Irish Angling Update – 6th May 2022

The country seemed to press the reset button as we passed from April into May, with the cool easterly winds that had been nagging us for so long giving way to a warmer air mass that also brought some much-needed rain to parts of the country. In Leinster and Ulster, rainfall levels were above average with up to double the normal for this time of year. Things were different in Munster and Connacht, as rainfall levels in both provinces remained below average. The warmer air mass didn’t bring much sunshine, though, as dull cloudy weather predominated, with the sun breaking through only every now and then. Warmish, overcast, light winds…sounds like fishing weather!

Up on Lough Sheelin, hardy anglers who have stubbornly persisted through the dour early months of the year, have been waiting for that magical change when the trout respond to the growing numbers of insects in the water and start to feed on, or close to the surface. That magical switch seemed to have been flicked sometime last week, as April angst dissipated in the warm waft of May air and anglers started to catch fish on dry flies. Anglers fishing the Nore also noticed that trout responded well to the change in weather with plenty of surface activity during the middle of the day. Fishing was also pretty good on the River Bride, where Conna Trout Anglers hosted the Munster River Trout Angling competition. With the river running low and clear, conditions were perfect, and plenty of trout were caught on the day. Anglers on the Mayo Loughs, Conn & Cullin, found things hadn’t warmed sufficiently to bring an increase in fortunes. They were still plagued by the north/east winds that have hampered fishing in recent weeks, but those that ventured out found some fish feeding on olives & mayfly in the sheltered bays.

Anglers up on the River Finn in Donegal were keenly watching the depth gauge, as some late April/early May rain was forecast, and hopes were high it might spur a run of fish into the system. Those hopes weren’t dashed as both the rain and salmon came, leading to some good catches for the lucky anglers that made it to the river bank.

Elsewhere, the rain that was needed to freshen river systems never arrived. Continuing low water on the River Moy meant that several fisheries struggled to produce any fish. Similar conditions on the Bandon led to similar outcomes, with only a couple of fish reported for the week. On the Blackwater, continued low water meant any activity there, was confined to the lower reaches of the river, and in Killarney, the lakes thew up a couple of fish but the river is in need of water. A couple of anglers from the USA hit the jackpot on Lough Currane with a nice brace on the troll, including a fish over 17lb. In Galway, the lack of rain in April was a boon to some anglers, as it meant that the Galway Weir Fishery had nice wadeable water all through the month, which helped the fly anglers account for the majority of the fish landed. One determined angler had an unusual migratory fish double up as Levi Caffrey landed a tide-fresh double figure salmon one morning last weekend. Soon after releasing it, he upped sticks and headed to St. Mullins on the Barrow, where he managed to land a few Twaite Shad, which were also fresh in on the tide.

The Moy estuary seems to be firing on all cylinders right now, with reports that the water quality and the stamp of fish being caught are combining to make it the best season in years. Judd Ruane had fellow angling guide Colin Chartres out with him this week, and the fishing didn’t disappoint as they managed to land a sea trout of 4.78lb, easily beating last week’s best of 3.6lb.

Pike anglers are still hard at it and taking advantage of the post-spawning feed up that will continue into May. Circa 200 predator anglers from around Ireland and further afield descended on Lough Ree last weekend to fight it out in the Lough Ree International Pike Festival. Run over three days, with the longest fish counted on each day, the competitors were seeking a consistent haul of those magical 100cm+ fish. It was great to see RTE show an interest in the competition and give angling some well-needed promotion. One of the competitors, Sean Stanley, put together a short movie to capture his experience of fishing the competition.

The competition was tight, with the top four teams all managing to average a 100cm+ fish per day. However, Krzysztof Sibiga & Marcin Gregorczyk came out on top to take the title with a combined length of 314.5cm. And, if that’s not impressive enough, the long-standing festival record was broken by an outstanding fish of 119.75cm, caught by Danny Colleran. Any angler who comes out on top when fishing against such a high-quality field deserves credit, so Danny wins this week’s Catch of the Week.

At this time of year, with pike becoming more active in the warmer water, fishing with lures or fly starts to account for a greater percentage of pike being caught, and lures proved to be the order of the day for anglers guided by Steven Powell up on the Erne system. The day started slow, but, as often happens, once the sandwiches were unwrapped, the pike decided it was time to feed and came in thick and fast after that. Also on the Erne system, French anglers staying with Church View Guesthouse had over 90 pike for a week’s fishing, while anglers from Switzerland and Belgium also had some cracking sport. Not to be outdone by their continental neighbours, two groups of German pike anglers also had some super pike fishing in the Boyle area with local guide Bodo Funke. Finally, French angling guide and expert fly tier Norbert Renaud laments a tough end to April and looks forward to a busy couple of months on the water.

A couple of significant coarse angling events were held on two of our marquee match venues over the past week. First up was the Sensas Float Pairs held on Inniscarra, where anglers found the fish to be truly on form, with average catches of over 17kg per angler per day. Up on Lough Muckno, nine teams went head to head in the Feeder Club Championships, with the blue team from CM Lakelands Feeder Club coming out on top.

Moving to the salt, angling guide David Norman from Clonakilty was delighted to ‘get the skunk off’ by landing his first bass of the year, caught with a surface lure from the shore.

On the charter boat scene, starting down in Kerry, Siegy Grabher of Valentia Fishing had a German group onboard with him for the week, and they had six days of cracking fishing with quality pollack and ling plentiful. A couple of Cork-based charter skippers got their boats back in the water over the bank holiday weekend. In Baltimore, Kieran Collins took to the seas on his boat Radiance, and anglers onboard were rewarded with good pollack to 8lb, cod to 9lb and ling to 11lb. Meanwhile, in Union Hall, Adrian Nowotynski also got his boat on the water with cod, pollack and coalies in the mix as well as plenty of wildlife to be seen. A bit further east along the Cork coastline, Mark Gannon of Courtmacsherry Angling reports good fishing, both fishing inshore on his self-drives, and when heading further afield to fish the wrecks on his charters, where ling were the order of the day. Staying in the south, Gavin Tivy, skipper of the Sea Hunter, had his first fishing trip of the year and was pleased to find plenty of mackerel and a good mix of other species, including pollock cod & ling. Ling also featured off the Clare coast as both the Lady Gwen and the Clare Dragoon found fishing to be picking up nicely, with a good range of species showing for their anglers. In Galway Bay, John Fleming of the Brazen Hussy II continues to encounter some excellent pollack fishing with coalies and wrasse also plentiful.

And now the weather

A band of rain is currently sweeping the country, but drier weather will spread from the northwest as the day goes on. It will remain dry for tonight and for tomorrow in most places, with temperatures between 15 and 19 degrees. Similar conditions will prevail on Sunday, with an odd shower appearing now and again. Monday will begin dry, but rain will spread eastwards across the country before clearing on Monday night. Tuesday will have some showers with some heavier rain moving in towards the evening.

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

Shane O’Reilly
Catch, Photo, Release

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