Krzysztof Knopp with his 16.5 lb. bass at Courtmacsherry
Krzysztof Knopp wins Catch of the Week with this 16.5 lb. bass from Courtmacsherry

Heavy rain in the past week brought some better salmon fishing for anglers trying to catch that last fish of the season as nearly all salmon fisheries closed until 2012 on the 30th of September.  The last river to close is the River Fane which remains open until the 12th of this month and the fishing there in the past week has been excellent with fish up 18 lb. recorded.  There was very little salmon fishing reported from the Cork Blackwater due to low water levels.  The rivers Coomhola and Ilen in west Cork fished well with some nice salmon up to 14.5 lb. reported.  On Lough Currane there there were only a few salmon reported at the close of the season on the 3oth September.  Good numbers of sea trout were reported last week and looks set to continue until the 12th of October.  There were a few nice salmon recorded in the last week on the River Laune.  The Connemara fisheries at Ballynahinch, Inagh, Kylemore, Delphi and Erriff all produced some nice fishing for the last week and most of these fisheries report their best season in years.  The annual Owenmore River last cast competition raised over €1200 for charity.  It was a quiet last week on the Moy but over 9,000 salmon were recorded on the rod for the season.

The trout angling season is over on all our rivers and most of our loughs except for the Midland Trout loughs finishing on the 12th of October.  The annual Stream Rehabilitation competition was fished on Lough Sheelin and Jimmy Heneghan from Mayo won the 19 ft. Sheelin Boat with a fine trout of 5 lb. 5.4 oz.   There was patchy fishing on Loughs Owel, Ennell and Lene due to the changeable weather.  Ryan Binley won the Kieran Lynn Memorial Cup on Lough Conn.

More anglers are now turning their attention to Pike fishing at this time of year and catches in the past week have been very good.  Pike up to 15 lb. 9 oz were recorded at the latest National Championship Qualifier held on the River Shannon at Castleconnell.  There was some excellent pike fishing reported for a belgium group fishing with angling guide Kevin Lyons at Melview Lodge in Co. Longford with fish to over a metre recorded (over 20 lb.).   Bad weather conditions for pike fishing on Lough Ree were quiet difficult at times for anglers but angler did record some nice fish.   Up at the Oaks Fishery in Co. Derry, there was a lot of pike reported in the past week.

There is still a lot of coarse fishing going on around the country and there were reports of excellent bream catches taken by english anglers fishing at Portumna.  Robert Howgate won the Sheemore Angling Festival at Carrick-on-Shannon.  There was some wonderful catches of Roach, Hybrids and some bream for anglers fishing the annual Cootehill Festival which was won by a Dutch angler.  A Belgium party had very good Roach, Hybrids adn bream fishing staying at Melview Lodge in Co. Longford.  There was a qualifier for the Irish team held on the Newry Canal last weekend and many anglers are in the hunt for a place on the Irish National Team going into the last round.

The blustery weather conditions made it a difficult week at times for sea anglers but there was some excellent fish recorded around the coast.  Pride of place goes to Krzysztof Knopp a regular visitor from Poland who landed a great 16.5 lb. bass at Courtmacsherry.  This fish is our Catch of the Week and is the biggest bass recorded since the present record of 17 lb. 13 oz. record fish recorded way back in the year 2000.  It is also the forth biggest bass ever reported to the Irish Specimen Fish Committee.  The same angler also had some superb deep sea angling with charter skipper Mark Gannon recording a fine skate of 175 lb. in the same week!  French anglers had some fine bass fishing in Cork Harbour fishing with angling guide Richie Ryan.   Up in Clifden there was some excellent cod and pollack fishing for anglers fishing with charter skipper John Brittain.  A great range of species were recorded by a group of anglers fishing with charter skipper Donal Kennedy in Killala Bay.  The shark fishing is finished for another year up in Red Bay in Co. Antrim but anglers enjoyed catching some wonderful cod, conger, skate and more species fishing with charter skipper Hamish Currie.

Tight lines especially in Ireland,
Paul Bourke
Angling Information Officer

Coarse angling reports

Pike fishing reports

Salmon fishing reports

Sea angling reports

Trout fishing reports