Munster Blackwater anglers made the most of the extension to October 12th .  Recent rainfalls saw the river come to life.  Blackwater Lodge reported 9 fish caught on Saturday Oct 5th the best of which was a very clean  15½lb fish caught by Tim Harty.

Lough Sheelin too enjoyed a good week.  The Lough Sheelin Trout Protection Association hosted their annual Stream Rehabilitation competition on the lake last Saturday with an impressive 274 anglers from all corners of Ireland taking part.  This beautiful lake surpassed itself and the trout are hungry again.  Sheelin’s heaviest trout for 2013 was caught by Galway man Toby Bradshaw and weighed in at over 12lbs.  Toby and his angling partner Joe Creane said ‘Never has a fish be it a brown trout, sea trout or salmon given us such cause for delight and excitement but perhaps the best sight was to see him swim off after his visit to our hands’.

Fin Kasper, Germany, with his best fly-caught pike of 108cm and our winner of ‘Catch of the Week’
Fin Kasper, Germany, with his best fly-caught pike of 108cm and our winner of ‘Catch of the Week’

‘Catch of the week’ was a difficult decision this week with some strong contenders but Fin Kasper from Flensburg, Germany just pipped Toby’s fish at the post with his fly-caught pike measuring 108cms.  This was Fin’s first visit to Ireland and this cracking fish was one of 4 which Fin had caught on Lough Conn. We also had reports of excellent pike caught at Whitelake in Westmeath and  Italian anglers staying at Melview Lodge tallying  a total of 102 pike to 1.05m using mainly lures and another 24 lost.

Arvagh was the ideal venue for the King of the Clubs competition run by Eamon and Philomena Gray.  Despite a strong facing wind eager anglers enjoyed the anticipation of the catch surrounded by a wonderful setting.  Kevin Johnston won the festival for the third time. Weights were super with 31 of the 56 competitors weighing over 50k and the top 10 all having over 70k for the week.

Anglegrove Lake in Woodford, Galway threw up some excellent carp between 4 lb and 6 lb and a couple in the 7-8 lb bracket for Clare angler Florian Byrne and his crew from the East Clare Specimen Club.  Florian and these young anglers went on to catch 10lb mirror carp and a stunner of a koi carp.

Big blues and big skate were the order of the day for Sea anglers this week.  Cork excelled itself with Kevin Murphy of the Bellavista’s “Murphy’s Mush” being irresistible to our marine friends. (Wonder does it work on the girls also Kevin ??).  Up north Hamish Currie stuck to the porbeagles and skate.  He added some hefty fish to his list this week with a 203 lb common skate caught by Paul Strange from Carrick-Fergus specimen hunters.  This fish was taken using a whole dogfish as bait.

Lorcan O’Connor fished in Killala Bay and after a strenuous fight he boated a 7.135kgs / 15.6 lbs specimen sized spurdog details of which are being forwarded to the Irish Specimen Fish Committee for ratification.

Just to put the fun into fishing Oaklands Fishery in New Ross are running a competition with Coarse Fishing vs Sea Fishing.  Some great fun was had last Sunday at Arthurstown in Co. Wexford.  The 2nd leg at Oaklands lake is in a few weeks time.  Who will win…your guess is as good as mine!

Prospects…

Not much change on tomorrow, it will stay mainly dry with good sunny spells with moderate northeast winds, fresh near southeast coasts. After a cold start again, temperatures will rise to between 11 to 14 degrees in the afternoon

Tomorrow night will be another cold night in the west and far north with lowest temperatures possibly in low single figures again, but increasing cloud over other parts of the country will keep temperatures higher. It will stay dry though and easterly winds will be light to moderate.

The weekend will be dry in most areas as well. The west and northwest will get the best of the sunshine over the two days while the eastern half will probably get more cloud, with just occasional sunny spells and also a risk of a light shower near the coast. Winds will be mainly northeast to east and mostly light or moderate in strength, although occasionally fresh on eastern and southern coasts. Temperatures by day will be in the low to mid teens and nights will be largely frost-free again. Some fog patches may occur on these nights also.

It looks like the start of next week will be mainly dry as well with afternoon temperatures around the mid teens.

 

Tight lines,

Nancy Hearne
Catch, Photo, Release

If you have an angling story to share with the Irish Angling Update please send it to contact@fisheriesireland.ie.

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