Super fishing this week and what an appropriate week as we see lots of newcomers and children casting their hook in and sampling what our Irish waters have to offer on Fisheries Awareness Week. We also saw many anglers from foreign shores visiting us. The Moy as usually lived up to it’s world wide reputation and provided some fine fish for our guest. French visitors, Herve Rubat and Michelle Domenjoud both landed a salmon on spinner while Belgian angler, Sergio Perezzina, landed a fine 13 lbs. fish but our own Paddy Keenan from Monaghan stole the show with his fantastic 20.5 lbs. fly caught salmon. Further out on the Moy Estuary 4-year old Liam van Seemus from Holland caught his first ever sea trout on board the Pegasus. Skipper Judd Ruane informs us that despite poor angling conditions, almost 80 sea trout were landed over 6 days.
Ballyduff Bridge Fishery saw a 13lb salmon caught at Magner’s beat on a 1 ½ inch orange Willie Gunn tube fly on a guideline exceed rod. While further up the country at Shean Lodge Fishery in Mayo thing improved on last month and they report 26 salmon to 14lb taken by guests so far this month. A lot of weeds being washed through the system by the recent rain at the Drowes made fishing difficult but nonetheless managed to catch 7 fish. Over at Delphi a young Polish lady called Iwona Grochowska landed her first ever salmon whilst practising casting, a beautiful sea liced fish of 10lbs 8ozs from the Stream on Finlough on a Willie Gunn. Where’s the four leaf clover when you need one!
Sheelin gave it’s anglers a heart stopping taste of what this lake is capable of producing. With the Mayfly dancing over the water, the trout were jumping. Fishing was excellent throughout the week and anglers were active. All flies worked great and the heaviest fish for the week was caught by Co. Down man Larry McAlinden weighing in at over 9lb using an International Dabbler.
Lough Lene drew the attention of seasoned anglers Andy Young and Eugene Fagan from Dublin. These guys knew exactly what to bring on a good fishing trip – a jam-packed Jumper full of Flies and good company. Unlike Sheelin the Mayfly are a little late here and don’t arrive till June but the trout were feeding hard on the surface and they caught many fish on dry fly.

Tom 'Swanky' Sweeney from Cork, with a magnificent Lough Mask trout of 11.99lbs taken on wetfly, May 2014
Tom ‘Swanky’ Sweeney from Cork, with a magnificent Lough Mask trout of 11.99lbs taken on wetfly is our ‘Catch of the Week’ winner

Our ‘Catch of the Week’ winner Cork angler Tom (Swanky) Sweeney landed a magnificent Lough Mask trout of 11.99lbs taken on wetfly. Mayfly hatches are well above average on other years and the trout are taking advantage of it. Lough Corrib also fished well this week and visiting anglers from Belgium, UK, Denmark and Lithuania all returned home after catching a number of fish ranging from 2.9lb up to 4.9lbs. Irish anglers too faired well on the lake and it’s easy to see what a great boost to the economy this wonderful lake is. A further 31 anglers had a great week, finishing with 110 fish and I’m glad to say a large amount being returned.
Coarse fishing too held it’s own with good mixed bags up to 40 lb reported at Killeshandra Town Lake. Hybrids dominated the catches at Gulladoo and Killykeen saw bream up to 5lbs. The Newly revamped Rosehall Reservoir in Drogheda saw a great crowd turn out for the Coarse Fishing event yesterday for Fisheries Awareness Week. Anglers of all ages took part. Lots of further events right up to Sunday May 25th can be found on www.faw.ie
Steven Neely turned his hand to Pike fishing this week in Monaghan and although the hanging trees, rushes and lillies suited the pike more than Steve he still managed some fine catches. If it’s fishing with a difference you can try Scottish angling journalist and flyangler, Andy Bowman method. He fished north Mayo in a float tube and caught many fine pike with a couple in the 20lb plus bracket. No doubt he’ll be back for more!.
6 years old Jack Egan fished Derravaragh in rather choppy conditions but this didn’t frazzle this young angler. Together with Dad John he boated some nice pike and went home with many good fishy tales to tell at school.
Donegal was the place boasting the sea fish this week. Declan Kilgannon’s boat the Kiwi Girl landed a huge Skate of about 170lb keeping up her tradition of landing some massive fish each year. Killybegs Mariner SAC fished inshore at a deep water mark and there they caught 7 different species on the day including Ling, sea scorpion, pollack, ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, dogfish and conger.
As you can see from all the reports this week fishing has no age barrier. From  4 year old Liam van Seemus on the Moy to a French Octogenarian angler fishing at Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan. So get up, get out and get fishing.

Tight lines especially in Ireland

Nancy Hearne
Catch, Photo, Release

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Not one, not two but three springers on the Salmon Leap, Cloghan Estate Fishery, River Finn
Not one, not two but three springers on the Salmon Leap, Cloghan Estate Fishery, River Finn. Photo: John McLaughlin