John Browne reports on the fourth round of the Oaklands Winter League fished at the weekend…
We had a great turn out again on Sunday for the 4th round of the Oaklands winter league. Well done to Kieran Reeves winning the day from peg 57 switching between the pole and waggler to net 45.090 kg.
And a close 2nd was Johnny Bailey netting 42.700 kg from end peg 50 on the day.
Finishing the the top 3 was Mr Consistent – Ronan Minogue – bagging 30.130kg from peg 8.
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Today’s Results
1st Kirean Reeves 45.090 kg
2nd Johnny Bailey 42.700 kg
3rd Ronan Minogue 30.130 kg
Section A
Leo Lynch 26.530 kg
Section B
John Townson 14. 800 kg
Junior’s
1st Finn Mccarthy 15.810 kg
2nd Conor Fitzharris 15 180 kg
3rd Charlie Upton 9.420 kg
Big well done to all the Junior’s again. Top for today was Finn Mccarthy hugely improving by the match.
Thanks to all the lads who travelled down again today and thanks very much for your support over the past year.
A very popular carp fishery. Popular with competition anglers and novices alike. Alway a great chance of a bumper bag here. Friendly staff more than happy to advise beginner anglers. Caters to all sorts of clubs and groups.
As we await the turn of the year and the beginning of a new salmon season, keen salmon angler Sean Woods has kindly shared his fantastic video retrospective of the 2024 salmon season. With numerous fish hooked, some lost, and plenty returned, along with some spectacular acrobatics, it makes compelling viewing and should whet any salmon anglers’ appetite for the 2025 season.
Munster Coarse Anglers fished the fifth match of their winter series, including the fur and Feather, in Portumna at the weekend. Kevin Leahy reports…
We fished Round 5 of the winter league and our traditional Fur and Feather match at the Salmon Run, Portumna on Sunday.
There were lot more smiling faces when it came to the weigh on Sunday evening. There were bites and fish for every angler although most were on the small size. Not a lot came on the whip line so it was the feeder that proved to be the most productive along with a lot of missed bites.
Morgan had a small bream that was caught in the first few casts of the match and this kept everyone’s hopes that something bigger might turn up…
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Well done to Liam, the overall winner on the day.
Results
1st Liam 9lb 0oz
Section 1
Kevin 7lb 4oz
Ian 6lb 14
Section 2
Richard 7lb 3oz
Pawel 6lb 10oz
That’s it for this year the league will resume in 2025
Wishing a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our Members,Supporters and Friends
Munster Coarse Angling Club are affiliated to the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland, NCFFI the National Governing body for coarse and predator fishing and casting. www.ncffi.ie
The Leinster Coarse Fishing Federation closed their year out with a Feather and Fur competition held on the Royal Canal at Enfiled last weekend. There was plenty of colour in the water on the lower pegs, and this probably helped anglers in that section.
Some fine slabs!
Judging by the photos, there were a few handy sized bream knocking about, and the odd winter tench as well. So it’s no surprise that there were a few decent bags on the day, the best of which was the 15lb 7oz netted by Dean Murray, which won him the top prize on the day.
Kit Dunne of Wicklow Boat Charters has VOUCHERS available for Angling & Tours. Give him a shout if you want to order. Vouchers can be tailored to your needs, prices as 2024, expiry date to end 2025 so plenty of time to schedule your trip in the good weather next season
So Storm Darragh gave us a bit of a lash last weekend, but it has been relatively calm and quiet since then. It felt somewhat chilly to me, however temperatures have been more or less what you would expect for the time of year, hovering between the 5°C and 8°C mark. Rainfall for the week was average enough as well, with the north of the country faring worst on that front. And the northwest also saw less of the sun than the rest of the country, with only 2.3 hours recorded for the week at Malin Head, sure you might as well be in Lapland…
To sea angling first, and Cobh SAC held round two of their light lines competition in Cork Harbour at the weekend, where it was touch and go until the last minute, as the charter boat skippers kept an eye on the storm. Luckily, they got to fish, but unluckily, Darragh dumped a whole load of freshwater into the harbour, putting fish either on the move or off the feed. So the fishing wasn’t top-notch, but Thomas ‘the tank’ Kujawa won’t care as his 49 fish saw him take a win. Storm Darragh also impacted the final round of the Leinster League fished on the Wexford beaches. The organisers chose pegs with deeper water, and that made a difference as fish seemed to be holding well in those areas, but some anglers still struggled with sand suspended in the water column arising from the rough seas of the previous days. The competition was a close run thing, as James Ryan took the win on the day but was pipped to the league title by a single point as Ciaran Fogarty just held on to claim the top spot.
Plenty of good quality whiting turned up at the Leinster League match in Wexford
The Newbridge District Pike Anglers chose a local venue for the last competition of the 2024 season. They picked a spot where there were both river and canal stretches to fish, but the river sections were too swollen to fish comfortably, so most opted for the canal, and Dean Dunne’s pike of 10lb 10oz was the best fish of the day. A drop in temperatures spurred Paul Bourke into action on Tuesday as he predicted the chill might bring the pike on the feed. He was duly rewarded for his endeavours, as he managed 16 pike to the boat, and the top 5 came in at 110cm, 106cm, 105cm, 94cm and 91cm, winning him this week’s Catch of the Week accolade.
A nice Lough Derg pike on a cold Tuesday morning
More and more anglers are becoming interested in fly fishing for pike, as it is a fun way to fish for them using relatively light tackle. But it’s not often easy for a beginner to figure out where to begin with it all in terms of tackle, flies etc. In this week’s edition of the River Whispers Blog, Dan O’Neill talks to Chris Barry of Go Fishing Ireland, who is an experienced pike fly angler, guide and casting instructor, and they discuss the ins and outs of fly fishing for pike.
