pike
Tom Pagz with a 114cm pike caught with Cedric Charpentier on 03 July. This super fish wins Catch of the Week

The really fine days gave way to regular Irish summer weather; some wind, some rain, some cloud, some sun, as June changed to July and another month slipped past us. Anglers made the most of the conditions and whether afloat or ashore, on fresh or sea water the catches weren’t long coming in…

Fisheries owners on the Munster Blackwater are reporting some great fishing in the last week. Good salmon were caught and released on the Blackwater Salmon Fishery and Ballyduff Bridge Fishery in particular. The Bandon is reporting a good head of fish in the river and angling is still possible despite low water. There was little to report from West Cork or Kerry as low water is impacting the fishing across most of the South West. A few salmon and some decent sea trout were reported from Lough Currane. In the west of Ireland the grilse run is going well and the Erriff Delphi, Lough Inagh are all reporting good catches given the mostly dry weather.  The River Moy wins the numbers game as the catch there nearly made 600 salmon. There was some exciting fishing at Galway despite low water. Amongst the catches were a couple of pink salmon. There have been reports from Scotland of further pink salmon turning up in catches, so anglers should be on the lookout for these, and please report them to IFI if caught.

A possible sockeye salmon, indicated by a slight hump, or a coho, caught at the Galway Fishery on 27 June 2017.
A pink salmon caught at the Galway Fishery on 27 June 2017.

While salmon rivers could do with a good drop of water, wind and rain early in the morning hampered anglers’ best efforts to make the most of caenis hatches on Corrib. It was a tough week in general on the lake with few fly of any sort hatching. Sheelin has slowed down now after the mayfly madness that possessed many anglers right to the end of June. There is still a bit of dry fly fishing to be had on the lake but many will switch back to wets, especially if the trout are on fry. River anglers on the Shannon are concentrating on the Camcor and Little Brosna as the croneen trout have started to run and some good fish are being taken on fly. Anglers are reminded of the changes in the regulations across the Shannon system and are advised to make themselves familiar with the new regulations.

BSI Sensas team are the All Ireland Club Champions for the second year in a row. The championship event was fished and Lough Oughter and some great fishing was had. Some lovely bream were in the catches which were up to 41lb a day. Cavan is on form at the moment as Kevin Johnson recently won the Breffni Challenge on 56.450kg. Elsewhere there was good fishing reported from Shannon Harbour, Moystown and Meelick along the River Shannon.

The Shannon system is also doing well on the pike angling front. Some serious pike have been caught recently on Derg including our Catch of the Week – a 114cm fish caught by Tom Pagz who was fishing with Cedric Charpentier. The recent Lough Ree International Pike Classic 2017 was a great success and the top prize of €2,500 was won by Lukasz Stankiewicz and Piotr Kaczmarek  with 5 pike for 463cm. Good piking has also been reported from Owel, Ennell and some other midlands venues. The River Suck was the venue for the  3rd qualifier of the 2017/18 GO HIRE National Pike Championships which was won by Dodger Smyth with 4 pike for 36lb 9oz.

Weather for charter boat and small boat fishing was not always perfect given the windy conditions of some days but great sport was had and good fish landed. Specimen smoothhounds and tope to 47lb were caught off Wicklow. Down south there was top notch saltwater fly fishing for pollack in Cork Harbour and good wreck fishing out of Courtmacsherry. Good reef and sand fishing was had by boats off Clare’s coast and those toothsome predators, the sixgill sharks, were back on the scene. One angler had a 12 foot shark estimated to weigh 800lbs. Fishing is going well for charter boats on Galway Bay too and further north on Donegal Bay one boat had 23 species on board in a club competition.

Don’t forget about the Fish & Film competition. Junior fishing clubs, youth clubs, projects and centres from across Ireland are invited to apply to the competition by taking film footage of their fishing adventures and promoting it online. The top three groups with the most views on their film will go forward to a junior fishing competition where the overall winner will receive a €1,000 fishing tackle voucher for their club with the two runners up each winning a €250 voucher. To enter visit: http://www.fisheriesireland.ie/fishandfilm

Fresher weather is expected over the weekend, with some showers but bright dry periods also and unsettled conditions through the early days of next week. It’ll still be pleasant enough over Saturday and Sunday but from Monday the weather the salmon anglers have been hoping for looks set to arrive…

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

Myles Kelly
Catch, Photo, Release

If you have an angling story to share with the Irish Angling Update please send it to [email protected].

Headlines

Salmon fishing reports

Trout fishing reports

Coarse angling reports

Pike angling reports

Sea angling reports

Other news

News clippings