Home Weekly update Irish Angling Update 🎣 24th July 2026

Irish Angling Update 🎣 24th July 2026

July 24, 2026

After a couple of weeks of baking hot temperatures, we have had a few cooler days this week, allowing us all to breathe a bit easier and sleep a bit better… We reached some pretty impressive figures on the sunshine front last week, with some parts of the country getting 317% of the average!!! But, despite the cooler spell, we are still waiting for a sup of rain, as there has been little or no rainfall across the country over the past seven days.

The combined impact of hot weather and low rainfall has left many of our fisheries in a sorry state, with plenty of fisheries closed due to high water temperatures. The most impactful of those closures has been on the Shannon system, where a catchment-wide restriction on fishing has been in place since July 17^th, which will have dented many anglers’ plans to get out on the water.

When the going gets tough on the freshwater scene, the saltwater is generally a safe haven for anglers, and a large tranche of this week’s reports is from our sea anglers. We begin our roundup with the shore anglers, and the 2026 Henrystackleshop.com All-Ireland Smooth Hound Championship, which was held on Ballinoulart last Saturday. Forty-nine anglers pegged out along the beach in the hunt for some ‘hounds’, but the hounds had other ideas, only putting in an appearance in the last hour of the match. And it was a last-gasp effort that decided the competition, as an 82cm hound for Paul Tyndall on his last cast saw him take the win on the night.

The Ulster Krakens fished the 6^th round of their shore league at Longfield’s Wall over the weekend. It’s a bit of a ‘Marmite’ venue for the club, with some loving it and others hating it. But after an underwhelming evening of fishing that didn’t produce too many fish, there’s probably more in the ‘hate’ camp now… At the other end of the country, the anglers from Tralee Bay SAC made an annual trip to Glin on the Shannon Estuary over the weekend, where, despite a couple of decent ray early doors, the fishing was also less than spectacular. Anglers were left scratching around for fish here and there to make up the numbers, and Fiachra Cronin took the win with 8 fish for 203 points. And we wrap up the shore angling news with a report from Galway Bay SAC, who fished a competition on White Strand in Co. Mayo. Unfortunately for them, there were an awful lot of undersized fish on the beach, with very few counters landed for their efforts.

The charter boats have been very busy this week, and we have reports of some super fishing from all around the coast. Beginning in Co. Donegal, JP Baska, fishing out of Burtonport, welcomed a young crew from Cavan aboard his boat, and they had a fine time catching plenty of species, with pollack a particular favourite on the day. A little further south in the county, Killybegs Fishing Trips hosted Howth SAC for their own species hunt over the weekend. They had 14 species on the first day, and 18 on the second day, including a couple of fine plaice of 37cm and 38cm.

The Cavan Crew crushed it in Burtonport!

It was another great week of fishing off the Clare coast as well, and anglers fishing with skipper Sean Maguire had some excellent pollack fishing with a few decent wrasse and spurdog, all made better by the fine weather and blue skies! Shark were the primary target for anglers fishing with Luke Aston out of Carrigaholt, and while the 6-gill were a no-show, the blues and porbeagles provided plenty of action.

Shark were also the target for anglers fishing with Dave Edwards out of Courtmacsherry, and target them they did!!! Earlier in the week, a couple of visitors from the USA joined regular anglers to land plenty of blues and three porbeagles, including a double hook-up of porbeagles. Then, later in the week, another crew boated 16 blues and 6 porgies, which is exceptional fishing by any standard, and that super haul wins this week’s Catch of the Week.

In Dungarvan, skipper David Hehir reported some good reef fishing for his clients. Fishing in warm sunshine and little swell, the anglers enjoyed a fine day on the water and boated numerous species including pollock, some mackerel, pouting, bull huss, dogfish and scad. We wrap up the sea angling section with a small boat report from Jim Clohessy. Jim took advantage of some fine weather to steam offshore but had mixed results, covering some barren ground and finding the shark slow to bite, before retrieving the day with some decent ling from the reefs.

We move to coarse angling next, where junior anglers have been busy during the week. Starting at Edenderry, the NCFFI hosted the 2026 All-Ireland Youth Canal Championships on the match stretch last Saturday. Markas Cmukas (U12), Patrick Corcoran (U15) and John Mulligan (U20) took the top prizes in their respective age categories, and it was fantastic to see so many young anglers on the bank, demonstrating enthusiasm, determination and great sportsmanship throughout the championship.

A well kitted out junior angler at Edenderry

Not too far away in Enfield, the Royal Enfield CAC hosted the third leg of their junior league, with 27 boys and girls lining the canal banks to compete, catching a great mix of fish, including tench, roach, rudd, perch and skimmers. Wrapping up the coarse reports, the Leinster Coarse Anglers were also in action at Enfield over the weekend, fishing their annual ‘night match’, which produced some pretty fine bags of tench, bream and hybrids.

Turning to salmon fishing now, many fisheries remained closed during the week due to high water temperatures, and on those that remained open, anglers faced tricky conditions. The Ballisodare Fishery is one of the fisheries that has closed over the past couple of weeks, but the club has been busy checking oxygen levels in the water, and the good news is that the levels remain pretty good, despite the high water temperatures. Fishery closures also impacted the Moy, and for those fisheries that remained open, low water made going tough for anglers who ventured out. Thirty salmon were reported for the week, with bubble and fly fishing in the shady sections proving the most successful method. Down in west Kerry, some anglers did brave the bright sun to fish on Lough Currane, but had little to show for their efforts…

We wrap up this week’s Angling Update with news that the Irish Federation of Pike Angling Clubs is hosting a junior competition for budding young pike and coarse anglers this Saturday, 25th July at Whitewood Lake. There will be some great prizes and a BBQ afterwards for any hungry young anglers.

And now the weather

It looks like we are going to have a bit of mixed weather over the coming days. Today, Friday, will be largely dry, with mixed cloudy and sunny spells. There will be some scattered outbreaks of rain or drizzle overnight, and these will continue into Saturday, petering out as the day progresses. Temperatures on Saturday will be between 15°C and 21°C

Saturday night will see more outbreaks of rain and drizzle, and the same pattern of cloud with some sunny spells accompanied by patches of rain and drizzle will continue on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, with temperatures from 16°C to 25°C.

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.