There was a good rise in water levels on Cork’s lovely Lee during last week which accounted for running fish.
Anglers report 16 Salmon caught. The best of these was a 10lb salmon by a club angler with a flying C.
Permits: https://permits.fishinginireland.info/product-category/esb-fisheries/inniscarra-salmon-fishery/
On Wednesday 4th June 2025, a draw took place to allocate an initial 15 Brown Tags for the taking of salmon on the River Easkey. The requirement to hold a brown tag is set out in Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Tagging Scheme (Amendment) Regulations. A total of 60 valid entries were received from salmon rod licence holders. Each was assigned a number in advance of the draw. 20 numbers were randomly generated. The first 15 successful entrants will be issued a brown tag today. The final 5 numbers are reserved in case an angler declines or returns the tag allocated to them.
The numbers selected are:
The 5 reserve numbers are:
The Brown Tags will be issued by post today.
The draw was conducted by Michael Wilson (Fisheries Inspector) and observed by Mary Walsh (RBD Director), Kathleen Finnerty (Ballina District Office), and Brian Flannery (Assistant Inspector).
The long-expected rains never really materialised catchment wide last week – localised downpours did little in the way of rising levels by any great amount.
Effort was down and catches were sporadic although reported fish encountered are said to be a good size in the 4-6 kg range.
Let’s hope fortunes improve for the coming week.
Blackwater Salmon Fishery
Blackwater Salmon Fishery has 3 beats downstream of the weir and 2 upstream of the weir. Blackwater Salmon Fishery offers fishing on approximately 5 miles of the river Blackwater. The fishing is spread throughout the middle section of the river to offer good sport throughout the fishing season. Due to the location of the beats, fishing can still usually be offered in low or high water.
Contact Glenda Powell: Lismore, Co Waterford,
Email: info@blackwatersalmonfishery.com
Mobile: +353 (0) 872351260 Telephone: +353 (0) 5853929
Web: www.blackwatersalmonfishery.com
Blackwater Valley Fishery
Salmon, Sea trout and Brown trout fishing on prime fishing beats River Blackwater Co. Cork and Co. Waterford Ireland.
Email: blackwatervalleyfishery@gmail.com
Mobile: +353 (0) 87 690 5467
Web: facebook.com/Corkwaterfordfishery
Fortwilliam Fishery & Self-Catering Cottages
Fortwilliam Fishery offers two miles of double bank salmon and trout fishing over five beats on the river Blackwater.
Our salmon include – Springers, May Salmon, Grilse, Back End Salmon, and in Summer sea trout.
Our beats provide a wide variety of water, suitable for both beginners and the more experienced fishermen.
Fortwilliam Fishery, Glencairn, Lismore, Co. Waterford, Ireland
Web: www.fortwilliamfishing.ie Email: fishing@fortwilliamireland.com
Tel: (00353) 87 8292077 or 058 75299
Blackwater Salmon and Trout Fishery
Blackwater Salmon and Trout Fishery control a number of beats of the Munster Blackwater.
Contact Jason Corcoran:
Ballyduff, Co. Waterford.
Tel: +353 (0)586 0146
Mobile: +353 (0)87 720 5690
Web: www.blackwatertroutandsalmon.ie
Careysville Fishery
Careysville Fishery offers some of the best salmon fly fishing in Ireland and includes 26 named pools. It is considered by many to be one of premier beats for salmon fishing in Ireland. Wading is excellent and among the numerous streams, pools and glides there is a great variety of fly fishing to suit both complete novice and challenge the most competent of fly casters.
Careysville, Clondulane, Fermoy, Co. Cork, Ireland
Email: fishing@careysville.com Mobile: +353 (0)86 2378788
Web: http://careysville.com/careysville-fishery/
Lismore Castle Fishery
At Lismore Castle & Golf Course Fishery, we offer nearly two miles of two inter-linked beats, the Castle Beat & the Golf Course Beat.
The legendary Castle Beat consistently ranks as one of the top Salmon beats on the River Blackwater, for the number of Atlantic Salmon caught per rod. The Golf Course Beat offers about 1.5 miles of fishable water through meandering majestic countryside. The Golf Course beat offers a number of bewildering pools suitable for unmatched spinning and bait fishing.
