During their stay in Foxford, the Monier Family, France, enjoyed a great day’s pike fishing with guide Kenny Sloan. Cedric had the best fish of the day (pictured below) which has been his best sized pike to date. Trolling proved to be the best method on the day. For guided fishing or boat rental contact Kenny on Tel: +353 (0)949256501 or Mob: +353 (0)879670310.
Skipper of the Leah, Donal Kennedy reported on a party of anglers who set out from Killala Harbour for a day’s fishing on Saturday 12th May 2012. It was the first outing for a number of days as the bay was hit by fresh to strong north to north easterly winds. A window emerged on Saturday and it took a while for the fish to start feeding. However, the angling party was not disappointed when some nice coalfish were caught. Additionally, the group had approximately 15 pollack with the best weighing close to 8lbs, two nice cod, a few cuckoo wrasse, pouting, and mackerel.
On Saturday, 12th Fisheries Awareness Week kicked off in the Salmon Capital of Ireland with a Juvenile Angling Day on the Moy Fishery.
Water conditions on the Cathedral Beat were unsuitable on the day for juveniles, so we moved the venue to the Freshwater Beat of the Moy fishery.
The first hour’s fishing went well, but unfortunately the juvenile anglers did not connect with any fish. The world Famous Ridge Pool became available in the early evening, so to the delight of the juveniles attending, the venue was moved again to the Ridge. A few springers showed in the lower section on the beat, resulting in shaky hands and renewed effort on behalf of the children, keen to catch their first ever spring salmon.
The fish however, did not co-operate and refused to take the children’s offerings of worm, Flying ‘C’, spoon or fly. Thirty-six juveniles participated on the day, some of whom never even held a fishing rod before, with many vowing to return in July for the Moy Fisheries Juvenile Angling day during the Ballina Salmon Festival.
Under the watchful eye of Inland Fisheries Ireland Angling Officer, Bryan Ward they learned their new skill and had a wonderful day.
May 6th to May 13th 2012
“The finest gift you can give to any fisherman is to put a good fish back, and who knows if the fish that you caught isn’t someone else’s gift to you”
Lee Wulff
Sheelin battled the elements last week with north easterly winds sweeping across the lake on most days accompanied by squally showers of rain, sleet and hail. Gail force south westerly winds on Sunday last May 13th made conditions dangerous and more than difficult for the most determined angler.
Yet despite the tough fishing conditions Sheelin did not disappoint its anglers and reinforced its reputation as being one of the best trout fishing lakes in Europe with the catch of the first specimen trout of the season – a magnificent almost 11lb wild trout caught by Gary Connor of Armagh on Saturday May 11th using a gosling close to the Sally Islands. This fish was released back into the water to fight another day.
The fly life has been sparse on the lake and again this can be attributed to the unseasonably cold weather where temperatures dipped to 1 -2 degrees at night and barely crossed 10 degrees during the day. There were hatches of Mayfly along the western shore on Saturday and in the more sheltered points along Wilson’s pt. Walkers Bay, Merry pt. and Crover during the week.
The fishing on this lake is very much governed by wind direction, the wind dictates where the fly will be. In cold weather the fish feed deep and are difficult to locate. The ideal conditions are calm waters or a gentle ripple and of course some bit of warmth which isn’t happening at the moment but it will and when it does, Sheelin will explode into a fisherman’s haven. We just have to wait…
This week sees the arrival of the teams to fish the now famous International Fly Fishing competition. This most important and prestigious event in the trout fishing calendar was last held on this lake in 1976 (this competition first started in 1928) so it is a major honour to see its return to us and for that we have to thank the Lough Sheelin Protection Association who achieved this major coup.
The teams (14 anglers to each team) are from Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales and will fish 3 prematch days starting tomorrow May 15th with the official competition date being Friday May 18th.
All is fair in fishing and war and we wish all teams the best of luck and tight lines but we’ll keep our fingers crossed for the Irish !
