Well, for once the weather really needs no introduction as the country is slowly waving goodbye to storm Barra, which has raged over most of the country in the past 48 hours. Leaving wind damage, flooding and widespread power cuts in its wake, it’s no surprise to find that rainfall over the past week was well above average for this time of year. The inclement weather forced anglers to stay at home for the last few days, and that is evidenced by the limited number of reports we have this week, with any angling action confined to last weekend when the weather was far more pleasant.

One angler who made his mark at the weekend was Artur ‘Pike Seeker’ who ventured out on the River Barrow to cast a new lure for some river pike. The going was slow initially, but things picked up around mid-day when a long cast into the margins produced a strong take. Using gear well matched to the task, Artur brought the pike to the bank quickly and it turned out to be a whopper! Measuring in at 11kg and 113cm, it is a great pike for a river, a well-earned PB for Artur and this week’s Catch of the Week.

Artur with his new PB 113cm river pike

In other pike angling news, the Leinster Pike Anglers held the fourth round of their winter league last weekend and the pike were plentiful on the day. The winning rod was Mark Kiernan with an impressive 53 pike. Almost as impressive was that two other Kiernans made it into the top 3 making it a clean sweep for the Kiernan family.

Midlands Angling Guide Mick Flanagan took a break from a busy shooting schedule to target some perch on Lough Ennell last week. Fishing with jelly worms, which he affectionately calls ‘wine gums’, himself and his brother had a bumper a few hours as the perch went hard on the feed.

Another one on the wine gums!

It was pretty quiet on the coarse angling front last week and we have a single report in, from CM Lakelands Feeder club who fished Lough Garadice at the weekend. There was a hard frost and the lake was a flat calm, which seemed to put the fish off as catches were poorer than expected.

A nice Garadice bream

The new salmon angling season is not too far away now, and in good timing to whet your appetite, Delphi Lodge have put together a report on their angling season in 2021 which should get any salmon angler looking forward to starting afresh in 2022.

In other news, Pauric from Carafin Lodge has been in touch about a great Christmas Giveaway competition he is running at the moment. The winner will win a 7 day angling holiday in his super self-catering accommodation on the shores of Lough Oughter. Finally, in a slow news week, we thought we’d share this interesting video on Catch and Release by fisheries scientist Dr Steve Cook from Canada. As an angler himself, he takes a no-nonsense approach to investigating the ins and outs of C&R and busts a few myths along the way!

And now the weather

Outbreaks of rain will continue over the country, today, Thursday and there will be some heavier showers overnight, with the possibility of thunderstorms and hail in places. Friday will be cold with scattered showers of rain or hail, particularly in the north and west. Saturday will be slightly drier and will become noticeably milder, with temperatures reaching 13 degrees in places and this mild weather should remain for Sunday.

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

Shane O’Reilly
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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