Most parts of the country have seen sweltering weather for the past two weeks, with daytime temperatures in the mid-twenties on most days, and feeling much hotter in bright sunshine. It clearly is some of the longest spells without rain and unbroken blue skies in memory. So, it is no wonder that the current heatwave is now taking its toll and trout & salmon fishing has come to a standstill on many fisheries mainly in the west of the country as temperatures were mostly higher along the western seaboard than in eastern parts.

In the light of this, Inland Fisheries Ireland decided to suspend salmon angling at the Moy Fishery in Ballina, Co. Mayo and the Galway Fishery, in Galway City as water temperatures exceeded the 20ā°C threshold in both locations over a number of days. Other State-owned fisheries are being monitored currently. These will be closed if and when they meet an appropriate threshold where cessation of angling must be enforced.

Extremely low water levels – a common sight on most west coast spate rivers these days

The prolonged warm and dry weather conditions are also reflected in the few salmon reports we received for the past week. While conditions on the Moy were far beyond favourable for salmon fishing, the Moy Estuary produced some nice sea trout up to 4 lbs. In Co. Kerry, the situation wasnā€™t much different as more sombreros than salmon and sea trout were seen on Lough Currane. While there is not much salmon and sea trout fishing to be had, anglers might like to tune into this weekā€™s episode of Ireland on the Fly. In their podcast, Tom & Daire are joined by Paddy Gargan, the recently retired IFI fisheries scientist who has a wealth of knowledge about fish conservation, habitat restoration and stock numbers.

Trout anglers were also struggling due to the present adverse conditions. On many of the lakes such as Lough Conn angling remained most challenging with only smallish trout been caught during the day. The hot and sunny weather has also brought mayfly hatches to an end on Lough Corrib making daytime fishing more difficult. However, early morning Caenis hatches which are in full swing now can provide some excellent trout fishing for the early bird!

The flies may be small but the trout like them!

Over to river trout fishing and the Nore at Mount Juliet whereĀ Dan Oā€™Neill reports of great surface action and also some nice carp and tench for his son Anthony from a nearby lake. Staying on the Nore, TAFI Leinster and Thomastown Anglers will be hosting a Youth Open day on the 17th of June. This will be an introduction to flyfishing for all youths under the age of 18.

Nore
Dan O’Neil ready to land a trout for Yellow Dog’s Sarah Delany on the River Nore

Normally, low water levels and hot temperatures donā€™t provide for good coarse angling either. So, it was a bit of a surprise that we received a number of positive reports from different matches fished around the country. Starting up north, the VDE Baggers AC enjoyed unexpectedly good fishing on the River Blackwater with a more than respectable top weight of 24kg for Gary Cummings.

On the Grand Canal at Daingan in Co. Offaly, Peter Keenan won the ā€œKing of the Canalā€ match, while The C/M Lakelands to-day festival was fished on Skeagh and Drumkeary Lakes in Cavan. Overall winner was Brenton Sweeney with just over 19kg. Also in Cavan, there was some fantastic tench fishing in amazing weather for members of Iascaire Fishing Club on a local lake.

Despite tough conditions – great bag of tench

Concluding our coarse angling reports for this week, Waterford & District Coarse Angling Clubā€˜s ā€œSouth East Classicā€ was played out on three different venues (river, Ballyshunnock Reservoir and Oaklands) last week. Overall winner was John Browne who won the reservoir session and also his section on Oaklands making this his first ever festival win!

John Browne
John Browne happy over his first festival win

While most freshwater anglers were struggling, charter boats have been making the most of the fine weather!

Starting in Donegal, members of Killybegs Mariners SAC enjoyed some great fishing from both shore and boat. Donegal Bay provided excellent mixed fishing including some really big pollack for clients of Killybegs Fishing Trips. Big Pollack along with pouting, wrasse and many other species were also the order of the day for skipper John Fleming on the Brazen Hussy in Galway Bay.

A little further south along the Clare Coast, there was top-class fishing in the sunshine on the Lady Gwen, while it was tope time for skipper Luke Aston and his guests aboard the Clare Dragoon.

Nice Clare tope

Great tope fishing along with hounds and huss was also enjoyed by a group of Dutch anglers says Kit Dunne of Wicklow Boat Charters.

Great fishing off the Wicklow coast too

Tony Santry skipper of the charter boat Tigger fishing out of Caherciveen in Co. Kerry reported on what must be the first blue sharks of the season caught on 2 June.

Our Catch of the week, however, goes to Courtmacsherry. Mark Gannon of Courtmacsherry Angling told us that angling has really taken off the last couple of weeks following the arrival of the summery weather. Pollack fishing has been very good with great sport on light tackle with fish to 5 kg, cod to 6 kg and some good-sized coalfish, while at anchor good conger and ling with specimen skate, specimen spurdog and near specimen bullhuss were caught.

skate
Skate from Courtmacsherry

Finally, we would like to draw anglersā€™ attention to episode 7 of the lure fishing podcast. Presenter Cormac Walsh talks to British wrasse lure fishing expert Damion Fryer. Damion targets wrasse on lures and really has fine-tuned his skills over the years fishing the rocky coastline around Cornwall. Surely, his techniques can be applied to the waters around Ireland.

And now the weather

The weekend will start warm and humid with a mix of cloud and sunshine. Scattered showers, mainly over Munster at first, will gradually extend into other parts of the country, some turning heavy with the chance of isolated thunderstorms and spot flooding.

The outlook for next week is for warmer or even hot days with sunshine and scattered slow moving showers. There is a risk of some thundery downpours which can be heavy in places. Top temperatures will range from 20Ā°C to 26Ā°C, in just light variable or northeasterly breezes.

Safe fishing to allĀ andĀ tight lines, especially here in Ireland.

IFI Staff
Catch, Photo, Release

If you have an angling story to share with the Irish Angling Update, please send it toĀ [email protected].

Trout Fishing Reports

Salmon Fishing Reports

Coarse Angling Reports

Sea Angling Reports