shannon

It’s been an odd week weather-wise. The past 7 day’s rainfall was above average in Eastern, Southern and some Northern coastal areas and it was dry enough everywhere else. Temperatures were about 2C down on what they normally should be. And at the same time last week’s sunshine was above normal everywhere. Needless to say this had an effect on the fishing. But not all bad…

Starting in the east, some great spring salmon have been caught and released on the Boyne in the last week. The fish are not as big as the 20lb beauties seen in April, but they are still fine double figure salmon. Moving south, the reports from the Slaney are that the fish are there, but running hard and not easily met. On the Nore, conditions have been described as perfect and some lovely fish have been caught and released.

Brian Hennessy releases his salmon
Brian Hennessy releases his Blackwater salmon

The Munster Blackwater is also in good order and salmon are been caught on a number of fisheries. Low water across the south west has seen the Lee, Bandon, Ilen, Roughty, Laune and other rivers suffer. There were 6 fish reported from the Ilen, but apart from that it’s been very tough going for anglers. Lough Currane had slightly better luck and some good fishing was enjoyed at times by the odd boat. One lucky angler caught and released 2 fish earlier this week – a 9lb and a 14lb salmon. Staying in the south west, Inland Fisheries Ireland introduced two new Bye-laws during the week in Waterville, Co. Kerry and Rosscarbery Bay and River Roury, Co. Cork following public consultations. Full details can be found at: Inland Fisheries Ireland introduces two new Bye-laws in Kerry and Cork.

Further up the Atlantic coast, milder weather and dropping water levels combined with an increase in visiting angler numbers saw 97 salmon reported caught across the system. Up to now, most of the fish caught were taken upstream of Foxford but over the past week lower and mid Moy Fisheries were reporting fish.

Tom Doc Sullivan CPR
Tom Doc Sullivan releases a trout on Corrib #CPRsavesfish

Trout anglers are reporting good fishing from and number of rivers and this week we have two reports from the River Nore where Olives are providing a lot of sport. On the Lough scene, Corrib and Conn and Cullin are getting great hatches of mayfly and the anglers are getting some great fishing. On Corrib two anglers who stuck to buzzer fishing tactics caught and released 15 trout for over 50lbs – a huge average weight. In Cornamona 6 rods for 6 days landed 63 fish over 13 inches, all returned and mainly caught on mayfly. The fish on Lough Conn might not be so big, but you’d be hard pressed to catch more wild trout anywhere! Two anglers operating out of the Cloonamoyne Fishery caught 164 trout over 3 days. Although many of these were small (20 – 30cm) there were some fine fish up to 2.5lb among them. 160 of the fish were returned.

Last week’s bream catches were far from a once off and there was more serious fishing reported from Carafin Lodge on the Erne system where bream to over 8lb and tench of 5lb were landed. A little further up the system the 2019 Waterways Ireland Classic Fishing Festival in County Fermanagh got underway on Monday. 205 anglers are competing for the £5,000 top prize. So far the fishing has been very good and the competition is shaping up to be a cracker. Good catches have also been reported from the River Bann and the River Shannon.

Ronan's 17Ib 15oz fish caught at today's qualifier
Ronan’s 17Ib 15oz fish caught at today’s qualifier

Lough Derg and the River Shannon are always popular with pike anglers. The last week saw good fishing, and even on the sunnier days some decent fish were caught. Mind you, they weren’t always pike! It’s funny what a trout will take when the Mayfly are hatching. The first of the IFPAC National Pike Championships was fished in Longford at the weekend and some good bags of fish were weighed in. Sean Markey had 9 pike 47lb to win 1st place.

The winds have not been the kindest to anglers, but they were not bad enough to stop the charter boats taking to sea. Our first report is from the Clare coast where Limerick woman Charlene Dillon caught and released a 15 feet long sixgill shark estimated at 1200lbs. Charlene was fishing on the Clare Dragoon and it is likely that this is the biggest fish caught by a woman in European waters. It’s no surprise that this is our Catch of the Week.

sixgill shark
Charlene’s fought her 15 foot sixgill shark to the side of the boat where it was released. #CPRsavesfish

We also have good reports in from Cork Harbour, Courtmacsherry and Galway Bay. There were more specimen spurdogs from Galway Bay and interestingly Cork Harbour has seen its first spurdogs in many a year caught and released also.

Anglers National Line Recycling Scheme

Off the Scale recently announced that they will be the official coordinators for the fantastic Anglers National Line Recycling Scheme  (ANLRS) in Ireland. This is a really useful initiative that protects fish, wildlife and the environment for future generations. The scheme is simple; old nylon monofilament, braided lines, fly lines and even line spools are collected in designated bins or containers at tackle shops, fisheries and other businesses and either sent to Off the Scale. They then store it temporarily before shipping direct to a UK-based recycling facility where it is recycled. Find out more at: Off the Scale teams up with Anglers National Line Recycling Scheme

And now the weather…

Friday is going to see some rain and temperatures will be between 14 and 18C. East to northeast breezes will be mostly light to moderate in strength. Saturday will start mostly dry with just isolated showers and some sunny spells in the west and southwest. However, it will be cloudier with showery rain in the north and east which will spread further westwards during the day. Some showers could turn heavy later. Maximum temperatures will be around 13 to 17 degrees in moderate north to northwesterly breezes. And so far it looks like Sunday, Monday and Tuesday will be much the same. So if that weather suits what you have in mind, well, you’re in luck…

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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