Coarse angling reports

Francis McGoldrick won the recent Kileshandra Festival with a catch of 53.2 kg over 4 days. Members of the Fishmaniak club report great bream and tench to 52cm from the Cavan area during the week. John Cole reports a very thundery Inny on the 9th May with the weather turning windy and cold rain.  None the less he ventured out with his buddies Phil, Chris and Peter to catch a good bag of Correen Roach.  They found the Correen Forde much more obliging compared to the River Inny where the only thing moving is the water!

Trout fishing reports

A terrific battle raged on Emy Lake last Saturday.  But Local Emy & District Angler Jimmy Skinnader won and caught a beautiful 6.25lb brown trout.

Colm Lynch from East Coast Angling in Navan tells us the fish on Sheelin have been moving to the hatching fly, while the river Boyle is in great condition with plenty of trout up to 1.5lb being taken by anglers.

A visiting UK angler Merlin Unwin of Merlin books returned to Sheelin after an absence of 18 years and landed himself a lovely 2lb trout and lost another using mayfly patterns but Mr Unwin will not leave it this long again to return. Despite the tough fishing conditions Sheelin did not disappoint its anglers and reinforced its reputation as being one of the best trout fishing lakes in Europe with the catch of the first specimen trout of the season – a magnificent almost 11lb wild trout caught by Gary Connor of Armagh on Saturday May 11th using a gosling close to the Sally Islands. This fish was released back into the water to fight another day.

This week sees the International Fly Fishing Competition. The teams (14 anglers to each team) are from Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales and will fish 3 prematch days starting tomorrow May 15th with the official competition date being Friday May 18th.

All is fair in fishing and war and we wish all teams the best of luck and tight lines but we’ll keep our fingers crossed for the Irish!

The Youths International 2012 Match will be held at Lough Owel on 1st August 2012. Practice days will take place on the 30th and 31st July and teams will be based at the Bloomfield House Hotel. ITFFA and IFI wish all the best to these fine young men who will proudly represent our country.

Approximately 110 anglers competed in The Irish Trout Fly Fishing Association Leinster Championship at Lough Owel on 13th May 2012. The overall winner Michael McCormack was presented with the Corcoran Cup, and the Donnelly Cup for the heaviest trout went to DJ Byrne who had a beautiful trout of 2lb 12oz.

Salmon fishing reports

Tony Lyoness Releases his Salmon back to the River Boyne at Navan
The best fish recorded on the River Boyne was taken by Tony Lyoness from Navan who hooked and landed a fine 13lb fresh run fish (covered with sea lice) on a Flying C with a single barbless hook. This great shot of a salmon going back wins Tony Catch of the Week..

We had Bieber at Delphi but unfortunately for our younger readers it wasn’t Justin!  Bernd Bieber landed a 9lbs 4ozs on a Collie Dog.  Now isn’t that something to sing about.  On Tuesday Paul Smyth caught a seal damaged 6lb 12oz fish off the Turn Pool on a Shrimp fly. Plus 16 year old Eoin Dunne managed to land his first ever on the fly, weighing 5lb 8oz.

Angling was only possible on Carrowmore in the early part of last week due to the unseasonal weather and strong winds. However, Mal Parrot, U.K, caught a salmon of 7lbs and releasing a second. Ronan Murphy also returned one of 7lbs, while Toby Gibbons had one of 8lbs. Conn Cleary, Co. Limerick, had one of 8lbs as did Pat Doherty and John Cosgrove.

Flies which proved successful over the past week there included the Black Dabbler, Clan Chief, Green Peter, Hairy Mary and various Cascade patterns.

Well done to Sandra Fleming, Nrth Ireland who caught a fine 7lb salmon on a spinner winning her the Coolcronan Cup at the mid Moy fisheries.

While at Cloongee, 29 salmon were recorded with Michael Monaghan and Brendan Doyle both landing two each.

We had juvenile anglers checking out the Ridge Pool on the Moy and transition year students from Coola Vocational School visiting Ballisodare Salmon Fisheries in Co. Sligo.  These are our anglers of the future and it was great to see them turn out in such numbers for FAW.

