The wet broken weather looks set to continue for another while yet and salmon anglers around the country are enjoying the spoils in particular. The high water levels have affected fishing on some of the midland areas of the Rivers Shannon and Suck in particular but generally anglers are fishing away at other venues. The unseasonal weather has not deterred anglers one bit and there is plenty of angling stories reported here in this week’s Irish Angling Update Ezine.
There is a fair bit of coarse angling around the country down on Lough Derg at two mile gate, some good catches of hybrids and bream were reported. There was some super catches of bream taken by English Visitors on loughs in the East Clare area. Good catches of bream and tench were taken on the Grand Canal at Ferbane. Up in a very flooded Longford area, two Ipswich anglers braved the elements and were rewarded with a fishing bonanza including a fine specimen tench of 6 lb. 3 oz. for Ipswich angler Graeme Sargeant. This fine tench is our Catch of the Week.
Down on the River Barrow at Athy there were reports of some nice tench and good pike recorded in the past week. In Co. Clare, pike fishing was tough with the flooded lakes but two Nashville anglers from USA took 19 pike in two days guided fishing on Lough Derg. Barry Darby, Mullingar, won the Weir Cup with a double figure pike on Lough Derravarragh with 40 anglers taking part.
On the River Fane, the weather conditions brought an improvement in the salmon fishing. Down on the River Slaney some nice salmon were reported including a best fish of 16 lb. Good fishing was also reported from the Rivers Suir and Nore. Salmon up to 18 lb. were reported from the Careysville Fishery on the Munster Blackwater River. On the Blackwater Lodge beats the fishing was described as excellent with plenty of fish caught daily. Eight year old Molly Long from Skibbereen caught an 8.5 lb salmon on the River Ilen in West Cork. The good salmon and sea trout fishing continued on Lough Currane. There was some big salmon reported from the River Laune up to 16 lb. Another young angler, Nathan took a lovely 9 lb. salmon on the River Feale. There was some good salmon fishing reported on the River Shannon near Limerick and a French visitor caught a lovely sea trout which is unusual for the river. The Galway fishery is producing better salmon fishing now and there were good reports from the Kylemore and Inagh Fisheries where there were good reports of sea trout also. The fishing has improved on the Rivers Erriff and on the nearby Delphi system. Good sport for salmon and sea trout were reported from Lough Beltra and up in Bangor Erris, anglers fishing Carrowmore Lake are enjoying continued good sport. The Moy is fishing so well that over 800 fish were recorded for the past week and sea trout fishing is reported excellent in the estuary. Over 200 salmon were recorded at Ballisodare and on the Drowes, anglers from Spain and Ireland enjoyed good fishing.
It has been another good week for sea anglers with some fine tope reported off Wicklow. In Wexford, there were reports of good shore and deep sea fishing for anglers all along the coast. In Cork Harbour, angler fishing from small boats from the Bella Vista fleet enjoyed super fishing for cod, pollack and bass. Blue Shark, Ling, Bass and Sunfish were among the species reported from Courtmacsherry this week. Wrasse and Pollack were reported from the shore along the Beara Peninsula despite the weather. There was good deep sea fishing reported from Carrigaholt in the Shannon Estuary and shore fishing all along the Clare coast was very good for a range of species. There was a nice range of species for angler’s deep sea fishing in the Killala Bay area of Co. Mayo.
Anglers’ trout fishing at Carrigavantry Reservoir in Co. Waterford reported super trout fishing and were complimentary on the recent fish stocked by the IFI fish farm in Roscrea. The fishing was tougher this week on Lough Sheelin where weather conditions had an impact but some nice trout were reported. The other midland loughs are quiet and there were no reports of any Green Peter hatching particularly on Loughs Ennell and Owel. High water impacted on anglers but yet some good catches of trout were reported in the Birr area. Fish were visibly feeding on perch fry with sedges now beginning to appear on Lough O’Flynn. There was good trout fishing reported on Lough Mask. Up in Derry, dry flies worked best for rainbow trout at the Cashel Trout Fishery.
Please see our events section of the website for a big list of events occurring including many angling and worthwhile projects.
Tight lines, especially in Ireland,
Paul Bourke
Catch, Photo, Release
