Storm Doris has been and gone. She caused widespread damage and disrupted the lives of many whether it was getting up at 4am in your longjohns to run around after a rogue wheelie bin  or scrambling for matches in one of the many power cuts left in her wake. Before she hit our shores there was plenty of windy weather and some localised heavy falls of rain. Although reports were thin on the ground in the last week due to the conditions, big pike seemed to be throwing themselves at anglers…

Reports from the Irish Federation of Pike Angling Clubs are that the bigger pike are feeding hard at the moment and some great fish have been reported. Anyone doubting that these pre-spawning beauties are feeding hard should take a trip to Derravaragh where Daragh Browne had not one, but two 22lb pike back to back in the last couple of days! In any normal week this would have been a sure fire Catch of the Week. But… The Newbridge and District Anglers also reported good pike fishing at the weekend when on a club outing Paul Gosson had a pike just over 29lb and followed it with another of just over 22lb. Another club member, Dean Hatton, had a fine fish of 23lb. Paul wins the Catch of the Week for his incredible catch.

Paul Gosson's 29lb pike took a lamprey deadbait
Paul Gosson’s 29lb pike took a lamprey deadbait

Corrib’s trout anglers enjoyed some of the best opening day conditions in several years last week, with the lake at a low enough level and mild weather offering anglers the chance of good sport. Some good fish to over 10lb were taken by anglers trolling the brickeen. Fly anglers did well also as Jackie Coyne started his season with a 3lb trout on a Dabbler and reports of good trout continued over the weekend. Lough Mask also opened last week and while the low levels there didn’t suit the shore anglers, boat anglers fishing the fly had some good sport in the shallows.

We’re back to the Munster Blackwater for our salmon reports where Jason Corcoran landed the Ballyduff Bridge Fishery’s first salmon of the season. After a quick photo or two the fish was safely released. Unfortunately there was no follow up to last week’s salmon on Currane, windy weather has seen only a handful of boats taking to the lake.

The Ballyforan Bends on the Suck have long been associated with big bags of fish so when the Suck Valley Angling Hub were there at the weekend the bitter winds didn’t dampen spirits. In the end the fishing was tough enough, but nonetheless Gary Doyle still put together a 10.66kg bag of roach and perch to win the day. At Portumna, a little further down the Shannon, it was the occasional bream and a good number of roach to over 1lb that helped make the weights there. Bill Cassidy of the Portumna Coarse Angling Club was the winner with 27lb 8oz, while Julian Kendrick came in 2nd with a fine bag of 20lb 8oz. River venues are all the rage in our coarse reports so its off to the Barrow now where the Naas and District Anglers fished the 4th round of their winter league at Carlow and Bagnelstown. Although the day was not as Baltic or blustery as expected the fishing still did not perform that well, even though the winning peg at Carlow produced 9.2kg.

Toward the end of last month we reported on Richie Ryan and his compatriots’ challenge to catch a pollack on fly in every month of the year. Over the weekend Richie brought the quest to a close with a couple of these crash diving specialists. Unfortunately neither of the other Three Amigos managed anything on the day, except to give Richie the killing fly. We’ll put it down to a group effort!   We have more reports of bass on lure in Co. Kerry where Tomasz Eckert had 3 to start his bass hunting season of 2017. Further north in Donegal Bay the Killybegs Mariner’s Stefan Martin was on soft plastics for hard hitting wrasse. It’s great to see these bully boys of the rocky shore in form so early in the year.

Finally, thanks to all the young anglers (and not so young) who visited us at the Family Zone in the Ireland Angling Zone 2017. We gave out dozens of awards and prizes to those who excelled in the casting challenge and really enjoyed meeting with anglers of the future.

Met Eireann forecasts very changeable and unsettled weather continuing over the weekend and throughout next week also. The weekend will be cold and windy, and temperature to less than 0C will see frost in some places on Sunday night and into the early part of next week.

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].

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Ballyduff Bridge Fishery
Ballyduff Bridge Fishery – Jason Corcoran releasing their first salmon of the season