Jason Davis, Norwich, England, fishing the north Mayo lakes recently in search of monster pikeTerry Bruns, London, with one of the fine pike he caught while fishing the lakes of north Mayo recently
A recent visitor to north Mayo and someone who needs no introduction to the piking world, Jason Davis, of Norwich, England, accompanied Terry Bruns, London, England, enjoyed some good fishing while in search of the elusive monster pike. They made their way to Mayo where they teamed up with their good friend and fishing partner Kenny Sloan, Foxford. Jason was co author, along with Eddie Turner of “Mega Pike, The Return” and is well known for his catches of 30lbs plus pike , 22 to date in total, with his biggest weighing in at a massive 39lbs. Although no fish over the magic 30lbs mark were caught during their visit, Jason managed to catch a nice fish of 20lbs and several in the high teens. Terry also had several good double figure pike with float trolled roach, proving the best bait on this occassion. All fish were safely returned to fight another day. Jason is already making plans for “Co. Mayo, The Return”!
Wexford guide Sean Jordan enjoys some late fishing on a dark night and reports:
With our inclement weather pattern’s at this time of year you never know when your last bass session of the year is going to be, so you need to take every window you can !! Last Friday evening we went back into night mode on what was a very cloudy, dark, humid night, some chunky bass were met in very shallow water on Megabass, + Duo hard lures on a slow retrieve.
Sat morn I made the long hike to a very isolated mark I’d been waiting to get to for a while, as it had been good to me late season in past years. Conditions were perfect on arrival, tide stage, clarity, and a light breeze putting a slight ripple on the surface, after 40 mins I met the first of 8 decent bass ( 56-66 cm ) all falling to feed shallow, + illex water monitor hard lures over a 3 hour session, I’m 99% sure most of them were females starting to get heavy with spawn, and were handled with extra care to carry on their journey with their precious cargo, all fish were in top condition on both sessions giving superb sport, hopefully another weather window will come before the year’s out…..
It might be getting near Christmas but the weather in the past week has been so nice and mild for this time of year with average day time temperatures well above 10 degrees Celsius. There was less angling activity however this week with people preparing for Christmas but the few anglers who did make the effort there was some fine fishing.
Daniel’s 22lb pike is this week’s Catch of the Week
There was plenty of pike action to report and Josie Mahon and David Byrne from Inland Fisheries Ireland enjoyed a nice days fishing on Lough Ramor and landed some nice jack pike on float trolled deadbaits and lures. No big fish were encountered but it was enjoyable day nonetheless. Angling guide Richie Johnson had Daniel, a Canadian guest out on the River Shannon at the weekend and he landed a beautiful pike of 22 lb. on a float fished herring and this wins our “Catch of the Week”. Angling guide and journalist Mick Flanagan reported some very good pike fishing on Lough Derravarragh and on the nearby River Inny at the weekend with several double figure fish taken. The perch on the River were not as obliging as the pike were unfortunately. Mick also reported that fishing for pike on Slevins Lake in Mullingar was equally tough with only one pike reported to a number of local rods. Mick also reports that there will be a Christmas competition on Lough Ree next Sunday and details are in the update. Another boat pike competition will be held on Sunday next on Lough Boderg and details are in the update. Ten anglers fished the Newgrange Winter pike league on a river in Monaghan and Darragh O’Neill was the winner and many nice pike were recorded on the day. Also in Co. Monaghan angling guide Peadar O Brien and a client were in the thick of good pike action but while some fine fish were caught and released, there was some frustration with many fish taking deadbaits and lures and not hooking up properly.
51 anglers fished the Youghal beach in the inaugural “All Ireland Cod Championships” and fishing was very good with JP Molloy winning on the day with the heaviest Cod. Guide Sean Jordan from Duncormick in Co. Wexford reported some nice bass from the shore with friends on surface lures. A shore angling competition has been organised to raise funds in aid of St Catherines, Newcastle, Co. Wicklow next Sunday. Details are in the update for a very good cause.
Our friends from St Joseph’s residential home for the deaf/blind in Stillorgan Co.Dublin enjoyed another day out at Rathbeggan Lakes near Dunshaughlin and many nice Rainbow Trout were captured. Angling guide Damien Willis writes about the trout fishing in the Cavan area in the past year.
The good weather is promised to continue and while Christmas is around the corner, I expect many anglers out at the pike competitions in particular over the weekend.
Salmon licences
With only a few short weeks left to the opening of the 2014 salmon season anglers are reminded that salmon licences are available in shops and online in advance of the season.
Tight lines especially in Ireland,
Paul Bourke Angling Information Officer
Catch, Photo, Release
If you have an angling story to share with the Irish Angling Update please send it to [email protected].
AN €8.8m wastewater treatment plant in Castletownbere must be completed by the end of 2015, Cork County Council has confirmed to Fine Gael councillor Jerry Sullivan.
Castletownbere is one of the few towns left in the county not to have a sewage treatment system, with locals fearing that the matter is damaging the town’s fishing and tourism industries.
