Gnat on Furze - Lough Derg

The so called heatwave had a very Irish flavour to it, with rain and cloud in many parts of the country, though, in fairness there was some very fine weather in Donegal and other areas. The cloudier days probably suited the fishing best though the sunnier days seemed to fish quite well for sea anglers…

The River Drowes had a quiet week. Low water and hot bright days saw only 4 salmon landed. Lough Melvin fished a little better and 8 fish were reported. Ballisodare had another good week, 34 salmon were landed. The worm and the fly proved equally successful with smaller flies and lighter tubes working best. With approximately 100 salmon reported, the River Moy had its best week of the season, so far. Amongst the catches were a number of double figure fish to 14lb. Settled weather saw Carrowmore begin to fish again and 7 salmon were caught over the weekend. Meanwhile on Lough Beltra anglers enjoyed some good fishing, especially David Hawley who had a 15lb and a 9lb salmon in quick succession. The Delphi fishery had been down to its bare bones but a bit of a fresh reversed the fortunes of the anglers and some lovely salmon were landed over the last week. Down the road, on the Erriff there were a few more fresh salmon taken. Further south at the Galway Fishery high water levels hampered anglers best efforts and the only fish caught were on spinner or prawn. In the Kingdom of Kerry anglers on the Laune are enjoying meeting some good salmon and the occasional sea trout. Water levels are good on the river and suitable for all methods. There were over a dozen salmon from Lough Currane since last Thursday and one specimen sea trout of 6.5lb. On the River Ilen in West Cork there were a handful of salmon and sea trout to 4.5.lb landed by local anglers. The Bandon had a quiet week, back in order after a small flood on 09 May. This rise, coupled with very big tides, mean prospects for the week ahead are excellent. There were some good salmon from the Blackwater Salmon Fishery beats on the Munster Blackwater over the weekend. The river came up quite a bit following the recent rain, but hopefully this will see more fish running in off the tides and being caught when the colour comes out of it.

tench
Paul Waghorne was delighted with his specimen tench at Lanesborough and also wins Catch of the Week

There was an improvement reported in Lough Melvin’s trout fishing last week. Anglers on Lough Arrow reported only sporadic hatches of mayfly but there was good wet fly fishing. There were signs of Mayfly on Lough Mask also but the poor conditions saw most fish caught on wets. It was a similar situation on Corrib, but Olives did hatch well at times. The high winds on the Western Loughs saw some anglers foresake these fisheries for smaller lakes in Co. Mayo. Moher Lough, Bilberry, Ballinlough and the Callows Lakes all provided excellent sport and more than made up for the disappointment of changing plans. There were huge hatches of Mayfly on Lough Derg at the end of last week but conditions made for inconsistent fishing. One boat had 8 trout on Thursday, 1 on Friday, 12 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday – all dry fly. This was a slow week for angling on Lough Sheelin, with fly hatches still not firing on all cylinders. Most fish caught were taken on wets. Lough Lene is fishing well at the moment and 55 fish were caught and released by the Ladies Fly Fishing team on a practise day over the weekend. There were encouraging reports from the River Boyne where trout are taking flies of the surface well enough despite sparse hatches.  In the south of the Country at Knockaderry anglers are getting excellent sport from the rainbows that have overwintered there.

Coarse anglers fishing in the Enniskillen area are getting some great bags of fish and 185 anglers fished the Bobby Smithers 1 Day Open which was won by Cathal Hughes with 17.5kg. Meanwhile Dave Brettell won the Killeshandra Festival, fished at a number of Co. Cavan venues, with 29.850kg. On Sunday the Ballybay Anglers fished a match at Lough Muckno. Bright sunshine saw catches reduced and 7lb 10z was all that was needed for the win. Some great quality bream were reported from Castlefore Lough near Leitrim. Staying the Shannon catchment, the weekend saw Lanesborough come back to life once more as the tench fishing picked up. Good numbers of fish to specimen size have been reported. Some great bags of fish were caught during the 5 day Banagher Angling Week competition. Competition catches exceeded 200kg on some days and the overall the quality of fishing at most locations was good with plenty of small roach and the occasional hybrids. At Oaklands Fishery in New Ross some lovely carp were caught even during the warmer, brighter days.

French anglers fishing in the north east had 35 pike to 91cm over 2 days fishing. Staying in the area a lovely pike was caught by a lucky angler test driving a new fly and line on Lough Muckno. Dutch anglers in the Longford area had some good pike on deadbaits, though the numerous jacks tended to get in the way of the bigger fish at times.

There have been some great shore angling reports from Donegal in recent weeks and this trend continues.  The Killybegs Mariners are getting some great flounder fishing and in the last few days the rays have showed up in good numbers. Not too far off the Donegal shore, kayak anglers were also enjoying what the county had to offer with good catches of pollack, wrasse and coalies on a variety of methods. Charter boats in  Dingle Bay and Valentia are reporting some good fishing, particularly from the recent fine and settled days. Finally, good luck to all the 70 anglers taking part in the 2016 European Federation of Sea Anglers (EFSA) European Shore Angling Championships which gets under way today, 12th May, in Wexford.  Fishing will be taking place over the next three days from the 12th to 14th May on the beaches of Wexford at Clones, Ballinoulart and Ballinesker.

We’d once again like to remind anglers about the survey to evaluate the Irish bass fishery, bass angling and the current regulations in place which relate to the bass fishery in Ireland. If you would like to participate in the survey, please follow this link https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/IrishBassSurvey

Met Eireann tells us that the weekend will be mainly dry, with some good sunny spells. But there will be some build up in cloud at times, which may produce the odd light shower. Top temperatures 17 to 20 C., for most,  but often cooler at both the east and south coasts where onshore breezes will continue to keep things much fresher.  Sunday will be dry and the risk of any showers diminishing further under high pressure. From Monday on the winds will start to become westerly in direction,  with cloud increasing later and bringing some rain overnight. Once the rain clears through from Tuesday on there’ll be sunshine and scattered showers mainly light to moderate westerly winds. It looks like the Irish heatwave continues…

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

Myles Kelly

Catch, Photo, Release

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