Declan Cooke, IFI Ballina, reports on the trout fishing from Loughs conn and Cullin last week…
02 June: Weather last week was unseasonably cold with harsh westerly and north-westerly winds and conditions worsened over the weekend. Reports of excellent trout angling were still coming into the local IFI office despite the awful weather.
It has been and outstanding season so far for trout fishing on Lough Conn and, as a result, there was a substantial turnout of anglers over the weekend to fish the Lough Conn & Cullin annual whit weekend 2 day compeition. Over 90 anglers fished each day and several hundred trout were caught and released. There were 55 trout recorded over 14” on day one and 43 on the second day. The winner was Sean Goulding from Dublin with 3 trout for 6.19lbs. Second was Mick Dunne from Galway with four trout for 5.85lbs and third was Gerry Heaslip from Dublin with 5 trout for 5.47lbs.
Orla Walsh from Cloghans, Ballina flew the flag for the local angling community and scooped the ladies prize with two trout for2.19lbs.
Earlier in the week, Mark and Martin Wilson from Whiteabbey Co. Antrim were on their 25th Mayfly season on L. Conn and fishing out of Ian Wises place at Cloonamoyne. They had 35 trout for their week, nearly all on the dry-fly. Fish were very free rising and good hatches of Mayfly were observed. Mark had many fish over a pound with the largest being 2.25lbs. His brother Martin lost a very large trout up near the Woodford shallows on a dry Mayfly – all fish were returned. Their Friend Gary Mc Fadden and friend from Lisburn had 10 trout between them for two days, all on the dry and emerger patterns. Fishing was excellent with trout showing at most shallows and in all sizes.
Nearby, in Castlehill bay, Michael Ruttledge had four good trout averaging 2lbs on dry Mayfly patterns. Michael Noone also had some good trout in Victoria bay on dry mayfly patterns, the best of which was 2.5lbs.
Further north in the Gortnorabbey and Tolan’s bay area, Robert Dunne and George Elliot from Belfast, had 4 trout each over 2 days on dry mayflies. Their best fish was 2lbs and all were released. Will Staunton and Sean Morrisey from Sligo had 6 good trout near Gortnorabbey on green peters and Joe Gallagher and Gerry Walsh from Dublin had 6 trout on bibios near the mouth of the river Deel.
Des Ruttledge from Cloghans had 4 decent trout as well as numerous smaller ones at the black rocks on a green peter. All fish were released.
In South Conn, Gerry Keating and Michael Moclair from Tipperary had 32 trout over 5 days on dry Wulffs (Grey and Royal). They fished mainly in the Massbrook area and all fish were released. Also in Massbrook, Brian Creighton had 24 fish over 3 days on dry Mayflies. Their best fish was 1.75lbs.
Nigel Williams and David Uff from Manchester paid their annual visit to south Conn last week. They were pleased with the quality and quantity of trout for their week with 25 fish over 1lb weight. Most fish came to dry mayfly patterns and all were rleeased. They also reported two fish over 2lbs.
Danny Mc Allister fished with his two sons over 2 days in the Massbrook area. They all enjoyed great sport with 18 good trout in the 1.25 to 1.5 lb range. Best patterns were Green Peter and olive bumble. Again, all fish were released.
Although the best of the trout fishing would usually be over by the beginning of June on L. Conn, it is widely believed that there may well be another week of mayfly action this season due to the cold weather over the last few weeks. So we will await next weeks report before we draw a line under the fantastic spring trout fishing season of 2015.