For bookings contact Joe Willoughby on Mobile no. 00353 87 8295449 or Email: info@lismorecastlefishery.com
Website: www.lismorecastlefishery.com
Blackwater Salmon Anglers, Mallow
We provide Day Tickets for some prime Salmon fishing in Mallow Co. Cork. We have excellent fly water, shrimping worming and spinning also. We also have very competitive Day rates and we have very recently upgraded our fishing.
Tickets available from “The Bridge House” and “Vincent Downes Menswear” Mallow.
Facebook: Blackwater Salmon Anglers
Upper Bridgetown Salmon Fishery
Located on the Munster Blackwater in the south of Ireland. Situated mid river between the towns of Fermoy and Mallow. A productive left bank beat in stunning surroundings.
For bookings contact Conor Arnold: +353 87 755 4682
Facebook: Upper Bridgetown Salmon Fishery
Loungueville House Salmon Fishery
For details on availability and conditions of fishing for salmon and trout on the Longueville House waters please contact them at
Contact : Longueville House Hotel, William O’Callaghan
Address : Mallow, Co. Cork.
Telephone : 00 353 22 47156
Email: info@longuevillehouse.ie
Website: www.longuevillehouse.ie
For the week ended 01 June water levels remained low but there were 2 grilse landed on Beat 2 of the River Laune weighing 2.5lbs and 3lbs both caught spinning. One salmon was caught on Beat 2 of the River Laune weighing 6lbs on worms. There was another salmon at Johnsons Fishery on the River Laune weighing 7lbs spinning.
Lough Lein also has an angling report this week, one salmon weighing 7lbs was caught trolling.
Vincent Appleby reports from Lough Currane where the level was low and the wind blew hard at times…
May 29, 2025. I spoke with an angler from Currane who reported that there was no flood in the Currane system. Additionally, there were no reports of any catch-and-release salmon or sea trout by today’s Currane anglers. Moving on to the weather report for Currane anglers: the wind was fresh from the SSW, veering SW, accompanied by good cloud cover and occasional showers. Yesterday’s weather included 4.6 mm of rainfall, a maximum air temperature of 16.6°C, and 3 hours and 3 minutes of sunshine.
May 30, 2025. Once again, the enthusiasm of the Currane anglers remains low, reflecting the diminished water levels of Currane as they await the Grilse run. Notably, there have been no reported catches or releases of Salmon or Sea Trout today. Regarding today’s weather at Currane, the wind was variable with gentle movements from the southwest veering to South-Southwest. Yesterday’s weather recorded a rainfall amount of 0.5mm, a maximum air temperature of 16.5°C, and a mere three minutes of sunshine.
May 31, 2025. The Currane anglers had a tough day with no reports of catching any Salmon or Sea Trout. One angler humorously remarked,
“You must be joking, my boat is as dry as the lake.”
Today’s weather: variable fresh wind from WSW to W, good cloud cover with occasional showers. Yesterday’s weather included 0.3mm of rainfall, a maximum air temperature of 17.8°C, and 3 hours and 1 minute of sunshine.
June 1st, 2025. No reports of catch and release of Salmon or Sea Trout were noted from the Currane anglers. Today’s weather at Currane featured moderate to fresh winds from the NW to NNW, accompanied by occasional showers. The previous day’s weather recorded 4.3mm of rainfall, a maximum air temperature of 16.7°C, and 5 hours and 8 minutes of sunshine.
June 2, 2025. The Currane Salmon and Sea Trout anglers were unable to fish due to adverse weather conditions. A strong Southwest wind with gusts up to 70 km/h forced the anglers to return to the mainland without any catches. The previous day’s weather included 8.2 mm of rainfall, a maximum air temperature of 15.6°C, and 8 hours and 8 minutes of sunshine.
On June 3, 2025. The Currane anglers experienced favourable conditions with a light to fresh variable wind blowing from WNW to NW, accompanied by reasonable cloud cover. Despite these good conditions, there were no reports of any catch and release (C&R) wild Salmon or Sea Trout. It is worth noting that anglers might have considered putting on their C&R Inny hats due to the significant rainfall the previous night. The weather data recorded for the previous day included 21.6mm of rainfall, a maximum air temperature of 15.1°C, and 4 hours and 2 minutes of sunshine.
