The winter is here now and it was a mixed week with the occasional nice day but there were many windy wet and cold days to dampen the spirit of the willing angler.  As I have said a few times before however, anglers are a hardy lot and there has been some fine fishing in these colder climes.

Despite the cold weather, there was some fine roach caught at the third leg of the winter league in Co. Fermanagh with Tony Kersley winning the day.  Young Jamie took top honours at the Junior Carrickmacross competition catching some small roach.  Alan Larkin won the first leg of the winter league match on Lough Muckno in Castleblayney last weekend.  The NCFFI announced their Junior teams to fish the World Championships next year.

Pike fishing is still the dominant fish for anglers to pursue at this time of year and there were some fine fish reported again this week.  Angling guide Peadar O’Brien and friends were out again this week taking some good pike on a variety of methods in the Monaghan area.  There was quite a bit of success for shore anglers fishing on Lough Ramor with some nice fish taken on deadbaits around the Virginia area. There were some fine fish also taken on the lough by boat anglers.  Angling guide, Michael Flanagan and friends had great success on the River Inny and in some of the nearby loughs catching some cracking pike.  Up in Foxford some fine pike were reported on taken on fly.  Another great pike of 27 lb. 9 oz. taken by a French visitor Etienne Denoyer while fishing with angling guide, Kevin Lyons on the River Shannon wins our Catch of the Week.

It is nice to report that more fly anglers are fishing on many of our Rainbow Trout fisheries now and up in Derry there was some fine fish repored at the Cashel Trout Fishery.  The Sheet water produced some great rainbows in the Carton Lake Fisheries near Maynooth. The first leg of the winter league at the Rathcon Fishery at Grangecon in Carlow produced 32 trout for the contestants with Martin McGorian winning the day.  There was some nice rainbows caught at the Ardaire Springs fishery in Carlow where there is a winter league starting to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness.

On the sea, there were reports of some nice bass in the south east still to be caught from the shore.  Gary Robinson was out fishing in his Kayak this after Ray on the east coast and he landed some lovely Thornback Ray. Still on the east coast there were dabs reported from the shore for the first time this winter.  Out in Dun Laoghaire harbour, some herring were spotted in the harbour and some young anglers are interested in catching them.  The weather outlook is a bit bleak for the weekend but I am sure there will be more good fishing in Ireland to report

Tight lines especially in Ireland,

Paul Bourke

Catch, Photo, Release

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