It was a very difficulty week for angling. Very heavy rain on Wednesday and Thursday deterred most anglers apart from two who headed out on Owel.
Lough Ennell:
Once again angling has been very slow over the week with very few anglers on the lake. Dr Waldron was on the lake on Friday evening and reported seeing a number of nice trout rising but none were willing to give themselves up to the rod. A group of anglers fishing out of Lilliput reported catching 5 small pike up to 3lbs in weight.
Lough Owel:
Action on Owel was once again very slow during the week. In all 36 fish were landed during the week with 22 fish released back to the lake. Joe Mc Carthy and friend were the only anglers on the lakes in the Mullingar area on Thursday night due to the heavy rain. They had seven fish which they returned. Two anglers from Derry staying at the Lough Owel Lodge B&B had 18 fish over three days, and all fish were returned. Barry Lenihan had 5 fish on Saturday the best was 2½lbs. On Sunday the Glen Owel cup was fished with 20 anglers boating 16 pike. All pike were weighed and returned to the water. On the day Morris Gorman was top rod with a 16lb fish.
Morris Gorman with the Glen Owel cup.
Lough Derravaragh:
Anglers fishing Derravaragh have reported a very good hatch of sedges late in the evening, with fish feeding on them but slow to take a line.
River Inny:
Water levels have risen sharply on the river over the week and as a result we have seen very little angling on the water.
Mark O Donoghue reports on the two day festival recently held on the Royal Canal at Enfield.
Royal Enfield Angling Club
2-Day International Angling Festival
9th/10th June 2012.
Royal Enfield Angling Club held their annual 2-Day International Festival over the weekend of the 9th/10th of June. As in previous years the event proved to be well attended with almost 60 anglers attending from all over Ireland and the UK. In total the Club paid out €4,600 in prize money.
The matches were held on stretches of the Royal Canal at Ferns Lock and London
The event as always has received terrific support and sponsorship and the club would like to thank the following for their generous sponsorship and support:
Waterways Ireland
Fort Plant Sales Ltd
Fergus Crowe
Progressive Genetics Co-operative Society Ltd
Brian O’Donoghue
The results of the Festival were as follows:
Seniors:
1st: Pat Bartley, Dublin (10lb.1ozs) who received over €900, the Progressive Genetics Cup and a Crystal Trophy presented by Waterways Ireland.
2nd: Jeff Stirrat, UK (9lb.10.5ozs) who received over €600 and a Crystal Trophy presented by Waterways Ireland.
3rd: Frank Holding, UK (8lb. 6.5ozs) who received €400 and a Crystal Trophy presented by Waterways Ireland.
4th: Anthony Marsden, UK (7lb. 14.5ozs) who received €200
5th: Conor Browne, Leixlip (7lb. 8.5ozs)who received €100
Juniors:
1st: Lea Sutton, (2lb. 9.5 ozs) who received €40
2nd : Conor Byrne (2lb. 6.75ozs) who received €30
3rd: John Smith (1lb. 9.5 ozs) who received €20
4th: Jack Sutton (1lb. 9ozs) who received €10
Present at the presentation of prizes were Mr Eoin Raleigh, Waterways Ireland and Cllr William Carey, Meath County Council
Alice Murtagh reports from the IFI Corlesmore Office
The Annual Anglers World Breffni Challenge 2012 (formerly known as the Stenna Challenge) took place last week with 58 anglers taking part. The event was held over a five days. The following is a list of the top weights:-
1st. R Guy 61.930 kg
2nd. John Jowett 53.610 kg
3rd. A Broomhead 52.820 kg
4th. Lee Klimczuk 50.790 kg
5th. Frith Graham 47.680 kg
Good bags of Bream some up to 5 to 6 lb. in weight were caught on match section at Killykeen while Tench up to 4 lb in weight was caught on Town Lake Kilelshandra by two visiting English anglers from the Shefield area. Some good mixed bags up to 80 lb were caught on Trinity. There are also some French and Belgium Pike anglers fishing the area and they report good Pike fishing on Bunerky at Templeport and Lough Oughter.
Members of the Carlow Coarse Angling Club recently answered a call to help out a group of visually impared and blind anglers enjoy a day out at the Southern Counties Fishing Resort in Garryhill, Carlow. The local club have been very busy lately running eight week programmes in conjunction with the Carlow Sports Partnership, Inland Fisheries Ireland, Angling Council of Ireland, National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland. The programmes were engineered by A.C.I. trained coaches Gerry McStraw and Ian Warburton and have been a huge success with Rehab Carlow, the Carideas Centre Tullow and Cheshire Homes in Tullow. The Carlow Sports Partnership have now requested another programme be ran in September as the excitement in the different centres has spread.
