An excellent week of angling was had on Carrowmore Lake, with ten salmon reported, bringing the catch total to 19 for the season thus far. Gerry Carolan boated a fine fish of 13lbs while Tony Gibbons, Westport, had one of 11lbs and returned a second. Frank Dooley had success once again, catching two and releasing one. David Lennon, Westport, had one of 8lbs, as did John Cosgrove, Bangor Erris and Ben Banes. Martin McDonnell, Belmullet, boated one of 9lbs with Vincent Rigney capturing one of 8.75lbs. The Green Peter appears to be the most productive fly on the Lake at present.
Angling effort on the Moy has been surprisingly low over the past week, resulting in only two salmon being caught. Water levels have dropped considerably, with many fisheries now at fly fishing level. The East Mayo Anglers’ water produced its first springer of the year, a 9lbs salmon caught by Declan McNulty, Swinford, on the worm. Downstream on the Ballina Salmon Anglers’ water, Steven McGinty caught his second of the season, a 6.5lbs fish, also caught on worm. Anglers are reminded that angling is free on the Ridge Pool until the first fish of the season is caught on the beat. For further details contact the Moy Fishery office on Tel: +353 (0)96 21332 or Email: [email protected].
Once again many anglers have enjoyed great success on Lough Conn, with Ronnie Chambers, Belfast, reporting ten trout for a days fishing. All of Ronnies’ fish weighed between 1lbs and 1.5lbs, were taken on Buzzers and were all released. Elsewhere on the Lough, Harry McCafferty had four for a day and Mick McNeeley and Brendan Breslin, Knockmore, had two each off Brankwansha shore, their best was 2lbs.
Joe Ferguson, Knockmore, had three trout in an hour off Glass Island, all taken on a Bibio. Ian Wise boated two trout to the Buzzer, with boat partner John Warren landing one. Finally John Corcoran caught one of 2lbs in Bog Bay.
Lough na Leibe is continuing to fish well with anglers experiencing good catches. A total of sixty-four trout were reported by ten anglers for the week, in addition there were a further thirty-one caught during the fly fishing competition held on the Lough on Sunday 25th. There were good hatches of duckfly throughout the week as well as increasing numbers of olives appearing. On Monday the 19th, Francis Brady caught fifteen trout while Tommy Lynch caught nine. New club member Jason Chandler did particularly well on Friday the 23rd,landing a total of sixteen trout and losing numerous other fish in play. Successful fly patterns included the small midge pupae patterns, small nymph patterns, buzzer patterns and emerging duckfly patterns. The Sunday fly fishing competition was won by Francis Brady with 7 trout, Martin Lawrence landed 10 trout to take second place, and in third was Anthony Walsh with 5 fish.
24/03/12 Peter has fished the Royal Canal (in the upper Shannon Catchment) on several occasions only producing a few Roach, but today was excellent with Peter so excited that he nearly took the paint off of the doors rushing round here to show us photos of the first Tench of 2012. He managed 4 great Tench, with a smattering of Roach, he was driven off by the cold evening air. He did have a large 10 lb+ Carp cruise under his rod tip which was a shock. Hopefully we will start seeing an influx of anglers soon as the fishing is sure to improve.
The ever decreasing water level has meant the better stamp of trout have been keeping their heads down over the last few days. Despite this there has been still plenty of trout in the 20cm to 25cm range playing the game to give anglers a good days sport. Dromore Angling Club competition on Saturday past was well supported with Warren Campbell top rod, Nigel Greer second and Andrew Sloan third, the competitors reported plenty of fish but again the smaller brethren were more dominant. Local anglers on this system are eagerly looking forward to a good black gnat fall this year, judging by the quality of fish in March there should be some real lumps on the go. This can be the pinnacle of fishing on the Lagan, akin to mayfly hatches on other systems, with some real quality wild trout on the go. Anyone wishing to get the most from the black gnat fishing should contact local guide Brian Russell.
