The very mixed weather along with variable strong winds made conditions difficult for anglers in the past week. With the hatches of Mayfly in full swing and plenty of good fishing reported elsewhere, more and more anglers some wonderful fishing nationwide.  It was fisheries awareness week as well and many wonderful events took place all over country and there are many good stories in this week’s angling update.

Anglers salmon fishing on the Munster Blackwater at Blackwater Lodge and at Fortwilliam enjoyed better fishing this past week.  Billy Downes secretary of the Laune Salmon and Trout Anglers was delighted to report two salmon of 14 lb. and 9 lb. on their water on the River Laune.  There were some nice sea trout taken also this week.  It has been a magic week for sea trout anglers fishing on Lough Currane and the fly was producing some wonderful specimen sized fish for visiting and home anglers all week.  The little Owenmore system in the Dingle Peninsula is still producing some wonderful sea trout fishing in the past week and some big fish were seen running into the system on the big tides in the past week so fishing should get even better. Salmon fishing was described as steady on the Delphi Fisheries in South West Mayo with a best fish of 14 lb. 6 oz. The River Moy is getting better every week and the weekly catch of 199 salmon spread all over the system and the best fish reported was a lovely 16 lb. salmon taken by Jimmy French from Northern Ireland.  Down in the estuary, anglers fishing with angling guide Judd Ruane had a great week catching sea trout.  In North West Mayo salmon fishing improved on Carrowmore Lake with 27 fish reported for the week with 16 released.  There were good catches of salmon reported from the Glenisland Anglers Co-operative on Lough Beltra last week.  Over in Sligo, 63 salmon were reported from the Ballisodare Fishery.

Kit Dunne and Gar Murphy with a specimen 19lb Smooth Hound which is out 'Catch of the Week' winner
Kit Dunne and Gar Murphy with a specimen 19lb Smooth Hound which is our ‘Catch of the Week’ winner

Angling guide Eamonn Conway from Co. Louth reported that the trout dry fly fishing on the River Fane was very good in recent weeks with hatches of large dark Olives predominant.  One of many Fisheries Awareness Week events took place at the Courtlough Fishery and many young anglers were expertly coached and enjoyed some excellent fishing catching rainbow trout. Some older anglers took part as well and one angler used a 43 year old rod to catch some wonderful trout on the fly on the fishery.  On the River Liffey angling guide Rob Love had clients out catching trout on the Mayfly but fishing was quite tough at times.  The Waterford angler’s reservoirs are still producing some wonderful trout fishing at Carrigavantry and Knockaderry and UK anglers are coming on good fly holiday packages from Luton to Waterford to enjoy some cracking fishing.  A Fisheries Awareness Week event on these loughs produced some excellent fishing for young and older anglers taking part.  Last weekend saw a great improvement in trout catches on the Mayfly on Lough Sheelin with some tremendous trout up to 9.5 lb. reported.  The inclement cooler weather this week has made daytime fishing in particular harder with some trout being taken late in the evening time.  It was tough going for fly anglers fishing on Caragh Lake at the Araglen Anglers annual open fly fishing event and Kevin Cremin was the winner.  The superb Mayfly season continued on Lough Corrib all this week and super catches were reported from all parts of this vast lough on the dap, dry flies and wetflies.  It was a similar story on nearby Lough Mask where the fishing was described as exceptional at times last week.  Angling guide Kenny Sloan reported that a client from Portmarnock enjoyed some super mountain trout lake fishing on wetflies near Foxford last week.  It was a great week for trout anglers fishing Mayfly on Lough Arrow.  Wetflies, dry fly and the dap all produced good trout with many fish ranging from 3 to 5 lb.  On all our trout loughs the Spent Gnat fishing is expected shortly in the coming weeks.

The junior league at the Oaklands Fishery in New Ross continued last Saturday and on Sunday it was the turn of the seniors and there was some sensational catches of mainly carp recorded by Junior and Senior anglers over the weekend.  (Photos show so many happy faces!) Nigel Hirst from West Yorkshire was the 2015 winner of the Fermoy Festival on the Munster Blackwater last week with a winning three day catch of mainly dace of 44 lb. 14 oz. in keenly contested matches. During the week there was a two day festival run at the Garden Centre on Inniscarra Lake and Nick Chaffer from Leeds won with a total weight of 26.2 Kgs of mainly bream as the roach were away spawning.  Angling guide Kevin Lyons had a party of anglers from Devon and they soon caught some lovely catches of bream on several lough near Melview Lodge in Co. Longford.  Coarse fishing catches have improved on many venues in the Cavan Leitrim Lakeland areas and anglers are catching well all week at the Ballinamore Festival.

Pike fishing was described as poor at times early last week but by the weekend fishing had improved for a party of Italians who fished with angling guide Bodo Funke on waters near Boyle with many pike over a metre recorded mainly on lures.  French and Belgium anglers belly boat fishing in loughs in Cavan using flies caught some very nice pike in the past week.

Charter skipper Kit Dunne had a party from the Rusty Hooks club in Dublin out at the weekend and they caught some fine smoothounds and bullhuss.  The highlight of the trip was the capture of a potential new record Smoothound of 19 lb. for Gar Murphy.  While this fish was captured out at sea, the female fish was brought alive to the shore and with the assistance of some Inland Fisheries Ireland Officers was weighed and released unharmed to the water! (See the photos with the report!)  This great fish wins our “Catch of the Week”.  Down on Valentia Island in west Kerry, skipper Siegy Grabher reported another very successful trip with a party of Austrians enjoyed some very good pollack and cod fishing along with many other species. Congratulations to Steve Turner on winning second leg of the 2015 Galway Buccaneers SAC Master Boat Angler competition with some good cod and a host of other good fish featuring in good catches in Galway Bay.  Charter skipper Michael McVeigh from Downings in North Donegal reports that he has had a few trips out with parties of anglers and the occasional good fish has appeared but he is anxiously waiting for the better summer fishing to happen soon.

As usual there are many new clippings, competition notices and other news in this week’s angling update.  The weather is very changeable with strong winds at times and cool weather on some days and fishing will be a challenge on some days.  Please wear a life jacket if you are going afloat and be careful out there and enjoy the best of Irish Angling.

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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Salmon fishing reports

Trout fishing reports

Coarse angling reports

Pike fishing reports

Sea angling reports

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‘Mayfly sport’ elusive but possible on Sheelin
‘Mayfly sport’ elusive but possible on Sheelin