spurdog

More sun and settled weather made for fabulous holidays but to the cost of the rivers and drought conditions prevailed and even the lake levels are dropping. Sea anglers just had to think about lifejackets and sun protection as the fishing pretty much took care of itself…

Once again sea anglers had a great week and some fine fishing was enjoyed by local and visiting anglers.  It was a week of firsts and unique achievements. In Killala Bay pioneering anglers Markus Muller and Christin Breuker fishing with charter skipper Donal Kennedy made history by catching spurdog on fly in Irish waters. Meanwhile, up on Donegal Bay Mike Sherwood went one better by completing an IGFA shark grand slam, catching tope, porbeagle and blue shark all in one day. In general the sea fishing has been close to extraordinary and over 50 tope were taken in a single outing off Wicklow, 20 species caught around Cork Harbour in a short practice session and super skates and sharks have caught off West Cork.

Porbeagle
A catch of porbeagle (here), blue shark and tope in one day wins Mike Sherwood Catch of the Week. #CPRsavesfish

For freshwater anglers though, our advice from last week still stands and we continue to appeal to anglers and fishery managers to voluntarily cease salmon angling on catch and release rivers with immediate effect. We also advise that for conservation purposes on open rivers, anglers should cease angling once their daily bag limit is reached. With regard to the use of keep nets on coarse fisheries, our advice is that this practice should be suspended. In addition, pike are particularly vulnerable to heat stress and low oxygen levels and anglers should not target these delicate predators while water temperatures are elevated.

There are a few salmon reports from those open rivers that had water and managed to stay some way cool. Modest catches were recorded on the Moy, Galway Weir, Erriff and Delphi.

Trout reports are scarce but we have news in from Lough Sheelin where a handful of anglers fished the cooler periods and witnessed abundant hatches even if the fishing was quiet.

Coarse anglers are reminded that Inland Fisheries Ireland is seeking submissions from interested parties to update and amend the existing Coarse fish Byelaw currently in operation in Ireland.

The areas being considered for review are:

  • Catch and release measure for Tench (Tinca tinca) and Bream (Abramis brama) – any fish inadvertently captured to be handled carefully and returned without avoidable injury to the waters from which they have been taken.
  • Movement of live coarse fish – To prohibit the removal and transfer of any live coarse fish species to other waters and to return all fish captured and temporarily retained alive back to the waters from which they have been taken on cessation of fishing.

For more information see: https://fishinginireland.info/coarse-reports/public-consultation-coarse-fish-regulations/

And now the weather…

Weak weather fronts will affect the country at times over the weekend, according to Met Eireann, but amounts of rain will be small, so the drought conditions will persist. Daytime temperatures into the mid twenties and warm at night. Winds light to moderate, southwesterly.  Next week a gradual transition to a more changeable or mixed weather pattern than of late is probable, with all parts seeing some spells of sunshine but rain or showers at times too with an Atlantic regime resuming. You may as well plan on going sea fishing, sure you’re going to be bringing the kids to the beach anyway…

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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