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 1st. 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
3rd €54 & electric engine & crystal
A catch and release policy is actively encouraged on this lake.
108 trout were recorded for the week, fish averaged 1¾ – 2½ lbs.
Flies featuring predominantly are the Welshman’s Button, Gosling, Octopus, Green Mayfly, Black Pennell, Fiery Brown, Thunder & Lighting, Buzzer, French Partridge, Green Wulff and Black Mayfly Nymph – to a non fishing person these names look like a line up for the Grand National……..
Some catches were:
Alan Hughes, Mountnugent, Cavan –on May 11th at the end of Bog Bay, one trout at 5lbs using a gosling.
Father and son – Michael and Gary Leddy from Stradone, Cavan caught 3 trout using wet green mayflies, heaviest was 3lbs.
Shane McQuillan – one trout at 2½ lbs on a dark green dabbler.
Robert Whyte, Dublin – wet fly fishing using a mayfly two trout at 2 and 2½ lbs.
Robert Reilly, Galway – one trout at 3lbs using a wet mayfly.
Joe McKay, Ballymoney – one trout at 1½ lbs using a claret dabbler at Merry pt. on May12th.
Dessie McEntee, Cavan – Dessie’s favourite fly is an octopus as he maintains that it is the only fly is catching for him and its working with 3 lovely trout for the week weighing in at 2½, 2½ and 2¾ lbs, all caught around Wilsons/Holywell area of the lake
A 3½ lb trout caught on May 9th by Gary McKiernan, Cavan
Martin Connor, Armagh – on May 11th one fish at 2lbs using a green dabbler around Summerville. 4 trout on May 12th averaged 2½ – 3½ lbs caught on a buzzer and mayfly.
Gary Connor, Armagh – as well as catching the trout of the month (so far) Gary caught a 2lb fish on friday using a dabbler along the Western shore and two trout on Saturday averaging 2½ -3½ lbs on a balling buzzer.
Alan Hughes, Clones – fishing in Goreport on Friday May 11th, two trout, heaviest at 3½ lbs using a black buzzer.
David Taylor, Northern Ireland – one trout at 2½ lbs on an octopus.
Vinny Hughes, Clones – 3 trout on Wednesday heaviest was 2½ lbs, two fish on Saturday May 11th on the dry, heaviest was over 4lbs in Goreport. Vinny comments that although there are a lot of fish ‘they are hard got’.
On May 8th ghillied by Lough Sheelin guiding services (web site www.loughsheelinguiding) a visiting UK angler Merlin Unwin of Merlin books returned to Sheelin after an absence of 18 years and landed himself a lovely 2lb trout and lost another using mayfly patterns but Mr Unwin will not leave it this long again to return.
Billy Quail, Drumcree – fishing on Monday and Tuesday using a buzzer in the Bog Bay – 6 trout, heaviest was 3lbs.
Donegal men Michael McCluskey and Morris McDevitt battled through the winds last Sunday to catch 4 trout on the dry green mayfly averaged 2¾ – 3½ lbs, fishing in Holywell.
Brenda Montgomery
Last week saw consistently good fishing on the Annalee and its tributary the Dromore River. The up and down water levels never help but fortunately when the Annalee is too high the Dromore is usually fishable. Andrew Sloan, Stuart McMurran and Neil McMullen fished both rivers on bank holiday Monday and all recorded great quantities of quality trout. There where hatches of iron blues and large dark olives that really turned the fish on. The fishing was so good that Andrew and Neil returned on the Friday 11th and found that the Annalee was coloured so spent the day on the Dromore River. It didn’t fail to disappoint with hatches as per the previous day but a hatch of mayfly in the afternoon was a welcome addition as the trout soon switched onto them. If the weather would settle somewhat it would allow the mayfly hatch to materialise fully and maybe result in some good evening spent fishing.
