Anglers are important, angling is important and our Irish rivers and coastline are important.  With the launch of Socio-Economic Study of Recreational Angling in Ireland in the Royal College of Physicians in Kildare Street today we can see spending on angling in Ireland amounted to €555 million in 2012, with indirect spending worth an additional €200 million and totalling €755 million.  Recreational angling was also found to directly support 10,000 existing Irish jobs, many of which are located in the most peripheral and rural parts of the Irish countryside and along our coastline.  Read the full report on www.fisheriesireland.ie.

Well let’s see what you VIPs have been up to this week…

Sea angling was the preferred choice of most as the hot sunny weather did little for the salmon and trout fishermen.

Wicklow saw some excellent catches of smooth hounds with Christy Lane boating a 16.25lb hound onboard the Lisín while the rest of the crew weren’t far behind including a young man called Liam Millerick who caught a fine 10lb fish.

The hounds were also out in Wexford and one female angler Rebecca Keohane caught her first ever smooth hound while fishing from shore with Guide Sid Jones.

Further out to sea saw some nice catches of Gurnards, dogs, dabs and thornback rays.

Ger Murphy with his 100lbs shark wins our 'Catch of the Week'

Kinsale skipper Ger Murphy had a couple of exciting days when he tagged 5 sharks in total with the largest touching the 100lb weight. ‘Catch of the week’ goes to Ger for this fine fish.

The Bantry Bay competition on July 14th saw 18 anglers taking part with Rory O’Connor and Ruari Ganley back from the Home International Championship in Wales. Derek Kenrick hit on a winner when he landed a double – an angry Bull Huss and a Thornback ray!  Mr Bull Huss made his presence felt when he left Derek with a bloody arm before he was released!  Bet you won’t forget him in a hurry Derek!

Donegal boasted some fine tope.  Kian Corrigan showed his Dad how things were done with an impressive 33lb tope. Father and son landed everything from  coleys, pollack, ballans, codling and tope to a wee goldshinny.

Two English anglers not afraid of the sun fished on Lough Currane.  Their reward was a lovely 4lb grilse on the troll. Christopher Jarman landed his 99th and 100th fish at Delphi on July 17th.  His last fishing weighing 11lbs 13oz and was caught from the quarry on a beaded nymph.  With little prospect of rain a lot of the rivers and fisheries are challenging at the moment.  Early morning and late evening fishing are working best.  The river Suir has seen some excellent hatches during the last couple of evenings and large rises of fish have been reported.

Sheelin trout are sticking to the cooler deeper water and show no interest.  Carton House too is a case of hit and miss.  Andrew Ryan of Clonanav advises anglers to try Wet Wading. He reports that he managed to get some fish in the faster water using tiny nymphs and very fine leaders. Having such low water makes the fishing tough, but you can see the fish which makes for some amazing sight fishing

Melview Lodge guests Chris and Bernard were very successful after pre-baiting their beat.  With Tench to 5lb 7ozs and Bream of 6lb weight together with roach, hybrids and some great perch the two visitors were pleased.

Weather outlook:

The very warm weather will continue over the weekend with temperatures generally in the range 23 to 28 degrees. The western half of the country will be warmest, and indeed temperatures may creep a few degrees higher than 28 on Saturday over parts of Connacht in the easterly breezes. Also, patches of sea fog may occasionally affect the Leinster coast. The very warm weather and high temperatures continue through early next week, but there will be increasing instability in the atmosphere, and from Monday onwards there will be an increasing risk of heavy thundery showers breaking out.

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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