Best wishes to all this Christmas
Best wishes to all this Christmas

It’s been a bit wetter and maybe a bit cooler in the last few days, though still not really wintry. Depending on who you talk to winter only really got underway with yesterday’s solstice. Though other smart wags will be telling you that they are enjoying the fine stretch in the evenings from later this afternoon. Anyway, even with the pressures of Christmas shopping and gift buying there’s still time to get out and wet a line – and what’s better is the fish are willing to make it worth your while…

We had a couple of good pike reports in from the midland’s and Lough Derg. Rafal Plec had a beauty on Derg on a bright winter’s day last week. His pike measured 109cm and fell for a noisy rattling lure. JJ Flanagan, little brother of angling guide Michael Flanagan, had a smashing day on Ennell at the weekend. The pike were hitting jerk baits and soft plastics. JJ’s best fish on the day wins Catch of the Week. There were also a few pike from Lough Glore, but these were all smaller jacks.

J. J. Flanagan and Ennell pike
J. J. Flanagan’s Ennell pike wins Catch of the Week

Perch were also on the move on Ennell, as well as Derravaragh and Glore, in recent days.Black lures fished vertically accounted for some very handsome stripeys.

For coarse anglers it was roach that kept things interesting last week. Canal fishing at Daingean saw a big number of micro roach make a 1.38kg bag to win Pat Bartley the first round of the winter league there. On the River Suck there was a better stamp of fish and they were there in bigger numbers – Rory Dunne and Mark Leonard both had over 10kg in the Connacht Sensas match fished at Ballinasloe.

Mark Gannon in Courtmacsherry had his last day on the water of the year earlier in the week. His crew had good fun with pollack and had they had some lovely cod too. Leinster’s Youths and Juniors fished the last leg of their interprovincial qualifiers on Sunday. The venue was Kilgorman and all anglers managed double figure bags. Gold medal winners were Sean Cushen for the juniors and Sean Carley for the youths.

At the third leg of the AWOL Winter Fish-offs 19 anglers cast their flies at Courtlough and 162 hard fighting rainbows were landed. Marius Lincevicius caught 18 fish to take first place.

Salmon anglers will be looking forward to January as a number of river’s will reopen. There will be a good crowd at the Drowes and it will be interesting to see how long it takes to get the first fish of the year and where it will come from. A quick to salmon anglers – the salmon regulations for 2017 will be available from this site before the end of the year.

“Oh the weather outside be frightful…” As we go to press there is an Orange Wind Warning for Coastal regions and high ground of Donegal, Galway and Mayo – Very windy on Friday: Southerly winds, later west to southwest of 65 to 75 km/h with severe gusts between 100 and 120 km/h. The rest of the country is advised of a Yellow Wind Warning. The weather will continue quite changeable up to and including Christmas Day but a more settled pattern is likely to develop thereafter. St Stephens Day will be colder, but brighter with scattered showers in the west and north. Highest temperatures of 7 to 9 degrees in moderate westerly breezes.  The following few days look like remaining cold and mainly dry with frost at night. Some blustery stuff ahead but it’s not going to be enough to knock the lad in the red suit off his sleigh on Christmas Eve or keep eager anglers from getting out to test their new gear on Stephen’s Day!

That’s all from us for 2016. We’ll be taking a break until the new year so have a safe and happy Christmas.

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

Myles Kelly

Catch, Photo, Release

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