12 year old Roman on holiday from Stuttgart with his first Shannon Pike
With fish preoccupied with spawning catches have been generally poor over the last 2 weeks. Water levels are now returning to normal after some much needed rain over the last few days. Some stretches upstream of Portumna bridge are still producing bream and hybrid nets of up to 50lb per session.
12 year old Roman on holiday from Stuttgart with his first Shannon Pike
Photo attached shows 12 year old Roman on holiday from Stuttgart with his first Shannon Pike while trolling near the bridge. He also caught several good Roach and Hybrids feeder fishing from the banks of the Shannon near Fairyhill.
Donal Creamer Shows a Nice Double Taken Recently in Monaghan
Not many pike fishing reports of late but we have just received some information from angling guide Peadar O’Brien from Carrickmacross in Co. Monaghan. Peadar reports that the weather getting cooler has brought some nice pike action in the County Monaghan area. Peadar was guiding for Donal Creamer from Dublin and together they had 19 pike from 3lb to 16lb. Some fish of 12lb and 14lb were taken and all were caught on lures.
Donal Creamer Shows a Nice Double Taken Recently in Monaghan
Peadar Displays a Well Conditioned Monaghan Pike
Peadar O'Brien Playing a Pike
Donal Creamer from Dublin Having a Successful day in Monaghan
Another Pike Comes to the Boat for Donal and Peadar
Christian Dorville and Jose from France joined John Quinlan down in Cahersiveen for a spot of fishing. They caught some very nice brown trout on Derriana. After some heavy rain they spent a day on the river Inny where they caught 3 sea trout between 1.5 and 2.5lbs. John and his guests tried to catch some mullet on fly but in spite of hooking several fish they unfortunately failed to land any.
Rachel with one of her 16 Roach taken Recently at Brothers Lake
New angling recruits from the Gartlan family have been busy catching fish following their attendance at angling workshops hosted by the Irish Angling Development Alliance in Carrickmacross. On one out recently Rachel had 16 roach and her brother Michael had some nice skimmer bream, all of which were taken at the Brothers Lake in Carrickmacoss, Co.Monaghan. Dad, Paul has been delighted with their new found interest and is looking forward to many days out fishing over the summer period.
Rachel with one of her 16 Roach taken Recently at Brothers Lake
Young Michael with his Skimmer Bream at the Brothers Lake Recently
John Quinlan from the Thatch Cottage in Cahersiveen tells us on 5th June – Christian Dorville and José from France joined them for a few days fishing. They had some excellent pollack fishing with fish up to 6.5lbs and many fish around 5lbs.
Lough Sheelin Angling Returns May 28th to June 5th 2012
There is something about mayflies, something significant. To the fly fisherman they are the epitome of fly fishing – predictably unpredictable mesmerizing creatures reeking of mother nature – fleeting slivers of beauty, existing above the waters surface for only a matter of hours.
Sheelin’s mayfly season is now in full swing with fantastic hatches all over the lake with one regular visiting Scottish angler commenting that in his lifetime he had never seen such ‘a better spread of fly on the lake’s surface, particularly down the southwest side which in times gone by had been very sparse’. The spent was excellent with tremendous falls starting from around 5pm onwards and carpeting the lakes surface.
Fishing slowed down due to dropping evening temperatures in the earlier part of the week with 20 to 30 boats on the water for Monday and Tuesday, even a hint of a cold breeze will put fish down for the night on this lake and 8 – 9 degrees did just that. Wednesday however with the welcome increase in temperature coupled with a slight ripple on the lake’s surface produced excellent fishing and plenty of movement of fish and Sheelin’s fishermen were happy and the lake became alive again with boats which remained the case for the rest of the week. Evening fishing proved to be best and all areas of the lake fished well.
‘Disco with the fairies’ - Dance of the MayFly at dusk at Church Island on Thursday May 31st
A carpet of thousands of spent covering Lough Sheelin, Friday evening June 1st
Two RTE engineers – Pat O’Brien and Ian McMullan ventured out on to Lough Sheelin on Thursday accompanied by Sheelin ghillie Thomas Lynch (www.loughsheelinguidingservices.com) these welcome first timers to this lake had come straight from fishing for the famous Twaite Shad at St.Mullins on the River Barrow. The Twaite Shad is a member of the herring family, a silver fish with large scales and a dark back which provides great angling, this fish is lively with great fight in them so Sheelin had a high bar to reach for these two men – but this lake did not disappoint and despite an afternoon of rain and cold, Sheelin cast its magical spell for Pat and Ian – the rain stopped for the evening and fishing conditions improved dramatically, there was plenty of movement of fish with the eventual reward of 4 beautiful Sheelin trout ensuring that these two men will be back…
Ian McMullan with one of his 4 fish caught on Thursday, May 31st – trout weighed in at 3¾ lbs.
