The more settled weather saw a lot of anglers out and about over the last week. On the game angling front the grilse run is most certainly under-way now, though, predictably, trout fishing is a little quiet. There were some great sea angling reports over the week from boat and shore, particularly for bass, tope and ling. Coarse anglers are firmly in festival mode now with back to back competitions and matches all summer long across the country while pike anglers have reported some entertaining fishing from a variety of lake venues.

Kit's Specimen Tope of 45lb was 1640mm long.
Kit Dunne's charter Boat Lisin wins Catch of the Week for carrying her crew of anglers to catch of 3 specimens last week.

Decent water levels on the Owenea did not see many salmon caught,  but those that were, were on the large side. Low water on the Drowes had little effect on the salmon as grilse continued to run in good numbers and about 100 salmon were landed. Once again the Ballisodare Fishery had a good week, 241 salmon were caught and a large proportion of those released safely. An excellent week was had by many on the Moy system, where just over 600 salmon were reported for the week. Despite the low water conditions, fresh fish have been caught throughout the length of the system. The Delphi, the Erriff, Ballynhinch, Kylemore and Inagh fisheries report good grilse runs with some fine sea trout fishing too, though water levels are of more importance in the spate fisheries. At Galway the run of grilse has been very good, and fresh fish are continuing to come in, in good numbers on every tide. There were 132 fish landed for the week. An angler had a great brace of salmon, 15lb and 16lb, from the Laune and grilse are starting to show there too. Anglers on Lough Currane enjoyed some good salmon and sea trout fishing over the last few days. The Lough Currane Fly Fishing Championship, the annual sea trout catch and release fly fishing competition, is to be held this year on Friday the 9th and Saturday the 10th August. The Munster Blackwater also has a good run of fish at the moment with plenty of grilse running on the tides.

Anglers fishing the Mayfly got a second bite at the cherry on parts of Lough Corrib last week. Some good fishing was reported on Lough Conn though in general the lake was quiet. On Lough Sheelin the appearance of the pin fry has seen a decline in fishing effort as the trout become more difficult to catch on fly.

The inaugural Muckno Mania coarse angling competition got under way today 1st July on Lough Muckno, Castleblayney in Co. Monaghan and on its first day catches over 28kg were registered. Big bags came on the second day too and the venue was described as “heaven”. Other venues in Monaghan are also fishing well for bream. Fishing in the Woodford area on Lough Derg Mark Fountain a group of UK anglers landed 1,000 kg of bream and hybrids over three days for 13 hours fishing. Dave Brookes won the Portumna Great Outdoors/Splash Festival Match which took place over the weekend attracting anglers from all over Ireland and England. Anglers testing the match stretch in the days prior to the festival were getting weights of 80lb+ of Hybrids and Roach, though 56lb was the winning bag on the day.

Summer pike can yield exciting sport and anglers from a variety of venues have reported entertaining fishing for these toothy predators. Lough Muckno, Derravaragh and Owel and Templemore are featured in this week’s reports.

Good tope fishing is reported from the Shannon Estuary and off Wicklow where smooth hounds of specimen size were landed.  In general charter fishing is reporting better ground and reef fishing and some of the wrecks out of Kinsale are also fishing well. Shore anglers from Wexford also managed to catch a fine tope last week. Bass reports are improving following the spell of warmer weather and good catches were reported from Cork, Wexford and Louth.

Prospects

Warm and mostly dry tomorrow Friday with good spells of sunshine breaking through; possibly a little cloudier at times in the northwest and west. Highest temperatures will typically range 20 to 23 degrees Celsius. Values will be warmest across the midlands and east. However it will cooler near some coastal regions of the west and southwest with temperatures ranging 15 to 18 degrees Celsius here due to enhanced onshore breezes. Southerly winds will be just gentle overland. The out look is for a fine weekend.

Tight lines,

Myles Kelly
Catch, Photo, Release

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Salmon fishing reports

Trout fishing reports

Sea angling reports

Coarse angling reports

Pike fishing reports

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Fishing at Aasleagh falls on the River Erriff
Fishing at Aasleagh falls on the River Erriff