ireland to join us. Both great fishermen. Terry is a specimen hunter and frequently covers
the pages of angling magazines. Glenn is heavily involved in the PFFA ( Pike Fly Fishing Association )
In the evening Kevin and his wife Jane took us out for a pleasant diner in town at the local Indian restaurant.

Hein with a nice pike

Sunday, April 26th, 2009

Today we decided to try a different lake and early morning we hooked up the boats and headed
towards the water. Hein caught a nice double digit pike and the rest of us managed to get some
out as well. Of course all the pike were released immediately back into the lakes after
taking a picture. After lunch Kevin, Hein and I decided to try for trout on the Boyle river so we said
our goodbyes to Terry and Glenn.The boys continued for a few hours on the lake and then headed
back to Northern Ireland.

We had great fun on the Boyle river and enjoyed the light weight rods for a change.
Although the trout on that day were not really big, they were plentiful.

Monday, April 27th, 2009

Every good thing must come to an end and so did our trip. It was packing up day. As we had a
few hours left before we had to leave Kevin decided to show us a couple of the local rivers.
It is really amazing how well Kevin understand the local waters.

I would really like to thank Kevin and Jane, Terry and Glenn for making this a fantastic experience.
We will certainly be visiting Melview Lodge in the future.We can really recommend staying at Melview Lodge
as they just understand what an angler is looking for. Besides being exceptional hosts they are
also very very nice people.

If you decide to visit Melview Lodge, please say hi for us !

Mike Hermes, owner The Old Lodge

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