The sunshine and heat of the past few days has seen an abundance of midge hatching on these two mid – Ulster rivers. Olive hatches are not as prevalent and it will take a change in weather to see them flourish again. But the fishing has been good for those anglers prepared to fish small midge patterns down to size 22. Some fine trout up to 38cm have been recorded in both rivers from the more shaded areas of the rivers, where pods of fish are sipping down midge. This can take perseverance as the fish can be somewhat fussy as they are sitting high in the water and can see all. Nymphs can still account for a fish or two but March tactics this year have not been the norm, scratching the bottom with heavy nymphs has been superseded with dryfly a good month earlier than usual. After the brilliant start to fishing local anglers are full of anticipation for April and May – bring on the black fly!
Chris Sandford Displays his Catch at last Weeks Media Competition
A media fly fishing competition took place on Friday, 23rd March at Annamoe Trout Fishery, Annamoe, Co. Wicklow. Organised by Annamoe Trout Fishery the event now in its eighth year at Annamoe and is still proving extremely popular in attracting the top angling media from Ireland.
Derek Evans at Last Weeks Media Event in Annamoe
16 anglers from a variety of broadcast and print media took part in the competition on the scenic fly fishing lake in Annamoe Fishery. Competitors included Fergal Keane from RTE, Brian Cooke from Irish Anglers Digest, Mick Flanagan from the Sunday World and Ed Carty from the Press Association of Ireland.
Attendees at last weeks Media Competition
The day was mild and overcast combined with light winds creating good fishing conditions. The fishery was split into four zones and each angler fished an hour in each zone, giving each angler an opportunity to fish all parts of the lake. The morning session proved very productive with many fish caught. Catch and release applied, the winning score based on the cumulative length of Trout caught. Peter O’Reilly, game fishing author was the first to strike gold with a great fighting rainbow which was followed by many more. John Buckley from Total Fly Fishing was also quick off the mark with many fish being caught with Dave McBride from Southside Angling not far behind. Following a delicious lunch provided by Brian Nally of Annamoe Trout fishery, competitors returned to the fishery. John’s fighting form continued as he caught and released 21 fish in total which landed him the first prize ahead of all other competitors! In total 85 hard fighting rainbow trout were caught, recorded and released during the competition.
Chris Sandford Displays his Catch at last Weeks Media Competition
Ms. Suzanne Campion, Director of Business Development at Inland Fisheries Ireland presented the prizes. John Buckley from Total Fly Fishing magazine won the competition for the second year running and was presented with a Waterford Crystal trophy sponsored by Failte Ireland and Second place went to Dave McBride from Southside Angling with Peter O’Reilly, author, coming third. Prizes were principally sponsored by Annamoe Trout Fishery. Other prizes were donated by Southside Angling, Emerger Tackle and Inland Fisheries Ireland.
Des Chew and Suzanne Campion at last weeks Media Event at AnnamoePeter O'Reilly Attended Last Weeks Media Event at Annamoe
Brian Nally of Annamoe Trout Fishery thanked all the sponsors the participants for a tremendous event and welcomed them back at any time.
Dublin angler Vinnie McConnell had some great fishing at Town Lake, Bailieboro last weekend. He caught a lovely bag of bream and roach on an evening session using corn and red maggot for hook bait. He prebaited a swim with hemp, corn and maggots mixed with breadcrumb and maize and his hard work paid off.
Conor Arnold contacted Ian Powell yesterday afternoon March 26th to ask if he could go trout fishing to Ballyhooly. Ian suggested he go instead to Kilmurry with the salmon rod as it was free.
He caught this fish at dusk (7.15pm) on a #10 shrimp fly on a floating line. This is more akin to summer rather than spring fishing with the air temperature in the afternoon up to 16°C.
Conor Arnold with Kilmurry salmon
This is the fourth springer for March which doesn’t sound a lot, but is remarkable when you consider that there have been only 41 rod days so far for the whole month. Total for the season so far is now nine.
The Blackwater was in fantastic fly order at 9.00am this morning with clarity #5-6 feet. Having held at 0.30 for about 4 days, the river is now dropping very slowly once more & was at 0.27m this morning at 9.00am. Water temp. 48°F. Beautiful fly height with summer level.
Prospects
The forecast is for continuing dry weather for most of the week. The longer-range forecast is for a very wet start to April.
