It was another indifferent week of Irish weather and it was very cold for most of it but the Mayfly fishing for trout was not half bad considering the conditions.   Indeed the fish everywhere do not seem to have minded the cold temperatures because everywhere anglers are catching fish!

Brian Hennessey with one of his 20lb fish
Brian Hennessey with one of his 20lb fish caught and released on the Slaney this week is our ‘Catch of the Week’ winner

Brian Hennessy from Waterford fished twice this week on the River Slaney and caught and returned two fantastic salmon of 20 lb. and 24 lb. and wins our Catch of the Week.  On the River Suir in south Tipperary, local angler, Tony O’Dwyer finally landed a lovely salmon of 12 lb. on a Park Shrimp Conehead and following a quick photo, the fish was carefully returned.  The Kerry salmon fisheries did not fish particularly week in the past week with the exception of Lough Currane where there was an improvement in salmon and sea trout catches.  The River Lee and the Bandon were the only venues in Cork producing some salmon fishing.  The River Moy is starting to produce bigger numbers of salmon each week now and there was some fine big spring fish recorded in the past week.  The same pattern is happening on the Ballisodare Fishery in Sligo where better numbers of salmon are running the system.  It was another great week for salmon fishing on the River Drowes and on nearby Lough Melvin with fishing described as very good all week.

The poor weather has impacted on the Mayfly fishing on Lough Sheelin but anglers are still catching some fine trout on buzzers, olives and occasionally on wet mayfly patterns.  Donal Connolly from Nonaim lodge on Lough Corrib reported that his anglers had some great mayfly fishing especially for English visitors Andrew Mackean & Rob Streatfeild from Hampshire.   Elsewhere on Lough Corrib the week produced some fine fishing in most parts of the lough and mayfly hatches were good at times despite the cold weather.  The cool inclement made fishing hard on Lough Arrow but anglers did regularly catch some quality trout many on Mayfly patterns.   There was some excellent trout fishing on mayflies and other patterns despite the cold weather all week on Loughs Conn and Cullin. Small nymphs and dry flies brought many rainbow trout to the net at the Cashel Trout Fishery near Derry.

Groups of French anglers staying at Castlehamilton in Killeshandra enjoyed some excellent pike fishing on many loughs in Co. Cavan with several fish over a metre recorded and most of the fish were taken on lures.  It is nice to report that anglers fishing the memorial competition for Manfred Pellegrini enjoyed some fine pike fishing with fish up to 15 lb. recorded on the day at Drumcoura Lake near Ballinamore in Co. Leitrim.  Up in Craigavon, the Irish lure team enjoyed some excellent practice for the forthcoming international held on venues near the town.  The Federation of Irish Pike Angling clubs have to be commended for running a first international pike competitions between an Irish team and teams of anglers from Slovakia, Lithuania and Polland who all live and work in Ireland on a small Co. Monaghan lough last weekend.  The five man team from Slovakia won the day and all anglers caught pike on the day.

Down in New Ross in County Wexford, young anglers enjoyed some super carp fishing with tremendous catches taken at the weekend at the Oaklands Fishery.  The fishing at Inniscarra is still getting better every day and several competitions were held at the weekend and produced some excellent catches of bream and roach.

Robert Millard and friends went small boat fishing on the east coast off Cahore in Co. Wexford and they enjoyed some good sport for tope which they tagged and released.  They also caught dogfish, whiting, and some thornback ray and they expect sport to get better when the weather heats up a bit.

As usual there is plenty of new clippings and competition notices in our angling update this week.  One very important notice is the government press release on the status of bass commercial exploitation off the Irish coast at:

http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/press/pressreleases/2015/may/title,82765,en.html

The weather is promised to get warmer and hopefully the good mayfly fishing will continue nationwide and more anglers will get out to enjoy the best of Irish Fishing.

On a quieter note,  I am retiring from the Fisheries Service after 40 years on the 19th of June. Please get in touch with me if you need me to do one last thing for you or just a quick chat.  I will be here writing about the best of Irish Angling in the next four weeks as usual.

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

Paul Bourke

Catch, Photo, Release

If you have an angling story to share with the Irish Angling Update please send it to [email protected].


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Lures worked well on Lough Sheelin this week
Lures worked well on Lough Sheelin this week