Anglers are currently enjoying the lovely mild but sometimes showery weather for this time of year.  Angling activity is very high now on both inland waters and at sea where there was some excellent fishing to report in the very fine weather conditions.

Good hatches of large dark olives brought good trout fishing on many rivers in Co. Waterford along with hatches of Iron blue duns and Hawthornes.  Great hatches of olives brought some fine trout to the net this week on Lough Sheelin.  Congratulations to Dylan Ennis on winning a boat at the Irish Trout Fly fishing Associations (ITFFA) youths fundraising competition, which was held at Lough Owel on 27th April 2014 and attracted 82 anglers.  Twenty two anglers, representing fifteen clubs, competed for the Jimmy Allard Cup at the Irish Trout Fly Fishing Association (ITFFA) Youths National Championship and the winner was Ryan Binley of Foxford Angling Club. Over in Corrib good hatches of olives brought plenty of trout to the net and some Mayfly have started to hatch now but only in small numbers.  On nearby Lough Mask, there was similar good fishing reported with wetflies producing plenty of trout.  Easterly winds did impact on trout fishing on Loughs Conn and Cullin but on some days the fishing was excellent.  Similar conditions were reported on Lough Arrow but some Mayfly have appeared in the last few days.  At Carrigavantry, a huge rich diet of food was found by Dr. Ken Whelan on a recent visit there and he also was rewarded with catching a very big Brown Trout on fly which he quickly released. Up at Nurney Lakes in Co. Kildare, a fine rainbow trout of 15 lb. was the highlight of a good week at the fishery.

pollack
Catch of the Week goes this 15lb pollack caught onboard the Naomh Carta out of Cork Harbour

Some lovely pollack were the reward for a group of anglers fishing with charter skipper Daryl Ewing in Donegal Bay. Charter skipper Gerry Keohane operating in Cork Harbour had a group of anglers out at the weekend and they enjoyed some lovely pollack fishing including a fine specimen of 15 lb. which is the biggest reported to us this year. At Loop head, charter skipper Luke Aston reports that the fishing has got better for his clients with some good Huss along with good pollack and mackerel were reasonably plentiful. Up in north County Dublin, new tackle shop owner Ruairi Coleman from Applewood in Swords caught some nice flounders and some codling and whiting just at dark on several beaches in the past week.  Down further along the east coast, anglers fishing with charter skipper Kit Dunne enjoyed some good deep sea fishing for Thornback Ray and the first smoothound of the season was also taken on the trip.  Wexford guide Sid Jones organised a deep sea fishing trip with charter skipper Martin Colfer at Youghal in aid of Cancer Research and the eleven anglers enjoyed a great day landing codling, pollack, coalfish and whiting.  The first twaite shad of the season was reported from the River Barrow at St. Mullins.

Low water conditions produced only two nice salmon for clients fishing at Delphi but sport should pick up with the some heavy rain forecast which should improve the catches in the rivers and on the loughs.  The lovely sunny weather impacted on salmon fishing on the River Moy with only a few fish reported but some rain forecast should improve the fishing very soon.  The good steady salmon fishing continues on Carrowmore Lake in North West Mayo and 18 fish were accounted for last week with salmon up to 9.5 lb. reported.  Low water conditions were prevalent on the Ballisodare Fishery but there were 13 salmon reported for the week.  There was an improvement in salmon catches from the River Laune where some nice fish to 12 lb. were reported. There was good improvement in salmon fishing on many fisheries in the Cork Kerry area in the past week.  A fine 7 lb. specimen Sea Trout is the highlight of the week on Lough Currane.  Fishery Manager Nigel Rush caught the first salmon of the season the Kylemore in Connemara.  Conditions are getting better for good salmon fishing at the Galway Weir where fish to 12.5 lb. were taken. Up on the River Drowes, low water conditions prevailed but some nice salmon were reported and some grilse mainly on fly. There was good fishing reported on Lough Melvin nearby.

At Lanesborough, there was no hot water flowing again last week and with easterly winds predominating, it was cold at times but some nice catches of mainly roach were taken and some occasional tench up to 5 lb. 2 oz. were caught.   Good catches of Roach to over a pound along with bream and hybrids with some catches over 50 lb. were reported from many venues near Arvagh, Carrigallen and Killeshandra.  World Pairs Champion Cathal Hughes was the man on form winning over €1500 at the four day Easter Festival on Lough Muckno where roach were dominant in good catches along with hybrids mainly on pole and feeder methods.

In the Cavan Leitrim area there was still plenty of good pike fishing enjoyed in the loughs near Killeshandra, Carrigallen, Cootehill and Ballyconnell with some big fish reported taken on all methods including flyfishing from belly boats.  French anglers enjoyed good fishing at Belturbet also.  Angling journalist Uwe Pinnau enjoyed another good week pike fishing in Ireland staying with angling guide Kevin Lyons and Uwe and a friend caught 100 pike during their stay using all methods including fly.  At Mullingar, angling guide Michael Flanagan reports that a regular group of Italian anglers fished with him again on the midland loughs and enjoyed super pike fishing on a variety of lures up to 20 lb. Mick also reported that there was some fine pike fishing on Lough Ree with fish up to 22 lb. reported along with a lovely 7 lb. trout.  German visitors fishing with angling guide Kenny Sloan enjoyed some good pike fishing on a number of loughs in the Foxford area.  Down on Inniscarra Lake, anglers fishing with angling guide Alan Houlihan enjoyed some excellent pike fishing including a lovely pike on fly taken by young angler Chris Fehilly.

IFI is taking part in an international survey with counterparts in the USA, UK and Australia to find out more about your opinions on fish habitat restoration work. The survey should take no more than 5 minutes and is available by clicking here. There’s a link at the end of the survey that takes you a separate, unlinked page where you can enter the draw for some great prizes including a €300 tackle voucher, measuring mats and angling books.

It is another bank holiday weekend coming up here in Ireland so I urge anglers to look carefully at weather reports for the weekend including tide tables if going afloat at sea.  All anglers going afloat at sea and on inland waters should always wear a life jacket and if you are going far please inform somebody where you intend to fish.  Be safe while enjoying the best of Irish Angling this weekend,

Tight lines especially in Ireland

Paul Bourke
Catch, Photo, Release

If you have an angling story to share with the Irish Angling Update please send it to [email protected].

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Boats heading out from the Carrick shore in very bright conditions at the start of the Corr na Mona Anglers competition for Galway Hospice
Boats heading out from the Carrick shore in very bright conditions at the start of the Corr na Mona Anglers competition for Galway Hospice