Last week’s mostly wet weather finally became a bit more summery over the last few days. The slightly cooler and dull conditions obviously suited many anglers and there were some great reports from many of the salmon fisheries across the country though trout angling became quiet as the mayfly hatches tailed off. Coarse anglers had some really exceptional fishing in Cork where big bream put on a great show for one group of anglers and in general catches were good, particularly across the upper Shannon and Midland areas. Mackerel, or the lack of them, continue to be a problem for sea anglers. Though some good charter and shore reports were made to the office being unable to catch bait was a common feature. And of course Sunday saw the bass fishing re-open…

The Owenea started to fish last week and with rain due this weekend more salmon should be caught. Some nice salmon were caught on the Drowes and though grilse are being caught the main run has yet to commence. Fresh grilse continue to enter the Moy system daily, with all fisheries now producing good fishing. The weekly catch for the system jumped considerably, with well over 400 salmon recorded last week. There was a good run at Ballisodare also and anglers had over 160 salmon on both fly and prawn. At Delphi a few grilse were landed amongst the salmon caught and with good water there prospects are encouraging. With rain forecast at the weekend, and grilse coming in better numbers by the day, the Erriff should see good fishing over the next week. At Lough Inagh heavy rain last week saw the water rise to perfect fishing levels.  It also saw the arrival of significant numbers of grilse.  There are some sea trout entering, but the main run of sea trout has not started. The first grilse of the season and some fine sea trout to a couple of pounds were also reported at Ballynahinch. Runs of grilse were excellent last week at the Galway Fishery and there were 79 salmon landed for the week, with many coming to fly and shrimp. With good water on the River Feale last week there were a lot of anglers out but not many salmon were reported. The Laune fished much the same but it was a different story on the Killarney Flesk where 40 salmon between 3lb and 4lb were reported. At Lough Currane anglers fished through a variety of conditions, not all suitable, and though some lovely salmon and sea trout were landed the fishing was patchy. 30 salmon were landed for the week on the River Ilen, the best 18lb landed by a Syndicate member on a Flying C. Catches in other west Cork rivers were in the low double figures, though a good run of sea trout was reported at the Bandon. After the most recent floods on the Munster Blackwater the prospects are said to be very good, last weekend there were large crowds on the bridge at Fermoy to witness a spectacular run of salmon going up over the weir just above the bridge, but very few fish were seeing running through the beats.

One of Andy’s brace of ten pounders taken in consecutive casts. Andy takes our 'Catch of the Week' for this cracking fish

There was some exceptional coarse fishing had last week and it is no surprise that our Catch of the Week goes to Andrew Wolsey for a brace of 10lb bream. His catch was part of a massive haul by a small group of anglers fishing in Cork with Terry Jackson and Sidney Kennedy of Lee Reservoir Angling Services. They had three tens, three nines, a dozen eights and over twenty, seven and a half pound bream. And that’s to say nothing of the hybrids and tench! Good bream and hybrids were also reported around Longford by anglers fishing with Kevin Lyons. Anglers fishing with Brian Bohan had some great tench from venues around Leitrim.

50 anglers competed in the Royal Enfield Angling Club  2-Day International Festival. Anthony Marsde, Wigan, took first place and over €900. In total the Club paid out €4,500 in prizes. Tommy Dowd was the overall winner of the sixth annual Lisnaskea Water Festival. Anglers enjoyed excellent weather and fishing conditions, catches made up of mainly roach and skimmers on the pole. The  Breffni Challenge  fished extremely well with exceptionally good weights recorded. Overall winner was Kevin Rowles.

Trout anglers seem to be resting after the exertions of the Mayfly season. There is still some fishing to be had at Melvin as the hatch continues there and on Lough Sheelin which saw some fine trout taken on the spent last week but nearly everywhere else has seen the fish move on to alternative sources of food.  On Lough Ennell there was a good rise to Welshman’s Button last week. A few Mayfly continue to hatch on Corrib, which fished well, but Campto buzzers, Caenis and Sedges will be more productive from now.

Irish Ladies win gold

The Irish Ladies Fly Fishing Association competed in the Ladies Fly fishing International against England, Scotland and Wales in Caragh Lough in Kerry on the 11th -13th June 2013. Ireland won “Gold” taking first place by a sizable margin. England were second, Wales third and Scotland took fourth place. The ladies romped home to victory and in the end they took six of the first seven top positions in the competition.

Terry Jackson and friends took to Donegal for an early season porbeagle shark trip. The excursion did not produce any porgies despite their efforts but they were well rewarded with tope. Mackerel proved difficult to catch and anglers on all coasts have experienced this problem over the last few weeks. A very small common skate was an uncommon capture at Downings. Many large adults have been caught there over the years but skipper Michael McVeigh reports that this was the first time he had ever seen one so small. Some enjoyable fishing was had around Donegal Bay with both charter boat anglers and shore anglers reporting a good mix of species. The charter boat Leah at Killala Bay had a good day on Saturday though it was a slow start, mackerel again were hard to come by. Further south in the Shannon Estuary skipper Luke Aston found himself unable to get out to Loop Head as the winds picked up over the weekend, but his anglers had good tope at the more sheltered marks. Danny Wyse of West Cork and District SAC reports that the conditions for last weekend’s leg of the Munster Closed Championship was fished in 20 mph easterly winds and constant rain. Weed was a big problem and catches were severely impacted.

Back to bass-ics

Bass anglers are back into the swing of things following the closed season. First in with a report was Jim Hendrick who fished trough some very miserable weather on Sunday to land some lovely bass on lures.  Some great fishing was had in Kerry too where beach casters have been taking treble shots of schoolies. The fish were said to be in great condition. Angling guides Sean Jordan and Sid Jones also got amongst the bass in the last couple of days.

Summer pikers have been slow to send in reports recently and this week we have just two reports from Derravarragh and Poulaphouca where jacks featured for the most part.

Prospects

Outbreaks of rain, not heavy, will reach western counties early this afternoon and will spread to the rest of the country during the afternoon and evening. Light westerly winds will back southerly and increase moderate to fresh with the onset of rain.  Saturday will be a breezy day with sunny spells and showers. A few showers might be heavy, especially over northern parts, but there will be good dry intervals also. Highest temperatures of 14 to 18C, warmest in the southeast. Westerly winds will be fresh to strong and gusty. Sunday will be cool and windy (fresh and gusty northwest winds) with a mixture of sunny spells and showers. The showers will probably be heavy and prolonged at times in the north and northwest, and again the southeast is likely to have the best of the bright and dry weather. Winds will ease on Sunday night and Monday should be a little milder and less windy with sunny spells and just isolated showers but the night will be cool. Tuesday is looking mainly dry with sunny spells and light winds. Highest temperatures are expected to be in the mid to high teens, followed by a another cool night. The rest of the week is slightly more unsettled, but probably still a good deal of dry weather with sunshine at times. Temperatures around normal for the time of year.

Tight lines,

Myles Kelly
Catch, Photo, Release

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Lough Caragh
Congratulations to the Irish Ladies Fly Fishing Association who won the Ladies Fly fishing International last week