Another mild week of mixed weather and good fishing has passed and predator anglers in freshwater and at sea are making the most of the conditions. Coarse angling reports are thin on the ground but Portumna can’t be the only place experiencing good fishing at the moment.

8-year old fishing fanatic Daniel Heaney wtih his 14lb 4oz Common carp
8-year old fishing fanatic Daniel Heaney with his Catch of the Week winning 14lb 4oz Common carp

Huge shoals of roach, hybrids, bream and perch have been congregating between the Salmon Run and the entrance to Lough Derg. Mike Murray of Murray’s Angling Services reports that the past couple of weeks have provided fantastic sport in Portumna both on the Shannon and Lough Derg. Some fine carp have been caught on the Lough in Cork recently and young Daniel Heaney had two lovely fish of 12lb 7oz and 14lb 4oz last Friday night. Daniel’s carp wins him Catch of the Week.

Pike are capitalising on the concentrations of coarse fish in the Portumna area mentioned above and pike anglers are enjoying some great sport. Lures, dead bait and jerk baiting methods have accounted for some good pike in the Longford area in the last week. In the Foxford area a group of German anglers fished several local lakes including Lough Conn where they had their two biggest pike of 100cm and 103cm. Mindaugas Simkus won the Boyle and District Angling Club,  Paddy Kelly Memorial Perpetual Cup on Lough Gara with a good double figure pike at the weekend. Belgian anglers in the Carrickmacross area caught 30 pike, despite fishing being described as slow. The silver lining was the quality of the fish with some really good looking double figure fish landed.

Despite the presence of mackerel along parts of the Wexford coast a number of the winter species have moved inshore and cod, whiting and flats are making up the catches of surf casters in the area. Another fish more associated with summer days is the mullet, though it too is still providing opportunities for good fishing even off northern shores. Staying on shore, anglers in Cork Harbour are reporting some really outstanding bass fishing. One group of regular Welsh visitors had what they described as their best fishing ever, despite conditions making it a tough task at times. In total they had two 3lbers, four 4lbers, twenty-one 5lbers, six 6lbers, a 7lb 12oz bass, five 8lbers, one bass of 9lb 12oz and one 10lber. Good bass fishing is also reported around Waterville and Cahersiveen in Kerry. The continuing mild weather is keeping the bass feeding hard and anglers are catching some fine fish on a variety of methods. Big porbeagle are still a possibility for anglers fishing out of Red Bay, weather dependent, and tope are also featuring in catches reported from the area.

Congratulations go to Sean Dempsey who won the Leinster Stillwater Bank Fly Fishing Championship which took place on Sunday at Lough Aishling, Co. Offaly. While sinking lines and boobys accounted for most of the fish caught some anglers switched to dry fly in the afternoon. Rainbow trout anglers in Waterford report that Carrigavantry is fishing well and a dry daddy will still account for a few fish on a mild afternoon. Meanwhile in Kildare Curragh Springs has re-opened after closing in June due to the warm weather. Initial reports this week are that the fish are in great condition and fighting harder than ever with many taken on small dry fly and Daddy Long legs. If you are looking for a put and take fishery in your area try this link:  https://fishinginireland.info/trout/putandtake.htm

Water Framework Directive fish survey results

Preliminary reports on the Water Framework Directive surveys carried out in 2013 are available to download from the their website, more details at Preliminary reports from 8 lake surveys available to download.

Salmon anglers – please remember to return your logbook and unused tags

IFI would like to remind all salmon & sea trout anglers who have not sent in their 2013 logbooks & gill tags that they are now due for return. If you have not returned them already please send them back now using the pre-printed envelope. In the event that you have lost or misplaced your pre-printed envelope you will find the address for return near the top left corner of your salmon licence.

Prospects

Tomorrow will start wet but rain will clear on Friday evening and the cloud will break.  Wet and windy weather will spread across the country on Saturday morning and early afternoon followed by brighter showery weather. Sunday looks like being a very windy blustery showery day, highest temperatures around 11 to 14 degrees with the risk of some severe winds for a time especially in the North. Sunday night will be rather cold with perhaps a touch of grass frost. Bank-holiday Monday looks dry for much of the country with sunny spells and isolated showers but there is the risk of some rain clipping the Southeast coast. It will be a cool day with highest temperatures of 10 to 12 degrees in a fresh Northerly wind, blustery around coasts. Westerly winds look like setting in for Tuesday next bringing a mixture of sunshine and showers.

There’s a bit of everything there, but none of it looks like it will cause anglers too many problems.

Enjoy the Bank Holiday and Tight lines,

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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Cork Harbour
Bass fishing Cork Harbour