At a recent meeting in Clonakilty of the Western Committee of Cork County Council, the matter of water supply and wastewater discharge in Castletownbere was raised by Cllr Sullivan. He queried the reason for the delay in progressing the wastewater treatment works, the cost involved and the timeframe for such works…
The mild December weather provided an opportunity for myself and Josie Mahon to try a few casts for a Lough Ramor pike today. A moderate south westerly wind put a small wave on the lower end of the lake but the northern end of the lake was quite sheltered and conditions were perfect in the late evening as the breeze subsided even further. Even the rain held off. Although no big fish made an appearance today some jacks were active and we had a couple of fish with a couple of misses and chases. Two anglers were fishing from the pier in Virginia but no fish were taken. Fish were taken on float drifted dead baits and lures, with a yellow and green spoon type bait attracting most attention from the jacks. If the mild weather continues the fish are sure to be more active at some stage over the coming days. I am sure that some pikers are already planning their St Stephens Day outing!! Tight Lines to All!!
A Happy Josie Mahon With One of Her Fish TodayJosie Takes A Small Jack Pike to the BoatA Fish is A Fish. Josie With a Well Fed Lough Ramor Jack Pike
It was Sunday and what better way to spend the day than a spot of pike fishing. Steven Neely reports:
Due to various other commitments I have been unable to get out for a chuck in the salt but I was getting itchy fingers and I needed to get out of the house.
The weather looked decent – cold, bright and not too windy so we headed off for a spot of Pike fishing.
It was a lovely day to be out and just clear the head.
Below is the new Illex Jockie 120 F in Attract Pink colour. It is a shallow diving lure with a great wobble. It swims in the top 20 cm and I reckon it will be a killer for Bass and other predatory fish.
It produced a fish in the first 10 minutes – great start!
It was a false start though ….. we fished hard for the next few hours with no results before finally landing another an hour before the light faded.
It will be interesting to see how the new Illex plug will perform in saltwater but I am sure it will prove to be a regular in my lure box from now on.
A few days ago I was in the west again with some anglers in search of Pike. Our targeted locations were out of sorts with some extremely stormy weather and the big loughs were very rough.
Solely for the purpose of getting some shelter and some comfortable fishing we decided on a change and headed back to the midlands and the Shannon and some of the loughs on it. Although big waters too, they are much more manageable than Corrib and Mask. For one of my guests it was a day to remember.
Daniel is from Canada and is working here for the next year. At home he is a keen Musky angler and also fished for Bass. Because of this he has a love for lure fishing, and was keen to try it out for Irish pike,along with dead baits which he had never used. His target was to catch a fish of over 10 lb.
The day started with some trolling off a few small islands with various shallow diving plugs,as the water was only 8- 10 ft deep. We tried several areas like this with no luck, so it was decided a move to some deeper water was on. I trolled for a while, always watching the sounder and soon came across a nice drop off and plenty of bait fish showing too. I dropped the anchor and put out a couple of deadbaits, while Daniel fished lures over the area. Within a few minutes he had a follow and soon hooked his first Irish pike. This one was only a jack of 3 or 4 pounds but a start. Soon after, we had a fish splashing at our floats a number of times. Quickly, Daniel put up a black and orange grub bait and twitched it over the fish, and within minutes hooked and landed it, slightly bigger at 6 or 7 pounds.
We then had a few hours of quiet, during which we trolled deadbaits and lures in some terrible squalls. At 2 o clock I suggested we move off the lough and try a stretch of the river.
In summer it is very busy with cruisers but now we had the river to ourselves. One part we found looked very fishy, with lots of weed and what seemed to be huge shoals of bait fish underneath us. I put the boat right in tight to the bank and dropped the anchors down and we were able to fish only a few rod lengths out. I only had the second rod out and I thought a fish was at the bait, again another jack. Then as I looked around the first float was sailing away, the full Herring. Daniel hit the fish straight away and right from the off we knew this was a better one..The rod doubled and the fish fought hard in the weedy water. Was this the double he so wanted? It was more than that, and as the fish tail walked right beside the boat, Daniel let out a shout. He played the fish very well and soon we had her in the net.. A real beauty!!
Daniel’s 22lb beauty
We quickly got out of the boat and weighed and measured the fish on the bank. Length 41.5 inches and 22 lb on the nose. Daniels biggest ever fish.
A few quick pictures and the fish swam off strongly. We must have dropped right onto the bait fish and the pike were obviously on them too. Daniel was thrilled and cannot wait to get back out again.
What started out as a disappointment with the weather out west, turned into a success after the decision to move.
Lough Boderg is the venue for an open boat pike competition next Sunday December 15th.Its a fantastic competition venue and we Westmeath Anglers always enjoy having a go at the Dromod/Rooskey pike anglers. It’s an 10-30 start at Dromod Harbor, and 40 Euro per Boat. More on this contact Pat Healy on 087-7615611.
Midlands Angling provide a top class Guiding service covering many of the top coarse and game waters across the Midlands. Visiting fly anglers have landed some fine trout while out with Midland Angling Guides, pike anglers also recorded some net bursting catches including many pike over 20lbs. Top waters include Lough Ree, Ennell, Owel, Lene, Mount Dalton, and Glore Lake just to mention a few. Michael Flanagan Midland Angling
Pike and Trout angling guide.
Next Sunday December 15th Cashel Anglers will hold their Christmas Pike competition. It’s an 11am start from Barley Harbour on Ree.No Fish Finders, and more info on this competition 086-3410123.
Midlands Angling provide a top class Guiding service covering many of the top coarse and game waters across the Midlands. Visiting fly anglers have landed some fine trout while out with Midland Angling Guides, pike anglers also recorded some net bursting catches including many pike over 20lbs. Top waters include Lough Ree, Ennell, Owel, Lene, Mount Dalton, and Glore Lake just to mention a few. Michael Flanagan Midland Angling
Pike and Trout angling guide.
