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espite some milder days recently it seems that most anglers preferred to celebrate St. Patrickā€™s Day over the Bank Holiday Weekend rather than venturing out pursuing their passion. As a consequence, we received only a handful of reports this week reflecting the low angling effort of late.

Starting with salmon fishing where reports are still on the scarce side this early in the season as high water levels continue to hamper angling on most salmon fisheries in the country. From Lough Currane, however, we received some encouraging news as the lake produced another three spring salmon all caught on the troll ranging between 9 and 12lbs.

In trout fishing, Dan Oā€™Neill, fishery manager at Mount Juliet, Co. Kilkenny, had a successful start to his season. Dan spent a couple of enjoyable days with guests on the Kings River, a tributary of the Nore, catching some early season browns applying a range of different methods, including dry dropper, nymphing and streamer fishing.

Fishing the Kings River, Co. Kilkenny

Peter Driver, who is also based in Co. Kilkenny reported that trout fishing on the Nore was quite tough on opening day due to high water levels but offers some useful early season tips and tricks in his latest Piscary Fly Newsletter.

Over to lough fishing, where trolling can still provide some great results. This was the case for clients of Tomi Guidedfishing on Lough Corrib when they caught several big trout, best at 80cm+.

Fine trout caught on the troll

Senan Stanley and Paul Bourke have been getting some great fishing on Lough Derg over the last couple of weeks and since the trout season opened, they were targeting them successfully with light spinning gear. Fishing with guests, Paul had some nice pike over the magic 1m mark to the boat, while on St. Patrickā€™s Day, Senan and Paul were back on the lake catching some more trout, pike and also perch.

pike
A fine Derg pike

A few weeks ago, Senan Stanley and Brian Connaughton from WildHunter were on Lough Ree fishing for some pre-spawn pike. Check out their video here. Elsewhere, Watermill Lodge situated on Upper Lough Erne are delighted to announce that the 2024 fishing season is officially open!

Coarse anglers were also busy over the St. Patrickā€™s Day weekend. In Co. Cork the Inniscarra St. Patrickā€™s Festival was fished over 3 days. It was a tight competition but, in the end, Richard Pratt held on to his lead from day two winning this prestigious event. The day after the festival an open was fished on Inniscarra and with a catch average of an incredible 30kg+ the fishing could only be described as spectacular. Therefore the great fishing on Inniscarra wins our Catch of the Week!

Great bags were caught on Inniscarra

In contrast, it was tough going for a group of nine anglers who fished the inaugural Crowenstown St Patrickā€™s Day 2-Day Festival over the long weekend. Mary Tigwell, however, scooped first prize with the heaviest bag battling the tough weather conditions.

Our only sea angling report comes from Co. Donegal where members of Killybegs Mariners SAC enjoyed some nice beach fishing on St. Patrickā€™s Day landing sea trout, bass and several nice turbot.

Beach turbot from Donegal

Finally, we would like to draw your attention to a couple of popular podcasts. Fly anglers may like to tune into the latest episode of Ireland on the Fly featuring well-known fly angler and fly tyer John Maduro, while Cormac Walsh speaks to Danny Parkins, an original angling influencer and all-round social media guru in episode 26 of his Lure Fishing Podcast.

And now the weatherā€¦

Cold and windy tonight with clear spells and showers, some of the showers will be heavy and prolonged with hail and thunder possible. Some wintry falls are possible, mainly over the hills. Lowest temperatures of 1 to 4 degrees in fresh to strong westerly winds. A touch of frost is likely in some sheltered spots. The weekend and early next will see more unsettled weather and it will stay rather cool for the time of year.

Make sure to check the forecast before going afloat and if youā€™re going to sea,Ā donā€™t forget to check the tides.

SafeĀ fishingĀ to allĀ and tight lines, especially here inĀ Ireland.

IFI Staff
Catch, Photo, Release

If you have anĀ anglingĀ story to share with theĀ IrishĀ AnglingĀ UpdateĀ please send it toĀ [email protected]Ā and donā€™t forget that all of our fishing reports are available on our dedicatedĀ Angling Ireland Facebook page.

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