The first month of the season has seen near constant flood conditions. This was the scene at the Bridge pool at Lennox's Bridge last week. Water levels are still high but have dropped to 0.944 on the gauge.
January has seen near constant flood conditions at many fisheries. This was the scene at the Bridge pool at Lennox’s Bridge on the Drowse last week.

January was a month of rain for most fisheries and anglers struggled with high water and flood conditions that put many rivers and lakes out of action. But the dark, windy and wet conditions could not have been in any starker contrast to the bright, clear, sunny weather experienced by the shore anglers in the Sunny south east over the last weekend of the month…

We will start this update with the big news from the world of salmon angling. Finally, following weeks of high water on the River Drowes, the first salmon of the season was caught by Bill Likely. The fresh run fish of 7.5lb took a black and gold Rapala lure. Water levels were high at the time (0.94m) but dropping slowly. The big tides that have accompanied the Blue Blood Moon and dropping water are expected to improve fishing in the coming week. Anglers from the Kingdom of Kerry are still in pursuit of their first fish as neither the Laune nor the Lough Currane have produced a bar of silver yet. With the Munster Blackwater, Dee and Glyde, Delphi fishery and a number of other rivers open from February 1st we hope to see more news of spring salmon fishing in the coming weeks.

The Lough in Cork is a favorite of carp anglers but it is not an easy venue. Young Amy Kennedy made it look like child’s play recently when she caught her first specimen of the year from the venue. Fishing with her father, Sidney, she had 13lb 13oz carp on a boilie after just 45 minutes on the water. Her father had a specimen carp himself shortly after. At the other end of the country Lough Muckno saw CM Lakelands fish the 4th match of their Winter League. The lake was high and full of chilly snow melt but the fishing was busy enough even if the fish, mostly roach and the odd skimmer, were on the small side.

Pike angling has been more miss that hit with the tough conditions brought about by the amount of cold water and high levels at nearly every venue. There were a number of competitions fished where the odd double figure fish was caught but for the most part fishing has not been easy and most catches small. Sunday, 28th January saw something special occur for two lucky anglers. A bit of mild weather swung the fortunes of the pair and between them they cleaned up. One angler had 8 pike for 107lb 14oz in just 6 hours, while Ciaran Sullivan had  two pike one of  20lb 02oz and a second weighing exactly 25lb. A session never to be forgotten. For this we give the pair catch of the week.

Pat's 18lb 8oz Pike
Pat, above, and Ciaran win Catch of the Week for their incredible catch of pike on Sunday

As if to make a mockery of the conditions faced by their freshwater brethren, the anglers fishing the 30th Irish Winter Shore Festival enjoyed bright, clear conditions which on the first day were described as glorious! Not so the fishing unfortunately as each of the 3 days of the event proved tough going. In the end it was congratulations to Richard Yates on a great 3 day performance to take the title for 2018. In other shore angling news there have been some interesting catches in Donegal Bay where early bass and some good flounders were recorded in the last week. Needless to say the winter weather did not favour charter fishing but we had one report from Courtmacsherry mid month where a quick run to the wrecks saw ling to 15lb boated but the fishing overall wasn’t great due to freshening winds on the day.

Irish Specimen Fish committee

The Irish Specimen Fish Committee Report 2017, which has just been published, records that Rosscarbery was the location where Dublin angler, Ian Mulligan, broke the Golden Grey Mullet record, which was established as recently as 2014. Mulligan’s record-breaking Mullet weighed 1.29 kg and was caught in Rosscarbery on the 4th of July 2017.

As well as the new record, detailed information on 422 specimen fish (large fish) taken by anglers from venues throughout Ireland in 2017, comprising many different species, is detailed in the report. The main species were smaller shark species like Smooth hound and Spurdog and, in freshwater, Carp dominated. All fish were caught, weighed, measured and released.

The Irish Specimen Fish Committee report is available on the ISFC website www.irish-trophy-fish.com or from the Inland Fisheries Ireland website https://fishinginireland.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Irish-Specimen-Fish-Commmittee-Report-2017.pdf/

Met Eireann tell us that Saturday will be a showery day with some sunny spells developing. The showers will be heavy at times with the risk of hail or sleet, especially in the west and north. It will be cold with top temperatures of just 5 to 7 degrees in a fresh and gusty northwesterly winds, but strong along exposed coasts. Sunday will be mostly dry with good sunshine for much of the country, at times it will become cloudier along the east coast where there is a chance of rain or drizzle in the afternoon. Light northerly winds will veer northeast to east during the day, becoming southeasterly by Sunday night. Daytime temperatures will be between 5 and 8 degrees.  The outlook is for the cold weather to continue with rain, snow and freezing temperatures at times.

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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