Aidan Traynor sends us this report of a lovely 10lb 6oz pike caught by Paul Folan out trolling a dead bait Roach with him on the wonderful Corrib. Aidan tells us “She put up a nice fight leaping clear out of the water, what a sight.. we safely released her again hopefully to see again in the near future.”
Guides Jason O’Riordan and Ken Whelan share their knowledge and wisdom with anglers on the Slaney. Jason reports;
Last weekend I travelled up to the village of Bunclody, Wexford to meet up with my good friend Ken Whelan to deliver our sea trout course on the magnificent Clohamon beat of the river Slaney. The first element of this course took place on Saturday afternoon and consisted of detailed information on the sea trout itself(delivered by Ken) and tactics for catching them, particularly at night on the fly (delivered by yours truly).
Once the classroom presentations were delivered and some excellent questions from the eight participants answered we were joined by another pal of ours and pro fly tyer Denis O’Toole. Denis tied the flies featured in Kens sea trout book “Nomads of the tides”, and he tied a sea trout tube fly for each of the course participants which they added to the complimentary box of six flies they already had received.
We then headed over to a local hotel and had a fantastic three course meal. That really set us up for a few hours night fishing! From there we went to the fabulous Clohamon beat which had some lovely water and excellent facilities. Everyone set up their tackle and spread out to their fishing spots assisted by the course delivery team. The fishing was slow to start but eventually a few nice fish were hooked (and lost) on surface lures and then one of the participants landed a nice finnock.
At about 2am it was time to finish up and head to our accommodation. After a substantial breakfast we all met up again on Sunday morning at the Clohamon beat. I did a demonstration on some daytime tactics including wet fly and streamer fishing. The participants fished on for a while and some more fish up to about 1.5lbs were hooked.
We have already received some really positive feedback on the course from the participants. They were very complimentary of the fishery and the combination of theory and practice in the course and inclusion of the flies and fly tying session. Once again our resident photographer Kuba Standera did an awesome job. Looking forward to our next course already!
Jason O’Riordan
Mackenzie Pro Guide and an IFFF Qualified Fly Casting Instructor
Notes: Jason has a lifetime of experience in fishing and guiding on the rivers, lakes and coastline in the area. Jason has given talks on fishing techniques at the leading angling shows in Ireland. Game Fishing Ireland offers guided packages for salmon, river trout, lake trout and saltwater game species. Fishing packages can vary in price depending on the target species and time of year. A typical package can include permits, travel, guiding, and packed lunch. Tackle hire is also available.
Address: Dungarvan, Co. Waterford.
Telephone: +353 (0) 87 296 5712
E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.gamefishingireland.ie
Ken Whelan
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +353 (0)86 7835900
Web: http://www.kenwhelan.info
Ken runs his own fisheries consultancy. He has been a keen angler since a very young age and has written extensively on angling topics. He has fished in many remote locations throughout the world and he is a qualified angling instructor (AAPGAI and STANIC) and angling guide. Ken has also produced, scripted and presented many films and videos on various aspects of Irish fisheries and angling. He is a regular radio contributor to Mooney Goes Wild on RTE. Lucky to have weaved his hobby into his job, he is never quite sure whether he is working or enjoying himself!
DISCLAIMER NOTE: Inland Fisheries Ireland do not support any brand over another.
Michel and Christophe Maratrey from France fished the lower Boyne recently with angling guide Peter Cunningham. With the low water conditions and changeable weather it looked as though things might be tough. This was the lads first time salmon fishing and even they could not have expected to enjoy the success that they had during their visit to the Boyne Valley area.
During their three day visit Christophe and Michel landed 6 salmon to 7.5 lbs. Under Peters watchful eye all of the salmon were taken quickly to the net to avoid overtiring the fish. After a quick photo or two the fish were returned to the water and helped to recuperate before being released back to the River Boyne. At the end of their stay the lads were delighted with the results that they had achieved with Peter.
Peter Cunningham is one of the North East’s top angling guides. If you fancy a days guided fishing for salmon, sea trout, wild brown trout, pike or bass, then why not give him a call or drop into him for a chat in the Drogheda Angling Centre, Boyne Shopping Centre, Drogheda.
