It has been a strange mixture of weather conditions for anglers fishing in the week coming up to Christmas with temperatures on some days up 12°C and on other days below freezing. Heavy rain and strong winds have also been a feature for anglers trying to catch a fish or two in the last weeks of the year.
Coarse anglers are still catching plenty of mainly small roach at venues nationwide and last week’s float only league match on the Roslea Lakes in east Co. Fermanagh produced plenty of small fish for the competitors. Elsewhere, an angling group called GoFishAnglingServices.com are running a coarse match on the 21st of January in Tarmonbarry in aid of St. Vincent DePaul.
In this very changeable weather, the pike fishing has been very good with some lovely shots of nice pike sent in by Michael Flanagan from Lough Ennell where he tested out some new lures with great success. The Catch of the Week however goes to Damien Willis who caught a lovely 20 lb. 14 oz fish on fly on Lough Ramor. Up in Monaghan, a group of ESB anglers fished with angling guide Peadar O’Brien and enjoyed very good pike fishing on a number of loughs.
There has been a fair bit of sea angling activity both for shore and boat anglers. The newly formed fishing society in Trinity College visited Wicklow on Tuesday 20th December 2011. The newly formed society/club had 38 anglers, some of who had never fished before, off Wicklow with skippers Joe Byrne on the Brazen Hussy and Kitt Dunne and Lisin. Catches consisted of dogfish, codling and whiting. On the north beach at Courtown in Co. Wexford, there was a shore competition and 22 anglers took part and great catches of flounders, dabs and whiting making up the bulk of the catch. The winner of the senior competition was David McNeill from Courtown, Second place went to David Livingston from Gorey and third place went to Karen Warren from Dublin. In the junior event first place went to Gary Breen with 34 fish, Second place went to Kevin Kinsella with 32 fish. Third place went to Ray Daniels with 26 fish and Fourth place went to Nathaniel Hull from Northern Ireland with 24 fish.
Professor Ken Whelan, fisheries scientist is running a two day Water Craft Course in February at the South County Fishery in Myshall in Co. Carlow.
It won’t be long before we are reporting the first salmon of the New Year as many anglers will be out trying to catch the first fish of the new season on New Year’s Day on the River Drowes in Co. Donegal.
Today, the Irish Specimen Fish Committe publishes it’ s annual report and the full report will be going up the website at www.irish-trophy-fish.com and hard copies of the report will available in the new year.
Tight lines especially in Ireland in 2012,
Paul Bourke
Angling Information Officer
Catch, Photo, Release
Coarse angling reports
- Charity coarse match at Tarmonbarry on 21 Jan 2012
- Plenty of small fish at the latest leg of the float only league in the Roslea Lakes.
Pike fishing reports
- 20lb pike on fly from Ramor
- ESB group enjoy good pike fishing in South Monaghan
- Christmas comes early for Pike and Perch anglers on Lough Ennell
Sea angling reports
- Trinity Angling Soc enjoys first day at sea
- Plenty of flounder, dabs and whiting for shore anglers at Courtown
