Castleconnell Beats 5 & 6

BEAT 6 LOOKING DOWNSTREAM

I fished Beat 6 of the E.S.B Salmon Fishery on the Shannon river at Castleconnell and i must admit i was a bit surprised to find a very over grown  fishery, the bank was barely visible with the height of weed growth and one could easily fall into the river because there were no visible entrance or exit points. I am just over six feet in height and had difficulty seeing my way towards the river. The river itself was very up and down with shallow points fading into deep holes near the bank and gravel bars in the center of the river making it awkward for fly fishing. I crossed at a shallow part of the river and fished the far bank down to the point and had to use an intermediate tip otherwise i would be snagging up on every cast, the Perry Poke cast was the order of the day due to the overhanging weed growth which caught the fly line at every opportunity. I got one short pull but the salmon never took the loop and that was all i met for the day. There was a lot of Ranunculus weed in the river and especially at the end of the beat where the river widens near the Life buoy  ( second last photo ) , it covered almost half the river across. This made any type of fishing impossible as one was pulling out weed on almost every cast be it fly fishing or spinning. The bottom photo shows the weed growth near the bank hampering any type of casting be it spinning or fly casting, and it made it impossible to tell where the bank ended and the river began. I had one look upstream and took some photo's before i bid the river an early farewell, i never leave a river till darkness but i was on my way home just after midday and that must be a first for me. I have seen the Great Castleconnell beat and i must admit i really don't want to see it again.