The lovely dry but sometimes cool weather brought a lot of anglers out on many of our rivers, loughs and at sea in the past week.  This spring has been so good in comparison to the wintry conditions which prevailed here in Ireland last year. Conditions around the country are variable with high water levels on many waters but very low or dropping water levels elsewhere.  Small belts of intense rain showers and cool easterly winds all impacted on fishing in some areas but the anglers did enjoy some exceptional fishing and hopefully the good season will continue.

There was a lot of salmon activity this week and better salmon fishing was reported from Lough Melvin but at the River Drowes nearby, there was less salmon recorded this week but fish up to 10 lb. were taken.  At Ballisodare, on the first week of the season, 13 salmon were reported for the week.  Over in Co. Mayo, two nice salmon up to 15 lb. were caught at Beltra.  At Carrowmore in the North West, salmon fishing improved greatly with the Thunder and Lightning Fly proving effective.  Fishing is generally still quiet on the River Moy but a few fish were reported. At last water levels dropped at the Galway Weir and Dave Lenihan caught the first salmon of the season. It was another great week on Lough Currane, the highlight of which was fine specimen sea trout of 11 lb. for an American visitor and an 11.5 lb. fish for regular Dutch visitor Tim Van der Lann.  A few salmon were reported from the Bandon River in Co. Cork. Up on the River Gweebarra, the first salmon of the season was recorded and on the Cloghan fishery on the River Finn, there was several nice fish reported.  Up on the Lackagh, two salmon up to 11 lb. were recorded.  Down in Wexford, there was some very fine spring salmon fishing reported including fish up to 20 lb.

It was another good week on Lough Sheelin with some great trout up to 7 lb. recorded.  It is nice to report very good river brown trout fishing from the River Boyne at Bective where trout to 3.5 lb. were recorded.  Lough Doon near Lough Arrow was in the news this week producing some excellent trout fishing in the past week. Blustery conditions affected fishing on Lough Arrow for some of the week but nonetheless, some good trout were reported at a competition at the weekend.  The annual media competition at the Annamoe Fishery in Co. Wicklow and journalists enjoyed a great day’s fishing at the venue.  Down at the Waterford reservoirs, some fine brown trout were taken by an angler guided by angling guide Jason O’Riodan.  The ITFFA International Team Fish Off was fished on Lough Lene and the competitors enjoyed excellent trout fishing and a team was picked from the winners to represent Ireland in forthcoming internationals.

There is still some fantastic pike fishing reported and 14 year old Aaron Barry caught a magnificent 28 lb. pike while fishing with angling guide Kenny Sloan in Co. Mayo.  Angling guide Bodo Funke had fishing clients out on Lough Derg and waters near Boyle and they enjoyed some fantastic fishing with many pike over a metre recorded with a best fish of 112 cms.

Emmet Hope with his specimen Pouting
Emmet Hope with his specimen Pouting weighing 1.365kg is our ‘Catch of the Week’ winner

After very little sea angling activity in recent weeks it is nice to report that there was plenty of catches reported in the past week.  Another 14 year angler fishing in Killala caught a fine specimen Pouting of 1.365 Kilos while fishing with skipper Donal Kennedy and as there was none recorded in 2013 he wins our ‘Catch of the Week‘.  Flounders made up the majority of catches at the Galway Buccaneers Shore master anglers series in Connemara. Charter skipper Siegy Grabher reports from Valencia Island that he had his first party of anglers out at the weekend and they enjoyed some excellent fishing for a range of species. Up in Sligo, skipper Daryl Ewing reports that they have started to catch mackerel so signs for an improvement in the deep sea fishing look promising.  Angling guide John Quinlan reports from Kerry that they caught a few bass last week in poor fishing conditions but it looks to improve in the coming weeks.  Angling guide Sid Jones reports from Wexford that shore fishing is improving when he caught six different species including bass from the shore in the past week.  Angling guide Richie Ryan reported that he has recently completed some Youtube clips of catching pollack on fly which you can link into in this week’s update.

There was some coarse angling news this week with some fine roach reported from Lanesborough hot water stretch even though fishing was described as very tough because there is no hot water coming out the power station.  A small competition on Lough Sillan produced some wonderful catches of fish for anglers fishing from the Ballybay Angling Association.  At another competition on Annagheirin Lake in Co. Cavan, young anglers took four of the five top places in a match organised by the Carrickmacross and Drogheda CACs.  David Byrne had a good session on Lough Muckno for a good catch of mainly roach by using light feeding methods.

Despite the promised change in weather next week anglers are now out in force catching fish from all waters on inland loughs, rivers and at sea and we will have more news next week on the best of Irish Fishing,

Tight lines especially in Ireland

Paul Bourke

Catch, Photo, Release

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Another Beautifully Marked Wild Brown Trout from the River Fane
Another Beautifully Marked Wild Brown Trout from the River Fane