There was a little less rain in the last week and overall the weather was a bit more settled and mild. Many rivers saw their levels drop a bit which was good news for salmon anglers and improved conditions in coastal areas meant sea anglers managed to get out on shore and afloat.

skate
Thomas White wins Catch of the Week with this 179lb skate

Good luck to the competitors in the Irish Winter Beach Festival which starts today on Wexford’s beaches. Hopefully conditions will remain suitable for the event as the venues have been fishing well. The 2014 Interprovincial Shore Competition was fished at Waterfoot earlier this month with freezing temperatures, biting winds and of course rain. The Ulster ladies took the Womens Interprovincial Championship after a some good fishing at Waterfoot, though the fishing the following day at Benone was less productive. The men began with a very tough session on Portstewart beach, moved to Whiterocks for the second session and joined the women on Benone for the final session. Leinster won the Mens Interprovincial Championship. The species caught were flounder, turbot, rockling, whiting, coalfish and sea trout with one bass reported at Benone. Staying in the competition scene Tralee Bay Sea Angling Club reports that 609 fish were caught at the John Lacey Memorial Competition. Coalies and flats made up the catches and the eventual winner was Phil Ord.  Anglers fishing from the rocks at a number of venues are reporting some good pollack on soft lures. In Donegal skate, spurdogs and more made for some very satisfying small boat fishing. Small boat anglers are enjoying some good fishing in Cork Harbour where whiting around 40cm are making a very welcome addition to catches. Meanwhile charter boat anglers off the Antrim coast also had some big fish including skate to 179lb.

The River Laune and Lough Currane opened for salmon fishing last Friday. Although there has still been no salmon on Currane, The Kingdom was not slow to produce a salmon this season. Ger O’Shea fishing on the Flesk had a lovely fish of 11.25lb. Further down the system, below the lake, the river remained quite high. The Drowes saw its second fish of the season landed on Monday afternoon. Colin Gardiner had a 10lbs fish from the Boathouse on black Flying C with a silver blade. There are sill a number of kelts in many of our salmon fisheries attempting a return journey to the sea. Anglers are reminded that all kelts must be carefully handled, safely retuned and recorded in your logbook.

On January 12th  Go and Catch club member Nerijus Jankunas took advantage of the somewhat improved conditions to fish for pike in a  Co.Cavan. The lucky Lithuanian landed a super 27.5lb pike which fell for a deadbait.

 Prospects

Outlook is for changeable and unsettled over the weekend. Met Eireann tell us to expect some cloudy, wet and wintry weather. It is likely to be windy a lot of the time with some high Atlantic seas also. Not what you’d be hoping for, but no doubt not bad enough to keep you off the water altogether.

Tight lines,

Myles Kelly
Catch, Photo, Release

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January pollack from the donegal coast on soft plastics
January pollack from the donegal coast on soft plastics