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Productive Two-Day Species Hunt in Donegal Bay

By
IFI staff
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Killybegs Fishing Trips report from a great weekend’s species hunt in Donegal Bay. Check out their report…

Had some of the Howth SAC members out over the weekend for a wee species hunt. It was a lovely, relaxing two days with no pressure and good craic with a good bunch of lads. We had at least 14 different species on the first day, with the highlight being a lovely cod of 63 cm. I couldn’t get a red gurnard for the lads on the day, but then I went out on our evening trip and, on the very first drop (you guessed it), a red gurnard. I guess that’s fishing.
On our second day out in Donegal Bay, the weather was fantastic, and the fishing wasn’t bad either, with the highlight being two lovely plaice at 37 cm and 38 cm. The Howth lads were joined by three other guys on day two. The species caught were pollack, cod, ling, mackerel, launce, poor cod, pouting, ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, goldsinny wrasse, whiting, red gurnard, grey gurnard, dab, plaice, spotted ray, thornback ray, and dogfish.

Go fishing

Fiona Tee

Address: Moneygold, Grange, Co. Sligo.
Telephone: +353 (0)87 6224348
Email: keithclarkesligo@eircom.net  

Web: https://www.killybegsfishingcharters.ie/

Last cast brings victory for Paul Tyndall at Ballinoulart Beach

By
IFI staff
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John Diamond got in touch with a short report from Sea Angling Ireland SAC…

Sea Angling Ireland SAC hosted the 2026 HENRYSTACKLESHOP.COM ALL-IRELAND SMOOTH HOUND CHAMPIONSHIP on Ballinoulart Beach on Saturday, 18th of July. 49 anglers were on the beach, with a fresh north easterly breeze, clear skies, and beautiful warm July sunshine. There seemed to be more anglers in shorts than waders!

Bass were showing at the start of the competition, along with some flounder, gurnard and weevers. Smooth Hound did not really appear until the final hour of the competition.

Congratulations to Paul Tyndall who was the winner with a 92 cm Smooth Hound caught on his last cast. Congratulations also to Alby Allan who was our match rules winner.

Thanks to The Crosses Pub for hosting our peg draw. Also, to Donal Domeny and John Murphy for their help, to Henry Lynam for his sponsorship. And of course to all the anglers who took part.

Results were as follows:

Irish Smooth Hound Champion Paul Tyndall 92 cm Smooth Hound
Match Rules Winner Alby Allan 18 Fish 810 Points

Longest Round Noel Fogarty 63cm Bass
Longest Flat Alby Allan 28cm Flounder

ZONE A

1st Pat Meagher 13 Fish 487 Points
2nd Alan Mulcahy 12 Fish 386 Points
3rd Eric Gasparro 12 Fish 353 Points
4th Noel Fogarty 5 Fish 313 Points
5th Paddy Kenny 5 Fish 226 Points
6th John Keane 5 Fish 218 Points

ZONE B

1st Max Roche 6 Fish 348 Points
2nd Kieran Tirbhowan 3 Fish 205 Points
3rd Donal Domeney 3 Fish 171 Points
4th Gary Molloy 3 Fish 129 Points
5th Denis Brock 2 Fish 126 Points
6th Eamonn Bermingham 4 Fish 125 Points

JUNIORS

1st Philip Kennedy Ryan 4 Fish 104 Points
2nd Jessie Murphy 2 Fish 57 Points
3rd Alex Dwyer 1 Fish 42 Points

Club Chairman Donal O’Neill presented the prizes. Thanks to Eric Gasparro who made a video of the event.

Irish Angling Update 🎣 17 July 2026

By
Myles Kelly
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Samantha Murphy specimen Tope 158cm.

The heatwave continues, and water temperatures are still rising. Fishery closures have become more widespread as more than trout and salmon become increasingly at risk of thermal stress. It’s no surprise that the Angling Update this week is dominated by sea angling reports…

We will open with the serious news of widespread fishery closures as the ESB announces the catchment wide closure of all its freshwater fisheries – the Shannon, Clady / Crolly, Lee and Liffey catchments. This impacts all river and lake angling in these river systems.

Salmon anglers are additionally impacted by the ongoing closures of the Moy Fishery, Ballyvary and Cloongee, the River Erriff, Beats 1 and 2 on the Laune and seven rivers in Donegal. In addition, some private fisheries on the Munster Blackwater have also ceased fishing.

Trout angling has not been easy in the bright, sunny conditions and water temperatures are becoming an issue for this popular species. In light of high water temperatures, a lot of trout angling clubs are making the wise decision to close their waters too. Although fishing is not going to be easy, we wish the best of luck to all the anglers competing in the Fips-Mouche World Youth Fly Fishing Championship, which is taking place later this week in Donegal.

