The cool, crisp autumn weather continued for the most part over the last week. Generally settled weather saw quite a lot of fishing done from shore and boat, and on river and lake. There were some great reports from the pike, coarse and sea anglers and though salmon and sea trout fishing is now finished for the most part there were a few days last week when those who favour the fly got to mark the end of another year’s sport…

Florain Peter
Florain Peter wins Catch of the Week for landing two 20lb pike on one day last week

We have reports in from the anglers who were out to mark the end of the salmon season last week on the Rivers Boyne and Ilen, Lough Currane and on the Delphi Fishery. Lough Currane remains open for sea trout fishing until October 12, so for anyone who has a hankering for a last cast at a silver fish there is a chance there.

The last few days of the trout season on Corrib and Carra saw some lovely fish landed on a mix of tactics though dry fly seems to have done well. Sheelin also had a few good days and it remains open until Monday next week.

Pike anglers continue to enjoy some great fishing on the Shannon system. On Lough Derg there were some great pike reported again this week with fish to 108.5cm landed by visiting anglers. On the main channel of the Shannon Florian Peter caught two Twenties in one day to win our catch of the week. There is good pike fishing reported across a number of Cavan venues, though the size of the fish is described as average. Out west there were some good pike taken in the Foxford area by tourist anglers and some nice fishing was reported by kayak anglers in Co. Galway. In Co. Cork a few 1m plus pike were landed by anglers holidaying on Lough Allua.

The final day of the Lough Muckno Failte Ireland Autumn Festival saw fierce rivalry at the top of the leader board, with Ewan Weed having to pull out all the stops to stay ahead of Steve Harwood, who for a first time competitor at the event really put down a marker. Ewan finished with a catch of 42.550kg a mere 500g more than Steve. The Cootehill Festival was also fished last week. C Ellis bagged 48.460kg to take first place. Fishing was mixed with some good bags of fish including good hybrids and bream on Sillan and Bairds and tench on Bairds and Lisgillan. Pleasure anglers fishing Trinity Lake and Killykeen over the weekend were getting bags to 40lb of roach, perch and hybrids. In Leitrim cooler than normal water temperatures for the time of year were thought to have affected the catches at the Carrigallen Festival. N Harrison was the eventual winner with 23.32kg.

Despite positive reports from most parts of the Irish coast the news from the Downings area of Donegal was not so bright. Poor fishing was reported with one theory offered that the bluefin tuna had driven off the bait fish… Meanwhile anglers fishing on Killala Bay had much better sport with some good rays, turbot and other flats to keep them busy. Not far from there at the Westport Skate Festival fishing  was excellent, and a new record was set with 8 skate landed over the weekend, plus 2 lost, as well as large numbers of dogfish, in addition to thornback ray and bull huss. Blue shark over 2m and good spurdog are the headlines from the charter boat anglers on Galway Bay. Sharks are still going strong in the south west too. One day last week 14 were brought to the boat by Dutch anglers fishing out of Clonakilty. Good double figure cod also are being taken from the boats with fish to 14lb landed. Inshore the bass fishing is also going well and as many as 31 bass were landed in a day by 3 anglers fishing with Peter Aspinwall. Bass fishing between East Cork and Waterford is also yeilding good results for shore anglers, with fish to 9lb caught on soft plastics. Congratulations to Martin Howlin and Paula Dunphy who won the Mens and Ladies Master Angler Shore Competition fished in Wexford.

Once again we’d like to remind all salmon and sea trout anglers to submit their 2015 logbook and unused gill tags to the relevant IFI office using the pre-printed envelope supplied at time of purchase. Your contribution to the management of our wild Atlantic salmon stocks for 2016 is very important. 71% of anglers returned their logbook and unused tags last year.

Met Eireann tells us that tomorrow there will be outbreaks of rain or drizzle in western counties but further east will be dry with some sunny intervals after fog patches clear. Winds will be moderate, southeasterly and highest temperatures will range 13 to 16C. The weekend will be dry with moderate easterly breezes top temperatures of 17C. It will be cool and mostly dry for the early days of next week. Some sunny spells each day but temperatures in the low teens in many places. Cold at night with some mist and grass frost in places. Lovely crisp autumn weather ahead.

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

Myles Kelly

Catch, Photo, Release

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The sun sets on another season on Delphi
The sun sets on another season on Delphi