Pike fishing reports

Up to 80 people joined with Inland Fisheries Ireland, the Irish Angling Development Alliance and Carrickmacross Coarse Angling Club at their Fisheries Awareness Week event at the Brothers Lake, Dundalk Road, Carrickmacross on Saturday 12th May. Participants learned how to fish for pike.  The event was such a success that a coaching follow up session is being organized for Brother’s Lake next Saturday from 11am to 2pm. A summer camp is being organized and run by angling Coach in July and this has already been filled.

Meanwhile Bodo Funke, angling guide from Boyle brought two Italian anglers Ezio and Ivan out on Monday and they landed a big pike 114cm long which turns out to be the biggest pike landed by Angling Services Ireland guests (and staff!) this year so far. 

During their stay in Foxford, the Monier Family, France, enjoyed a great day’s pike fishing with guide Kenny Sloan. Trolling proved to be the best method on the day and Cedric had the best fish of the day which has been his best sized pike to date.

29 children made their way in very inclement weather to Lebeen lake Aughnacliffe in north Longford for the Pike Angling Competition and barbecue.  Heaviest Pike went to David Boyle and he shared the heaviest bag with Aaron Carr and Tommy Daly. Good fishing boys, congratulations.

Sea fishing reports

Jim Hendrick discusses with us his guiding season for Bass fishing around Wexford and in poetic language tell us of the coastal intimacy allows him to create a sense of reality for any travelling customer either from within Ireland or from elsewhere in the world. His season is from June 16th to October 31st and has done so for the last 10 years.

Also from Wexford Rob Millard headed out on his first trip off Cahore and caught tope, the smallest being about 20lb and three of them well over the 20lb mark.

Wicklow Boat Charters treated the Irish Home Nations Team to an early season fishing bonanza.

Heading up the country to Mayo, Donal Kennedy, skipper of the Leah went out from Killala Harbour for a day’s fishing on Saturday 12th May 2012. He caught some nice coalfish and approximately 15 pollack with the best weighing close to 8lbs, two nice cod, a few cuckoo wrasse, pouting, and mackerel.

The Rosguill went out from Mulroy Bay, near Downings in Donegal and one amused lady angler found she only had the head of a ling when she drew her line back in!!  I guess there was something hungrier than her out there!

Over to County Antrim we see the Predator skipper Hamish Curries took advantage of a break in the weather to head out the channel and caught a few nice spurdogs.

The weather still causing problems with unseasonably cold weather down in Cahersiveen making fishing very difficult for John Quinlan of The Thatch Cottage but none the less some nice Pollock was caught as well as some bass.

Luke Aston from Carrigaholt Sea Angling tells us shads on lead heads were by far the best rig with a fish on every cast for him.  His main catch at the moment is the trusty Pollock together with Mackerel, Haddock, Coalfish and Gurnard among others.

Newspaper Clippings

In the newspaper clippings we had the sad news of angler David Scully’s body being recovered from the river Blackwater.  Our sincere sympathy goes out to his family.  Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

We had the Irish Times telling us Dr James King of Inland Fisheries Ireland and Brian Cooke from Irish Federation of Sea Anglers delivered a talk on estuaries as nursery areas for marine species at the National Sealife Centre in Bray, Co Wicklow.

And we also had the good news that almost €200,000 has been made available to promote the environmental protection and economic development of the Midwest region’s principal waterways.

Fisheries Awareness Week

Fisheries Awareness Week is in full swing and reports from all around the country have shown us the excitement and fun enjoyed by all.  From young to old, they have taken to the waterways seeking out that elusive catch, learning a new hobby which they will have for life.  Enjoying what our wonderful lakes and rivers have to offer and becoming aware of what is around them. Tuition from experience angling clubs and IFI staff, fly tying, face painting, fish tanks……etc., etc.  From Sea angling in Killybegs to Trout fishing in Kenmare, there was something for everyone! There is a great gallery of photos from all the events at www.faw.ie/photos-of-the-week/.

Ballymote and District Angling club together with IFI will hold a FAW event at Fin Lough on Saturday 19th May.  Also a game event at Lough na Leibe will be held on Sunday 20th May.  For both events most equipment will be provided on the day, so just wear suitable outdoor clothing bring a peaked/brimmed hat and sun/safety glasses for safety purposes (especially important for fly fishing). All you have to do is turn up and have some fun. There are still lots of events to go on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. All the remaining events of Fisheries Awareness Week can be seen here: www.faw.ie

Tight lines to all,

Nancy Hearne

Inland Fisheries Ireland.
Catch, Photo, Release

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Coarse angling reports

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