Dan O’Neill, fishery manager at Mount Juliet, reports that conditions are coming right for some good fishing on the Nore:

Glorious weather found the river banks and walkways quite busy over the past few days.  Watching brown trout slowly glide away from the bank as I walked by brought me back to early summer mornings last season. The water is slowly dropping, reading at .67 Saturday, so there is a little more to go before my favourite seams and creases are fully visible. It was great to look into the river over the weekend and see such an abundance of happy healthy trout.

I did manage a cast or two early morning, which resulted in some great fun. Wet fly was my choice this weekend and seemed to be the right one. Plenty of takes with some nice trout to the net, with the Greenwell’s Glory being the most successful fly for me but I also had some trout on spiders. The weather certainly pushed the fish into being more active giving us hopefully a taste of what’s to come over the spring and summer months.

There are also quite a lot of little hungry and inquisitive smolts on the move. I did move areas once or twice as they seemed to be holding up a little to, whenever I did hook one I was very careful in unhooking them making sure not to injure them in any way. Great to see these little fellows around a good sign for the future.

Taking bookings now for guided trips on the River Nore, anyone wishing to practice a particular technique for trout or learn more about leader setups etc. Full and Half days available, contact me for more information.

For further information or to make a booking please contact

Dan O’Neill, Fishery Manager, Mount Juliet Estate, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, Ireland

Telephone: +353 85 7652751

Email[email protected]

Websitehttps://www.mountjuliet.ie/fishing-on-the-estate.html

General Information

The river Nore is a beautiful river that meanders it way through counties Laois and Kilkenny before joining with its sister river the Barrow just upstream of New Ross on its way to the sea. The Nore gets a good run of Atlantic salmon and the river which is currently open for angling on a catch and release basis produced 563 salmon in 2015 and 599 salmon in 2016. Salmon fishing is available on a number of stretches including the Mount Juliet Fishery which is located just outside Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, approximately mid-way between Kilkenny City and New Ross.

For further information on the Nore please visit https://www.fishinginireland.info/salmon/south/nore.htm