Coarse anglers had a few competitions to fish last weekend. Mark Alcock won the 3rd round of Irish Canal Masters at Daingean. Damien Foltyn took the win at the second of the Method Feeder Qualifiers, which was fished at Oaklands. Chris Lawlor won the 5th round of the Athy Anglers Summer League at the canal at Athy. The Royal Canal in Meath fished well for one junior angler who had some lovely perch to 37cm. Finally, Artem Novikov of the MakeShiftLures YouTube channel was catching tench on home-tied jigs, showing that there is a predator in most fish…

To the sea now, where cool breezes and refreshing water temperatures saw anglers busy afloat and on shore. We start in Donegal where anglers reported good charter boat fishing at Kincasslagh, bass and flounder in the surf and mini species in rockpools and tight to the shore. In Galway, charter boat anglers are getting some lovely blue shark fishing. Around the corner, anglers fished the Jim Blackwell Memorial at Clare’s Black Head. The charter boats based in Kilbaha and Carrigaholt are also getting some good fishing as everyone is keen to make the most of the good conditions at sea.

Further south, there was kayak angling in West Cork, huge skate, sharks and ling for Courtmacsherry Angling Centre, excellent blue shark and porbeagle fishing for West Cork Charters, more sharks for small boat guide Old Head Charters and the 4th round of Cobh SAC’s Master Boat Angler on Cork Harbour. Budding Specimen Hunter Iarla Cott was also fishing out of Cork Harbour, getting amongst good spurdogs and blue sharks. To the other end of Cork now, where West Cork and District SAC fished an Open at Ballinwilling Beach, a tough competition where a couple of bass were enough for a win.

Black Bream for Oliver Dunne, WBSAC Junior

Moving to the east coast and in Wexford, Ballinaulart was the venue for Ringsend Irishtown Anglers, and bass again decided who won and lost. We wrap up this week’s Irish Angling Update with the news from Wicklow Boat Charters that many species have been turning up recently, with a few quite rare ones, and the regular specimen tope have also shown up.

Scorchio, scorchio, scorchio…..

Saturday will be dry and warm for most with the best (worst?) of the sunshine in the Midlands, South and East, highest temperatures of 23 to 27°C. Cloudier in the north and northwest with highest temperatures of 17 to 22°C in a light to moderate northerly breeze. The outlook is for the heatwave to continue well into next week. A bit cooler and cloudier for west and northwest counties with patchy drizzle at times but no real rain to speak of.

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. 

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Plenty species for Saoire Mara Charters in Donegal

By
IFI staff
-

Saoire Mara Charters fishing out of Kincasslagh, Co. Donegal report on some recent outings…

Kingfishers Béal Feirste were back to Kincasslagh over the weekend. A fresh north easterly breeze confined us to fishing the shelter of the islands.

The first drift off the shore produced some fine pollack and while mackerel were thin on the ground there was enough for the day’s bait supply.

Other varieties included sand eel, coalie, ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, ling, dogfish, pouting, red gurnard and a surprise catch of 4 fine cod within minutes of each other.

A week ago, it was a pleasure having on board last year’s senior and junior species champions Philippe and Senan and 2024 champion Paul to hand over the cup. Philippe had an impressive total of 19 and Senan 14 varieties of fish on board Caitlin Marie in 2025. Well done lads!

In tricky conditions it was Brian that stole the show with 9 varieties of fish, including his first ever hake and a first for the boat, as well as a cracking tub gurnard.

In total, 12 different fish species on board which also included mackerel, sand eel, poor cod, pollack, coalie, ling, whiting, cuckoo wrasse, grey gurnard and red gurnard.

Thank you, lads, for another great day’s fishing!

ESB closes fishing on the Shannon, Clady / Crolly, Lee and Liffey catchments due to elevated temperatures

By
Myles Kelly
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The following ESB advisory notice has just been issued:

ESB Sustainable Rivers water announce the closure of its angling freshwater fisheries due to the elevated water temperatures at present.

These temperatures which are presently >20oC, cause stress for both adult and juvenile fish and the effects of angling pressure will only exacerbate an already stressful environment for all wild fish species.

ESB permit sales have ceased for the unknown duration of this fishery closure.

The fisheries affected are the Shannon, Clady / Crolly, Lee and Liffey catchments.

Plenty mini species and more for Killybegs Mariners

By
IFI staff
-

Killybegs Mariners SAC report…

Some super fishing for the Mariners crew out and about in the good weather with some fine bass for John C and Proinnsias along with good flounders in the surf.

Also, two new club record leopard spotted gobys both 13cm for John C and Cormac as Cormac enjoyed a relaxing evening pier fishing for mini species getting 9 including ballan wrasse, goldshinney wrasse, black goby, rock goby, poor cod, pouting, whiting and tompot blenny.