Vincent Appleby
Eureka Lodge, Caherdaniel West, Co. Kerry.
Telephone: +353 (0) 87 207 4882
E-mail:salmonandseatrout@gmail.com
Web: www.salmonandseatrout.com
Inland Fisheries Ireland wishes to remind anglers that the Conservation of Sea Trout (No.7 or Kerry District) Waterville Area Bye-Law No. 971 of 2019 remains in effect. This Bye-law prohibits the retention and possession of any sea trout (Salmo trutta L.) taken by any fishing engine or by rod and line in the Waterville area i.e. that part of the sea eastward of a line drawn from the most westerly point of Bolus Head to the most westerly point of Lamb’s Head and to all the waters discharging in to it.
The Bye-Law mainly affects seatrout fishing on :-
For more information on the daily conditions, all the craic and news be sure to check out Vincent Appleby’s Salmon and Sea Trout blog for regular reports with back dates, petitions, public consultation notices, readers letters and videos and more of what’s happening on Currane.
Lough Sheelin angling report May 26th to June 1st 2025
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”
Thomas A.Edison
It has been another week of pain and mental torture on Lough Sheelin as anglers struggled against changing wind directions, drops in temperatures and finicky trout.
Lough Sheelin played fast and loose with her anglers by producing a very promising start to the week with large hatches of Mayfly, big falls of spent, trout surface feeding and then the refusals. Up to Wednesday trout were reported to be surface feeding and taking the greens and later the spent. South westerly winds, cloudy conditions and drops in daytime temperatures to 16 degrees produced a much more promising scenario for trout fishing.
Piscatorial hopes for many were crushed as the week ended in downpours and strong blustery northerly winds which effectively produced empty car parks and a quiet lake. This week gone by, encompassing the end of May and the beginning of June still held hope of the last hurrah for the 2025 mayfly season here but although some lovely fish were caught on dry and wet fly patterns in the earlier part of the week, the new month started like a damp squib and anglers struggled once again, continually reporting very few trout surfacing.
In certain regions of the United States Mayflies are sometimes referred to as “Canadian soldiers” this nickname probably earned from the large swarms of these aquatic insects which emerge from the lakes, resembling a swarm of “soldiers” marching in unison. Sheelin had her own battalion of soldiers this year and it will be a year forever remembered not by the trout catches but for a Mayfly hatch that was a Goliath event with clouds of insects blanketing the lake both at the hatching stage and at the grand finale of spent – a gold sheen of silken crumpled forms draped across the surface water.
Now, into June it feels as if we have been robbed of something, the anti-climax is unpalatable and now the fishing season has moved on without giving us our ‘duffer’s fortnight’, leaving anglers with crushed dreams and nagging frustration. This was supposed to be the ‘easy to catch’ time and it was far from that as the weather refused to behave and the trout happily fed sub surface on the abundance of food and sure why would they be bothered with those carefully put together teams of wets or dries skimming the surfaces when there is all that good stuff below the waves.
After the Mayfly hatch, several insects can become important for trout fishing. There were plenty of hatches of sedges or Caddisflies and these can be a crucial food source for the fish. Some stonefly species emerge after the Mayfly hatch and trout often key into these large, nutritious insects. We also have the terrestrials coming along – grasshoppers, beetles and ants which can offer a tempting alternative and then there are buzzers which have always formed a staple food source.
Popular fly patterns that were used were the Elk Hair Caddis, the Stimulator, the Wulffs in Green, Grey and Royal, the Nymphs (Pheasant Tail, Hare’s Ear, Gold-Ribbed Hare’s Ear and Prince), Dabblers in Claret and Green, Spent Gnat patterns, the Gosling, Buzzer patterns and the Hopper patterns.
Lough Sheelin is a wild brown trout fishery, wild by definition means untamed and uncontrolled, unpredictable and chaotic, an erratic and mercurial expanse of water and this year’s Mayfly has been the epiphany of all of the above.
Please remember anglers to abide by BYE-LAW 949 which strictly prohibits from
June 14th, 2017 onwards:
John Mulvany johnmulvanyfishing@gmail.com 086 2490076
Heaviest trout: an 8 lb trout caught by Stephen Devaney, Northern Ireland on a Royal Wulff at Bog Bay
Number of trout recorded: 25
Selection of catches:
Pat Bannon, Cavan – one trout at 5lbs on a Spent Gnat pattern.