The groups at the resort on Monday were from Carlow and Wexford and all thouroughly enjoyed the day especially visually impared novice angler Lilly who managed to land the new lake record weighing in at 13 3/4Lb smashing the previous record of 11 Lb. The new angling equipment was only picked up an hour before hand and was sponsored to the club by local shop Murph’s Fishing and shoe repairs on Tullow Street, Carlow. If you would like any information regarding the Carlow C.A.C. their programmes for people with disabilities or general angling on the river Barrow please do not hesitate to contact Chairman Gerry mcstraw on 085 2844566 or e-mail gerrymcstraw@yahoo.ie or you could visit the very popular carlow cac Facebook page.
Lilly Sinnot, C/o NCBI for the partially sighted, Lochrann Centre, Wexford.
Breaking Southern Counties Record for the Largest Fish caught to date, her fish weighting in at 13.75 Ibs!!!
Lilly Sinnot's 13.75 lb rainbow trout
A great day was had by all
Angling Council of Ireland Coach Ian Warburton with Lilly and her record breaking catch.Carlow C.A.C. Chairman Gerry mcstraw with Lillies prize fish
Breath taking view of Southern County Fishing Resort in Beautiful Carlow
The team from Ullcatch in Tralee tell us about their fishing on Sunday June 17th and have wonderful photos to show us:
A fine ray
One of the rare undulate rays that comes to visit us each year. A fantastic looking fish…
It takes two!!
Happy to give Clive Ivory a helping hand with this nice conger he landed at around 3am after a wet but eventful day…..
You're on your own with this one Clive !
Clive Ivory with this cracking specimen Ballan Wrasse he landed on his recent trip to Co Kerry.
Well done lad always nice to get a specimen….
A bass for Andrew
Andrew Boyce from Dublin with this cracking bass he landed yesterday on his recent visit to Co Kerry. Andrew got in-touch with Eugene here at Ullcatch, who put him on the right mark it shows local knowledge is best. Co Kerry must be one of the best spots for lure fishing for bass in Ireland…
Bass on the rocks for John Sheehan
Setting bass free
John Sheehan With one of 8 bass landed during our two hour session.
SEA ANGLING: County Waterford SAC Rinnashark SAC competition was at Dunmore. Anglers returned a catch of 59 fish, which included two ling, four cod, 27 lesser spotted dogfish, four pollack, 21 ballan wrasse and one cuckoo wrasse. Results: 1 Barry Murphy, 11 fish, 89pts; 2 Kevin Ryan, 14, 86pts; 3 Brian O’Neill, 13, 71pts; 4 Conor Purcell, 11, 68 pts.
Cork SAC fished their President’s Cup shore competition at Whiting Bay, Co. Waterford. Results: 1 Michael McGowan, 4, 288pts; 2 Martin Burke, 4, 326; 3 Kevin McGowan, 4, 286; 4 Mick Maher, 3, 201; Joint fifth, Alan O’Dowling, 2, 150; James Kiniry; 7 Con Cronin, 2, 134; 8 Eric Gosnell, 1 57…….Irish Examiner….12/06/12….read the full article and more results…
Before the sun had risen and while the tide still was I headed out. Seven cars in the car park and maybe I had over publicised the area? A strange Marie Celeste moment came over me as I walked down to the beach, not a sole in sight and not a fresh footprint to be seen. As on most of my visits I was alone.
As dawn broke the water took on the colour of the tea I didn’t have time to drink before I left home. Thick filthy weed clung to the shore for the first fifty yards making every cast pick up action killing debris and I admitted defeat before I began. The odd unexplainable patch of clear water kept me busy for the next few hours. I cannot complain of being totally fish-less as hooked the first victim to the tackle house feed shallow. Little Sand eel
After impaling the tiny sandeel I swapped over to a softie but the drop in tide was making the hard conditions even tougher.
After a drive of around a mile I set out again and was instantly invigorated by what at first sight appeared to be a boil on the surface. This was short-lived as a razorbill scooted out not far from the initial movement. While the windless conditions made working surface lures an absolute pleasure it left me at the mercy of the midges, a torture only suffer for the briefest of time.
No opening bass for me but then there is always tomorrow….
Read Neil’s full article on his blog page. Neil, Baitdigger’s Blog http://baitdigger.wordpress.com/
The Senior River Championship will be hosted by the Araglin Anglers and the Kanturk and District Trout Anglers on Sunday 1st July 2012
All entries to Tom Ankettell, Hon-Sec M.R.T.A.C, Gneeves, Boherbue, Mallow, Co Cork.
Entry Fee is €70 which includes a meal for the steward..
Closing date for entries are Friday 15th June .
(NO LATE OR PHONE ENTRIES ACCEPTED)
Entries accepted only from the Provincial Hon-Secs.
This is a catch and release competition with a size limit of 20cms from tip of the nose to the tip of the tail.
The meeting point will be in the car park at the rear of Twohigs, Super-Valu, Kanturk..
All competitors and stewards are to be at the meeting point by 7:45am.
All competitors must provide a steward on the day of the competition. The organising committee will not be providing stewards. All stewards must be over 18 years of age.
No steward, no fishing.
