Craig McKirdy reports that there were good hatches of mayfly and olives over the last week, with the broken weather helping. In the Greenfields area, visiting couple Chris Loots and Edith Bollen from Belgium enjoyed their first visit to Corrib this season, landing 6 fish on buzzer, returning 5 and keeping a trout of 3lbs 2oz. Frank Conroy from Maam had 2 fish for 4lbs 9oz. Local angler Darren Walsh had 2 trout to a Green Dabbler and Olive Nymph, both were carefully released.
Local expert angler Pat Day from Headford had 6 fish in 2 evenings. Martin Conroy and Phillip Hall from the UK had 12 fish for 2 days, releasing 8, best trout “rocking in” at 3lbs 6oz. Ennis angler Ger Kenny had a productive day with 3 fish, 2 of which took the Cock Robin (all released).
David Gray and Garret Byrne from Dublin returned for a nice day’s fishing, David released 2 fish, and Garret had a nice fish of 2lbs 6oz. Phillip Clesham and Junior McGahon from Castlebar fished out of Greenfields over a few days – Phillip had 1 on Wednesday weighing 2lbs 6oz, he also released 1 on Saturday, while Junior had a lovely fish of 4lbs 8oz on a dry daddy.
Antrim angler Peter Neeson’s first visit to Corrib this season proved rewarding. Fishing with local ghillie Frank Reilly, he landed 6 fish, releasing 5, all coming to wet and dry mayfly patterns. Stephane Decrette, from France but living in Claremorris, along with visiting French angler Daniel Rojon, had 4 fish between them, releasing all. Not only can this man sing but he can also fish, Don Stiffe of Greenfield House Hotel caught 2 fish for his day out weighing 6lbs 9oz.
In the Cornamona area, the Cornamona Anglers held their annual wet fly competition, with 29 anglers weighing in 23 fish over the limit. First prize went to Martin Butler with 3 fish for 4.75lbs, Gerry McDonald took second with 4 fish for 4.30lbs, while third place went to Roy Pierce, with 2 fish for 2.66lbs.
Over on the Oughterard side of the lake, Declan Egan from Galway had 4 fish for 6lbs, all coming to wet fly. Sean McEvory and Declan Murphy from Ballinrobe, fished from Basil Shiels’ Ardnasillagh Lodge had an incredible 25 fish over 2 days, their best trout a cracking 8lbs!
Davy Wilson and friends from Fermanagh had 17 fish for 1 day’s outing to 3 rods. Swiss angler Dieter Lampe along with a friend had 10 fish for 1 day. The Garda West club held a competition on Corrib, with 14 rods weighing in 12 fish. Seamus Kelly took top honours with 4 fish for 9.8lbs, Mick Bradley was second with 2 fish for 5.9lbs, and Peter McGuiness was third with 3 fish for 4.7lbs.
The Braithreach Na Coiribe club also held a competition with the winner Mike Keady from Moycullen taking the prizes with 4 fish for a staggering 14lbs.
Broken weather is forecast up to and including the weekend, which should help hatches, but high winds are making fishing difficult today. Fresh conditions for the rest of the week will favour wetfly fishing, and with the mayfly getting into full swing the next few days could see the best of the fishing. With so many anglers out, and many new to the lake, a reminder is issued to all anglers that Fishery Officers will be conducting routine inspections during the month of May, checking compliance with conservation byelaws for the Corrib catchment, particularly the 4 trout catch limit and the 13 inch size limit (measured from the nose to the fork of the tail).
