It’s been a very dry and bright week, and although some days were pretty warm, temperatures haven’t strayed far from the norms for this time of year. Winds have been a bit blustery at times, but not enough to have a huge impact on boat anglers. Coarse, pike, sea and even trout anglers have been enjoying the conditions, but for salmon anglers, there’s still plenty of room for improvement…

slaney salmon on a dry fly
Well done to Yamil for getting a salmon on a dry fly at Ballycarney, River Slaney

There was decent water on the Moy last week and the fishing is getting better. In total, 64 salmon were reported caught, with many good quality double-figure fish up to 15lbs. The Erriff finally got its first salmon of the 2023 season, a 9lb 7oz fish caught on the Garden Pool. Lough Currane didn’t see much salmon action over the last week, but there were a handful of nice sea trout to 4lb caught and released. Heading to West Cork, there were 12 salmon reported from the Ilen. Meanwhile, the fishing elsewhere in the south and southwest has been quiet, with nothing to report from the other rivers and salmon angling remaining very slow on the Munster Blackwater. Finally, we have an interesting report from the Slaney where a salmon was caught on a dry fly by an angler determined to get one on this rarely used method.

Once more, Inland Fisheries Ireland is urging anglers, and the general public, to report sightings of Pacific pink salmon in Irish rivers over the coming months. For more information, see IFI issues alert over Pacific pink salmon in Irish rivers

At this time of the year, trout anglers have only one thing on their minds – Mayfly. Many lakes are reporting good hatches of fly, and some fine trout are being caught. On Sheelin older anglers always swear by the theory that when the whitethorn or may blossom is at its peak then the hatches of the mayfly will also be at their peak.  The bushes around here are draped with white blossom, like sloppily iced cakes, and there is still more to come. Hatches and catches are up, it’s official the lake is fishing well. Lough Arrow has been busy, with excellent hatches of fly and good results had. On Conn and Cullin hatches of mayfly are picking up. Fishing on the lakes was a bit of a mixed bag with prolific days followed by slow times. On Corrib the dapp is serving anglers well.  Lastly, the Ireland on the Fly podcast is on Sheelin this week to talk Mayfly once more, well worth a listen.

Bream on the nymph

If it’s not usual to get a salmon on a dry fly in Ireland, then getting river bream and tench on nymphs is unheard of, except that this is two weeks in a row! A pair of anglers on the Inny have been coarse fishing with the fly rod and enjoying every moment. Bream also feature in catches at Portumna. Down on Inniscarra some massive bags of fish have been caught with weights of 30kg recorded in competition and over 50kg while pleasure angling.

Leinster Pike Anglers on Lough Erne

Senan Stanley, a prolific YouTuber, has been having great lure fishing for pike, perch and trout on Lough Derg recently. Further up the Shannon system in the Longford area Italian anglers are getting pike to 102cm on a variety of lures. Continuing up the river to Boyle, Austrian anglers were getting some great pike on the fly with guide Bodo Funke. Leinster Pike Anglers fished a two-day boat competition on the Erne system and had some super pike to 20lb.

tope

Not surprisingly, most of the reports this week come from the coast, where there was some great fishing enjoyed from boat and shore. Starting in the north east, a good day on the water was made even better for shore angler Noel O’Shea whose flattie session turned up a 76cm bass. Heading south, Kit Dunne of Wicklow Boat Charters reports that their first specimen-sized tope of the season was caught by lucky angler Shane Gough. The tope measured 162 cm. Shore anglers are also getting in on the action with a 160cm tope caught by Jonathon Phillips fishing a Wexford mark.

Angel shark from Tralee Bay

Carrigaline Deep Sea Anglers hosted the Munster Open Boat Competition recently. A total of 674 fish were captured and returned. Stephen Hurley of Carrigaline DSAC won the Individual competition, and Carrigaline A won the team event. David Norman of Angling Adventures West Cork was back out guiding kayak anglers in West Cork, where pollack and wrasse have been providing plenty of sport. Tralee Bay is always a popular venue, and it has been on fire recently, producing some super fishing for rays – undulates, thornies and sting rays. Even more exciting was the recent catch of a very rare angel shark.

A beautiful megrim – a deep water flatfish that is not a common catch

Charter boats out of Carrigaholt, Co. Clare are reporting good fishing, particularly over the reefs where pollack and coalfish are providing lots of sport. The final leg of the Galway Bay SAC Master Angler competition at Doughmore Beach, Doonbeg. There were some really big flounder landed on what proved to be a good fishing day that saw Colin Harty win the Master Angler title. The fishing on Galway Bay is going well for charter boat anglers. The boats are reporting plenty of mackerel about and good fishing for pollack and coalfish.

The last report in our sea angling roundup comes from the Killybegs Mariners. They had 16 anglers fishing a competition in beautiful conditions. Probably not the best for anglers though, but they still had some great catches despite the calm conditions.

Other news

In other news Jason O’Riordan and Ken Whelan are back on the Copper Coast this summer with another of their popular Saltwater Fly Fishing courses and East Wicklow Rivers Trust (EWRT) and LAWPRO will deliver a ‘Blue Dot’ Water Workshop along Ballycreen Brook (Macreddin River), Aughrim this weekend.

And now the weather…

The weekend will be quite cloudy overall, with rain and drizzle at times, although amounts will be low. Drier and sunnier early next week. Winds will be light enough north to north westerly over the weekend, moderate on Monday, and daytime temperatures should be up into the high teens. Nothing wrong with the forecast, you just need to get yourself out fishing and catch something.

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

IFI Staff
Catch, Photo, Release

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