Another month is over and the summer is well and truly underway. June was a dry month (the driest in Dublin for 40 years) and the bit of rain we had over the weekend was a Godsend which has seen reports of grilse running from Donegal to Waterford. The bright and warm conditions were a hindrance to coarse and pike anglers also but respectable bags and fish are still possible. Although it has been windy at times there were some good sea angling reports from the charter boat fleet and blue sharks appear to be particularly abundant in the south west.

18lb salmon
Kieran Conlon’s 37 inch salmon, estimated at 18lb, was released after a couple of quick photographs. This super fish wins Catch of the Week.

The grilse run has been building in the last couple of weeks and it seems like it is well underway this week. On the Munster Blackwater there was a good run of fish over the weekend and into the early part of this week with as many as 6 fish in a day for Kieran Conlon. There was a slight improvement in the fishing on the Lee, the Bandon and a few of the West Cork rivers, though the most spatey of these did not report any fish caught. There were good numbers of grilse from Lough Currane and a strong run of sea trout on the Owenmore. The Laune, though very low, saw fish running and Catch of the Week goes to Kieran Conlon for his 37 inch bar of silver. Up in Connemara the grilse are reported to be running at Screebe, where the odd summer salmon to 20lbs has been taken, Ballynahinch, the Erriff, Kylemore and Lough Inagh. The little Owenwee in Westport reported some exciting fishing last week and over the weekend. With a reported catch of 350 salmon the Moy fished quite well this past week and the Moy Fishery had its best week of the season so far. The grilse run is in full swing at Ballisodare with 171 salmon reported (88 released) for the past two weeks.

Congratulations to ITFFA  Team Ireland on a brilliant win in the Rivers Home International fished on the North Kildare Trout & Salmon Anglers Association Club Waters. The Liffey is low at the moment with small Olives hatching during the day and some Black Smut and Terrestrials on the water. The Suir improved this week following the rain from the weekend and some fine trout were taken on small Klinkhammers. Good fishing to Damsels was reported at Knockaderry where a lot of work has gone into improving the facilities.  The best of the fishing on Lough Sheelin was restricted to early morning and late evening and anglers are waiting for the Sedge fishing to kick off. Good fishing was reported again this week on Lough Mask, as the Welshman’s button sedge fly hatch off in good numbers and some boats had superb sport with up to 20 fish landed. Fishing on Lough Arrow picked up considerably during the past week with late evening Murrough fishing producing some great catches. The Mayfly has been a fairly drawn out affair on Lough Conn and anglers continued to take on dry Mays to the end of the month. One boat had 64 trout for 6 days fishing last week.

There was good coarse fishing reported in the Cavan – Leitrim area with bags of up to 50lb, including good tench and bream to 7lb. Congratulations to the juniors from Lurgan Coarse Angling Club who won the first ever Junior All Ireland Angling Club Championshiops fished on Saturday on the Newry Canal. Congratulations also go to Piotr Horbinski of Fishmaniak.pl, the first winner of the Ballybay NCFFI Charity Shield and a massive well done to Liam and Sheila for attracting anglers from all across Ireland to this well organised event which raised a magnificent €2200 for the Irish Cancer Society.

Good pike fishing is still possible on Lough Derg even as the month changes to July. Local clubs and guides are getting amongst some decent double figure fish. Further up the Shannon system some good fishing was also reportetd by French anglers staying in the Longford area. Another French angler also reported success, this time targeting the pike in Co. Mayo.

Michael McVeigh, skipper of the Rosguill out of Downings in Co. Donegal, reports lots of tope about but tells us other fishing is inconsistent. In Sligo Bay, Darly Ewing of Sea Star reports better fishing, including some good skate, and a good run of mackerel which have been scarce. At Clew Bay anglers enjoyed good catches of thornback ray on Mary Gavin Hughes’ Shamrock and good bass fishing from the shore. There is an abundance of blue shark off the south west coast and Tom Collins of Loch and Iasc reports sharks for kayak anglers and up to 17 in a day on his own boat. In Kinsale there are reports of good wreck fishing and big numbers of blue shark. Anglers on Ger Murphy’s Sea Breeze were taking sharks on muppets as they reeled in ling and specimen sized ling, good cod and coalfish were reported by Mike Dennehy on Silver Dawn. On the east coast, Kit Dunne of Wicklow Boat Charters reports big tope, smoothhound and cod.

Met Eireann says the outlook is changeable and unsettled, with showers or longer spells of rain at times. The weekend will be breezy, with fresh south to southwesterly winds, which will be gusty in showers. Showers will soon become more widespread on Sunday morning and will be heavy in places. Monday will then start windy and wet, with some heavy rain in places and later in the week it will become cooler.

Safe fishing to all and tight lines, especially here in Ireland.

Myles Kelly

Catch, Photo, Release

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pike
Some big pike were reported at Lough Derg last week