Excellent shark fishing, superb fish on Silver Dawn at Courtmacsherry

By
Myles Kelly
-

David Edwards, Skipper of the Silver Dawn, is back again with news of incredible shark fishing at the weekend…

There’s been some excellent fishing out of Courtmacsherry in these last few days and some superb fish. We had 17 Blue Sharks on Friday along with many other species but our highlight was a superb Porbeagle Shark of 195cm, caught and measured on board by members of Cork Fire Brigade.

We had a Porbeagle alongside a few years back that was just like the big Porbeagle caught this week. Marine Biologists onboard estimated it at 300lb at the time.

There are some excellent sharks out there and it’s quite possible that a genuine record may be caught this summer and the stunning Skate caught by an angler fishing with Chris O’Connell on Friday shows what’s possible at anchor too.

Go fishing…

West Cork Charters

Address Courtmacsherry Cork Ireland Mobile Phone: +353 83 449 1403 Website: westcorkcharters.com
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Good fishing at Black Head for Lisdoonvarna Fanore anglers

By
IFI Staff
-

Lisdoonvarna Fanore Sea Angling Club held their latest competition for the Jim Blackwell Memorial last weekend at Black Head. From the photos it looks like they enjoyed fantastic weather, and some good conger and wrasse fishing. Results below

1st Sean Copley
2nd Tom Faley
3rd Mark Breen
The club will hots its annual International Week from August 2nd – 8th in north Clare, an event which draws anglers from far afield for this annual festival of fishing and craic. Check out the flyer below for details. We wish the club the best of luck, and good weather, for their flagship event.

 

Go Fishing

Lisdoonvarna Fanore SAC is an active sea angling based in north Clare. They hold regular competitions and outings throughout the year, with the highlight being the International Week around the August bank holiday weekend. New members are always welcome. Check them out here to get in touch.

Budding Specimen Hunter Iarla Cott gets some fine fishing in Cork Harbour

By
Shane O'Reilly
-

Avid specimen hunter Evan McGovern was out in Cork Harbour recently, passing on the knowledge to the next generation of specimen hunters:

We fished out of Cork Harbour on the 9th of July. Headed offshore in flat calm conditions. There wasn’t a mackerel to be found, as usual. We drifted for a while, picking up a decent stamp of whiting and plenty of them. Then the anchor went down, and the spurs came on the feed. We had a busy day with one or two spurs coming up every drop, with the odd doggie and whiting coming up too. The young rod, Iarla Cott, had the best fish of the day with a 108cm spur.

Young Iarla with a fine Spurdog

We were fishing for about 7 hours before the first shark showed up. Two blues were landed in quick succession just before home time, with the junior specimen hunter getting the first shark. Tired arms and happy anglers heading home.

And he needs a bit of help from dad to hold this super Blue Shark…
Another nice Blue for dad Maurice
A good Spur for Maurice

 

Mark Alcock wins 3rd round of Irish Canal Masters at Daingean

By
Myles Kelly
-

The 3rd round of the Irish Canal Masters was fished at the weekend. Here is their match report…

Quick recap on Q3 for Irish Canal Masters held in Daingean. With a fairly strong breeze and bright warm sunshine, presentation at times was difficult but the length fished extremely well and the 25 anglers averaged 5lb-8oz per man, not bad on any canal match.

Winner on the day was Bangor based angler Mark Alcock, with an excellent 13lb-12oz, made up of 5 tench and a handful of skimmers. Runner up and last time winner on the stretch, Davy Cullen with 10lb-7oz, with a couple of tench, a couple of bream with the rest of his bag made up with roach and rudd. Third place went to already qualified Bob Hulme, who had various size skimmers for 9lb 9oz.

Result

  1. Mark Alcock, Matrix M&D Match Anglers, 13lb-12oz
  2. Davy Cullen, Matrix M&D Match Anglers, 10lb-7oz
  3. Bob Hulme, Matrix M&D Match Anglers, 9lb-9oz

Qualifiers;

Zone ‘A’
  • Dean Murray
  • Joe Nolan
Zone ‘B’
  • Mark Alcock
  • Dave Clark
Zone ‘C’
  • Davy Cullen
  • Richie Keegan

Best weight to go through without automatic qualification; Alan Bell.

The 2 wildcard qualifying weights have changed slightly with Rory Dunne holding on with 8lb-3oz but Dara has been pipped by 1oz by Karl Unwin with 7lb-5oz, but both of these could still yet be beaten on the last qualifier.

Well done to everybody,  all in all it was a good match.

Go fishing…

Anglers who have yet to qualify for September’s final still have a last chance on the final Qualifier on August 9th, so get your place booked before it sells out.

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