Brian Russell
Dromore Angling Club held their qualifier for anglers to represent the club in next years Ulster Championship on Saturday 12th May. The recent wet and changeable weather didn’t dampen the spirits of the seven competitors nor the trout. The competitors fished four one hour sessions to international rules and the controllers recorded and returned an incredible 127 measurable trout. Mathew Russell was the winner with Andrew Sloan and Stuart McMurran close on his heels, all three will have the priviledge of representing the club in next years Championship. The competition didn’t appear to have a negative effect on the fish at all as Club Secretary Michael Shanks fished the river that evening and reported his best fishing this year with plenty of fish in the 20cm to 34cm range falling to the duo method. Monday and Tuesday evening of this week has seen plenty of fish rising to midge in the more sheltered areas of the river. Despite the good fishing local anglers are hoping for shirt sleeve weather so that the blackfly can get the better trout going again.
Brian Russell
Saturday’s Open Day at the Fisheries Field in Galway turned out to be great fun !! Here are some photos of the cheerful participants…..
And on Monday May 14th we have Merlinda Duffy from Tuam with a nice flounder caught during the Introduction to Beach Fishing event held by Inland Fisheries Ireland as part of Fisheries Awareness Week
The Rosguill which operates from Mulroy Bay, near Downings in Donegal caught a variety of fish over the last couple of weeks. Here is a selection:
On May 2nd a lady retrieved her line to find half a ling. This happens fairly regularly during the season – angler winding up a fish only to be hit by something big and up comes the head. Unusual because of the time of year
Heather & Michael McVeigh
Rossguill Charterboat
The Fisherman’s Village Lodge
Downings
Co Donegal
Telephone: 074 9155080 / +353 74 9155080
http://www.rosguill.com/category/fishing-news/
eMail: [email protected]
David from Arklow, an experienced lure fisherman should apply for a job in The Met Ofiice. Reason? He could predict the bad weather. It’s always rain when he’s off and Wednesday May 9th was no exception!!
He tells us-
“Being stuck in the house, my feets were itching to go somewhere and wet the line. This time I decided to give a try to my doorstep river. Avoca is very famous in the Country for pollution ( shame on the County Council), but still holds stocks of salmon, sea trout, brownies, eels, huge mullets and … nice flounder.
After last week heavy downpours mixed with high Spring tides, the river became clean, with all the stinky stuff washed away to the sea.
Increased current activity let me think there could be some fish in the river.
I decided to do LRF for flounder, which used to enter the Avoca every year in May.
My setup was simple- 2” Mann’s shad mounted on 3g jighead with the mono line 0,18mm 10 lb ( I need that strong line for the snags ). Rod up 10g c.w and Shimano 1000 size reel.
Just after a few casts I was in contact with this nice fish, which gave me good fight on the light rod.
Flounder was hooked gently in the bottom jaw. My first this year. Shortly after I managed another fish in the similar size. I had one more bite and surprisingly landed a fine rainbow trout , which was lucky to escaped from my hands while taking photo. After short 40 min session it has started rain, so I called it a day.
Last Sunday May 13th I had the pleasure of meeting up with Dave fom lurefish-ireland.com on my homegrounds. We’ve spent much more time on chat, than fish, but still managed to catch something in between.
David Lurefishing
Arklow
Colm Lynch from East Coast Angling in Navan reports that there has been very good wild brown trout fishing on the River Boyne in Navan with plenty of trout to 1.5lbs being taken by anglers. The river is currently in very good condition with the water continuing to fall and clear. The Mayfly hatch has improved but the cold temperatures and cool breezes have slowed the hatch down in the Navan area.
Colm has had some nice trout himself lately and has had a couple of outings on Sheelin as well. Best fish on Sheelin 2lbs. Shane Mc Quillan also fished Sheelin and got a lovely 2.5lb trout. The fish on Sheelin have been moving to the hatching fly but Colm has reported that he has not come across a fall of spents yet.
For further information Colm can be contacted by email at [email protected]
