Hot summer weather arrived in the last few days here in Ireland but last weekend did produce some wonderful fishing when conditions were cooler than in recent days. The present spell of very hot weather will suit sea angling in particular in the days ahead but most inland fishing will be confined to late evening or early morning fishing in the heatwave.

Marek Kozinski with a beautiful 86cm ferox trout from Lough Corrib, taken while fishing with guide Tomi Kurman, June 2014
Marek Kozinski with a beautiful 86cm ferox trout from Lough Corrib, taken while fishing with guide Tomi Kurman, June 2014

Stuart Marry from Balbriggan won the National Angling Championships on Lough Leane beside Killarney over the weekend. There is still some good spent gnat fishing going on in Lough Sheelin with some wonderful trout reported in the late evenings.  A huge trout of 13 lb. was taken on fly on Lough Ree. An even bigger trout was taken by Marek Kozinski which was not weighed but measured 86 cm while fishing with angling guide Tomi Kurman on Lough Corrib last week and wins the Catch of the Week.  Trout fishing was a little slower this week on Loughs Conn and Cullin with only sporadic hatches of fly enticing trout to feed.  Wetflies worked well for anglers fishing on Lough Melvin where Sonaghan & Gillaroo Trout were taken regularly during the week with the best reported fish of 4 lb. 4 oz.

The Ballyduff Bridge Fishery produced some nice salmon fishing in the past week.  Sea trout fishing improved on Lough Currane last week but the highlight of the week was a fine specimen salmon of 22 lb. taken on the troll by Jo Jo Daly.  It was a good week on many salmon fisheries in the Cork Kerry area particularly on the River Lee in the past week.  There were three salmon of 14 lb. reported from the River Laune last week including one for lady angler Martina Murphy.  There was good grilse fishing reported at the Galway Weir fishery and on Lough Inagh, plenty of salmon and sea trout were showing.  Last week there was good salmon fishing reported at Delphi where some rain showers earlier in the week had livened up the conditions on the river and loughs.  It was a super week on Carrowmore Lake where 28 salmon and sea trout to 3 lb. were reported in the past week and the nearby Owenmore River produced some big salmon for a party of Belgium visitors. Water levels fluctuated all week on the River Moy where 242 salmon were reported for all fisheries throughout the system.  82 salmon, mostly grilse, were reported from the Ballisodare River. Good numbers of grilse were reported from the River Drowes during the week and there were a couple of fish reported from nearby Lough Melvin.

Justin Gordon landed a great pike, a personal best while fishing with angling guide Michael Flanagan on Lough Derravarragh last weekend.  Two German visitors had very good fishing on Lough Gowna over a week with many double figure pike recorded over the week and a best fish of over 20 lb.

Warm sunny conditions made it hard for anglers fishing the two day Cabra CAC festival on the Royal Canal at Kilcock and Leixlip.  Pat Bartley was the winner over the two days.  It is lovely to report junior anglers enjoying good fishing and down in the Oakland Fishery in a junior competition, Thomas Quinlin landed 126 lb. of mainly carp to win and all the competitors enjoyed great sport.  Two regular English visitors Howard and Nigel enjoyed some terrific bream fishing while staying with angling guide Kevin Lyons at Melview recording a best day’s catch of 186 lb.  There was some fine coarse fishing reported from many venues in Co. Cavan with bream, roach and hybrids dominating catches.  The Arva senior’s festival took place last week and 66 anglers mainly from the UK enjoyed some excellent catches on the nearby lakes.  Peter Jones was the overall winner with 57.7590 kilos.  Jimmy Douglas from Belfast won the popular two day Lisnaskea Water Festival held on the Rosslea Lakes in Co. Fermanagh.

There has been a great response to the Angling Habitat Survey, but given that there are over 250,000 anglers in Ireland we would really like to hear more of your opinions on the matter. 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.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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bass
A close up of one of the very first bass caught on Monday when the season re-opened.