Anglers in Ireland have endured endured a fairly miserable, wet and windy summer. Although there is the seasonal talk of an Indian Summer as the kids return to school, there is not much sign of it yet. Anglers everywhere from the high seas  to canal banks have had to make the most of the opportunities afforded to them, and because this is Ireland, some of them did quite well…

Good water on the Drowes suited the few anglers who were out and a few grilse were taken. One angler had 4 on spinner, 3 released.  Fluctuating water levels saw only 15 salmon at Ballisodare last week. The Moy system had a reported catch of just 113 salmon for the week as high water levels impacted on the fishing. Anglers targeting sea trout on the estuary fared a little better. Despite a good enough show of fish on the Erriff only 4 were caught last week – all grilse of about 4lb. Lough Inagh is starting to fish a good bit better for sea trout with a fair number of fresh fish in the system. The Kerry Owenmore had some great sea trout fishing particularly on White Lake where fish were met on every drift. Despite an upbeat mood on the Laune, the hoped for improvement in catches did not materialise. There were a few very quiet days on Lough Currane last week and in total 8 salmon and about a dozen sea trout were reported. Some of the West Cork rivers have fished well with the rain suiting these spate systems. The Ilen did best with almost 20 fish a week recently. Low water has seen angling effort tail off on the Bandon but a few fish were taken on shrimp in the lower sections.  Fishing has been challenging on the Munster Blackwater too. The Blackwater Lodge beats are averaging a salmon a day, but an improvement is expected following the latest flood there. Some beautiful fresh salmon to 10lb have been reported from the Boyne. French anglers are doing particularly well and one pair of tourists had 6 fish over 3 days.

There was some great fishing for trout anglers on Lough Mask last week, particularly at the weekend over the deeps. On Lough Sheelin the fishing was predictably quiet as the number of anglers visiting the lake declines, but there were still were some good trout to 4lb reported. Lough Melvin also reported some good trout fishing with fish to over 6lb on dry fly.

Congratulations to Mark Leonard who won the inaugural Barrow Bonanza. Mark managed to catch more than 3 times the weight of the next biggest bag in pretty difficult conditions. Staying with river fishing, there were good reports of tench fishing at Lanesborough on the River Shannon and the Madcap Anglers reported some great bream fishing in the Athlone area. A recent competition at Lough Namachree, Co. Monaghan saw weights of over 7.5kg take first and second place. Lake venues in Longford are producing bream, hybrids and plenty of roach while canal fishing in the county is seeing good fishing on the pole for tench, roach and rudd. The canal at Rathangan is also fishing well and a recent 2 day festival was won with a fine catch of over 32lb. Some of the best fishing was reported from Co. Cavan venues where tench and bream to 6lb are helping to make weights of 60-80lb.

Pike are feeding well on Lough Derg and two anglers landed 30 fish to 1oocm over 2 days at the start of this week. Good numbers of small pike are being reported on Lough Ree, but there are plenty of bigger fish and one angler pike of 99cm and 110cm on the troll. A French angler in Co. Longford was enjoying his piking though he was not getting anything bigger than about 10lb. He was more than happy when he changed venue even though ended up with another 10lber – this one was a trout, which he safely released after a couple of photos. Two young anglers fishing in the Foxford area also found the bigger fish elusive but they enjoyed catching a good number of pike to 8ocm.

There were some big fish landed by kayak anglers recently and this weekend a 150lb skate was caught at the Irish Kayak Club meet in Donegal. Moving south to Killala Bay, charter boat anglers had good mixed fishing with pollack, spurdogs, ling, cod and more landed. Galway Bay is continuing to produce good blue shark when conditions suit. The heavy swells have put a stop to much of the rock fishing on the west Clare coast but when conditions are suitable there are some good wrasse to be caught and the triggerfish are expected soon also. Charter fishing off the Clare coast and in the Shannon Estuary is seeing a good mix of white fish and blue sharks. Charter boats operating in West Cork are reporting everything from dabs to blue shark, including bass at Courtmacsherry.  Finally, in Cobh visiting anglers had their trip saved by their guide who got them over some estuary bass after poor weather prevented them getting out on to Cork Harbour.

Met Eireann advises that Friday will start off mainly dry with sunny spells, however, showers in the west will spread eastwards and become widespread and heavy in the afternoon. Some will be thundery. Highest temperatures of 15 to 18C with moderate to fresh southwest winds. The weather over the weekend and for the first half of next week will be much the same.

Fish safely this weekend

Every week we sign off the Irish Angling Update “Safe fishing and tight lines”. At regular intervals during the year we remind you all of the risks associated rock fishing, boat fishing, wading, cold water injury and more.

We all know what tight lines are but please take a moment to refresh yourselves with what safe fishing is all about…

There is a very useful angler safety checklist here, which all anglers should review and be familiar with. We also strongly urge you to download the more detailed Angler Safety Guidelines.
https://fishinginireland.info/safety.htm

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

Myles Kelly

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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