Declan Gibbons provided this week’s round up of Corrib action. Miko Keane reports that the Cornamona area produced quite good angling for the week, with mixed weather conditions and mixed hatches. The Cornamona Club held their annual May Fly Competition on Sunday, with visiting angler Keith Curtis taking top prize with of 3 trout for 8.07lbs. In second place was Gerry McDonnell with 4 trout for 7.64 lbs, and in the same boat Gerry’s son Caolan was third, with 4 trout for 7.01lbs. In fourth place was top lady angler on the day Mary Somerville, with 3 trout for 6.22lbs. 39 anglers participated catching 56 trout with an average weight of 1.5lbs. The top four spots were all taken by anglers dapping.
Staying in the same area Richard Molloy (Ballard Shore Boat Hire, 087-2879339) reports good fishing for anglers, with Enda Browne catching 4 lovely trout dapping on Sunday. Richard also hosted a group from Offaly who enjoyed excellent dapping and wet fly fishing with hatches to match it.
Mary and Paul Miller (www.loughcorribflyfishing.com) sent in a great photo of guest Jim Longmore who is a regular visitor to Corrib. Jim boated over 40 trout for his week this year (all sportingly released) including a fabulous 70cm trout that was his personal best, taken on buzzer.
Mallow anglers Billy Kavanagh and Tom Whelan enjoyed good fishing on Friday with 5 trout to the boat in the Kenny’s Bay/Annaghkeen area on mayfly. Ennis anglers Sean Dixon and Michael Killeen enjoyed good fishing in the Greenfields and Inchagoill areas on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, boating 12 trout over 13 inches and numerous more small trout. Ennis anglers Brian McInerney and Lal Gilligan on Sunday boated 5 trout over the 14 inch mark on wet may fly patterns in the Greenfields area. Staying in the same area Ennis anglers Gerry Kenny and Tony O’Donoghue landed 9 trout on Wednesday, the best being 1.75lbs, and on Thursday Gerry fished with Cork angler Joe Finn and enjoyed great sport in the same area. Mattie Hughes, father of well-known coarse angler Cathal, his brother Vincent and friend Pat Cooke enjoyed excellent mayfly fishing for 5 days, boating 29 trout over the 13 inch limit in the Greenfields-Inchiquinn area. In the Oughterard area Kevin Molloy (Baurisheen Boat Hire and Guiding, 087-9604170) reported good fishing in the area. Dublin duo Peter O’Neill and Eugene Cassidy had 8 trout on wet mayflies on Saturday. Mark Curtis, Cork and friend had 6 trout for 2 days fishing wet fly. Kevin himself had 7 trout on buzzer, 5 sportingly released – best fish 3.5lbs. Also in Oughterard Basil Shields of Ardnasillagh Lodge (091-552550) reports great fishing with the Dargle Anglers group from Dublin, catching 11 fish for 2 days on a Catch and Release basis (best fish 42cms) on wet fly, dry fly and dapping. Northern Ireland angler Mark Patterson had 6 fish for 3 days and John Malcom had 12 fish for 3 days (best fish 5.25lbs), all caught on buzzer and sportingly released.
Deirdre Forde from Camillaun Lodge, Angling Centre and Boat Hire – (091 552678, www.camillaun.com) reports that over the past week the mayfly fishing continued well despite some difficult fishing conditions on Monday and Tuesday. David Wathan, Andrew Priestly, Geoff Sissons and Harry Vernon had in their own words “mixed weather but a brilliant week as always” landing 18 trout – best 3lbs. David Drury and Matt McInerney had some superb fish with 9 landed over 2 days including 3 fish over 2.5lbs, all on dry flies. Bernard Buisine from France had a good day’s sport finally conquering the Corrib mayfly fishing and caught 4 fish, the best nearly 2 lbs. The Jones’ brothers from Dublin and London had good sport catching fish on wetflies and dapping – with 6 fish, best 2.5 lbs. Ronan Joyce and friends had 4 fish and really enjoyed their introduction to Lough Corrib. Another fist time group were Arnaud Malaconi and friends from Dublin and France catching 2 trout of 1.5 and 2.5 lbs – a great result for beginners. In all another good week on the mayfly – the hatches continue but the bookings are slow for the coming week – it’s strange a few years ago you would not get a boat this week in the Mayfly. There is still great fishing in the Oughterard area.
Ted Wherry was in touch to report that he and his wife enjoyed a tremendous week fishing with boatman Denis O’Keeffe, with 23 fish over 2lbs boated, all on dry mayfly.
Larry McCarthy of Corrib View Lodge, Glencorrib (087-9135222, www.corribangling.com) says visiting anglers enjoyed excellent fishing for the week, with Owein Meeling from Wales and a group of friends catching over 30 fish, predominantly on mayfly with some notable bigger fish taken on buzzer in the Greenfields and Ballynalty areas – all sportingly released. Tim Rowley and Terry Lusby, fishing with Larry, had 42 fish for 6 days including a personal best for Terry catching a trout of 4.5lbs, with Tim and Terry having several fish over the 3lbs mark and all sportingly released. Frank Reilly, boating for Corrib View Lodge, also reported excellent fishing in the Greenfields and Inchagoill areas of the lake, having boated 50 trout for the week on a mix of dry may fly and deep buzzer. Headford and Corrib Anglers held their Mayfly Pairs Competition in which Loughrea father and son duo Robert and Ciaran Reilly took top honours with 6 fish for 14.57lbs. In second place were Jimmy Acton and Bill Tully of Tuam with 5 fish for 11.35lbs. In third place was Martin Murphy of Greenfields and London, along with Ann Murphy of Greenfields, with 6 nice trout for 9.01lbs. 20 anglers fished the competition weighing in 32 trout, with all 10 boats weighing in trout.
Stephen Lydon of Lydons Lodge Cong (094-9546053 www.lydonslodge.com) reports good fishing with Micheal O’Keeffe and Dave Sutton fishing on Friday and Saturday landing 7 trout, all taken on wet fly in the Castletown area and all sportingly released. Ciaran O Donnell and John, Peter, Chris and Conor Moran enjoyed excellent fishing on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, boating 20 trout (all sportingly released) over the 13 inch limit and numerous more smaller fish which made for excellent sport.
Keith McGovern was in touch to report good fishing in the Moycullen area, landing 3 fish to 7lbs, including 2 on a yellow fanwing mayfly and 1 on his own green mayfly tying.
Broken weather conditions yet again this week are set to prolong the mayfly hatch, with good hatches still being reported on most days. Conditions have not been right for a fall of spent, but anglers are enjoying great sport on the dap and to wet and dry fly. It is not unknown for the hatch to continue into June, which may well be the case this year.
