The summer season is all but gone now and the crisp feel of autumn is in the air. The season’s change is also noticeable in our fish and many of the salmon landed have swapped their silvery scales for a more colourful spawning livery. The cooler temperatures should see pike and coarse fishing improve over the next couple of weeks. Sea anglers will enjoy the benefits of the Gulf Stream and summer visitors (the fishy ones) will not be in a rush to leave our shores, staying at least until the first of the winter storms…

Chris Coady had a belter of a fish of roughly 21lbs which also was released safely
Chris Coady caught and released a salmon of 21lbs which wins Catch of the Week

Water levels are good at the moment in the Boyne and the slight tinge of colour does not seem to have deterred fish from taking. 2 French Anglers had 5 salmon in 3 days last week including two fish of 14lb and 16lb. Recent rains have brought up the levels on the Munster Blackwater and fishing improved. 46 salmon were reported in 7 days to Tuesday on the Blackwater Lodge beats including some fine fish to 17lb. Big fish also featured in the Fortwilliam Fishery catches with an 18lb fish and an even bigger 21lb salmon caught. Chris Coady caught and released the 21lber and received our Catch of the Week. There were just a few fish reported from the River Lee, but the Bandon fared better and 20 salmon were landed, mostly coloured fish. Of the West Cork rivers the Ilen and Coomhola did best last week, though catches were modest. There were 84 sea trout caught and released by the 24 anglers over 2 days at the Lough Currane Championship. Other anglers on the lake had enjoyable sea trout fishing with a few salmon also reported. Conditions on the Laune are good at present but salmon are hard to come by and there are no recent catches to report. On the Erriff salmon seemed reluctant to take last week, which at times became frustrating to say the least. Only 6 fish were reported though many more tales of woe and fish lost were reported to the fishery office. Not many fish were caught at Kylemore though they did manage one to bring them over the 100 mark for the season. Recent floods have seen levels rise again, but all should be good for the final weekend of the season. Despite pretty good angling conditions in the middle and upper sections of the Moy, catch numbers were rather disappointing last week. Where an effort was made some good catches were possible and on the Mount Falcon water 45 fish (36 released) were reported for the week. There wasn’t much rain to improve things on the Drowes but a salmon or 2 a day is still being reported by the fishery. The Owenea was again very quiet, the rain did nothing for its levels and consequently there are no salmon to report.

IFI would 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.

Anglers report that the trout on Lough Sheelin are restless and although just about any fly will work, fishing it right is the key.  In total there were 174 trout reported from the lake and the heaviest fish for the week was a 6 ¾ lb trout caught by Pierce Boyle, Sussex using a Claret George. There is good late season fishing to be had on Lough Corrib where fish are coming to dry Olives as well as a variety of wets. On Lough Melvin anglers continue to enjoy the Sonaghan fishing. The deep water drifts in the middle of the lake produced the best bags. Finally, at this time of year we would encourage all trout anglers to practise catch-and-release as fish prepare to run rivers for spawning.

Ballybay Angling Association reports that 38 anglers fished the Bill Ashworth Memorial match held on Lough Muckno where Niall McKitterick took first place with 12.940 kg. The Irish Open Junior Canal Championships was fished at Newry over the weekend. Fishing was brisk and all competitors returned a catch. Caoilin Donnelly won the novice section while Liam Hubbock won the Junior section. The Hackett Cup marked the end of the September festival season on Inniscarra and 590kg of mostly roach was caught by the 22 anglers fishing in the 3 day event. Mike Barlow was the overall winner with 40.90kg.

Junior anglers have been enjoying the pike fishing in the East Clare lakes recently while up in Carrickmacross 33 boys and girls had a great time at the Junior Finals. Visiting Austrian anglers had some good pike on fly and lure in the Foxford area of Mayo. The Lough Derg Predator Tour is taking place this week and there have been a number of pike to over 1m recorded. We hope to have a full report from this fantastic competition next week.

The World Boat Angling Championships was fished on Donegal Bay last week. Congratulations to Team Italy who won the World Champions title and to England and Croatia for coming 2nd and 3rd. Ireland did well on the last day with a 2nd place finish and their overall score gave them 5th place. Charter boat anglers on Killala Bay had good ray fishing last week with 24 fish landed as well as a mix of dogs and turbot. Kayak anglers in Galway Bay had enjoyable sport with small ballan wrasse and pollack last week while charter boat skippers reported as many as 15 sharks in a day. Charter boat anglers fishing from Clonakilty have had good shark, cod and ling fishing in the last week while over the weekend small boat anglers reported some good bass to 9lb. At Kinsale it is a similar story for charter fishing with plenty of good ling on the wrecks. Fishing from Dungarvan is also producing a good mix of blue shark and whiting are said to thick on the ground at times. Good shore fishing was also reported in the area with plenty of bass and whiting caught.

As we go to press there is a Small Craft Warning in effect and southwest to west winds will reach force 6 or higher this afternoon and evening on all coasts of Ireland. Winds will ease tomorrow and most areas will remain dry. Light to moderate, southwesterly winds will back southerly and temperatures will rise to between 14 and 17 degrees Celsius. The mainly dry, settled weather will continue over the weekend and throughout next week.

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

Myles Kelly

Catch, Photo, Release

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Pike on fly - always action packed!
Pike on fly – always action packed!