Ronan Cusack reports that there was a good turnout of anglers in Cushlough on Sunday morning, for the first day of the 2015 trout angling season. These brave heroes were met with a very cold and damp spring morning, with light southerly winds. With hip flasks topped up and dozens of new flies ready to be tried out, nothing could dampen their enthusiasm.
Regular visitors to Lough Mask, Kieran Newman and John Brennan from Longford finished their day with an impressive 7 trout pulling wet-flies (best fish 2lbs, all returned). Local Ballinrobe angler Tim Hannon fished for a couple of hours on Sunday morning and had 1trout for 1.5lbs. David Connors, also living in the Ballinrobe area, had 4 nice fish for his day, all on wets (best fish 2lbs, all returned). John Burke from Foxford had 2 fish for a couple of hours on Sunday (best fish 1.5lbs, all returned). The traditional large number of shore anglers you would expect to see on the western side of the lake for opening day was well down this year. The reason for this may be the combination of falling water levels and the cold chill in the air.
Water levels in comparison with this time last year are relatively low and reports were that fish were hard fighting and in superb condition after the mild winter.
Ronan also guides on Mask and can be contacted at [email protected]