It has been very wet, damp and windy in the past week but often quite mild with only some frost at night.  It is not very normal winter weather but the main Rivers Shannon and Erne and their loughs are very flooded making angling impossible by land but there are many anglers out boat fishing mainly for Pike in these conditions.  Despite the rain there has been a fair amount of sea angling taking place both from shore and boat.

Richard Kinnaird with the first caught and released fish of the season from the Upper Mill Pool this afternoon
Richard Kinnaird wins Catch of the Week for the first caught and released salmon of the season from the Upper Mill Pool last Friday

Up in Antrim, charter skipper Hamish Currie kept a group of anglers fishing inshore because of stormy conditions picking up some nice skate up to 107 lb. and some conger. Down in Kerry, there were some codling, sea frogs and an early bass recorded off the beach.  67 anglers from the UK and Ireland fished the annual Irish Winter Shore Festival along the east coast and so far big flounders dominated catches along with some round fish.  The competition was very keen and Bray angler Paul Tyndall won the individual completion and the heaviest fish for a 36 cm flounder. Out from Wicklow, Charter skipper Kit Dunne had a party of anglers out catching dogfish and some whiting.

A couple of more salmon were reported from the River Drowes where Richard Kinnaird caught and released a salmon caught on fly to win the catch and release trophy and our Catch of the Week.  Anglers struggled on Lough Currane where a fair few kelts were landed and quickly released in the stormy conditions that prevailed for most the week, but no fresh fish have been recorded so far.  The big floods on most salmon rivers which open this weekend are not very encouraging for the anglers hoping to catch a salmon on the opening day on Saturday next.

While there was plenty of pike activity over the past week there was only one competition of note which saw Lloyd Lynch take top spot in First Newgrange Active Angling Outing 2014 to a few small loughs in Monaghan that were fishable and small pike dominated catches.

In the update this week there are numerous articles on how to fish, upcoming competitions and prospects for salmon anglers facing the flood conditions on the many waters which open for angling this Saturday.

Tight lines especially in Ireland,

Paul Bourke
Angling Information Officer

Catch, Photo, Release

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A Squally Period at Kilgorman Today
A Squally Period at Kilgorman Today