It was much cooler in the past week for anglers fishing on inland waters and at sea but there was plenty of angling activity nonetheless.  At present, there is a spell of easterly winds and anglers do not like these conditions particularly on trout waters where it does not help the hatches of fly on rivers or loughs.  There has been a bit of rainfall this week but overall water levels are slowly abating in most parts of the country.

John Allen from the UK with a fine specimen Sea Trout from Lough Currane
John Allen from the UK with a fine specimen Sea Trout from Lough Currane

There were no reports of salmon catches on the River Moy although fish were seen but up in Donegal, John McLaughlin reported that there was plenty of action on the Cloghan Lodge Fishery on the River Finn where salmon up to 12 lb. were reported.  John also reports on the first salmon from the River Lackagh.  John Allen from Eastbourne in the UK caught the first specimen sea trout of the year weighing 9 lb. on a small Rapala from Lough Currane and wins our Catch of the Week.  David McEvoy reports very cold conditions at Delphi but it did not stop Swedish visitor, Jan Ronnlund from recording the best fish of the year so far at a half an ounce under 12 lb. on the breakfast fly.  The cooler conditions suited anglers on the River Drowes where salmon from 8 to 10 lb. were reported regularly during the week to the rod.  Over on the River Slaney, 10 salmon were reported for the first week but was poorer this week except for an exceptional salmon of 103 cm. salmon for Matthew Summerfield at Clohamon which he released and it was estimated to weigh 24 to 25 lb.!

Well known Dublin trout angler Sean Goulding landed a great trout of 7.5 lb. from sheltered bay on Lough Conn on a Bibio where there were some hatches of Duckfly and a few olives.  Angling guide Eamonn Conway had Canadian and French client fishing on the River Fane and nymphs were bringing plenty of trout to the net.  Dabblers and hoglouse patterns proved successful for angling guide Jason O’Riordan when he fished Lough Corrib in sheltered bays at Cornamona.  Jason Nash reports some very good trout fishing from the River Bandon with french nymphing tactics paying off.  Despite the cold conditions there was some fine trout caught again on Lough Sheelin this week with big flies bringing success.  Well known Dublin angler, Danny Murray guided by Gary McKiernan landed the best trout of the week at 8.5 lb. which was released after a quick photo.

There was some pike reports this week and angling guide Brendan O’Reilly from Newgrange Lodge had a French party out after two of them were married in Slane the previous day.  They travelled with Brendan to a lough in Monaghan and caught 20 pike.  Brendan also reported on a recent Newgrange Pike league outing and the group were well rewarded with good catches of fish during their outing to a lough in Co. Monaghan.  Angling guide Richie Johnson had an American lady client out on a midland lough and they both landed pike over 20 lb.  Steven Neely from Rookie Bass Angler Blog tried pike fishing on a lough in Monaghan and using bass lures caught plenty of pike.  Up in Belturbet 600 lb. of Pike were caught at the Phil Fitzpatrick Memorial Grand Pike Competition by anglers boat fishing!  The winners of the competition were Seamus Smith and Phil Egan with an overall weight of 154.06 lb.

There was some coarse angling activity also and down in the Oakland Lake Fishery where a catch of 121 lb. of mainly Carp clinched first place in a competition for Dave Minogue.  His son Ronan was second with 80 lb. A very big team Match took place on Lough Muckno last Sunday and 116 anglers comprising of 29 teams took part.  Fishing was tough in the cool conditions but some nice bags of roach were recorded on the day.  The Lurgan Concra team won the day and Paul Leese was the individual winner with 9.330 kgs of fish.

On the shore at Kilmuckridge in Co. Wexford, the third leg of the Leinster Shore League took place on Saturday last 22nd March 2014. Seventy one anglers took part in the event and recorded 564 fish.  The individual winner on the day was Joe Byrne.

Sadly at the end of this week, an angler was drowned on Lough Ree last weekend, going pike fishing and one angler is still missing and we extend our condolences to the families.  Please if you are fishing on one of our big loughs do make sure to heed any weather warnings and do please wear a life jacket at all times.  We all want to enjoy the best of Irish fishing,

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 contact@fisheriesireland.ie.

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Drowes - Rossinver Bay.
Maybe not gold but there is sure to be silver at the end of this rainbow in Rossinver Bay.