Peter can be contacted by Tel: 00 353 86 4682516 or by email: [email protected]
The mixed weather of the last week brought mixed results for many anglers over the last seven days. Timing was, as ever in angling, everything – whether it was managing to catch a 10lb 7oz bass with your first cast, arriving at the lake when the conditions were just right and landing 14 sea trout or hooking your first 20lb pike on fly. Hopefully this week will see more Goldilocks events for fishermen and women in Ireland…
Water conditions are very low and clear in the River Boyne at the moment, however there are a few fresh salmon to be had in the lower river. Salmon to 11.75lb were reported from the Munster Blackwater at Blackwater Lodge earlier this week, but fishing remains slow enough on the river. The fishing on the Laune is reported to be more productive, and now that the commercial nets have stopped catches are expected to improve further. There were only a handful of salmon from Lough Currane last week, and most of them came from Butlers Pool on the lake’s outflow. However there were some good sea trout caught and one angler had 14 juniors. Low water levels on the Erriff saw 8 grilse landed but the wet weather should see fishing improve there. Around the corner at Delphi, 10 fish were caught by anglers but the going was hard as the blue sky weather made for sulky salmon. Angling effort was quite low this past week on the Moy and, as a consequence only 231 salmon were reported. There was better water up on the Drowes but angling pressure is light now so only a few grilse were reported. The early part of last week saw good water on the Owena too and some nice grilse and salmon to 13lb were landed.
Trout anglers are getting good catches of Sonaghan over Lough Melvin’s deep water drifts. As poor weather forced the postponement of the World Cup on Lough Mask, this popular competition only finished last Saturday. Over 500 anglers took part and David Corcoran from Tuam, Co. Galway was this year’s winner with 5 trout for 5.708lb. On Lough Corrib there was good fishing to sedge and mayfly patterns. Those on the lake also enjoyed having the lake almost to themselves as so many were competing in the World Cup on Mask! The Dublin Angling Initiative took a busman’s holiday to assist at the introduction to angling day on Lough Rowan. It was a great success for the Rinn-Shannon Anglers with lots of trout and even more learning and fishing. Trout on Lough Lene are on perch fry and in bright conditions a small lure was used to good effect by Christina Barry who had a very handsome rainbow from the lake – her favourite venue. Lough Sheelin had some great sedge fishing last week with fish to over 7lb reported, but as the fish here are moving on to pinhead fry a change in tactics is needed – especially for day time fishing. A mix of sedges and wets is also making for enjoyable fishing on Lough Owel where competition and pleasure anglers are meeting with some good trout. The recent weather conditions have also made for some pleasant evenings on stocked trout fisheries such as Wavin Lake and Ardaire Springs.
Ballybay Angling Association were on Lough Egish last Sunday and had some great catches of roach, caught mainly on the pole. Seamus Mac An Gheimhribh won the knock session with 29lbs. Congratulations to Fermoy AC who won the Bobby Smithers Cup in tough, low water conditions at Inniscarra to become the 2015 NCFFI All Ireland Club Champions. The team will head to San Marino next year to represent Ireland at the FIPS-ED World Club Championships. There was a good turn out for the Annual Silver Fish Match at Oaklands at the weekend where Adrian Browne was first with 29.85 lb. Fishing through the brighest parts of last week on Lough Ramor saw decent catches of perch, but the evening sessions were not as good as hoped for. Ballymote Angling Club hosted the I.F.I Open on the shores of Templehouse Lake in Co. Sligo at the weekend. Calm, bright conditions meant the 173lb winning bag of last year would never be matched, but the anglers did well. Despite the efforts of Bob Gilbert, Keith Coleman was the winner with 17kg of famous Templehouse bream.
Fishing with Michael Flanagan on Lough Ree, a group of 3 anglers had an enjoyable day despite wet, blustery weather, catching pike to 10lb. A pair of young anglers fishing with Kenny Sloan in the Foxford area had some good piking with 6 fish of around 80cm landed.