To coarse angling now, and the CM Lakelands Muckno Winter League continued last weekend as anglers lined out on the banks of a rain-swollen lake. Fishing wasn’t quite as bad as expected, with Darren Fairhurst bagging a creditable 4.6kg to take first prize on the day. Unfortunately, the VDE Baggers didn’t even break the kilo mark at their weekend match, despite it being split over two venues. Neither venue produced, and while Carrick Lough at least threw up a weight of 760g, the best that Creeve could muster was a measly 110g… Back to the River Whispers Blog now, rudd is a fish species usually associated with summer days, when you can often see them dimpling the surface as they feed towards the top of the water column. Because they feed close to the surface, they can be fished for with a dry fly, and in this week’s blog, Dan O’Neill shares a few tips and tricks on how to set up to catch these beautiful but elusive fish.
We wrap up this week’s reports with salmon angling, where Glenda Powell is busy planning for the 2025 season both at home and abroad. This week, she has released information on some of her planned events/tuition/courses, etc., for the coming year. She also has Christmas vouchers available for anyone looking to give a salmon angler a gift.
Salmon Logbooks
We would like to take this opportunity to remind all salmon and sea trout anglers to return their angling logbooks (setting out their fishing and catch record) and any unused gill tags.
Stocking Fillers
Finally, on the run into Christmas, a number of guides, tackle shops, etc, will be offering vouchers and gift cards that may prove to make a useful stocking filler for the angler in your life. The Irish Specimen Fish Committee Fish Atlas proved a popular present last year, and there are still copies available to purchase for this year’s Christmas stockings. For the next couple of weeks, we’ll be collating all interesting offers we find and publishing them on this webpage.
It will be dry but cloudy in most areas today, with the odd spot of drizzle or mist. It will be cool, with temperatures between 4°C & 8°C, dropping to near zero overnight. Saturday will start dry and bright, but will become cloudy later on with some patchy light rain in places. Sunday will be much the same, albeit a little breezier and milder. The weather will remain like this until Tuesday evening, when some more persistent rain will spread from the southwest, heralding a few days of wetter, windier weather.
If you have an angling story to share with the Irish Angling Update please send it to reports@fisheriesireland.ie and don’t forget that all of our fishing reports are available on our dedicated Angling Ireland Facebook page.
It’s hard to get it right every time, and some days fish just won’t show any interest in your baits, as the unlucky anglers fishing the 6th round of the VDE Baggers Winter League found out last weekend. It’s hard to dress it up any other way than a stinker, as nobody managed to break a kilo, despite the match being split over two lakes (Carrick & Creeve). Carrick Lough certainly fished the better, with the top four all coming from that venue, as Grzegorz Bojczewski’s 760g proved the top weight of the day. The unlucky lads on Creeve saw a measly 110g score the top weight for Saul King. Better luck next time fellas!
The Newbridge District Pike Anglers decided to stay close to home for the last competition of the 2024 season, and they opted for a mix of canal and river stretches. But with all the rain that fell towards the end of last week, the river sections were running high and dirty, so most anglers ended up fishing the canal stretches.
Pike never really like a rise in water levels and so the fishing on the day was a bit slow, with 12 fish landed between the 22 competitors. But at least a few of those fish were low doubles, and, in the end, there was only an ounce between first and second place as Darren Dunne’s fish of 10lb 10oz pipped Stephen Whitely’s 10lb 9oz fish to the post.
It being the season of giving 🎅, they handed out a few extra prizes, which helped make up for the lack of fish. And it also brought a wrap to their biggest fish of the year competition, which saw Darren Dunne’s 25lb fish from February land the accolade for 2024 👏 👏 👏. For a full report, log onto the Newbridge District Pike Anglers Facebook page.
The guys from South Shore SAC have a great report on the final round of the 2024 Leinster League on their Facebook page, which we have summarised below:
After a couple of days of strong winds, storm Darragh had just blown through when the competitors lined out for the final round of the Leinster League last weekend. They were fishing over two zones on Dodd’s Rock and Roney Point, and the two anglers in the running for the title, Ciaran Fogarty and James Ryan, were pegged at opposite ends of the peggings.
Some cracking whiting were a feature in catches
With the seas well churned following the recent storm, it was a bit uncertain how the fish would react, but the decision to fish deeper venues paid off, as fish were biting confidently from the off. James Ryan, fishing Zone B, got into his stride quickly as a couple of double shots of decent whiting moved him towards the top of the leaderboard. Zone A was a bit slower, as a number of the pegs were hampered by a lot of sand suspended in the water column, which tends to drive fish away. Some of the whiting being landed were 30cm+ and would make a fine dinner with a few spuds and veg… Spurdog were also showing well along the beach with a number of 50cm+ fish landed.
And Spurs were in plentiful supply
In the final shake up, all of the bigger bags came from Zone B, with a number of anglers hitting the forties, but nobody could catch up with James Ryan, whose impressive bag of 49 fish saw him win out on the day, ending a run of second placings for him 👏 👏 👏. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to see him take the shore league title, though, as he was just pipped to the title by a single point as Ciaran Fogarty took the honour by a single point. Hats off to Ciaran 🎩 🎩 🎩
Southshore will be running their Annual Heart Children Ireland Charity match on 28th December, Venue & Time TBC in the coming days. Also – first leg of 2025’s Leinster League is on Sunday 5th January, with the Eddie Bermingham Memorial Open.
Anyone who would like to fish the Munster Coarse Anglers Winter League can contact us by 
