Irish Angling Update 🎣 14th November 2025

It’s been a decidedly soggy week, and the rain looks set to keep stealing the headlines for the next few days. Most of the country has taken a thorough soaking, with Valentia in Co. Kerry leading the way at a hefty 96.3 mm. Temperatures have been on the mild side, with sunshine scarce—especially in the south, where Cork recorded the lowest levels. The outlook remains unsettled, with more rain forecast for the south, east, and southeast before conditions finally turn drier and cooler later this weekend.

The tough conditions have clearly kept many anglers at home, with few reports coming through, but the coarse anglers seem to have been the most active, so we’ll begin our roundup with them. In Ulster, the VDE Baggers bounced back after a disappointing last outing, enjoying far better fishing on the River Erne last Sunday. Weights were solid across the board, and Ewan Reed topped the day with 10.8 kg.

In Co. Waterford, the second round of the Ger Hennessey Winter League was held at Oaklands Lake over the weekend. It turned out to be a one-horse race, as Kieran Reeves left all other competitors at the starting gate, with an outstanding bag of 90kg, leaving his nearest rival over 60kg behind him.

In Co. Kildare, the Athy Anglers held a match in the Marina on Sunday. On a pleasant day for fishing, Tommy Cahill’s lucky fishing hat worked its charm and won him the event with 14lb 14oz of mostly roach and perch. A handful of other coarse angling clubs also fished matches over last weekend, and you can catch up with the results in this report.

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To pike angling news now, and the lakes in the Boyne Valley area have been producing plenty of decent pike for clients fishing with Chris Barry of Go Fishing Ireland recently. He’s had numerous anglers out with him, landing plenty of PBs and 100cm+ fish, the best of which was a cracking 111cm pike for Lester Hagan, winning Lester this week’s Catch of the Week.

And 111 was the magic number up the the Boyle area as well last week. Angling guide Bodo Funke had a trio of French guests with him during the week, and they landed plenty of decent pike, with five 100cm+ fish, the best of which was…, you guessed it…, a super 111cm fish.

Paul Bourke and Senan Stanley of Irish Fishing Tours have had a busy week, guiding lots of clients on Lough Derg. Plenty of those clients achieved PBs, and even experienced anglers felt they learned a lot about pike fishing while out with the guys. As ever, much of the fishing is documented on Senan’s superb YouTube channel.

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To sea angling now, and 33 anglers lined out for West Cork & District SAC’s Bait Supplies competition in Youghal over the weekend. Each competitor had just 30 sandeels to last the match, making for a tactical showdown. South Shore’s Ciaran Fogarty came out on top with ten dogfish and a whiting, while Steve Watkins landed the best fish of the day—a beautiful 66 cm bass.

And now the weather