Friday evening was the pick of the week with huge movement of fish from early evening onwards and it was noted that the spent seem to start earlier than normal from around 5pm onwards. The weekend despite the drop in temperature and heavy downfalls continued to be good although more challenging due to the rain ‘dampening down’ the spent but still nice trout were caught, certainly Lurgan man David McKitterick was very happy with his catches of 4 trout on Saturday June 2nd using a dabbler, heaviest was 5½ lbs – all released.
Andrew Banner, Wales with his 5lb plus trout
The heaviest trout of the week was caught by Maurice Little, Mountnugent at 7lbs on May 30th.
Most popular flies are spent gnat, claret and green dabblers, wulffs, mayfly nymphs, red humpies, olives particularly the sooty olive, Greenwell’s Glory and the Murrough – ‘The Great Red Sedge’.
Andrew Doyle, Kells fished a 5.3lb Sheelin beauty caught on a grey wulff on 29.5.12 at the Long Rock.
While Kenneth O’Keefe and Russell Owen headed to Bog Bay
The popular Sheelin Classic trout competition now in its 8th year will be run on Lough Sheelin on Sunday June 10th 2012 – 11am to 6pm. There will be a 15” size limit and only 2 fish per competitor. This competition will involve an open draw for partners and entries must be in by June 7th. Entry fee is €65 for a boating angler and €85 for non boating, the number of boating anglers will determine the number of non boating anglers
There will be numerous prizes which include:
1st 19ft Sheelin boat & trailer & crystal, 2nd 5 hp 4 stroke outboard engine & crystal and 3rd €54 & electric engine & crystal.
A catch and release policy is actively encouraged on this lake at all times
Please remember anglers that the size limit on this lake is 35.5 cm (14 inches) – we need our small fish alive…….
294 fish were recorded for the week most of which were released.
A selection of catches were:
Maurice Little, Mountnugent, Cavan – 1 trout at 7lbs using a spent on Wednesday evening and 1 at 6lbs on Friday, again on the spent.
David Palmer, Armagh – 5 trout for the week, heaviest was 4½ lbs, all on the green mayfly.
Michael Callaghan and Paddy Lyons L.S.T.P.A – at the back of Church Island on June 4th, Michael caught 1 trout at 6½ lbs and Paddy 1 at 4lbs, 2 more trout were caught later in the evening around 2 – 2½ lbs.
Owain Pickersgill, Mullingar – on Friday June 1st using a size 12 Klinkhammer around Curry Rocks, fishing in the afternoon, Owain landed himself a 4lb wild trout.
Patsy Smith, Mountainlodge – 3 trout on Friday June 1st, on a spent, heaviest was 5lbs.
Tommy Curran, Oldcastle – 3 trout on Friday evening, using a spent, heaviest was 3½ lbs.
Ned Clinton, Crover – Tuesday May 29th at 10.30pm 1 trout at 4½ lbs on a spent, Wednesday May 30th 1 trout at 4¾ lbs on a green mayfly around 7.30pm.
Gene Brady, Ballinagh – Tuesday evening 1 trout at 5lbs on the spent.
Vaughan Ruckley from Edinborough and John Murphy, Crover – Wednesday May 30th finishing the spent 5 trout weighing in at 1½ – 3lbs, fishing a long drift from Plunketts point. John also caught another trout of 3lbs on Monday May28th on a spent.
Andrew Doyle, Kells with boatman Pa Tormey – fishing on Tuesday May 29th 1 trout at 5.3 lbs using a grey wulff at the Long Rock.
Gary McKiernan, Cavan – 1 trout of 3½ lb using a dry green mayfly on Monday May 28th.
John Mulvany, Kells – fishing the spent at the Long Rock, 1 trout at 3lbs.
Peter Boyle, Monaghan – 2 trout at 4lbs and 2lbs caught on the nymph on June 2nd.
Frank Kelly, Cavan L.S.T.P.A – on June 1st 3 trout, 1 at 5½ lbs and 2 at 4½ lbs each, all wild fish and caught on the spent mid lake.
Eamon Connors, Kells – on June 1st, 1 trout at 4lbs on the spent gnat.
David McKitterick, Lurgan – 4 trout on June 2nd using a claret dabbler on a top dropper, heaviest was a beauty of 5½ lbs.
Gerard Taggart, Belfast – 1 trout at 2½ lbs using a green dabbler.
Mourice McDevitt, Donegal – on a spent 2 trout at 3lbs each, 1 at 4½ lbs.
Ken Kearns & Peter McArdle, Dundalk – 10 trout for the week, using the spent and murrough, heaviest was 3½ lbs. Ken’s son, 13 year old Graham fished the lake for the first time on Saturday and was rewarded with a lovely 2½ lb trout using a spent. Well done Graham, hopefully this will the start of a lifetime of fishing on Sheelin.
