It was another wet week, but believe it or not an improvement over the last few weeks. Many areas again had twice the rain that would be expected for the time of year, but it was still drier than recently. Strangely enough many parts of the country had twice the sunshine. Even the dullest spot, Valentia Island, was well above the expected amounts (one and a half times more). Despite all this sunshine it was noticeably cooler and temperatures have still not caught up to their normal values. Another frustrating week for anglers, but as always there was a bit of fishing to be had…
The Delphi Fishery finished February with five salmon caught and started March with another couple of fish. The end of February saw Lough Currane get its first salmon of the season and its second followed immediately after. The Drowes saw another couple of salmon landed in the last week also. A few salmon been caught on the Flesk but not many have been fishing due to the conditions. On the Laune there have been no catches to date. So, across the country water levels have been very high but are starting to drop a bit now. Hopefully salmon fishing will start to improve through March.
In the midlands and elsewhere a good number of trout fisheries opened on March 1st. Water levels were high and temperatures were low, not ideal for rivers, but there were reports from a couple of the lakes. Owel and Lene saw some fine trout landed by well wrapped up anglers, mostly trolling. One salmon angler fishing on Lough Melvin last week failed to connect with a bar of silver, but he caught and released two trout of 6lb and 7lb.
Floods have not made coarse fishing easy, and many outings and events have been cancelled or postponed. Lough Muckno is one venue that can still host anglers even when water levels are high and fishing there at the weekend was considered to be improving as bigger roach moved into the swims. At the other end of the country, sections of the Greenway on Inniscarra were reported to be fishing well, with 5kg plus catches of roach. The first festival of the season there takes place over St. Patrick’s weekend offering a three day match preceded by a one-day open commencing on Friday 13th March.
Pike anglers in County Cavan found the awful conditions to be just what the doctor ordered. Float fishing deadbaits the six German guests at Carafin Lodge had some excellent fishing, when conditions settled enough to let them on the water, and pike to 112cm were caught and released.
Just one sea angling report this week. West Cork and District Sea Angling Club fished a match in Cobh. The fishing was not hectic, but it was a night of curiosities with some unusual catches being accounted for. Lobsters, brown crab and even a river lamprey came in over the rails, firmly attached to the gills of a whiting.
And now the weather…
Saturday will be a mild, windy and mostly cloudy day. Eastern areas will see a good deal of dry weather through to early afternoon, with some limited bright or sunny breaks occurring, and just the odd patch of light rain or drizzle. Further west, patchy rain and drizzle will turn to persistent, and occasionally heavy, rain in the afternoon. The rain in western areas will spread to all areas in the late afternoon and evening. Highs of 10 to 12 degrees in moderate to fresh and gusty south to southwest winds, strong to near gale on coasts.
The outlook for the rest of the weekend and and into next week is for windy and mild conditions. Saturday night likely to be wet and Sunday may well see hail and isolated thunder. It will become cooler again midweek with night frosts likely to return. Not the best forecast but better than fishing with Ciara, Dennis, Jorge and Co.
Safe fishing to all this weekend and tight lines, especially here in Ireland.
Myles Kelly
Catch, Photo, Release
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All the angling news
Salmon Fishing Reports
- Currane gets its first salmon of the season, and its second
- Rough on Melvin, no salmon but a couple of good trout
- Few anglers on the Drowes but fresh fish about
- Munster Blackwater flooded for February, starting to drop
- Delphi finishes February with Five
Trout Fishing Reports
- Anglers swarm to Lough Lene for opening day
- Owel Cracker for Coyne
- Rough on Melvin, no salmon but a couple of good trout
- Derravaragh anglers open for members, Lough Lene competition
Coarse Angling Reports
- Fishing improves on Muckno, better roach caught
- Irish Float team for World Championships in Italy announced
- Inniscarra fishing well ahead of St. Patrick’s Festival
- Calling Ireland’s Lure Anglers
Pike Fishing Reports
- Bad weather brings some good pike to visitors at Carafin
- Calling Ireland’s Lure Anglers
- Derravaragh anglers open for member, Lough Lene competition
