Today, Friday, June 20th, will be both the longest day and shortest night of 2025 in the northern hemisphere – otherwise known as the midsummer solstice – and it will also be the hottest day of the year so far, with temperatures up to 29°C predicted, followed by temperatures up to 25°C on Saturday. It is not exactly fishing weather, but if you do decide to brave the elements on such long days this weekend in search of a fish, use sunscreen, make sure to cover up as much skin as possible and keep well hydrated.

This is the time of year we expect to see summer salmon, or grilse, return to our shores and the heavy rain from earlier in the week did improve the fishing in some of our rivers. In Munster, the West Cork rivers fished quite well, as the Ilen, the Ouvane and the Coomhola all saw grilse, the odd salmon and some good sea trout landed. The Bandon struggled with low water, but there were still some super fish caught – the best being over 17lb. On the Laune system they went one better, with fish up to 18lb caught and some grilse turning up in the lough. Finally from the south west, a first grilse was boated on Lough Currane, caught on the troll, with no other salmon or sea trout reported for the week.

Daniel Cozzo releasing his 3rd fish of the day

In Mayo, the Ballisodare Fishery report that during the past two weeks, an average of four to five grilse per day were caught in the river. They also report that over the past two seasons approximately 800 springers have migrated upstream thanks to the catch and release policy in place until the end of May. On the Moy, while the main run hasn’t taken off yet, fresh grilse are starting to turn up on every tide and fish have been caught on all of the usual fisheries, with the estuary also fishing well for the sea trout; however, increasing water temperatures may see the Moy Fishery beats closed in the coming days and the Galway Weir will be closed from tomorrow, June 21st, until water temperatures drop. On the Erriff, fishing conditions were quite good during the week, with grilse and sea trout showing in decent numbers.

The bit of fresh water we got also helped the trout fishing on some rivers, freshening up the water and increasing the oxygen levels. On the Nore, the evening rise is in full swing with plenty of trout to be had, as was also the case on the Avonmore in Wicklow. On Lough Sheelin, it was all about ‘going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm‘, but those anglers who fished until the light had long since died were the ones who profited most. On nearby Lough Lene, it was lures that did most of the damage for local anglers as the rainbows were hitting hard over deeper water. In the west, reports from Lough Conn are that dry fly and wet fly are both working well, with reliables like the Green Peter, Connemara Black, Bibio and Sooty Olive all catching fish.

Coarse and pike anglers have been quiet this week, with just one pike report from Midlands Angling, where many of the pike have been coming short to the fly for annual visitor James. In coarse fishing, Feeder Team Ireland finished a very respectable eighth place out of twenty two countries at the World Championships in Lithuania. To say that the fast flowing river venue was alien to them would be a mild understatement, so not a bad result at all.

In truth though, with weather like this the only place to be is on a charter boat somewhere offshore with a cool breeze and plenty of fish to catch. In West Cork, Dave Edwards’ crew caught porbeagles, blues and very large mackerel, then chilled – watching wildlife like Risso’s dolphins – in glorious sunshine. Anglers aboard the Clare Dragoon have had a mix of whitefish on offshore reefs, when the weather permitted, and ray, bull huss and tope in the Shannon Estuary. In Galway Bay, Skipper John Fleming reports a lot of wrasse on the evening trips and plenty of pollock on local ground and on the offshore reefs. Finally from the boats, Kit Dunne reports on some fantastic tope fishing this week on the east coast, where he lost count after 27! Kit’s crew get our Catch of the Week for the super tope fishing this week.

On dry land, Cobh S.A.C fished the 3rd Leg of the Master Angler Series on Sunday, 15th June, with eleven species recorded – Tomasz Kujana was the overall winner. South Shore SAC hosted the prestigious Tommy Keogh Open last weekend which was won by Noel Fogarty with 10 good fish. Carrick Beach & Rockers made the trip west to Donegal to fish the well-known ray venue of Fahan beach last week for the 6th leg of their monthly master angler league. Within 20 minutes the rays made their presence known, mostly falling to mackerel baits. The Killybegs Mariners report that Donegal Bay is alive with sandeel and white bait corralled into every inlet in the bay at the moment, with some large pollack, coley, mackerel etc from the outer reefs all inshore feeding. In the south east, Cormac Walsh has been back on the bass, with a brand new mark producing the goods for him.

Finally, if the heat gets too much, grab a cold drink, find a spot in the shade and listen to the Ireland on the Fly podcast Mid-Season Review, where Daire and Tom assess the highs and lows of the 2025 season so far…

 

And now the weather…

Long spells of sunshine will continue throughout Friday, becoming very warm or hot with highs of 24°C to 29°C for the majority of the country and lows of 12°C to 17°C overnight.

Saturday will be warm with sunny spells, but it will become cloudier at times, especially in the west. Highs of 19°C to 25°C, warmest in the east. Mild overnight with temperatures not falling below 12°C to 15°C.

Sunday will see outbreaks of showery rain from the west in the morning with sunny spells and scattered showers to follow. Highs of 15°C to 20°C. Weather will become more unsettled as an Atlantic regime takes hold early next week.

Don’t forget to double-check the forecast before heading off, and if you’re going to sea, check the tides.

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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