At last the weather has started to cool down a bit although it was still very pleasant and calm on many days last week.  There was a lot of fishing reported in the last seven days and there was a notable increase in game angling activity with the season for many salmon and trout fisheries closing on the 30th of September.  The midland trout loughs and some sea trout fisheries remain open until the 12th of October and the Cork Blackwater season for salmon is still open on a catch and release basis for another while.

Some cracking salmon up to 17 lb. were reported in the past week on the Fortwilliam fishery on the Munster Blackwater.  At Blackwater Lodge, Ian Powell reported on another good week with 46 fish up to 13 lb. recorded. The good sea trout fishing continued on Lough Currane where the salmon season is now over but the sea trout fishing continues until the 12th of October.  Some nice sea trout up to 4.5 lb. were reported from Owenmore Fishery on the Dingle peninsula last week.  One salmon was caught on the fly on the River Drowes in Co. Donegal in the low water conditions and brought the season to a close.  There was no salmon reported in the last week on the River Owenea.

Big tope
Richard and Ian Curry with their 72 inch tope which wins them Catch of the Week

There was plenty of good trout fishing reported from the Waterford reservoirs in David Tantrum’s angling report this week. Tomasz Ekert of “Sea Bass Hunting” made the most of the last week of trout fishing with many nice trout caught on his local Kerry rivers.  Angling guide Paddy Dunworth reported that despite low water conditions on the River Maigue, a party of Belgium anglers enjoyed their introduction to trout fishing on the fly.  Many anglers fished on loughs Owel and Ennell in end of season competitions at the weekend and some nice trout were caught but the calm conditions made it very tough for competitors.  Early in the week, angling guide Mick Flanagan had some clients, including a group from Melview Lodge in Co. Longford, out in good fishing conditions on Owel and they were rewarded with some nice trout .  Some nice trout were reported from Lough Sheelin but the calm conditions made fishing very hard. The last week of the season was excellent on some days for anglers fishing on Lough Corrib with some fine fish recorded.   Ronan Cusack gives his assessment of the trout season on Lough Mask this week.  Some nice trout on the fly were reported from Lough Conn in Co. Mayo.  Trout remained deep up on Lough Melvin but a Swiss group caught some nice fish up to 5.5 lb. on Rapalas.

Ian and Richard Curry went tope fishing off the Cooley point in Co. Louth and hooked, landed and returned a potential record tope estimated at 71 lb.!  They got photos and a video for Youtube of the fantastic catch and win our Catch of the Week.  Angling guide Jim Hendrick from Wexford reported better bass fishing particularly in the dark from venues in the south east. Mike Phelan from “Absolute Fishing” in Tramore landed his best bass on a lure last weekend. Another south east angling guid,e Sean Jordan, also reported a great improvement in bass fishing this week. Angling guide Ger Doran reported better bass fishing when the winds went around to the south west with many nice fish taken on fly.  Dungarvan angling guide Jason O’Riordan reported a big improvement in bass fishing in his area for clients with several good fish caught and released. Skipper Mike Dennehy had another group out after Albacore Tuna and the skipper landed a near record fish of 63 lb. along with many good fish for all his party of anglers.  A group of sea anglers from Dublin enjoyed super blue shark fishing while deep sea fishing out from Kinsale. Anglers fishing with skipper Mark Gannon out from Courtmacsherry had a another great week for blue shark, pollack, cod and many other species including some nice bass inshore on lures. Siegy Graber, skipper of Sioux out of Valentia Island, reported that he had a group of anglers from Austria and Germany and they enjoyed good deep sea fishing for Ling, pollack and many other species. Anglers fishing with skipper Luke Aston off the Clare coast landed cod, hake, pollack and many other species. Mike Curtin won the closed gold medal shore competition in the Galway area at the weekend.  Fergus Collins won the fifth leg of the master shore competition at the latest Galway Buccaneers outing. Up in Sligo, anglers fishing with skipper Daryl Ewing enjoyed good fishing for double figured pollack and some nice big skate in recent days.  Peter Ross from “Boat Angling Ireland reported some wonderful skate fishing on their latest outing fishing off the Antrim coast.

It is nice to report good catches of roach and perch at Blessington Lake just before the lough is closed to fishing for the month of October.  Danny Murphy landed a great catch of 102 lb., mainly carp, to win the latest open match at Oaklands Fishery in New Ross in Co. Wexford.  It is lovely to report young anglers enjoying fishing, catching some lovely roach and dace on the River Barrow at Carlow and getting some expert instruction and help.  Anglers staying with Kevin Lyons at Melview Lodge in Co. Longford enjoyed some big bream and tench fishing on nearby waters.   Dave Slater won the three day Sheemore AC angling festival in Co. Leitrim with a good overall weight of 54 lb. 6 oz.  A group of Dublin anglers had a great day out on Annagheirin Lough near Shercock catching bream, roach and perch.  English international angler Mark Pollard won the Cootehill Angling Festival with 69.985 kilos of fish from a keenly contested successful annual event held on many waters in the area.

Angling guide Mick Flanagan had some clients out on Lough Derravarragh during the week and they had some fine pikeon lures.  A group of anglers who came to Foxford for salmon fishing turned to angling guide Kenny Sloan for pike fishing because of the continuing low water conditions on the river Moy.  They had a great time taking many great pike to over a metre and enjoyed their trip.  The Fishmaniak club held an open boat pike competition on the River Erne near Belturbet and they enjoyed some super fishing with two pike over a metre recorded on the day.  Maciej Tokarski won the day with 8 pike for a total length of 552cm. and all pike were carefully put back. The first NCFFI Predator Club event took place on the River Erne at Enniskillen and many pike were recorded on the day.

There are many news clippings and competition notices along with other angling news items on the website from a very busy week for angling in Ireland.  As always if you are going out fishing in Ireland in the next week, please be careful and tell your loved ones where you are going and if going afloat please wear your lifejacket or approved floatation device.  Enjoy the wealth of Irish fishing safely,

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 contact@fisheriesireland.ie.

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Sheelin
Autumn on Lough Sheelin, courtesy of John McGurl