The past week has seen a more changeable weather pattern but although there has been more rainfall and strong winds at times, many anglers had an enjoyable weeks fishing all over Ireland.  It has been cooler at times but generally anglers got on with catching plenty of fish at sea and on inland waters.

The good spring salmon fishing continues on several sections of the River Slaney according to the River Slaney Trust where copper tubes flies were the proving successful.  Salmon fishing improved on several sections of the Munster Blackwater both at Bridgetown and on the Blackwater Lodge beats. Some fine salmon to 14 lb. were reported from the River Bandon and fishing improved on the River Lee also last week.  Fishing was poor at the weekend on

Our 'Catch of the Week' winner is Graham Walker with his 7.16lb specimen sea trout
Our ‘Catch of the Week’ winner is Graham Walker with his 7.16lb specimen sea trout

Lough Currane but during the week sport picked up for salmon fishing and another fine specimen sea trout of over 7 lb. was taken on the troll by Cork Angler Graham Walker which is our Catch of the Week. On the Dingle Peninsula, there were some sea trout reported from the Owenmore Fishery from the lake.  There was an improvement in the fishing at the Galway Weir in the past week.  Great angling ghillie John Howley caught the first salmon of the season on the Ridge Pool on the River Moy and fishing on the main river improved.  Carrowmore Lake in the North West is still producing very good salmon fishing on the lake.  Two fresh spring salmon were taken on the 1st of May by a German and Swiss visitor fishing at Delphi. Water levels were at summer level on the River Drowes during the week and only a small number of salmon were reported with nearby Lough Melvin accounting for no salmon caught in the past week.

Angling guide Eamonn Conway from Dundalk tried trout fishing on the Annalee River and enjoyed great success with good hatches of olives during the day.  There was better trout fishing reported from Lough Sheelin where great hatches of olives and midges brought many trout to the net.  Angling guide Mick Flanagan had a group of anglers from Offally out on Lough Owel where they enjoyed a great day’s sport for trout. Trout fishing was very good on Loughs Corrib, Mask, Conn, Cullin and on Arrow in the west where anglers are eagerly awaiting the Mayfly.   The Milford fly fishing club in Donegal ran a trout competition on Lough Fern last Saturday and Martin McGrenra was the winner with a good catch of trout and some Mayfly were seen hatching on the lough during the day.

Down on Lough Derg there was some fantastic coarse fishing reported. At Portumna prebaiting accounted for bream up to 7 lb. and some good hybrids especially on the Salmon Run at Portumna. Further down the lough two English visitors prebaited from one of the islands near White gate and were rewarded with over 1700 lb. of bream up to 8 lb. and many roach to over 2 lb. mainly night fishing.  The Ballybay Angling Association held the first coarse match of the Summer League on Lough Egish last Sunday and Kevin Norcliffe won the day with a nice bag of fish with over 25 lb.

There was some nice pike fishing reported this past week throughout the country.  Angling guide Richie Johnson had a party of American visitors out on Blessington Lake and using lures caught some excellent lean pike on their trip. Angling guide Mick Flanagan reports that he had another party of Italian anglers out on the midland loughs pike fishing and using lures they had very good sport with some cracking fish up to 22 lb. on the trip.  At Portumna, Belgium and Italian guests fishing with Mike Murray caught over 150 pike between them for the week with some excellent fish mainly on lures.  There were some good pike reported taken on the River Shannon at Athlone mainly on deadbaits. A party of Belgium anglers fishing with angling guide Kevin Lyons at Melview Lodge in Longford had a bumper week’s fishing recording 146 pike and one big trout while boat fishing using a variety of methods.  Anglers in the Cavan Leitrim area also enjoyed good pike fishing particularly at Lough Gowna, Killeshandra and in Cootehill.

Angling guide Jim Hendrick teamed up with Ladies World Fly Fishing Distance Casting Champion Glenda Powell and Expert Fly Tyer Brian Healey to hold the Inaugural Saltwater Fly Fishing Primer in East Cork.  It was based at Bella Vista Hotel in Cobh and the many participants in the course were treated to expert tuition over a weekend and enjoyed some wonderful fly fishing to catch bass on the fly.  Up on the east coast there were some nice bass and flounder reported taken on crab and ragworm. Down in Clonakilty, charter skipper Dave Edwards had a party of anglers out deep sea fishing at the weekend recording pollack, cod and many other species. In Sligo, charter skipper Peter Power had a local group out deep sea fishing at the weekend and one unusual catch was a lovely dragonet. There was some nice shore fishing reported from the Killybegs area where the Killybegs Mariners club members enjoyed some fine fishing for Turbot, Dabs and Rays among many species.  Steven Neely had a very enjoyable trip to Donegal taking many pollack and some sea trout on a variety of lures from the shore.

In new clippings and other reports in the update there is news on forthcoming events and competitions coming up in the near future.  The Headquarters of Inland Fisheries Ireland have been moved to 3044 Lake Drive in the Citywest Business Campus in Dublin 24. Staff from Swords and Blackrock offices will be situated in the Citywest site from 12th of May but the Swords staff are already onsite for the past two weeks. Our contact numbers, email addresses and website have not changed but feel free to contact us at our new base.  Don’t forget if you are going fishing this weekend, be safe and wear a lifejacket.

Tight lines especially in Ireland

Paul Bourke
Catch, Photo, Release

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Salmon fishing reports

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Jim Hendrick in Action on the Cork Coastline during the week
Jim Hendrick in Action on the Cork Coastline during the week