Well, after the recent wet weather, this week has been fairly dry with rain in places but overall much less that what’s considered normal for the time of year. “What’s new?” says you… The shift to autumn continues though and it’s getting a little cooler all the time especially in the evenings. The days have been mostly bright and sunny and not too windy, so we’ve a decent mix of fishing to report on this week, particularly from the sea angling scene…

salmon
Keith enjoyed his time on Blackwater Valley Fishery

The river Moy was very low again last week and only 15 salmon were reported. We have reports in from Kerry, Cork and Connemara but salmon catches were not great anywhere. Visiting anglers on Lough Currane bucked the trend there as they have met a few salmon and sea trout on their holiday. Anglers on the Laune and Lough Leane reported no salmon in the same period. West Cork anglers did better particularly on the Ilen and Coomhola rivers. There are a few salmon coming from the Munster Blackwater but no sign there of the much hoped for Autumn Run. Lastly a competition fished on Fermoyle and Costello saw only a couple of salmon caught but the anglers were entertained well enough by their smaller cousins and 34 sea trout and 55 brown trout were caught and released.

lough conn
Brendan Murphy playing his fish on Conn

Trout anglers seem to have been quiet this week. Reports in from the Laune system are that there are a few fish being caught on the river and lakes. Meanwhile one fish of 1.7lb was enough to win Brendan Murphy the Chris Downey Cup on Lough Conn.

catch
Dave Finnegan

On the coarse angling front Dave McManus won the Arvagh International Festival with 101.800kg caught over 5 days. In festival news from Lough Muckno, Craig Ellis and Dave Finnegan won the Co. Monaghan Pairs and Robertas Zilatis took top spot in the IADA Feeder Championships.

Alessio with a cracking Boyle pike

The cooler conditions have seen pike fishing pick up and good catches were reported from Lough Derg and waters in Co. Rosommon. Italian anglers fishing with Bodo Funke caught a number of 100cm plus pike.  Brendan Sharkey had anglers out in the Boyle area too. They also had a number of 100cm plus pike with the biggest making 112cm. Brendan’s run of luck continued later in the week on Lough Derg where pike to 107cm were landed. Co. Roscommon was where it was happening last week and French anglers in the area had good fishing last week and again earlier this week.

John Cunningham with his 60th different species for the year – a saury. Fantastic angling

The Killybegs Mariners having been keeping track of the species caught by their members this year and their total currently stands at 70. Club member John Cunningham caught his 60th species for the year last week – a saury. The Sauries are an important bait fish for the bluefin tuna and they are about in good numbers. So it’s no wonder that the bluefin boats along the northwest coast reported excellent tuna fishing over the past two weeks with many fish in the 250 to 450 lbs. range being caught, tagged and released.

John Dory

Shark anglers on Galway Bay got the better of calm conditions last week. They took what species were on offer before changing ground and tactics and concentrating on tope which gave great sport. Staying on the west coast, anglers fishing on the Clare Dragoon had a good mix of species with with big blues, spurdogs, conger and whiting featuring. Mixed species were also on the menu for Lady Gwen II and her anglers had all the usual suspects and some less usual ones too like john dory, megrim and squid.

pout
Could have been a contender. This record sized pouting was released to fight another day

Charter skipper Des O’Connell was in touch to let us know of a superb record-sized pouting he caught out off Caherciveen. The fish was weighed on board at 5lb 8oz, which would smash the current record of 4lb 13.5oz, but was sportingly released. The humble saury was seen off West Cork too last week. They proved entertaining to catch for shark anglers on Loch an Iasc and are also good bait. Essential when you’re catching up to 15 blues a day. Good numbers of shark were also seen off Courtmacsherry where the Silver Dawn had serious fishing; 40 ling from 5 to 22lb and 43 Blue Sharks including 2 specimens landed. The wreck and bass fishing in Courtmacsherry is also going well at the moment. The Osprey in Cork Harbour reported a good mix of species last week with thornbacks, turbot spurdogs and conger keeping anglers happy there.

Alex with his 155.5 cm Wicklow tope

We finish the coastal round up with news from Wicklow where wreck fishing and tope fishing are proving very productive, and the bass fishing looks to be a good option too.

And now the weather…

You can expect a largely dry day tomorrow, Saturday, with sunny spells and scattered showers in a light to moderate northerly breeze. Sunday will be a cloudier day again with well scattered showers. Rather cool and turning breezy later in the day with moderate to fresh westerly winds developing, accompanied by spells of rain during Sunday evening or early Sunday night. Monday will be windy and cooler still and cool unsettled weather is likely to remain in place for much of next week.

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

IFI Staff
Catch, Photo, Release

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