mayfly
Sheelin Mayfly

It feels very late to be only starting to relay catches on Mayfly, but that’s the sort of season we’re having this year. Coarse angling catches are also a little out of sync with what might usually be expected but there are still some good catches being reported, particularly further North. Salmon and pike anglers have been getting some of the best angling with big fish featuring. Which leaves us the sea anglers who seem to have been worst hit by last week’s winds…

spring salmon
Julian releases his 18lb salmon – CPRsavesfish

Catch of the Week goes to a salmon angler this week. Julian Ciconte caught and released the best Drowes salmon of the 2018 season so far, a fine 18lb fish. A couple of days later he caught released a 16lb salmon. The Drowes has been fishing very well recently as bigger spring fish continue to feature in catches and the grilse run gets underway. The Moy, Carrowmore, Owenmore, Delphi and Galway Fishery are all experiencing a bit of a lift as both spring fish and grilse are running side by side. There are also reports in from the Feale, Laune, Killarney Lakes, Flesk, Ilen, Bandon, Lee, Munster Blackwater and Nore.

Peter Mathison, England with a lovely Corrib trout
Peter Mathison, England with a lovely Corrib trout

Mayfly fishing is heting up on most of the lakes now after a very late start. Buzzer and Olive hatches are still underway on a number of the lakes so fish have a lot to choose from. Fishing on Corrib improved with the rise in temperatures and hatches of mayfly becoming more consistent. Team Ireland won the Spring International on Lough Mask catching a very impressive 45 trout for 1552.3cm, 20 fish and over 600cm ahead of 2nd place Wales. There were reports of the odd Mayfly on Mask this week, so hopefully by the weekend the hatch will start in earnest. Mayfly are well up on Lough Conn now, but on Lough Arrow it will be another day or so until the hatch really gets going. Last week all the fishing on Sheelin was to Buzzer, Olives and lure but the Mayfly hatch there is becoming more established with each passing day and this weekend should see some good catches. Trout to 9lb were landed on buzzer last week – anglers will be dreaming of fish like that coming to a dry May.

bream
There were some lovely bream appearing on the Erne system ahead of the Classic Fishing Festival

The Dutch King of Clubs competition was held last week on venues in Leitrim and Cavan. Fishing was tough at times though single day catches to over 17kg were recorded. Jan Willem Plekkenpol was the overall winner on 5 points. It’s not been easy at the Fermoy Festival which is underway this week. After 2 days of fishing Nigel Hirst was leading with 21lb 14oz. The 2018 Waterways Ireland Classic Fishing Festival is being fished on the Erne system in Fermanagh this week. The venues were producing good bream in the run up to the competition and they are continuing to perform well. Bags to 23.440 kgs were weighed in yesterday and going into the fishing today Andrew Hampson had just over 1kg advantage over his nearest rival, Tony Jordan, but many of the anglers in the top ten will be hoping that they can draw a ‘flier’ on Friday that will net them the top prize of £5,000 and the Crystal Chalice.

Pike anglers have been enjoying some great fishing at venues in Cavan, Longford, Leitrim and Monaghan. Lough Derg has also been fishing well with a good number of 1m plus fish reported by local and tourist anglers.

Charter boat anglers fishing from Leah on Kilalla Bay had some great fishing for a variety of flatties which include turbot and plaice. Charter boat fishing around the Clare coast is improving steadily and some good fish including big skate have been landed. Our shore fishing stalwarts from Donegal found that the normal rock steady fishing on Donegal Bay was disrupted by the winds last week, but fishing will improve once the shoal of fish regroup and move back inshore.

And now the weather…

Staying predominantly warm, dry and settled until later on Saturday. Wet and unsettled on Sunday and Monday. Check for current reports before going afloat but all in all it’s not a bad fishing forecast.

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

Myles Kelly
Catch, Photo, Release

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