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o far, the new year hasn’t really allowed for any decent angling in Ireland with near Arctic conditions prevailing for most of the past week. Widespread harsh frost, substantial snow fall and biting cold winds have dominated our weather making angling extremely difficult. However, we’ve received a few reports mainly from pike and sea anglers from the turn of the year and the Christmas period which are worth a mention.

Pike anglers usually don’t mind cold and wintry conditions…so it’s no big surprise that this week’s angling update is dominated by reports from anglers who pursue Esox lucius.

Pike anglers on Lough Derg enjoyed a good end to 2024 and a strong start to 2025 with pike up to 98cm and perch up to 33cm as Paul Bourke from Irish Fishing Tours reports, while Chris Scally from Fish Tales Guiding tells us about a red letter day for a father and son team landing a total of 8 good pike best at 105cm which wins our Catch of the Week.

A happy father & son team on Lough Ree

Staying on the Shannon system, Camlin and District Anglers held their George Wenman Memorial/Christmas competition on December 28th on Lough Forbes. The competition was fished by 18 boats and won by Mark Wenman, Daniel & Simon Daly. Over to Lough Erne now, where young angler Lorcan Fennelly from Corkey in County Antrim couldn’t wait to get out on the water to try out his Christmas present of a pike rod and lure setup. So, under the guidance of his fishing mentor, Kenny Skinner, he hit the waters of Lough Erne over the Christmas break and managed to put a good bend in the rod, landing four decent pike. Well done Lorcan!

Lorcan with one of his four pike. That’s how to put your new rod through it’s paces!

Concluding our pike news for this week, the NCFFI invites expressions of interest for places on Predator Team Ireland 2025 along with the opportunity to provide feedback in relation to international predator angling.

In sea angling, some excellent fishing was reported from Co. Cork where Cobh SAC held their annual fundraiser at the end of December. This time, 38 anglers in 5 boats fished for the win with the proceeds going to the Irish Youths Boat Team. Fishing was confined to the Cork Harbour area and a fine selection of species were recorded which included whiting, dab, place, dogfish, thornback ray, bullhuss, conger, ballan wrasse, coalfish, turbot, pollack, haddock, dragonet, weaver and sand goby.

Norman Dunlop ray
Some great species fishing for Cobh SAC members

Also fishing Cork Harbour, Jim Clohessy of TopFisher.eu closed the 2024 season with a mix of species on lures including pollack, ling and some fine pouting.

Tidy little ling on a pink Crazy Paddletail
Nice ling for Jim Clohessy

There is news of a new shore angling guiding service being set up for 2025. James Raymond from Irish Angling Adventures, well-known to many of our subscribers for his great sea fishing videos on the IAA Youtube channel with fellow angler Ian O’Grady, has decided to put his expertise to good use by offering tailored shore guiding experiences on the west coast. Staying in the west, Galway Bay SAC are kicking off the new year with an open day on the 19th of January. New and prospective members are invited to come along and try a fishing session, with members on hand with spare equipment to show people the ropes, and give them a gentle introduction to shore angling.

James Raymond will be guiding shore anglers in 2025

Over to coarse angling, where a number of 2025 festivals and event dates have been released. The Lough Muckno Festival Group have announced their dates for this season’s matches, kicking off with the St Patrick’s Day Festival on March 15th. CM Lakelands Feeder Club, the organisers of the popular Ireland’s FeederKing series, have set dates and venues for the qualifiers and final for 2025, while the NCFFI is inviting novice anglers and previous participants to a series of angling development days in 2025.

January 1st saw the start of the new salmon angling season on a number of fisheries, including the Drowes, which traditionally is one of the few “early” fisheries with good prospects of producing the first salmon of the season. Ireland on the Fly took this opportunity to have an interview with Shane Gallagher from the Drowes Fishery to find out how the opening days went on the river. Shane also looks back on the 2024 season, discusses the fall off in the spring run and why 2025 just might be a year to be hopeful.

River Drowes
River Drowes

Concluding this week’s Irish Angling Update, we would like to draw your attention to Peter Driver’s Piscary-Fly newsletter. Peter is back with his weekly roundup of the fishing scene, and a look back at some of his personal highlights from 2024.

Other news

A total of 78 rivers will open for salmon angling in 2025. The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan, has approved legislation that will govern the wild salmon and sea trout fisheries. To support the legislation for 2025, Minister Ryan received management advice from Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) in relation to over 140 genetically-individual wild salmon stocks in Ireland, which was based on individual scientific assessments. Further information and complete lists of all open, C&R and closed fisheries is available here.

Tonight won’t be as cold as previous nights with lowest temperatures of 0 to 4 degrees in light to moderate southeast winds, fresh in the west and northwest. The weekend will see an end to the Arctic conditions and it will start to turn gradually milder. Becoming dull with rain and drizzle at times early next week. Further outlook: Staying mild with nearby high pressure bringing a good deal of dry weather overall. However, a few patches of light rain and drizzle are possible.

Safe fishing to all and 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 to reports@fisheriesireland.ie and don’t forget that all of our fishing reports are available on our dedicated Angling Ireland Facebook page.

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