Warmer weather returned to Ireland in the last few days, an event which passed by many along the south coast where dull conditions persisted. The warm mostly settled weather saw many anglers race to the nearest bit of water they could find. The warmth meant a real chance of a good fall of gnat for trout anglers and water levels made for good salmon fishing at a number of rivers. Coarse anglers particularly those with a preference to tench also enjoyed the warm weather. At sea boat anglers from the east, south and west coasts had good fishing with a great mix of species encountered.

Ksenia with a fine BullHuss.
Ksenia with a fine BullHuss. This fish wins Ksenia Catch of the Week

The shoals of spawning roach at Shrule had dispersed though for now it is not clear whether it was a short run this year or will there be more to follow. Fishing in and around Longford has been very good the last few weeks with some great catches of Tench to 55 cm long. Bream, hybrids, roach and rudd have also featured. The weather has changed things a little for the bream, hybrids and roach fishing, with hot bright sun the fish in some places are sure to start spawning here. However the tench are still showing in most places and fish to 6lb are being caught.

Esox Lodge in Belturbet enjoyed some good pike fishing over the last two weeks, much to the delight of their French, Italian and Belgium guests.  A lot of jacks were caught but they also had good double figure fish, with the best being 99cm. Rory McAllorum of the Dublin Pike Anglers Club is the new Kingspan National Pike Champion which was fished recently on the River Shannon. He covered many miles of water and ended up with a  catch of 12 pike for 58lb 3oz. This included 2 doubles of 13lb 3oz and 11lb 11oz.

Angling on the River Moy continues to improve, with low water conditions beginning to suit the lower Moy Fisheries, which are now yielding bigger numbers of fish. The East Mayo Anglers’ water and the Cloongee Fishery, continue to record the greatest numbers, partly due to the fact that the heaviest angling effort is occurring there. The Ballisodare Fishery enjoyed another excellent week, with one hundred and eleven salmon caught, fifty-one of which were released. Six salmon were caught for the week on the Newport House side of Lough Beltra. The Erriff Fishery produced a couple of spring fish over the last week, with John price from the Wirral in England landing a fine 10.75lbs sea-liced springer on Beat 9. Good numbers of spring salmon are running the river in Galway now, and with low water conditions fly anglers are enjoying good sport, as well as shrimp fishers. At Delphi fishing has picked up following some light rain and some good salmon to 14lb were caught. Down in the south west there was some good salmon and sea trout fishing on Lough Currane.

Congratulations to the Irish Fly Fishing Team which took the Gold in the 2012 International Fly Fishing Competition fishing on Lough Sheelin last week. The lake is fishing well in every area and catches of 4, 5 and 6lb fish were recorded. Most anglers are dry fly fishing mainly with the green mayfly. The buzzer fishing was good in the bog bay area. Ronan Cusack reports that the rise in temperatures this week has reflected in a slight improvement in mayfly hatches. Anglers fishing the southern end of Mask in particular reported seeing plenty of fly on the warmer days and trout responding well. Andrew Ryan, Clonanav Fly Fishing reports that the hawthorn fly has arrived, at last, on the River Suir and that the warmer weather will improve the dry fly fishing.  The Rivers Boyne and Fane have been fishing well of late especially in the evenings with some very nice hatches of sedge and some good falls of spinners.

Bass anglers are well aware that the closed season is in force at the moment, but for everyone else fishing the seashore for the next few weeks please remember that any bass caught between 15 May and 15 June must be released unharmed. Mullet on fly can be a good alternative as anglers with John Quinlan at Cahersiveen found. Skipper of the Leah, Donal Kennedy reports from Killala Bay that fishing has been slow but steady with plenty of mackerel, pollack  to 8lbs and mix of other fish including turbot. On the east coast Kit Dunne reprots that anglers fishing with him had a real dog day. All in all the group caught and released 6 bullhuss, 3 smooth-hounds, 2 ray and over 100 dogfish. But the best fishing was in the last 90 minutes when 7 tope were caught. A team of Dutch predator specialists fishing with the Bellavista fleet in Cobh had great fishing with cod and pollack up to 90cm as well as small ling, grey gurnads and pouting all on soft plastics. Anglers on the JohnBoy also out of Cobh had similar fishing but added conger to their list of species caught.

Weather-wise, the warm,  dry conditions will continue on Saturday with highest temperatures of 19 to 23 C expected. Along southern and eastern coastal fringes it will be a few degrees cooler as easterly winds become moderate to locally fresh. There will be a good deal of fine weather for the next couple of days with a chance of rain in parts of the south and southwest and temperatures will begin to fall back to more seasonable values. There will be light rain in parts of the south and southwest on Monday and Tuesday, but for the rest of the country the fine weather will continue. Winds will be moderate to fresh and from the southwest.   The middle of next week looks like being somewhat changeable with temperatures around the average for the time of the year.

Tight lines to all,

Paul Bourke

Angling Information Officer.
Catch, Photo, Release

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