There was some good salmon fishing in West Cork last week according to Eileen Carroll Murphy in our Macroom office.
There were 12 salmon reported caught on the Ilen River between 6-12lbs. Sea trout are also being caught in good numbers, biggest 4lbs. The river is said to be ishing well after rain.
Eileen Carroll Murphy reports that despite low water levels, there were 13 salmon reported for the week on the River Bandon. The best fish was a cracking salmon of 17.5lbs, taken by a club angler.
Bandon Angling Association offer a guiding service ion the river. Details of the guiding service are provided on the website and they are looking forward to making memories and enhancing peopleโs fishing experiences on the river Bandon. Day tickets and club membership are also available.
Web:ย https://bandonangling.com/
Dunmanway Salmon & Trout Anglers Associationย have 10 miles of fishing between Togher Castle and Manch Bridge (Fly Only). Day / Season tickets from Dunmanway Salmon & Trout Anglers Associationย +353 (0)23-8855196
Ballineen and Enniskeane Anglersย have 4 miles of fishing and day tickets are available for visiting anglers. Day tickets available from Tom Fehily grocers in Bridge Street, Ballineen.ย Tel:ย ย +353 23 47173
A fine salmon of 18lbs was caught on the Lower R. Laune, taken on worm. An angler spinning landed one fish of 10lbs at Johnson’s Fishery. There was 1 salmnon reported from Beat 3, a fish of 8lbs taken on worm, and on Beat 1 another 8lbs fish was reported, taken on spinner.
Two grilse of approx. 4lbs each were caught by anglers trolling on Lough Lein. And a small number of grilse also caught on the Flesk.
Peter Driver of Piscari Fly is back with his weekly roundup of the fishing scene
We saw another little rise in the Nore this week, due to another nice drop of water going through giving us a rise in water levels. A nice flush out and the fishing seems to be very good at the moment. The evening rise is in full swing and plenty of trout to be had. So make the most of this nice week coming as it should prove to be very good fishing for the foreseeable future, over the coming weeks.
Congratulations to the ITTFA Irish National Team who recently captured gold on the Blackwater in County Cork at the home River Internationals.ย Congratulationsย also to Ciaran Reilly for winning the Brown Bowl for top overall angler.
Some videos went up yesterday on Piscari-fly Club on what has been done so far for our preparation in heading to the European Fly Fishing Championship in Italy during October.
There will be weekly flytying sessions starting later this week and updates every week on the progress Peter, Mark and the team are making in their preparations. Also don’t forget the discount code when shopping with Piscari-Fly online for all our club members.
A few lads were out on the Avonmore at the weekend. Water was a bit high and pushing through. But they managed a lovely bit of fishing. The lads are getting out regularly there now and getting practice in for the National TAFI River Championship that will take place there in August. We’re really looking forward to it. It will be the first time an All Ireland River Flyfishing Championship will be held over 2 days, 4 sessions. So it should be an interesting championship coming up on the Avonmore in Mid to late August.
About Piscari Plus Club
Fly-fishing is a journey of discovery that is not all about the end result but the experience of getting there.
Piscari-Fly Club is all about creating a community of like-minded anglers who have a passion to evolve, educate, and progress in the world of flyfishing and flytying. The Piscari-Fly Club will be hosted by its owner and passionate fly angler Peter Driver.
Check it out atย https://club.piscari-fly.com/โ
Based on the River Nore just outside Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, Ireland. Piscari-Fly is a growing Fly Tying and Fly-Fishing business with a vast amount of experience and knowledge. If there is ever anything I can do to make my service better for you please feel free to suggest it to me and Iโll gladly try my best to accommodate your requests. Thanks again. Peter Driver.
As a small business we depend on the satisfaction of our customers and their word of mouth reference, google reviews are important to our online presence and we sure would appreciate your review. Just head over to this link and give us a quick review.
Thanks for the support, its greatly appreciated.
Peter Driver.
Piscari-Fly, Woolengrange, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, R95 Y860, Ireland, 0879787040
Lough Sheelin angling report June 2nd to June 17th 2025
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.ย The important thing is not to stop questioning”
Albert Einstein
Lough Sheelin feels like the โhill that Iโll die onโ โ difficult, testing and fundamentally disheartening, a fight to defend this great lake even if it means significant challenges as the trout, although there, refuse to surface and when they do appear, it’s in single figures showing no interest at all in our artificial offerings. “Success is all about going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm” this quote from Winston Churchill and of course the fact that this year, so far, all lakes have been the same, still doesnโt quench the need for Sheelin to be the best.
