The last few days have felt strongly of Autumn as temperatures dropped a little. The cooler weather improved fishing in many places but for river and many lake anglers the low water continues to impact on angling success despite the bit of rain here and there. Sea anglers are rarely affected by rain or lack of it and there were some great reports from all around our coastline in the last 7 days.

Nigel Richie with specimen turbot wins Catch of the Week
Nigel Richie with his 16lb 3oz specimen turbot which wins him Catch of the Week

The Munster Blackwater saw a few more salmon caught over the weekend but rain is needed to bring up the fish below Cappoquin.  Salmon anglers on the River Lee have had little to entertain them as the water levels are so low, but  as dusk turned to night last Saturday Kevin Collins’ long day and perseverance paid off when he caught a fine salmon of 17.5lbs.  Some fine sea trout were reported on Lough Currane last week where an 8.1lb fish was landed while this week there were some big bags of juniors reported. Low water too at the Laune and though salmon are scare there are a few to be caught, with one anlger landing 3 in 4 outings. A few grilse and some good days at sea trout  were reported recently at Costello and Fermoyle where the forecast rain should really liven things up. Last week’s rain saw Lough Inagh rise by over 2 feet and 45 sea trout to 4.5lb, a few grilse and even a couple of char were recorded. Kylemore Fishery reported its best week of the season with 21 salmon for just 17 rod days.   The much talked of rain is expected to improve the fishing on the Erriff though Andrew Kyd’s party from the UK finished their week with 20 grilse and 9 sea trout for the week, and 17 sea trout were landed in one day on Tawnyard. Despite difficult fishing conditions with northerly winds prevailing for most of the week, the Burrishoole Fishery produced a few salmon during the week. One of the few fisheries not worried about water levels was the Owenmore and fishing on the Bangor Angling Club stretch of the Owenmore was good with quite a number of salmon caught and released. Water levels on the River Moy dropped again to summer level and, as a consequence, angling effort was very low this past week. However, the Moy system yielded a reported catch of 164 salmon. The Ballisodare Fishery saw a relatively slow week with just 27 fish caught. The water on the Drowes was very low and few fished the river but 15 grilse were still reported. The Owenea had a number of small freshes and there were a few grilse landed.

The  Irish Ladies Fly Fishing Association held a qualifier on Lough Lene last weekend. The trout were lying doggo a just 2 fish was enough to win the day. Some great rainbow trout were reported from the Lough Bane Cup, an evening competition, fished last Friday. Angling on Mask proved challenging last week, yet Carra produced the goods over the weekend. The Mask fish are particularly quiet and have not yet started to hit the Daphnia patterns. Lough Conn also reported slow fishing though the Daddy did well for some anglers. It was a very similar tale on Lough Sheelin with the addition of streamers for fry feeding fish.

East coast beaches are still fishing well and some anglers are getting a good mix of species from the shore, including smooth-hounds, ray, dabs, plaice, flounder, dogfish, bass, whiting, codling and tope. A pair of shore anglers fishing in who Wexford spent a long night catching dogs in pursuit of bass were rewarded by a good gilthead bream on rag which was released. Staying in Wexford some enjoyable bass fishing was had from the kayak in tidal creeks where fish fell to a variety of bucktails and soft plastics. One angler reports 30 bass over sessions in the south east which is very encouraging news.  Charter fishing from Dungarvan is currently producing a good mix of species including ling to 15lb.  The charter fishing in Cork Harbour is also going well and some great days were had over the weekend with big congers and loads of whiting at 2lbs about. Bass fishing is also going well in the Harbour at the moment. There was also some great charter fishing reported from West Cork where good cod, pollack, ling and sharks have kept anglers busy. Galway Bay is also fishing well while anglers in Donegal are reporting good rock fishing. At Red Bay in Co. Antrim there were reports of porbeagle sharks and of course our Catch of the Week – a lovely 16lb 3oz turbot.

A phenomenal 170 lbs. of bream won the IFI Open Competition fished at Temple House for Galway angler, Ronan Ryan at the weekend despite difficult conditions. Bream were the quarry in Longford, but they are not on the feed, though the roach, hybrids and tench made up for their absence. Perch, roach and hybrids provided great sport for anglers waggler fishing on the River Boyle. Coarse anglers around Mullingar are enjoying good results in the early mornings.

Belgian anglers fishing the upper Shannon enjoyed good sport last week with fish to double figures landed. Although the water temperatures are a little cooler, big pike are still difficult to tempt in the Foxford area though entertaining fishing on surface lures is still possible.

Over the weekend the temperatures will continue a little cooler and the winds will be mostly light from the Northwest. Rain should start to fall in earnest on Sunday and flooding is expected locally in the afternoon.

Tight lines especially in Ireland,

Myles Kelly
Catch, Photo, Release

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Templehouse Lake, Co. Sligo, - a great venue for this year’s IFI Open
Templehouse Lake, Co. Sligo, – a great venue for this year’s IFI Open