As the children shook off the ghost and goblins of last weekend’s Halloween activities, anglers responded well to the pleasant weather by catching some monsters of their own.  Spirited fish put the quivers up the backs of anglers, but our hardy fishermen and women responded well and weren’t easily scared !…

Sunset on Lough Ramor during the week saw the best fishing and as the evening approached the fish came to life. No bream or hybrids but some lovely roach and an occasional perch.  The Erne Anglers Float Only Winter League held on the Roslea lakes were well supported by the junior anglers.  Royal Enfield CAC too were also delighted with the turnout of the younger competitors.  The Royal Canal saw plenty of fresh skimmers during the 3rd round of the league.

Connacht Coarse Fishing Federation held the second match of their winter league on the River Suck. There were good catches of bream, roach, perch, rudd and hybrids. Anglers were very pleased with the quality of the big rudd available on the river.  Leigh Maitland from Ballyhaunis took the overall and his section win with Mick O’Connor taking second place. Section two was won by Cathal Hughes and Shane Dunne took the silver.

Sheemore anglers fished the marina at the Jamestown Canal with small fish making up the bags. Gary Chandler took first place with 15lb. Waterford & District Coarse Anglers have their Open Feeder match at Oaklands lake in New Ross this Sunday, 8th November. Check in is at 9.30am.

Well done to Killinarden Angling Initiative – KAI who were one of 18 community groups selected from a total of 118 applications for the South Dublin County Council Community Initiative Awards.

Pike anglers had a wonderful week. Kayakers Steven Neely and girlfriend Gina tackled energetic and acrobatic pike near Fermanagh.  They made a great pair as they worked in cahoots to land a double figured beauty.  Lough Ramor welcomed French anglers on a fresh afternoon with some nice pike and a splendid young 6 year old called Wictor fished the Corrib with his Dad and guide Jacek Gorny catching 84cm, 87cm and 104cm pike.

Aidan Traynor took to the Clare river and after a few nice jacks hit on his personal best with a cracking 23lb pike. A quick photo and the monster headed off into the darkness. The Foxford waters were the destination of Scottish angler Ciaran Wilson, Editor of Essox Ecosse Magazine.  Guide Kenny Sloan soon put him in touch with big lure caught Irish pike ranging from12lbs up to 24lbs.

Lough Derg produced the goods this week with anglers enjoying new PBs of 104cms, (8.4kgs) and 100cms. It was like summer weather on the lake and visiting tourists took home photos of blue skies and large fish.

MADCAPS, Midlands Coarse & Pike Anglers had a pike knock-up on the Shannon at Drumlosh. Great tuition on the art of goodEwing - Rod retrieved handling was given by Coach John Keogh to apprentices who came along.

Far from an apprentice is angler Florian Peter, who fished in Co. Clare. Florian knocked the cobwebs off his fishing gear and used all his strength to boat a 20lb 8oz fighter.  He tells us he had 15 fish in total on the day.

It was great to hear Kit Dunne of Wicklow Boat Charters won a New Business of 2015 Award from Wicklow Town & District Chamber of Commerce.  Just goes to show what quality charterboat skippers Ireland has on offer.

Ewing logo
Daryl Ewing of Sligo Boat Charters who retrieved an anglers rod and reel from the deep is our ‘Catch of the Week’ winner

Speaking of quality and awards, this weeks ‘Catch of the Week’ goes to an unusual catch. Skipper Daryl Ewing of Sligo Boat Charters went out of his way to make sure he had a satisfied customer.  During the charity event to raise money for the RNLI, angler Kieran McGowan accidentally dropped his much loved rod and reel overboard into the deep blue sea.  Daryl later organised a diver to go back out to retrieve the rod and gave it back to Kieran the following day. A lovely gesture and a very happy customer.

The Cork Harbour Winter League also saw winners with Brian Whelan coming in first. It was a busy day with the majority of the 2,000 fish caught made up of whiting and dabs, but there were dogfish, poorcod, gurnads and codling to add some variety. Cork’s autumnal weather also saw some pristine bass to 68cms for anglers Jason O’Riordan and Peter Aspinwall who were fishing around Clonakility. Richie Ryan reported ‘World class fishing’  in Cork harbour with pollack on the fly.

A superb fish which was also in the running for ‘Catch of the Week’ was a big ray estimated to be about 55-60 lb caught by Stephen O’Neill who had a 20 minute battle to bring the fish in on a Kerry shore. A quick photo and she was back on her merry way.  Kerry also had well-conditioned bass and pollack but they shied away from the Lisdoonvarna Fanore Sea Angling Club competition which was unfortunate as the rules state a bass needs to be caught to win !  Flounders were the fish of the day here.

Wexford however had no such problems, with Sid Jones and Jim Hendricks catching some fine fat bass up to the 8lb mark.

Culdaff SAC, Inishowen relished the lovely sunshine on Sunday for their annual shore competition. The fish weren’t as happy and didn’t show up to say hello. Catches were varied. Cathal Donnelly took the mens title, Lisa Gormley the womens and Dylan Doherty the junior.

Tonight should be dry but rain will spread in from the Atlantic coast and become heavy by early morning. Saturday will see it easing off but it will be a fresh day with a risk of some strong winds for a time early on in the Southeast and then later in the day strong Southwest winds developing in the Northwest of the country.  Cloudy and breezy on Sunday and the outlook is for a rather unsettled week.

Hope you all have a good weekend and Safe fishing , tight lines, especially here in Ireland.

Nancy Hearne

Catch, Photo, Release

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Rail Viaduct over the River Suir
Rail Viaduct over the River Suir at Cahir captured by John Flynn IFI