The competition will be fished over two sessions on two individual rivers. Each session will be of a three hour duration, with each angler having an individual pegged beat.
The 1st session will be from 10am – 1pm, the 2nd session will be from 3pm to 6pm.
All competitors going to the Araglin river for their session, will be transported to their beats and returned by bus.
Buses will leave Kanturk for the 1st session at 8:15am. Competitors are advised that the buses will leave on time and any angler not on the bus will have to make their own way to the beat.
Body waders are allowed and all hooks use by competitors will be barbless only.
Anglers are allowed to have two rods assembled but only one road may be in user at any one time.
Anglers are not allowed to handle fish that are been presented to the controller/steward at any time. All fish to be presented to the controller in the landing net and will be released by the controller/steward.
If a fish is handled by the angler, then that fish will not be recorded.
All score cards must be signed but the angler and controller before and after each session. Score cards will not be accepted without both signatures.
Both rivers will be closed to competitors one week before the competition. Any competitor found on competition waters during the closed period, will not be allowed to compete in the competition.
Saturday 23rd June will be the last day for fishing on both rivers.
Day tickets are available for anyone wishing to fish both rivers on a catch & release basis using only barbless hooks..
Bridge in Kanturk
Day tickets for Kanturk, can be obtained from:
John O’ Sullivan’s tackle shop in Bettyville, Kanturk (086 4010792)
Tom Lofts of Ballyhass Lakes on 087 2248097
Bobs Bar, Percival Street, Kanturk
Daryl Hogan,Hooked on Sweets, Percival Street, Kanturk.
Permits for the Araglin River can be got from
Arthur Murphy at Murphy’s Foodstore, Kiskeam
John O’ Keffee, 087 6109565
F.I.P.S. MOUCHE SCORING SYSTEM WILL BE USED.
Meals will be provided at Bob’s Bar, Percival Street, Kanturk as soon as the competitors and controllers arrive after the final session.
Please hand in your meal tickets to the organising committee member at he door.
All cheques to be made payable to Kanturk and District Anglers.
ANGLING NOTES: GREENLAND’S decision to restrict its national salmon catch to subsistence levels, ie 20 tonnes annually for the next three years, came as good news to those attending last week’s meeting of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation in Edinburgh.
The decision stands in sharp contrast to the unwillingness of the UK and Scottish governments to end the practice of mixed stocks coastal netting, which indiscriminately kills large numbers of salmon returning from their ocean feeding grounds to breed, according to the Atlantic Salmon Trust (AST)…….Irish Times….18/06/12…..read full article… http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012
Jay La Roche, an avid lure angler from the South East tells us of his encounters on Sunday morning with the silver of the sea:
– Got up at ridiculous’o’clock to catch first light coinciding with high tide so I arrived at the mark in total darkness and the tide was still rising. So I rigged up a weightless sluggo and fished this method until it began to brighten up. I could hear fish splashing and breaking the surface but couldnt hook up. I rigged up a nice paddle tail on a swimbait hook and began to retrieve it nice and slowly just enough to feel the tail working and it wasnt long maybe 4 or 5 casts and I was into my first fish I initially thought it was a pollack but the constant head shakes told me it was a bass and not a bad fish just touching 5lb in weight I fished on and wasnt long before I got hit by another smaller bass.
By now terns had started to work around me so I decided to swap lures to a try some topwater with my favourite lure the pugachev cobra by IMA. I worked the lure over some submerged reefs and narrow gullies in a real slow walk the dog pattern and with a nice swirl and then smash I had another fish on a lovely bass of about 2lb.
Back she went and I fished on in the same general are as I had picked up the first fish and it wasnt long before the water erupted behind the lure again so I stopped the lure gave it a slight twitch and bang another fish on!!
So I released this fish and went on again over another gully this time changing the retrieve to a sharp pull and stop this makes the lure dart under and bob nicely.
Bass off the top has to be the most exciting and by far my favourite way to fish for these our most exciting sport fish.
I really love it when things just come nicely together as they did this morning and it has really wet my appetite to get back out again later today hopefully for some more silver.
On another note the first Irish Bass Festival gets up and running in a month and I understand there is plenty of interest both at home and abroad in it.
Entry can be made through Absolute Fishings online shop and the full itinerary can be found on their blog here I.B.F itinerary
I really hope this can be a great success as it will show our relevant governing bodies just how much tourism is generated through sport fishing in Ireland.
I’ve also been out at pollock recently and got my new personal best weighing in at just over 4lb I thought it was a bigger fish but they can be quite deceptive I’ll finish up with another few bass I had on a zonk gataride a lure i totally neglected due to its bib being so fragile but seemingly to my own loss…..
I fished on for another hour or so hoping for a better stamp of fish but it seemed to have totally switched off this seems to happen when the sun is high in the sky and the water is extremely clear. Anyway by this time the hunger was setting in so I packed up and headed home. I hope you enjoyed reading .
Tight lines…
