East Clare
Stunning Scenery and fishing to match in East Clare

This week saw some great reports from a number of coarse angling festivals fished at various venues around the country. Salmon fishing was less productive as water levels remained low on most rivers and trout fishing was mostly so so, but there were some interesting catches and observations from anglers fishing the salt…

blue shark
Kit Dunne with a blue shark caught off the south east coast. #CPRsavesfish

Jim Linehan, skipper of the Deora De in Cork Harbour, had some unusual catches for the area in the last couple of weeks – smoothhound and tope. He also reported seeing bonito tuna just outside the harbour mouth. Shark reports came in from the south east and the south west where the feeling is that while numbers may not be as high as previous years the fish are on the bigger side. Further north the news from Donegal Bay is that huge shoals of scad have all the predator species feeding well.

Water levels on the Moy quickly returned to pre-flood levels and the low water combined with low fishing effort saw just 170 salmon reported. Most other fisheries fared similarly.

Marius with his catch
Marius Vrubliaukausas gets Catch of the Week for his win at Inniscarra. #CPRsavesfish

August the 10th saw the first open match take place on Inniscarra since its closure in April.  Marius Vrubliaukausas marked the occasion well with a catch of 29kg at Garden Centre to take first place, he also wins our Catch of the Week. The Otley Feeder Festival was fished at the reservoir over the weekend and fishing was described as fantastic. Julian Kendrick was the eventual winner with 68.540kg. In other festival news Cathal Hughes won the East Clare Lakes August Festival with a magnificent 3-day catch of 50.920kg, Steve Hemingray won the Belturbet Festival with 41.43kg, Tommy Dowd won the Clones Festival with 45.500kg and Julian Kendrick won NCFFI 60th ‘All-Ireland’ with a 25kg bream catch from the Shannon Erne Waterway.

Trout anglers had a slower week on Corrib and while some fish were caught on dry fly and the dapp, there is an expectation that fishing will improve with late Olive hatches in the next few weeks. Lough Owel produced some good fishing for those competing in the Patti Doolin Shield but Lough Lene was tough going for those who fished the Larry Mulligan Cup.

Met Eireann reports that heavy rain will become widespread early Saturday night. A very humid night will follow with lows of 15 to 17 degrees. It will become breezy also in the night, with fresh and gusty south to southwest winds, which will be strong in some coastal areas. Sunday will remain humid with temperatures in the high teens or low twenties. Some rain, mist and low cloud in the morning, but turning drier and brighter during the afternoon and evening in most places. More rain is expected early next week and fresher conditions are indicated through the midweek period, with sunny spells and just well scattered showers.

Safe fishing to all and tight lines, especially here in Ireland.

Myles Kelly
Catch, Photo, Release

If you have an angling story to share with the Irish Angling Update please send it to contact@fisheriesireland.ie.

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