The calm and settled weather of late continued all week, providing excellent winter angling conditions across all disciplines. Having said that, angling effort seemed to have been slow, and as a consequence, reports were rather scarce again.

After the first salmon of the year was caught on January 13th, there was reasonable hope that the River Drowes might produce a couple more fish this week. Unfortunately, and despite great fishing conditions, the efforts of anglers were not (yet) rewarded. However, with more fisheries opening soon, the 2022 salmon season should definitely pick up more pace in the coming weeks. Lough Currane in Co. Kerry is another fishery which has an early opening date, and anglers traditionally head out in good numbers during opening week. Nevertheless, it has been a rather slow start on this iconic water in Co. Kerry, as Vincent Appleby reports.

Lough Currane
Lough Currane in Co. Kerry

Staying with salmon fishing, anglers who wish to catch and keep salmon from the Lower River Lee in Cork this year are being advised that ‘brown tag’ regulations are coming into force from Tuesday, February 1st 2022.

The River Lee in Cork

Further information on how to apply for brown tags is available here.

Trout anglers in the Dublin/Meath area will be delighted to hear that Rathbeggan Lakes is going to open its doors to trout anglers again under the name MeathEcoPark. The venue will operate as a fly angling and motorhome park and fishing will be available daily on a catch and release basis.

Over to coarse angling, where Ballinamore Angling Festival organisers are back supporting sustainable angling tourism in Ballinamore Co. Leitrim this May. The annual Ballinamore Angling Festival will be fished on local loughs by rotation from Monday 23rd to Friday 27th May 2022.

Things have also been fairly quiet on the pike angling front. However, Bodo Funke of Angling Services Ireland kicked off the new guiding season with a chunky fly-caught double-figure pike for his client, while a pike at extreme short-range saved the day at a venue in Monaghan.

Nice double-figure fly-cauhgt pike for Angling Services Ireland customer Stephen Branagh

Like in previous weeks, most of the fishing action was provided by sea anglers. Jasper Mathews sent in a great report from the West Connemara coastline, where the relatively calm weather and moderate swell have made for some great lure fishing.

coalfish
Success along the West Connemara coast

Further north, members of Killybegs Mariners SAC enjoyed an eventful week setting a few new club records. This great shore action including conger, ling, turbot and bass to name but a few of the many species caught makes our “Catch of the Week”!

Good turbot like this one were amongst the many species caught by Killybegs Mariners

Offshore, Kit Dunne of Wicklow Boat Charters was back out under blue skies this week and was producing more specimen sized spurdog for his anglers, while up in Donegal Killybegs Fishing Trips reported on their first trip of the season.

Big spur from the east coast
Fine Donegal cod

And now the weather…

Most areas will stay dry and overcast for the weekend with light to moderate southwesterly breezes and daytime temperatures of 6 to 9 degrees. On Sunday, it will be a little fresher along the northwest coast. Some patchy drizzle, mainly on western and northwestern coasts, will also be possible, but generally it will remain dry. High Pressure will continue to dominate our weather pattern for most of next week, bringing generally settled conditions which should allow for good winter angling.

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

Markus Muller
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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Coarse Angling Reports

Pike Fishing Reports

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