The promise of fine, warm settled weather saw a lot of anglers try their luck on fisheries all across the country from mountain loughs to wrecks at sea. The weather was generally cooler and windier and in some cases wetter than advertised and though success in some places was patchy the angling at other venues was exceptional.

Yet another excellent week of spring fishing on the Moy, with a total of 184 salmon reported. Grilse are making an appearance but many of the fish are in the double figures, with salmon in excess of 19lbs landed. A great week was had at the Ballisodare Fishery, with more grilse starting to appear and conditions suitable for angling for most of the week. This resulted in a total catch of over 100 salmon for the week. The Drowes also reports good numbers of both springers and grilse running. The Galway Fishery has endured flood levels for 3 weeks but since the number of gates open was reduced to 4 salmon fishing improved and 7 fish, mostly grilse, have been caught to date. Lough Currane had a good weekend. Amongst the many catches one angler had 7 sea trout, another had a specimen and the first grilse was landed.

This Specimen Smooth-Hound on LISIN, Wicklow went to Christopher Boylan.
This Specimen Smooth-Hound on LISIN, Wicklow wins Christopher Boylan Catch of the Week

The Mayfly is up now on many lakes but with the exception of Lough Derg Olives have been the hatch that has accounted for the most trout. Scattered hatches of Mayfly have been observed on Conn over the past weekend, particularly in the sheltered bays of the western shore. However, Olive patterns and Buzzers are still yielding good catches for anglers. Mask is reported to be fishing very well during the hatches of Olives with small Dabblers accounting for many fish. On Lough Corrib buzzers are still pulling some good trout but one group of anglers landed 67 trout for the week on wet Mayfly. Inland Fisheries Ireland would like to take this opportunity once again to remind anglers that fisheries officers are continually carrying out checks and patrols around Corrib, Mask and Carra lakes to ensure that local bye-laws and regulations are being adhered to.

Patrols

Anglers should be mindful that since 2008 it is illegal to be in possession of any trout under 33cm (13 inches) and that there is a daily bag limit of 4 brown trout per angler per day. Despite the poor weather on Lough Sheelin last week good numbers of anglers fished the lake and again the best fishing was during the hatches of Olives. River anglers also report that the hatches are increasing with olives, sedges and some hawthorns bringing a rise of fish in the warmer part of the day, but wets and nymphs are still taking most fish.

Kit Dunne, skipper of Lisin out of Wicklow, had a good weekend and his anglers had some fine smoothhound fishing. Christopher Boylan wins Catch of the Week for his 9.3lb smoothhound caught with Kit.  Anglers fishing on the Brazen Hussey out of Courtown also caught some lovely smoothounds. Ray and gurnards also featured in the catches. Reef fishing at Kilmore Quay aboard Celtic Lady II saw pollack, coalfish, wrasse, cod and mackerel landed. Michael of Rosguill out of Downings reports a slow start to the season –  just a few pollack, ling and coalfish but lots of herring and quite a few mackerel were about. Hunting the deep water north of Rathlin Island  Hamish Currie of Predator II and his anglers had three specimen spurdogs, strap congers and a skate of 147lb. Small boat anglers fishing the fly in Cork Harbour had fifty pollack off the Harbour Rock. Shore anglers in the area report good mullet fishing and one angler had nice mullet on a large soft plastic lure.

Coarse anglers fishing in Co. Cavan report good fishing from a number of venues with bags of 40lb reported from Garadice, Killykeen and the Derries. At the other end of the country at Oakland Fishery the top three anglers in a match fished on Sunday all weighed in with big bags and first and second both had over 100lb of carp, hybrids, tench, rudd and skimmers.

Joe McDermott is the new National Pike Champion. He was the runaway winner with a super bag of fish which was better that 2nd and 3rd put together. He caught all his pike on artificial baits. The event was fished on the River Shannon near Drumshanbo.

Fisheries Awareness Week

Thank you to all who took part in Fisheries Awareness Week and helped to make it a great success. Everyone deserves recognition for their efforts, from club members, fishery owners, charter skippers and all the volunteers who organised and ran events to the parents, carers and everyone else who ferried the novice anglers of all ages to the events and of course to the novices themselves. Welcome to the world of angling!

We have a huge gallery of photos at www.faw.ie from all of the  events that took place to celebrate this great week of angling activities – enjoy!

Angling outlook

The cool evenings will continue with a threat of grass frost on Friday night. Saturday will be a dry day with a mixture of cloud and sunny spells; winds will stay light and it will become reasonably mild by afternoon. Another cold night inland on Saturday night, with a touch of grass frost and some fog patches returning.  Sunday will stay dry with broken cloud; light to moderate, southwesterly breezes will set in and it will become fairly warm in the afternoon away from coastal margins of the south and west. After that unsettled conditions will persist for the rest of next week. There will be showers or longer spells of rain each day and temperatures will be well below normal for the end of May both day and night. It is likely to be windy occasionally also, with westerlies predominating.

Tight lines,
Myles Kelly
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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Fishing on the River Suir
Fishing on the River Suir