St. Swithin’s day if thou dost rain , For forty days it will remain

St. Swithin’s day if thou be fair , For forty days ’twill rain nae mair.

Looking out the window this morning, the rain is falling in sheets, with over an inch falling here in the west so far. The forecast for tomorrow, St. Swithin’s Day, is unfortunately only slightly better, with the rain coming in showers rather than the deluges of today. The last week has seen plenty of showers too, with windy conditions at times. We have plenty of reports from our salmon rivers to bring you, and salmon anglers will be anticipating big floods and fish running many of our rivers over the coming week.


Salmon

A small flood on the Moy last week, the first significant bit of water for almost two months, saw a big increase in catches, with 369 fish reported. In Kerry, fresh grilse provided sport on the Caragh, Roughty and Maine rivers after a rise in water levels. Beat 1 on the Laune also saw plenty of grilse caught, with big salmon to over 20lbs taken off Beat 2.

Adam Connolly releasing a 6.5lbs salmon on the Ridge Pool caught skating microtubes

Lough Currane also saw good water but sport was slow, with local anglers preferring to fish the flood on the nearby Inny River. The Bandon River provided plenty of action, with 40 salmon reported, whiel 30 fish to 12lbs were reported on the Lee. The Blackwater has been quiet lately, but a rise in water levels and fresh grilse provided a big improvement in sport this week. Coomhola also saw 8 salmon reported caught.

salmon
A good salmon released on the Blackwater Valley fishery yesterday

With all the rain falling today, we are sure to see apates and floods all over the country. Salmon and sea trout hanging out in estuaries will be running upstream hard, and we anticipate a big improvement in sport in many rivers over the next couple of weeks.


Trout

Just the one brown trout report this week, from Lough Conn, where e small hatch of mayfly has seen an improvement in fishing. Very few anglers were out to enjoy it, however, and more rods would surely see some good sport.

Great sea trout fishing was reported from the Moy Estuary, with some anglers reporting up to 30 fish for a day’s fishing, and fish to 5lbs recorded.

Ray Andrews with a nice seatrout caught on Pegasus

Sea

The windy conditions mean charter boat fishing has been restricted to just a few days this week. In Mayo, boats managed to get out to sheltered parts of Cew Bay for the National Junior competition held by Newport SAC, and local angler Patrick Sammon took the top prize. Charter boats also got out in Donegal for the Killybegs SAC two-day competition, which was won by local angler Gavin Dorrian with an impressive 12 species and two boat wins. Charter boats in Killybegs also reported very good pollack fishing during the week. Good pollack fishing was also reported from west Clare.

Shark season is underway, and anglers on the Brazen Hussy out of Rossaveal had a bumper day, bringing 6 porbeagle shark to the boat. A lucky porbeagle was caught aboard Silver Dawn – read the story to find out why!

Mind those fingers!

Finally, skipper Luke Aston was stuck in the Shannon Estuary for a prolonged period due to high winds, but on the plus side, Markus Muller who was fishing with a German angling journalist landed the first stingray to Luke’s boat, the Clare Dragoon.

Stingray!

Pike

Lough Derg is known for big pike, and young angler Nathan Austin certainly found that out on a recent trip. Despite high winds spoiling a few days, he stuck it out and was rewarded with some nice pike, including this fine 20bs+ hen fish, which makes our Catch of the Week.


Coarse

Coarse angling reports are few this week, but we have a couple. Some canal competitions were held recently, but it was Dean Murray taking the honours in both the Edenderry club competition on the Grand Canal, and the second leg of the Leinster open qualifier at Daingean.

Dean with his winning bag at Edenderry

The two-day Dunbrody Festival held at Oaklands Fishery proved a great success, with Leo Lynch with his winning catch of 163.57kg just pipping Kieran Reeves over the two days by 2kg.


Other News

An outbreak of crayfish plague has been detected in the River Blackwater catchment, and anglers and other water users are asked to take action to prevent further spread of this disease. Our native crayfish are very susceptible to this disease, with entire populations in infected rivers wiped out, so please read this advice and take the necessary precautions.

Inland Fisheries Ireland is investigating a fish kill of at least 2,000 fish on the Brownsmills stream near Kinsale, Co. Cork. Samples have been taken and staff are working to identify the source of the pollution. Once again, all land users are asked to be careful when working near water and ensure nothing enters our waters that shouldn’t.

Finally, bonjour et felicitations to our French readers on Bastille Day. Vive la France!


And now the weather

Looking out the window this morning would just make you want to go back to bed. But how is the rest of the weekend, and next week, going to go?

Met Eireann says that tomorrow will bring showers or longer spells of rain (don’t tell St. Swithin!) spreading from the west. Fresh and gusty W/NW winds will be strong at times, especially near the coast. Highest temperatures of 15 to 19 degrees.

Sunday will see more showers continue to feed in across the country. Some of the showers will be heavy and thundery during the afternoon and evening. Staying windy too with moderate to fresh westerlies and highest temperatures of 15 to 19 degrees.

The outlook is for unsettled weather to continure next week, with showers and some longer spells of rain, although winds do slacken somewhat from Monday.

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

IFI Staff
Catch, Photo, Release

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