T

he stormy, unsettled conditions of late took a break this week with calmer and somewhat milder autumnal weather prevailing for the past few days. As water temperatures are still quite high for the time of year, these more settled conditions provided some quality fishing for local and visiting anglers alike.

Starting with pike fishing, twenty-one teams from all corners of the island of Ireland fished the “Pike Master Ireland” competition last Sunday. This competition is unique, because instead of taking place on one competition venue, it is held on numerous venues anywhere in Ireland, with anglers recording their fish in real time on an app, downloaded in advance. Unfortunately, conditions on the day did not encourage the pike to feed hard, but some of the teams did have some really good fishing during the competition with team Palkozjia scooping first prize. Runners up were team Reelax Predator Fishing leaving team Carlow Predator Angler in third place.

Bodo Funke of Angling Services Ireland based in Boyle was in touch again reporting on an excellent week’s pike action for a trio from Italy with several pike over the 1 metre mark best at 106cm, while Kevin Lyons of Melview Fishing Lodge also sent in a great report. Kevin hosted a group of French anglers for a week who enjoyed some fantastic pike fishing in the Longford area including a considerable number of one metre plus fish and many in the 90s. The fish of the trip, however, was caught by first-time visitor Matthieu measuring 118cm and deserves to win our Catch of the Week.

Super pike for French visitor Matthieu

Elsewhere, Limerick County Pike Anglers Association decided to stay close to home for the latest round of their winter league which was won by Tommy Williams with 32lb 6oz ahead of Sam Brown with 31lb 7oz.

Over to coarse angling, where several winter league matches were fished over the past week. Starting in the North, the VDE Baggers regular competition haunt, the Newry Canal, has been out of sorts of late, so they decided to head for a new venue for the third round of their winter league. It was a decision that paid off, with roach, skimmers and hybrids all feeding avidly. The tightly contested match was won by Artur Bojczewski with a bag of 5.45kg ahead of Aaron Nabc Hutchman (5.34kg) and Grzegorz Bojczewski (4.75kg).

Some chunky fish in this bag for Artur Bojczewski

Meanwhile, Munster Coarse Anglers successfully kicked off their winter league in Portuma at the weekend, while eleven young anglers from across the provinces turned out last Saturday for the All Ireland Youth Feeder Championships held on Lough Gowna in Co. Cavan. The fishing was quite tough on the day, but a bonus 1.5kg bream secured the 3-hour match for this year’s Under 15 champion Markas Cmuckas who finished with 1.700kg. The title for the Under 25’s went to Sarunas Zenkovas who won his match with 9 fish for 1.475kg.

Concluding our coarse fishing news for this week we would like to announce that Oakland’s Winter Matches will start Sunday, 3rd November. All matches will be run as open matches with an optional league for anyone who’s interested.

For a good while sea angling has been hampered by unfavourable sea and weather conditions…therefore it is great to see some encouraging sea angling reports coming in from around our coasts. Starting in the south, Jim Clohessy reports of heart-stopping blue shark action while fishing for ling over some wrecks in East Cork. Skipper Sean Maguire fishing out of Carrigaholt, Co. Clare had a group of Latvian anglers out at the weekend, and they found plenty of pollack feeding well, probably fattening up ahead of winter.

East Cork blue shark

Further north in Donegal Bay, Killybegs Fishing Trips made use of a break in the weather targeting more bluefin tuna, while on the east coast Kit Dunne of Wicklow Boat Charters had a group from Howth SAC out with him for a club competition. The lucky club members hit the water just as the spurdogs were active and feeding hard, which resulted in a day of “mayhem”, with nearly 500 fish brought to the boat.

Donegal Bay bluefin tuna

There was also some good shore fishing reported from the always active Killybegs Mariners including good numbers of autumn Donegal bass. Shore anglers will definitely turn their attention to the Wexford coast next week as the Youths and Juniors World Championships in Shore Angling are just days away. Some teams have already arrived in Wexford where world level anglers from 9 countries are out practicing along the coastline, getting ready for the big event, which launches on November 2nd.

Dan O’Neill is back with the 10th instalment of his River Whispers series. There’s a lot in this week’s edition, so we’ve split it into 2 articles. Read a comprehensive run down from Dan on how to set up for flyfishing, with some great information for beginners and improvers, followed by an interview with international angler David O’Donovan, and all about lure fishing for perch, including an interview with Marcin Kantor here.

Finally, we would like to draw your attention to the latest episode of the popular Ireland on the Fly Podcast. This time, Tom and Daire review this year’s salmon season and who better to talk to than one of the most knowledgeable salmon anglers there is, Paddy McDonnell.

Other news

Irish Fly Fair

The 12th annual Irish Fly Fair and International Angling Show is back in Fermanagh this month. This prestigious event will be held at the fabulous four-star Killyhevlin Hotel and grounds overlooking majestic Lough Erne. Dates are set for 16th and the 17th of November and doors open at 10am both days.

Salmon Logbooks

We would like to take this opportunity to remind all salmon and sea trout anglers to return their angling logbooks (setting out their fishing and catch record) and any unused gill tags.

Agus anois an aimsir…

Staying largely cloudy tonight with mist and some patches of drizzle, although most areas will stay dry. Lowest temperatures of 7 to 10 degrees with light south to southeast or variable winds. Saturday will be mostly cloudy with just limited sunny breaks. It will generally be dry with just a few spots of drizzle. Highest temperatures of 12 to 15 degrees in light and variable winds. High pressure will continue to dominate for the the next few days bringing generally mild and settled weather.  Perhaps a change is in store for Tuesday with a band of rain likely to move in across southwestern counties by the afternoon, while cloudy conditions persist elsewhere. Highest temperatures of 13 to 16 degrees.

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

IFI Staff
Catch, Photo, Release

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