I love you
.......but I have to put you back !
– Owain Pickersgill, Mullingar with his 4 lb wild Sheelin trout caught on friday using a size 12 Klinkhammer and then releasing this beauty back to the water.
Regular English visitor Bill Holmes (who is wearing a lifejacket) with a great trout on Lough Ree
Angling guide Marc O’Regan reports on some wonderful fly fishing for trout and pike in the past six weeks on a variety of waters.
Professor Richard Hoffman from Toronto with a great pike taken on fly, while fishing with angling guide Marc O'Regan Pike and trout on the fly has been excellent April / May 2012
From the middle of April to the end of May both trout and pike fishing has been excellent to the fly. Due to a very protracted period of spawning caused by low water levels in March and high temperatures in April pike were in shallow waters for long periods. On most of the lakes I fished spawning beds were dry and this forced the hens to stay out in the bays bringing good quality fish well within fly range. The difficulty of course was that there were many eager and frustrated jacks about, protecting as it were their larger enigmatic co specifics. North Easterly was the dominant wind throughout the entire period and this brought the water temperature down which benefitted not so much the pike but the trout, I mean from a fishing perspective. Another regular French visitor, Professor Martin Collet from Paris with a lovely fly caught pike
The May fly looked as if it would be early on the mid-land lakes and the experts were predicting heavy hatches in the 1st week of May. Not so, it was the 10th before Danica got into full swing and everything else is history. The Spring International was staged on Sheelin and the results were staggering of course Ireland taking gold was fantastic but the trout were to. Regular English visitor Bill Holmes (who is wearing a lifejacket) with a great trout on Lough Ree
Guests from France, America, Canada and England recorded personal bests on pike and trout in addition to high daily catch rates. The back end looks very promising indeed. Marc O’Regan
Guide and Instructor for salmon, trout and pike fishing. Notes: Guesthouse Owner and home waters include the River Boyne and its tributaries. Also guides on Lough Ree Address: Cranmore, Dunderry Road, Trim, Co. Meath. Telephone: +353 (0)46 9431635 Email:[email protected]Web:www.crannmor.com
The distance from my apartment door and the Avoca River bank is 70 ft exactly. There is a jetty along this bank. Between the river bank and the jetty is a gap about 8ft wide. I was wonder, if there is any chance to get any fish from this narrow corridor.
I threw bread flakes on the water and went home for a cuppa. When I came back, my bread had disappeared and I spotted a couple of mullet cruising around.
I had a take in the very first cast, but missed it. Second cast- missed.
In the 3rd cast I finally hooked the fish. It was a little bit tricky to play with the fish in this narrow corridor but I made it.
After a quick self-taken photo session I released the fish. There was no point in staying longer at this place because the remaining mullet were spooked. I decided to check the opposite bank.
I located a small shoal close to the boat slip. I got 2 mullets one after another over there.
My second fish was very small, with different lips- thin lipped mullet maybe?
I called it a day with 3 fish, not too bad for an 2 hr session , I think.
The last few days on the Suir and tributaries has seen some amazing fishing. We are really busy guiding at the moment, with clients from France, UK, USA and Ireland. Some personal bests have been scored this week with great fishing on dry fly and also nymphs. The best flies have been Klinkhammers and PTN flashback nymphs as well as comparaduns and Balloon Caddis.
Conditions are perfect at the moment as the recent warm and humid weather has improved hatches and made for great dry fly conditions in the evening
Scott Shepherd
Scotts first time fishing in Ireland and he had a great day on the river Anner. The fishing was fantastic with good size fish coming to the nymph and dry fly all day.
Things going to plan for Scott Shepherd on the Suir
Pierre Guerault
Frenchman Pierre, has been here for most of the week and his fishing has been amazing. Mainly fishing small nymphs and small dries he has had some fish up to 18 inches.
Pierre Guerault enjoying the fishing
For the past few weeks we have been playing around with some new PTN flashbacks and Tungsten hot bead flashbacks and they have been very successful. They have worked really well on most of the rivers including the Suir at Cahir and also on the Anner and Nire.
The setup is similar to Czech Nymphing with a 10ft 3wt Greys XF2 Streamflex and a Rio gold Line. We are also now trying with the new Textured Mastery series of Nymph lines with a really nice indicator tip!
Below are some images from a day with David Anchell and also some images with John Paul Williamson
Anglers out on the Urrin have reported brown trout up to 1/2 pound along with the usual smaller fish. While one or two early seatrout have been seen there are no reports of any been landed as yet.
There has also been reasonable brown trout fishing in Baltinglass and Rathvilly area. IFI electro fishing for alien species produced no Dace but we heard of a brown trout in the 3lb class!