There was a good mix of shore and boat reports from our saltwater cousins this week. Dutch anglers had good day’s fishing off the Wicklow coast with charter skipper Kit Dunne, when they caught 21 tope to 42lb, 6 bullhuss and loads of smooth hounds. Small boat anglers fishing off the Wexford coast also report some good tope fishing with 4 fish to specimen size landed. Welsh anglers fishing the Wexford and Waterford coasts with Sid Jones had 16 bass on surface poppers, including a PB for one of the visitors. Small boat bass anglers in Cork Harbour are seeing an improvement in catches recently. Brothers James and John Crowley had bass to 69cm and 75cm fishing with guide James McSweeney. Meanwhile the Smith family were enjoying 4 days on the charter boat John Boy where they got good fishing inside and outside the harbour, depending on wind and weather. Back to bass again and anglers fishing with Peter Aspinwall around Clonakilty were getting some fine fish over the weekend and earlier this week with bass to 9lb landed. Courtmacsherry was the location for the inaugural Irish Kayak Fishing Open. The competition was fished on Saturday and although the day started flat calm the afternoon’s winds made for a tiring paddle home. Ian Burton was the event’s winner with 7 species. West Cork charter boats from Courtmacsherry to Union Hall are reporting big ling caught last week. Some good sized conger and cod have also featured in reports. Stonebass were also landed. Shore anglers fishing the Beara Penninsula had some great rod bending excitement with Paul Harris last week. One angler left for home with arms aching after catching 30 pollack to 8lb one day and too many bullhuss and conger to keep count of the next. Charter anglers fishing off Valentia are also getting good ling, amongst all the other usual suspects, with fish to specimen size landed. Staying in that part of Kerry, bass anglers having been getting some good fishing on surface poppers. That’s not to say bait does not work anymore – one angler had a 10lb 7oz bass off the bottom which he carefully released following a photo. Anglers fishing off the Clare coast on the The Clare Dragoon had a great mix of fish recently with shark, specimen bullhuss and even John Dory landed. Tope were the target for one angler fishing Galway Bay last week. Alan Kelly put in a lot of hard work this year to finally get his shore caught tope and what a fish it was – a 51lb specimen. The Bundoran SAC Open boat competition was fished on Saturday and anglers from England, Wales and every corner of Ireland travelled to fish the event. There was a real festival atmosphere in the town during the competition which was won by Liam O’Connor.
The outlook is for warm, wet weather over the weekend with more unsettled conditions for next week. Make the most of the weekend!
Safe fishing to all and tight lines, especially here in Ireland.
Myles Kelly
Catch, Photo, Release
If you have an angling story to share with the Irish Angling Update please send it to [email protected].
On the 15th and 16th of August Ballymote Angling Club hosted the I.F.I Open on the shores of Templehouse Lake in Co. Sligo. This year marked the 4th successive year the club ran this event and saw anglers from all over the country visiting Ballymote over the weekend.
A new section of the “Island” on Templehouse Lake was included this year to facilitate the growing number of anglers taking part in this competition. As anglers gathered on Friday evening to view the lake and fishing sections everyone talked about last year’s winner Ronan Ryan from Galway and his incredible achievement of landing 173 lbs. of bream in a 5 hour match; an achievement that most anglers could only dream of.
On Saturday morning registration and the draw for the competition took place at the shore of Templehouse Lake. Registration was conducted with military precision by Caroline and Alex Browne and Inland Fisheries Ireland staff was on hand to transport anglers to the “Island” while the remaining anglers prepared their kit on Kilbratten and the Fort Shore.
Weather conditions on Saturday were more favourable to the local farmers than the visiting anglers with hot sunny spells and little or no wind; conditions not really suitable for bream fishing. At 4:30pm the match finished and when weigh-in was completed it was local club member, Billy Horan, who led the competition going into day 2 after catching over 10kg on the first day.
The competition was ran on a rotation system, which saw the competition leader, Billy Horan, head to fish the “Island”, the most difficult section in this festival. A slight south westerly breeze on day 2 encouraged the bream to feed and as the day progressed the sound of screaming reels could be heard as some anglers battled with the infamous Templehouse bream. In the final hour word travelled around the lake that Big Bob Gilbert from Co. Monaghan was having an excellent day’s fishing on Kilbratten Shore with Larry Parks hot on his heels, while on the Island Keith Coleman had landed a few good bream. When the weigh-in was completed Big Bob Gilbert won out his section with an incredible bag of 14kg.
However, Keith Coleman achieved top weight from the “Island” on day 2 netting 12kg of bream, roach and hybrids and the addition of 5kg from day 1 was just enough to claim the coveted title as Ballymote & District Angling Club I.F.I Open Champion for 2015.
