It has been a very strange summer for anglers this year and the recent weather typifies a very unusual week where we had all sorts of weather except snow.  It was generally warmer in the past week, a lot showers, strong winds,  cold winds which saw day time temperatures down to 12 degrees Celsius which is pretty cold for this time of year and just a tiny bit of nice sunny weather at times.  However, this was not such a bad thing for anglers in general who were again busy last week and the fishing was not bad either!

The constant wet weather has kept water levels generally high and fluctuating but the salmon anglers on most fisheries had another great week.  In the south east, there were some good salmon reported on the River Slaney.  Large salmon were caught on the Rivers Nore and Suir and salmon up to the 20 lb. were reported from the Munster Blackwater.  Most of the Cork and Kerry salmon rivers reported plenty of catches including some big fish and there were some sea trout taken also.  It was a quieter week on Lough Currane but Tim O Sullivan enjoyed catching a specimen sea trout on fly. The River Feale was one of the few rivers which did not have much rain and fishing was slow as a result.  Up in Connemara, it was a sea trout bonanza on Lough Inagh and anglers fishing on the River Erriff and at nearby Delphi enjoyed another good week. Anglers found Green Peter, Jaffa and Shrimp fly patterns worked well on Lough Beltra and Newport River for salmon. There was some good fishing reported from the Burrishoole and Owenmore systems in west Mayo.  Anglers enjoyed another great week on the River Moy and on the Ballisodare Fishery in Sligo.  In Donegal, salmon fishing was good on the Drowes and Owenea Rivers but it was quiet on Lough Melvin.

This six gilled shark, estimated to weigh about 600lb is Catch of the Week
This six gilled shark, estimated to weigh about 600lb is Catch of the Week

There was plenty of sea angling across Ireland in the past week though conditions were challenging on the east coast. There were a few mullet reported taken including a fine thin lipped mullet at Wicklow.  There were a few bass reported on the south coast but generally fishing in tougher at the moment. There was some excellent conger fishing for a Dublin group deep sea fishing on the Lagosta 11.  Two English anglers enjoyed good bass fishing in Cork Harbour fishing with angling guide Richie Ryan aka Eire Bass.  The good deep sea fishing continued at Courtmacsherry and Dutch anglers enjoyed a huge range of species including some nice Blue Shark.  A much bigger shark, a six gilled shark was brought alongside the boat and estimated at 600 lb. by charter skipper Luke Aston from Carrigaholt who has encountered this species in recent years.  This magnificent fish is our Catch of the Week.  In west Clare, Bill Ryan reported some fine rock fishing for ballan wrasse and pollack.  There were no reports from the West and North West coasts probably due to some reports of red tide.  In Belfast Lough, anglers fishing out from Red Bay enjoyed some super Spurdog fishing.

The duller weather has certainly prolonged the trout angling season this year and there was plenty of activity all over the country.  Nymph patterns were best for trout on the River Fane in Co. Louth. In Dublin city, there was some excellent trout fishing reported from the River Dodder.  There was some fine fishing reported from the fisheries at Carton House.  Down in Waterford, world cup anglers practised catching some fine trout at Knockaderry Reservoir.  Up on Lough Sheelin there was plenty of trout feeding on the good hatch of sedges. In Mullingar, there were some more great trout taken on Lough Ennell including a great fish of 8 lb. 3 oz for John O’Malley.  A Dublin party fishing with angling guide Mick Flanagan on Lough Lene had a great day taking good trout and pike.  At last the World Cup is taking place on Lough Mask and hopefully there will be plenty of action for all the competitors over the four days.  On nearby Lough Carra there was some good sedge fishing reported.  It was a quieter week on Lough Conn in the high water levels but it was much better on Lough Arrow where good hatches of Green Peter brought good sport for anglers.

The weather has certainly helped coarse anglers also and there was some good sport reported on the Royal Canal where anglers fishing with Des Chew from the Dublin Angling Initiative enjoyed good sport.  There was some excellent sport reported from several loughs in the Baileborough area. On the River Barrow, there was better fishing reported with perch and hybrids featuring in catches.  There was a great fishing story from the River Inny where “Chris” caught roach, hybrids and a wife!  In the nearby Longford area, a party of Blackpool anglers caught plenty of bream, roach and hybrids on waters near Melview Lodge in Longford.  The annual NCFFI All Ireland and Junior All Ireland competition took place on venues in the Killashandra area and fishing was pretty good.

There is little pike angling activity to report on this week but there were some nice fish recorded on Lough Derravarragh in a competition.  There was some more competitions featuring junior anglers and we will have news on these events in next week’s update. Kevin Murphy of the  Bellavista in Cobh is more commonly associated with bass angling but this week he launched a new service on Inniscarra for pike anglers. Two boats are available and local guide Mark Houlihan had over 20 pike to 10kg fishing from one of the boats last week.

Tight lines especially in Ireland,
Paul Bourke
Catch, Photo, Release


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