It has been quiet here over the past week.ย Most anglers are going out in the evening with only a few appearing during the day.ย Now in mid-June there have been still surprisingly good hatches of Mayfly particularly from Holywell to Crover, into Chambers Bay and around the islands but these have stayed around the shoreline bushes, with poor falls of spent on the water.ย Water temperatures hovered around 16 degrees with little variation from top to bottom.ย The days have been mostly humid with embedded thunderstorms and winds favouring southerly or westerly in direction.ย Some catches were recorded with the heaviest weight tipping the scales at 5.5lbs by Oliver McCormack caught on a Green Stimulator in Gaffneyโs Bay.ย Trout were still being caught on spent patterns, mainly Wulffs and Goslings.ย With the tapering off of our Mayfly the fish have moved predominantly on to feeding on pinheads so fishing with silver flies in the shallows would be the best bet for daytime fishing.ย Angling has been most productive in the evenings with Murrough fishing being the most popular and most successful.ย Even when the lake was carpeted with spent, the most successes were on a single good scruffy Murrough pattern but I had been sworn to silence up until now on that one.
The insect life has eased away from the mayfly to be replaced almost fully by the sedges with terrestrials in the mix. The transition from Ephemera to sedge has already been in evidence over the past number of weeks with the appearance of the Great Red Sedge โ the Murrough as well as a vast number of species of smaller sedges present in considerable numbers particularly around Church Island, Stony and Derry Sheridan.ย There are reputedly a bewildering 300 different species but for the sake of Entomological sanity, anglers really just need to know a few of the basics โ a small brown sedge, the Cinnamon, the Welshmanโs Button, the Murrough and the Green Peter.
Sedge is late evening, twilight and after dark fishing. The sedge pupae makes for the surface with an impressive turn of speed and emerging onto open water it must get to safety as quickly as possible before being eaten by a marauding fish. Trout feeding on moving sedge hit their meal with a tell tale slap as they pounce on the doomed sedge scurrying across the water in its attempt to get to a safe haven.
Summer is all about the sedges and according to the fishing gurus sedge fishing is reputedly supposed to be โthe creamโ of trout fishing.ย This might be the case for other lakes but Lough Sheelin isn’t just any lake, her fish donโt obey the human rules, they do their own thing, hell bent on causing her anglers as much mental anguish as possible and in a way this along with the heavy wild weights is the attraction.
During the day time and into early evening wet mayfly patterns worked well and in particular the French Partridge, although I am told any wet mayfly pattern would do. A person could get lost in the confusion of mayfly patterns out there, unhelpfully referred to as โwet maysโ but the patterns that keep appearing and producing successful fishing have been the Klinkhammers (Green and in Yellow), the Octopus, the Gosling (good as a top dropper), an Emerger Yellow Mayfly and the Olive May Muddler (an excellent pulling fly that can be greased up if you want to fish it on a floating line).ย My favourite has to be Peter Hehirโs Lissane Lady which regardless of attracting a number of 3lb plus trout this week is just simply lovely to look at with of course having the added bonus of being great in a team of wet flies, in a rolling wave, fished on an intermediate or floating line.
A number of fish were caught using Spent patterns and it was the Wulffs which featured most โ grey, green and royal. Aiden Rushโs โLough Sheelin Spentโ and Mick Kellyโs โLeggy Black Spentโ were also favourites.
The most successful flies this week were the Mayfly nymph patterns, wet Mayfly patterns in greens with mixes of brown and claret mingled through, , the French Partridge, the Goslings, , CDC Mayfly Emergers, the Wulffs (grey and royal), the Spent Gnat patterns (a predominance of black worked best). For the sedge fishing a small brown sedge pattern (size 12) fished dry and Murrough and a balling buzzer on the dropper got results. Wickhamโs Fancy, the Cinnamon Sedge and Black Gnat dry fly also got a look in. Other patterns catching fish were the Dabblers (Claret, Green and Silver), Stimulators and Bumbles (Golden and Cock Robin).
John Mulvanyย [email protected] 086 2490076
Please remember anglers to abide by BYE-LAW 949 which strictly prohibits from
June 14th, 2017 onwards:
Heaviest trout: a 5.5lb trout caught by Oliver McCormack on a Green Stimulator in Gaffney’s Bay
Number of trout recorded: 25
Selection of catches:
Vincent Kelly, Cavan – 1 trout at 5lbs on a Green Peter.
Eamonn Ross, Cavan – 1 trout at 2lbs on a Dabbler.
Sean Guider, Cavan – 1 trout at 1.5lbs, June 14th on a Green Peter.