Thomas Lynch, Cavan – one trout at over 6lbs on a Spent Gnat pattern at Bog Bay, May 27th.
Cian Cullen – 1 trout at 3lbs
Eamon Ross, Cavan – 1 trout at 3lbs.
Ian Davison – 1 trout at over 3lbs on a Mayfly pattern.
Paddy Dunworth of Celtic Angling reports from the Maigue:
Nate and Jackson joined me on Monday for an extended half-day on the Deel at Newbridge. Home is Denver, Colorado which is 5000′ above sea-level, and they fish further up again at around 8,000′.
Our rivers, approach and fly-fishing methods were completely new to them. The wading alone above or below Altavilla bridge is a challenge in itself, adapting to a new technique is another. They are more used to open spaces, smaller rivers and relatively tame rainbows. And with the aid of a plastic or polysterene ball as bite detector.
So whilst traditional wet-fly fishing on our rivers is as old as the hills, and it was new to them. They loved the move away from artificiality towards this more natural form of fly-fishing for wild brown trout. Line control and being in touch with your fly(s) are the key requirements, casting a tight straight line at an angle of 45degrees and allowing your flies swim naturally across an arc. Fishing with the river(downstream) assures there’s a tight line between the rod-tip and the flies due to the pull of the current making it straight, so if the smallest trout hit’s your fly you should sense it, even a lifeless leaf becoming impaled on the hook should be detected.
Awareness of casting obstructions was another new experience for the pair but they adapted pretty well, needs must as they say. Right-handed US fly-fishers cast off the right side and exclusively so, overgrown banksides will punish them every time unless they change tack, the ideal cast in such circumstances is the overhead cast, single or double-spey is more ideal but that takes learning, lots of it, not a luxury one has on a half-day session, and roll casting is only feasible straight ahead or at narrow angles either side of straight.
The wind was rising all the while but was at their backs, one less problem to deal with, I spent most of the time helping Jackson and after an hour we rejoined Nate to find he had hooked and lost a couple of 12in fish. Jackson also had a vicious take and I saw the trout flash under the water as he took the fly, alas he came off too, that’s also the nature of downstream approach, you’re pulling the fly away from the fish when striking and everything happens so fast it’s immaterial what your reaction is, the fish is either on or off by the time your brain has informed your arm to strike, so don’t beat yourself up about missing fish using this method.
Both had smaller fish but more importantly both are now converts to this ‘new’ fly-fishing approach and will be experimenting with it back in the Rockies.
The CM Lakelands Feeder Club held a match on Skeagh Lake on the bank holiday Monday.
Finishing first overall was Brenton Sweeney, who caught just over 6kg made up of 10 small skimmers and 30 plus small hybrids, roach and a solitary perch.
Pavel Tkachenko was on the next peg to Brenton and he had just under 6kg of hybrids, roach and perch to take second overall.
Piotr Horbiński was third with another mixed bag of odd skimmers, roach, hybrids and perch for a weight of over 5kg.
Finishing the top four was Mariusz Kilian, who was up on the shallower end. Mariusz caught roach and hybrids to weigh over 4kg.
TOP 4 OVERALL
Joe FitzHarris tells us that Lake O’Flynn anglers held their Annual Malone cups on Sunday June 1st. Twelve boats competed in reasonable angling conditions. The winner was the popular long time club supporter Marcus Kennedy with a Heaviest fish of 2lb 11.6 oz.
Heaviest boat catch winners were Mark Malone & Mike McDermott with 6 trout for 10lb 01.8oz.
Sylvain, Jean-Francois, Oliver and Georges-Andre from Switzerland were over for their first visit to Melview Fishing Lodge in Longford, at the start of their week the sunny conditions did not make the fishing easy for them.
However they managed a few fish over the metre and lost a few at the same time, with this in mind it was still a good week with a few laughs along the way.
Host Kevin said,
Overall it was a good week considering some of the weather condition some of the days but we hope to see them back in Ireland again soon.
Thanks guys for your company and laughs.
ALL FISH RETURNED UNHARMED.
Boat Hire
Salmon and Sea-Trout fishing Guide
Notes: Based near the picturesque village of Adare (Ireland’s Prettiest Village)
