salmon fishing
Opening day of the 2019 salmon season on the River Drowes

Happy New Year to all our readers. 2019 got off to a great start with a first salmon of the season caught early in the morning and lots of other news from coarse, pike and sea anglers. The year finished well for anglers too with some serious pike landed and the mild settled weather was welcomed by charter boat anglers heading to sea…

salmon
First salmon of the year was caught on the River Lackagh by Michael McCann

Salmon anglers started the year with a bang. By 9.30am on New Year’s Day Michael McCann, who was fishing on the Lackagh River in Co. Donegal, had caught and released the first salmon of the season. Anglers on other rivers were not as lucky but there is still a lot to play for.  The first salmon caught on and released on the Drowes Fishery will win the lucky angler a 1kg bar of silver. This is one of a number of innovative ideas being run on the river to mark International Year of the Salmon. The full list of open rivers for 2019 is available at fishinginireland.info/salmon/salmonregs.htm 

Milltown Lake
36lb 4oz pike for Ronan Murray

While salmon anglers were waiting to start 2019, pike anglers were ending 2018 in style. We had great reports in from Pallas Lake which fished well all through the first part of the winter. At their last competition of the year they once again caught an released pike to over 20lb. But these reports were soon eclipsed by the capture of a super 36lb 4oz pike from Mill Lake by Ronan Murray who was fishing in a Castleblaney Anglers competition.

There was a strong finish to the year and a good start to 2019 for coarse anglers too.  We have some great reports in from Cork, Leitrim, Roscommon, Monaghan and Northern Ireland. The Sheemore Anglers in Leitrim had a telling statistic. For the month of December their competitions saw 1,100lb of coarse fish weighed in and released.

Shore and charter boat anglers from Dublin to Donegal were out over the Christmas break and over the new year. It was great to see boats out in the settled weather and we have charter fishing reports from Wicklow, Clare and Donegal. On the shore angling front there were updates from regular contributors on the east coast and in the north west. One of the stand out report came from West Cork, where mullet on fly were landed as early as 02 January.

The Dublin Angling Initiative was in the news again. This time the Journal.ie covered their exploits and complemented their article with a great video you can watch here:

Met Eireann forecasts breezy and mostly cloudy day for Saturday with further patchy rain, drizzle and mist, mainly affecting Ulster during the morning and early afternoon. Largely dry elsewhere. Relatively mild again with highest temperatures ranging 9 to 11 degrees but quite windy with fresh and gusty West to Northwest winds, strong to near gale force and gusty near the North coast. Sunday much the same followed by drier brighter weather to start the week.

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 [email protected].

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