David Jones, Dublin – 1 trout at 4lbs on a Murrough at Sailors Garden.
John Brady, Cavan – 1 trout at 3.5 on a Red Arsed Green Peter.
Declan McEvoy, Wexford – 1 trout at 3lbs on a dry Sedge pattern.
In the latest Ireland on the Fly Podcast Tom and Daire report on salmon runs, sea lice and NASCO…
This season weโve heard about the disastrous spring salmon run and there hasnโt been much to report yet for the grilse run โ all in all, our worst fears about salmon numbers seem to be coming true โ and not just in Ireland.
One of the worst culprits of course is aquaculture and the effects that sea lice from salmon farms has on migrating salmon, which the industry tries to lessen.
However, the hugely respected fishery scientist, Paddy Gargan, has led and released whatโs been called a landmark study which shows that, contrary to salmon farmingโs stance, sea lice does have a major and significant effect on the mortality of salmon.
This paper has just been released and its implications will be far reaching as Paddy discusses on the latest Ireland on the Fly.
Plus, staying with salmon, Tom and Daire also speak to John Murphy, from Salmon Watch Ireland. John is back from last weekโs NASCO conference where the stark reality about the future of wild Atlantic salmon was laid bare.
For more on Paddy Garaganโs sea lice study:
https://salmonwatchireland.ie/2025/05/29/issue-number-14-30-may-2025-salmon-watch-ireland/
Keep up to date with all the latest Ireland on the Fly on https://www.IrelandontheFly.com and get regular updates on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.
Trout fishing is reported to be picking up again on Lough Conn, as sedge fishing has taken over following the end of the mayfly hatch. Darren Maguire, of Garrison in Fermanagh, is the 2025 Champion of the Lough after retaining the trophy at the catch-and-release trout fishing competition on Lough Melvin. Tough conditions made for tough fishing, but the cream rises to the top, and local knowledge was paramount for Darren. Peter Driver reports that a small rise in water levels on the River Nore has given good fishing this week, with Dick Croke and son Ricky enjoying the “best dry fly fishing in years”. 
Summer is the time for tench fishing, and Kevin Lyons of Melview Lodge in Co. Longford hosted a group of UK anglers who certainly enjoyed their visit, catching good bags of bream and tench with many going to specimen size.ย
Tench also helped Tommy Cahill take the win in the 3rd round of the Athy Anglers summer league at the weekend, while they also featured in catches at the Edenderry 5-day festival. Liverpool angler Jeff Stirrat was rewarded for his long-service of 30 years travelling to the event with the win, with a total of 22lb 1oz, closely followed by fellow Scousers Phil Walters (21lb 15oz) and Gavin Charnock (21lb 7oz).ย
Tench and bream also made up good bags at the Enfield 2-day international on the Royal Canal, where visiting angler John Easton came away with the top prize with a bag of over 22lbs, well ahead of Conor Browne in second place with 16 lbs+.
The Irish Feeder Team are in Lithuania to defend their World Campions title in the Feeder Fishing World Championships. We wish Team Ireland the very best of luck as they finish their preparations ahead of the main competition on 14th and 15th June. Representing Ireland in this yearโs championship are: ๐ ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฒ๐น ๐๐๐ฐ๐ต๐๐ฎ๐น๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ, ๐ฅ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ ๐๐๐ป๐ป๐ฒ, ๐๐ผ๐ต๐ป๐ป๐ ๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ป๐น๐ฒ๐, ๐๐ฎ๐บ๐ฒ๐ ๐ข’๐๐ผ๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ and ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ฟ๐น๐ถ๐ฒ ๐ฅ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฑ๐.ย They are joined by ๐ฆ๐๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ป ๐ช๐ต๐๐๐ฒ, making his international debut as the teamโs reserve. Supporting the squad on the bank are Assistant Manager Nigel Houldsworth and Coach Roger Baker, alongside bank runners Dara Finnegan, Chris Haigh, Deimante Karalaunis, Nick Richards, and Sharon Sweeney.
