Report by Ronan Cusack

Mask opened its doors to angling again this week and indeed got off to a flying start.

Water levels are still fairly high but this did not discourage plenty of anglers from venturing out. Conditions on Wednesday were perfect with mild temperatures and a soft westerly breeze.  Ballinrobe Anglers chairman Tommy Foley and boat partner Paul Loscher had 7 good fish on opening day, all too various wet flies. Their best fish was 1.75lbs and all were returned. Tim Hannon, Ballinrobe, also fished on Wednesday and he had 2  fish for his day (best fish 1.5lbs, both released). Noel Moran and Kevin Beattie from  Ballinrobe fished wet flies on opening day and they also had 4 fish (best fish 1.5lbs). Ronan Cusack and Kieran Biggins fished on Wednesday afternoon and they had 2 fish, again on wets (best fish 1.5lbs, both released).

Shore angling on the western side of Mask was reasonably good on opening day with trout up to 4lbs  reported. Unfortunately this was short lived and the going was tough for the remainder of the week, possibly due to the dry spell and drop in water levels.

Young Sean Cusack spent a few hours trolling on Sunday with dad Ronan and older brother Conor, and landed a lovely 5.5lbs ferox trout, which was carefully photographed and released again.