Summer 2025 has given us another spell of hot weather this week, with temperatures hitting 28C in some areas over the past few days, and warm dry weather set to continue for a few days yet. The plume of warm air which brought record-breaking temperatures and wildfires to France, Spain and Portugal has spread northwards and given us a very warm week. While the settled weather has been widely welcomed by many, it is not good news for freshwater anglers, with temperatures soaring in many fisheries. The River Corrib rose from 16.9C to 22.3C in the last 4 days, and consequently the Galway Fishery has had to close for the fourth time this year. Also closed from last night are the Moy Fishery and Erriff Fishery. And with the warm weather came the terrible news of a large fish kill on the Munster Blackwater, where it appears a fungal outbreak has killed a large number of salmonids and other fish. The results of pathology tests are awaited to ascertain the exact cause, but certainly the high temperatures will not have helped fish already under stress. Nor will the nutrient enrichment apparent in photos from the affected stretch.

We start this week with sea angling, and the warm dry spell has been welcomed by charter skippers around the coast. August is a great month for shark fishing, and Dve Edwards, skipper of the Silver Dawn in west Cork, reports on a 24-hour marathon trip that saw 61 blue shark and 2 porbeagles brought to the boat!

There were shark reported from Clare also, where guests of Luke Aston on the Clare Dragoon had blue shark, porbeagle, tope and spurdog – plenty of shark variety! Sean Maguire on the Isle Of Aran also put his guests over some nice sharks, as well as some cracking ling.

August is also a good month for species hunters, with sea temperatures peaking soon and plenty of warmer water species available to target that simply aren’t there later in the year. The Killybegs Mariners have been enjoying some species hunting, with club record conger, short-spined sea scorpion, goby and pouting among some of their catches. Meanwhile, down south, the Ringsend Irishtown Angling Club had their annual visit to County Kerry recently, an the fishing was so good we can’t even count the species they caught.

Short spined sea scorpion

With the weather so food and forecast to last another few days at least, we expect to see plenty of good sea angling reports from the country next week.

To freshwater angling, now, and as mentioned above, salmon fisheries on the Moy, Erriff, and Galway are now closed due to the high water temperatures. The Moy saw lower than usual angling activity last week, given the water conditions, but there were fish reported from most of the fisheries along the river.

David McEvoy reports there were 54 salmon landed at Delphi for July, with more since, but the real good news was the good sea trout fishing with 175 fish to 4.5lbs landed, from right throughout the system. Good water levels and a relatively wet month helped spread the fish up to the top lakes. Nearby, there was consistent fishing on the Erriff over the past few weeks, with salmon and sea trout caught almost every day. The Laune reported just a couple of fish caught, with low water levels prevailing, and a similar story on the Blackwater, where any grilse caught were on the small side.

Trout angling has been fairly quiet this week, although were some trout caught on Lough Conn in difficult conditions, where two competitions were held. Johannes Bulfin recently launched a guiding service in the Midlands – Watershed Fly Fishing – and has been busy guiding clients almost every day. He told us of his personal best Croneen trout from the Brosna, a cracking 58cm fish in a river where a 10-inch fish is a more normal catch.

We also feature Senan Stanley’s latest video, where he shows us ultra-light fishing technique for trout in rivers – Bait Finnesse System (BFS fishing) using ultra-light rods and lures for brown trout. Check out a great watch here.

Coarse fishing is a bit quieter this week, but we still have some good reports. The canal at Edenderry is fishing well for local club members, with tench and roach making up good bags. Tommy Burke took the win in a club match with a nice bag of 10lbs 9oz.

Also on the canals, the second Leinster Coarse Fishing Federation canal qualifier produced some good bags, with Pat Bartley taking maximum points with 11lbs 9oz.

On the international stage, the Irish under 15 and under 20 teams were in action at the World Championships in Spain, with u-20s finishing a very credible 8th place in very unfamiliar surroundings.

To pike fishing, and although the hot weatyher is not conducive to fishing for pike, before the heatwave arrived there was some good fishing reported. Jacek Gorny guides on Lough Ree and other lakes, and reported some good fishing for his clients, with some lovely fish to the boat.

Finally, Sandrine Guillois was visiting the River Shannon from France last week, and and landed a fantastic 108cm pike in shallow water on a top water lure- our Catch of the Week!

Sandrine with her fine 108cm Shannon pike

 

And now the weather

Today (Friday) will be very warm and sunny, with temperatures of 20-26C in light NE breezes. Saturday morning will be dry with sunny spells. During the afternoon and evening, some showers are likely to move up over Munster and into Connacht, possibly heavy or thundery. Highest temperatures of 21 to 27 degrees with moderate east to southeast winds.

Sunday will start out dry and mostly sunny. Scattered showers will move in from the southwest by around noon and will mainly affect Munster and Connacht through the afternoon and evening, some heavy or possibly thundery. Highest temperatures of 19 to 25 degrees in mostly moderate southeast winds. Monday will bring a mix of warm sunny spells and scattered showers and top temperatures of 25C. The outlook remains fairly dry, possibly cooling down slightly by Wednesday, but with light winds still a very nice week ahead.

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

IFI Staff
Catch, Photo, Release

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