After the match, all anglers retreated to Hayden’s Bar in Ballymote for refreshments and the prize giving ceremony.
Ballymote & District Angling Club would like to thank the following kind sponsors: Michael Perry of Hayden’s Bar Ballymote, John Doddy, Doddy Bar Ballymote, Terry Mann of Shannon Tackle, Jamestown and Inland Fisheries Ireland.
A very special word of thanks also goes to the Perceval Family from the Templehouse Estate www.templehouse.ie for their co-operation in hosting this great festival.
For information on coarse angling in the Ballymote area check out: www.ballymoteangling.com.
Youngsters Laurence (15 years) and Huw (13 years) Davies from Twickenham England enjoyed a great day’s fishing around the Foxford area with guide Kenny Sloan. While on a holiday with their parents the two young anglers fancied some pike action catching a total of 6 pike mostly trolling over deeper water.
They didn’t break the elusive one meter mark but had a number of fine Esox in the high 80s. As this was their first pike fishing experience in Ireland they hope to return in the near future to target more hard fighting Mayo pike.
To book a day’s guiding or boat hire contact Kenny Sloan on +353 (0)949256501 or +353 (0)87 9670310.
On Sunday 16th August, Sligo Anglers Association held its annual salmon, sea trout & brown trout competition on Glencar Lake. A total of 16 anglers including 3 juvenile members took part in the event.
Unfortunately, the competition was hampered by poor weather conditions for lough style fishing and, as a consequence only one sea trout of 1.5 lbs. and one brown trout were recorded and returned. One salmon was lost by Frank Stenson from Sligo.
Winners were Thomas O’Donovan from Ballisodare in the sea trout category and George Lindsay from Strandhill in the brown trout category.
Fishing on Glencar Lake is managed by the Sligo Anglers Association, for details contact [email protected].
Angling effort was quite low this past week and, as a consequence only 231 salmon were reported. However, with over 6,000 salmon caught so far, anglers enjoyed excellent fishing on the Moy system this year!
On Mount Falcon, brothers Nick and Pete Leeson, UK, had their first salmon each, while Roger Stevens, Northern Ireland, had one on bubble & fly on Coolcronan. Jean Marie Blouet, France, was successful at the Foxford Fishery where he caught 2 fish on spinner. German visitor, Klaus Krüger, had 3 grilse (one released) on Cloongee. His countryman, Max Milek, enjoyed excellent flyfishing on the East Mayo Anglers’ water with a total of 5 fish (3 released) averaging 5 lbs. Also on East Mayo, Francesco Basinigazzi, Italy, landed a five pounder on spinner.
Local angler Paul Dennis from Drogheda visited the Boyne today at Oldbridge to see if he could tempt one of the fresh run salmon to the fly. Paul knows the river like the back of his hand and has been fishing on the Boyne at for many years.
Paul’s session started with a nice fresh 7 lbs fish and shortly afterwards this was followed up with another fresh run fish estimated to be circa 16 lbs. Both fish were mad fresh and both were taken on the fly. The two salmon battled well and were brought as quickly as possible to the net to avoid overtiring the fish. Following a few quick photos the fish were returned immediately to the water to recuperate prior to release.
The water is low and clear in the Boyne at the moment and the cloudier and windier conditions should improve the chances of a fish. Some rain would certainly help at the minute.
Proud dad, Chris Barry, reports on the fishing on Lough Lene where his daughter Christina is getting some great sport…
Fishing conditions at Lough Lene were not ideal on the day with fairly flat conditions and some bright sunshine. As it was early enough in the day, there were not many anglers about. We guessed that the trout might be feeding on perch fry so Christina opted to use one of her favourite Rapala Finnish Minnow lures tied to 6lb line. We took a drift in the boat along the northern shoreline. The big rainbow trout slammed the lure in about 4 metres of water and put up a thrilling fight on the fairly light tackle. Christina has played plenty of pike before so, after a couple of heart stopping runs, she had the fish under control and it was netted by her Dad. Later on in the morning she caught two pike.
Christina is a passionate angler and member of the Trim and Athboy District Anglers. She has also caught salmon from the river Moy and plenty of pike, tench and carp. She’s just starting to learn fly-fishing so we expect to see some more great fish landed soon. Lough Lene is one of her favourite lakes in Ireland