The Lough Derg Predator Challenge took place on Sunday, with 25 teams aiming to catch all 3 target species (pike, perch and trout) as well as the biggest score. Conditions were not ideal, but fishing was quite good, with the first fish recorded on the app just 9 minutes into the competition. Full results and roundup here.ย
A group of Dutch visitors made their annual trip to Melview Lodge in Co. Longford, where they were welcomed by host Kevin Lyons. They had a good 65 pike for their trip, and although no massive fish were boated, they managed to find plenty of time for socialising and greatly enjoyed their visit again.ย
The weather, particularly the wind, has not helped sea angling, especially charter boat fishing, but when the wind dropped, skippers were able to get out and find some great fishing for their guests. Anglers on the Brazen Hussy II in Galway Bay may have been restricted to fishing inshore reefs, but the water was full of sandeel and the pollack were feeding hard, giving great sport.ย
Most of our other reports feature shore angling. Weed really hampered fishing in the Ulster Krakens match on Waterfoot beach, where despite baits being covered in weed within minutes, Raymond McCann managed to pull out 14 counters +5 unders for 451 points. That’s great fishing in those conditions.ย West Cork & District rounded of their master angler league with a match on Ballykinealy Strand, which produced great fishing. Troy Francis took a commanding early lead, a treble shot of golden grey mullet on his first cast seeing him lead from start to finish, where he signed for 32 fish and 1021 points!ย
Ringsend SAC and Ballybrack SAC fished an innovative matchplay competition on Kilgorman beach, with 15 on each team, and the Ringsend anglers fishing the even pegs, and Ballybrack fishing odd. It made for a great event, closely fought to the finish, where Ringsend took the honours to take the inaugural Interclub Challenge Trophy. The highlight of the fishing was Stephen Glynn’s 97cm smoothhound, but there was excellent fishing throughout.ย
ย Dave Norman from Angling Adventures West Cork also sent a great report on ย a recent trip fly fishing for thick-lipped mullet, with tips on flies and finding the fish that we hope to use ourselves here at Angling Ireland.ย
This week Tom and Daire are joined on Ireland On The Fly by the hugely respected fishery scientist, Dr. Paddy Gargan, who has led and released whatโs been called a landmark study which shows that, contrary to salmon farmingโs stance, sea lice does have a major and significant effect on the mortality of salmon.
This paper has just been released and its implications will be far reaching as Paddy discusses on the latest Ireland on the Fly.
Plus, staying with salmon, Tom and Daire also speak to John Murphy, from Salmon Watch Ireland.
Listen and follow on Apple or Spotify and keep up to date with all the latest Ireland on the Fly onย https://www.IrelandontheFly.comย and get regular updates onย https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.
Today will
Safe fishing to allย andย 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 toย [email protected],ย and donโt forget that all of our fishing reports are available on our dedicatedย Angling Ireland Facebook page.
UK anglers Andy, Rod and Lee were here once again for their yearly fishing trip to Ireland to stay with their host Kevin at Melview Lodge. Kevin said “These guys put the work in, however the first two days didnโt go to plan as the fish just were not in the feeding mood. It was decided we would change the plan and prebait and fish two different venues for the remainder of the holiday, this proved very productive for them producing some cracking tench and bream from both places to specimen sizes. Well done guys and look forward to see you again soon!”
ALL FISH RELEASED UNHARMED.
Kevin Lyons reports from Melview Lodge in Co. Longford.
Regular anglers from Holland Dennis, Bart, Anton, Rob, Cor, Rick and John were over once again for their annual jolly up Pike fishing trip, Again staying with their host Kevin at Melview Fishing Lodge. Host Kevin said, “These guys are not only here for the Pike fishing; they like to take advantage of the social side of things and having some fun while having a break from work at home. To these lads size donโt matter itโs about being out there together on the water”.
During their 5 day trip they managed 65 Pike and a few nice Perch. I would just like to mention that there should have been 8 in the party but sadly Frank’s mother passed away just before the trip, so our condolences and prayers are with you and your family and we hope to see you next time Frank. Thanks guys you were great company and a good laugh had, see you all again soon. ย
Galway angler Simon Lenihan has had a season to remember. After landing the first fish in Galway, he was back in on Sunday. Fishing from the west bank, he landed a small grilse first, but the next fish was a different beast altogether. Simon hooked and landed a picture perfect 17.5lbs salmon, fresh in off the tide with long-tailed sea lice indicating how fresh it was. Well done Simon!
Generally, fishing has been slow for June, averaging 1 or 2 fish a day on the fishery. Water levels have been less than perfect, with 2 gates open and more coming over the top, restricting wading.
Apart from Simon’s springer, most fish have been grilse averaging 4.5-6lbs. Amnog the anglers to land fish were Bill Keane, Michael Griffin, Fergal Cormican, John Ryan who had 3 fish on fly. Gerry Dooley had a nice fish of 8.5lbs on fly as well.
The main grilse run is still awaited, with more fish showing in the river every day.
To enquire about availability, contact the fishery at 091 562388 or email [email protected]
