After a long dry summer, the end of September saw heavy rain and wind, and blustery conditions with heavy showers continued into this week. Although conditions impacted on angling, particularly sea angling, we still have some great reports from around the country.

Silver Sunset

The salmon season came to an end last Friday, and we have some end-of season reports to bring you. A reasonable September capped off a disappointing, drought-impacted season on the Erriff. Jason Nash reports on a really good season on the Bandon, at least up to the warm dry weather in July. The sea trout season continues on Lough Currane for another few days, while good fishing was reported on the Inny towards the end of the season there. The last week of September also provided good sport on the Blackwater, and anglers on the Moy also saw an improvement last week.

11-year-old Matthew Brinklow shows dad how to do it. Well done young man!

To The Salt

Bluefin tuna season is still in full swing, with good fishing reported from Baltimore and Courtmacsherry in west Cork, although the weather is making it difficult. Tuna boats also reported a good start to October in Donegal Bay, in spite of the wind.

 

Charter boats reported good mixed species fishing along the west coast, with a group from Howth SAC enjoying good sport in Galway. Further south, anglers in Clare made the most of weather windows to get plenty of species on the board. The shore angling competition scene is also active, with Tim O’Sullivan from Galway Bay SAC taking top honours in the All-Ireland Open Shore and winning the prestigious Jimmy Smith trophy, where Liam Davis triumphed in the junior section.

Flounder fishing was prolific in Morriscastle, where Eamon Bermingham made a late run up the leaderboard to win the South Shore competition. And finally, John Cunningham enjoyed superb wrasse fishing at a Donegal mark, landing 4 specimen fish, including our Catch of the Week, a fine ballan wrasse of 48cm.

Catch of the Week

Festival Season

The coarse angling festival scene is also in full swing. Cootehill Angling Festival celebrated its 40th year with competitors landing some very good bags. A great catch of 84lbs of roach put Paul Hallen in contention for the overall prize in Portumna, but he was pipped for first place by local angler Arunas Miecka. Ray Linton enjoyed a good day with the pole to take the first leg of the Munster Anglers winter league. The festival season is not up yet with more to come from Inniscarra Lake and Bann Festivals – check out the calendar at https://bit.ly/upcomingfest for details.

Paul Hallen

Toothy Critters

Pike angling is again picking up, with cooler weather and water temperatures more suitable now. A visiting father and son duo from Germany enjoyed superb sport in the Boyle area, with fish up to 110cm testing their skills.

Jonas from Germany with his new pike PB of 110cm

Limerick Pike Anglers enjoyed good sport on a visit to Galway, with a catch of 23lbs topping the prizes, with 52 pike landed in total. A couple of visitors from Minnesota had good sport with local guide Damien Culliney in Clare, with pike to over 1m and some nice perch. And perch were a great reward for young Luke MacGabhann who fished Templehouse Lake in tough conditions.

Luke must have used his ‘Spidey Sense’ to hone in on the perch

 

Reminders

Salmon anglers are reminded that now the season is over, salmon logbooks must be returned along with unused gill tags by October 19th. Check out our post here on how to return yours.

We would like to ask all specimen hunters to get their 2022 claims into the Irish Specimen Fish Committee as soon as possible before the end of October close-off.

Podcasts And Videos

The Ireland On The Fly podcast returns with an interview with streamer expert Keith McDonnell, who landed a fantastic 22lbs sea trout on a recent trip to Iceland.

And now that the season is over, Peter Driver from Piscari Fly is back with his popular Saturday night live flytying on his Facebook page here.

In case you missed it….US Prosecutors in Cleveland have opened an investigation into an apparent cheating scandal at a Lake Erie angling tournament. Drivetime on RTÉ Radio One spoke with Des Chew of Inland Fisheries Ireland on Tuesday to discuss how competitions are run differently here in Ireland. You can listen back to Des chatting with RTE’s Cormac O’ hEadhra here – rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22153364/

What’s On TV

Viewers in Ireland may want to tune into Nationwide on RTE One at 7pm this evening, as the programme features the Galway Fishery. Filmed earlier in the year, the piece looks at the history of the fishery and some of the research work that is carried out on salmon and eels there, as well the angling of course.

And next week sees the final episode in the current BBC series of Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. Comedians Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer visited Ireland back in May and enjoyed some mayfly fishing on Lough Corrib, as well as trying for bream on a nearby lake. Tune in to see how they got on. BBC 2, Friday 14th October at 9pm.

 

And now the weather

Sunny spells and scattered showers today, heavy and thundery at times and becoming isolated towards evening. Feeling cold with fresh and gusty W/SW winds, and afternoon temperatures of 11 to 14 degrees.  Mainly dry and sunny for much of Saturday, becoming cloudier later in the day. Highest temperatures of 12 to 15 degrees with a light to moderate south to southwest wind, freshening along west coasts towards evening and bringing wave overtopping on western and northwestern coasts.

Wet and breezy as rain moves eastwards across the country on Sunday, with drier and clearer conditions in the northwest by evening. Highest temperatures of 13 to 15 degrees with moderate to fresh and gusty southerly winds, veering westerly.

The outlook is for changeable weather with dry periods for the start of the week. Monday and Tuesday will be mostly dry with the odd shower, and light to moderate westerlies. Becoming unsettled thereafter with spells of wet and breezy weather.

Safe fishing to all and tight lines, especially here in Ireland. If you’re heading to the coast, don’t forget to check the tides.

IFI Staff
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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