Home Weekly update Irish angling Update 🎣 03 July 2026

Irish angling Update 🎣 03 July 2026

July 3, 2026

There was a bit of everything in the weather for Ireland last week. Some places experienced very heavy rain and thunderstorms. The rain was welcomed by most freshwater anglers, but in many places water temperatures remained fairly high until a day or two ago. Conditions for sea anglers were breezy enough at times, but not so much to make fishing impossible, as this week’s reports show…

We’ll start the Irish Angling Update in Cavan, where the 30th FIPSed European Championships Coarse Fishing competition was fished at the weekend. Fifteen countries took part, but only one could be crowned champions. The honours went to Italy in what was a decisive victory. There were other coarse angling events taking place over the weekend too. Edenderry CAC fished a morning match on the canal where a magical end peg yielded over 16lb for the winner. Meanwhile down at Oaklands John Browne won another leg of the Oaklands Summer League with over 98kg.

A fine shore caught tope for Mike Curtin at Ballyreen, Co. Clare

Off to sea now, and to the east coast. In Wicklow, charter boat anglers are getting some good sized pollack over the wrecks, when conditions allow, and closer to shore there are decent tope, including some specimen sized fish being caught. At Arklow, Ringsend Irishtown SAC fished a match that saw some good results despite the challenging southwesterlies. Catches included smoothhounds, tope, dabs and dogs. We head to West Cork now where a group of Dutch anglers finished their angling holiday aboard the Silver Dawn with a specimen skate. Some of the Killybegs Mariners headed to Kerry for a change of scenery and to try to beat a 23 species in a week club record. They caught an incredible range of species but missed out by one, and if they had landed what would normally be considered bankers, pollack, pouting and a few more, they would have smashed it. On the Shannon Estuary, Skipper Luke Aston made the most of tricky conditions and got his anglers on some good ray and tope fishing. When conditions improved enough he got on to the Atlantic for a good mix of fishing. Also fishing off Clare‘s coastline was Skipper Sean Maguire, whose crew had some great fishing as shoals of mackerel seemed to get all the fish in a biting mood.

Cian Moran, overall winner of the 2026 National Junior Sea Angling competition seen here being presented with the Tommy Gibbons Memorial Cup by skipper Joe Gibbons. Cian had 13 fish and 130 points on the day.

Further up the Clare coast at Ballyreen, Lisdoonvarna Fanore Sea Angling Club fished a competition where a smashing tope helped Mike Curtin to victory. For charter boat anglers on Galway Bay it was spurdogs that seemed to be particularly plentiful, but there was also good general fishing to be enjoyed by anglers on the Brazen Hussey II around the Aran Islands. We finish the sea angling round up in Mayo, where Cian Moran won the 34^th Annual National Junior Competition hosted by Newport SAC.

We return to the rivers and lakes now where thankfully water temperatures returned to “normal” and salmon fisheries like the River Erriff, Moy Fishery, Galway Fishery and Muckross Fishery all reopened over the last few days. On the Moy there were 139 salmon reported for the week. There were a good number of grilse in the catches but some decent fresh fish into double figures were also landed. Lough Currane anglers endured blazing sunshine and blustery winds last week but still they rose to the challenge and accounted for 7 salmon and a few sea trout to boot.

In Pike angling news, 15 year-old Jack Monaghan from Athlone broke a club record with a a smashing fish of 116cm. This fine summer pike caught by a junior angler makes for a great Catch of the Week.

We finish up this week’s round up of angling news on the trout rivers and lakes of Ireland. Fly anglers on the Nore are concentrating their efforts on the early morning and late evening hatches. There’s plenty of sedges hatching and summertime fishing is in full swing. If you can’t cast a fly, not to worry, there’s still a chance of a trout on light spinning gear, and guide Senan Stanely has a great video on how to go about that. In lake angling Ronan Baggot won Lough O’Flynn’s first catch and release competition in a new evening series for that venue. Last, but by no means least, is a super report on the fine catches of trout that have been coming off Lough Corrib in recent weeks.

And now the weather

The outlook for the next few days predicts plenty of dry weather but cloudy overall. Some rain and drizzle at times, mainly affecting the north and west. It will be driest and warmest in the south and east. As we go to press, there are small boat warnings in place for the weekend on western, northwestern and northern coasts.

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

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