Dublin angler Bert McGregor had some excellent fishing in Kilmore Quay last weekend. The exceptionally mild weather coupled with high pressure systems and calm seas created ideal conditions for boat fishing. Good numbers of pollack up to 9llbs were caught and good sized ling. Most fish were taken by gilling.
Fisheries staff are still busy conducting a fish stock survey, so I haven’t had any reports in this week from around the lake, however I am reliably informed that the duckfly hatch is in full swing in a number of areas, and trout are switched on to them already and are feeding hard. The next week should see good fishing and I hope to have some good reports for the next report, especially with the bank holiday weekend this week.
Angling guides Tomi Kurman and Jack Gorny have been enjoying some great fishing with their clients over the last week, with some great trout landed. The lads have been trying out some new Hybrida lures, and spinning as well as trolling, landing quite a few smaller trout as well as the bigger ferox. On Sunday 2 anglers in one boat had 13 takes and landed 6 fish using the Hybrida lures, while last week Des Canning, who booked a day with the lads along with his brother Michael. Des landed the fish of a lifetime, a magnificent ferox trout that measured 88cm and weighed 18lbs 3oz.
To book a day with lads from the Corrib Predator Team, contact Tomi on 085 731 85 41 or check www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001817618251, or call Jack on 085 774 15 78 or visit his website at www.fishingireland.pl
Ronan Cusack reports that Mask produced very good fishing again this week, with the majority of fish being caught in shallow water on wetfly patterns.
Duckfly hatches are still sparse and only small numbers of trout have been taken on buzzer so far. Ballinrobe angler Frank O’Hara had 2 fish on Thursday last (best fish 1.75lbs). Frank mentioned rising and returning numerous small fish throughout the day. Adrian Armitage and Johnny O’Malley from Mullingar fished on Wednesday and they had 5 fish for their day (best fish 1.75lbs). Joe Fitzharris and friend, Ballyhaunis, also fished on Wednesday, and Joe reported boating 21 fish, including 7 good sized trout, which were also returned. Their best fish on the day was approximately 2lbs. Pat Winning, Cork, fished on Wednesday and Thursday this week and he had 6 fish over the two days (best fish 1.75lbs). Sean O’Loughlin, Galway, fished on Wednesday with Tony O’Donnell and they had 2 fish for the day (best fish 1.75lbs). Ballinrobe anglers Conor O’Mahony and Mick Byrne had 8 fish on Saturday and Sunday of this weekend (best fish 1.75lbs). Sean Maloney, Ballinrobe, fished on Saturday with Noel Farrer from Dublin and they had 10 fish for the day (best fish 2.25lbs). Sean fished again on Sunday and he had a further 5 (best trout 1.75lbs).
Ronan also guides on Mask and can be contacted at [email protected] or on 087 2869487.
Kevin Crowley IFI Galway
E-mail – [email protected]
There may have been a light sprinkling of rain in some areas, and the temperatures were a little cooler than last week but over all the weather has been very settled and anglers have enjoyed some good early season sport.
The first salmon of the 2012 season has finally been landed in Galway. On Friday the 9th, local angler Sean O’Toole caught a small for springer, 5.5lbs, just off the tide. Staying in the west, Delphi has been fishing quite well and 12 fish were taken to last Monday. Mediators and Willie Gunns have been popular choices amongst the anglers. Meanwhile on Carrowmore Green Peters and a Claret Dabblers accounted for a couple of salmon to 11lb. On the River Moy angling continues to improve, with a further three salmon reported over the last week. The Munster Blackwater is not doing so well, after a good showing in February few fish have been encountered despite good water and numerous sightings fresh fish. Lough Currane has also been quiet with the only news from that corner of Kerry being the capture of their first sea trout last Sunday.
Cork Harbour has proved popular amongst cod anglers recently and both soft plastics and baited feathers are accounting for good numbers of fish to 8lb. Jim Clohessey was fishing with Kevin Murphy of Bella Vista and videoed their exploits which can be seen here. Pollack, coalfish and ling were on the menu for a group of food writers fishing with Mark Gannon out of Courtmacsherry on Saturday. Local anglers fishing with Mark on Sunday had even more luck catching pollack to 11lb and ling to 14lb. Jim Hendrick has been working on a new line of flies for sea trout in saltwater and has developed some patterns which are proving quite useful on the south coast. The first mullet reported to the office this year was landed yesterday afternoon in Cork Harbour by a local angler.
Details have been announced of the NCFFI Float and Feeder Team qualifiers to select teams for the 2013 World, European and Celtic Cup teams. Anyone interested in taking part can find the full schedule of events and an entry form here. Ballybay Angling Association held a knock up at Concra Wood. Though it proved to be a tough day’s fishing, there were still plenty of fish about and overall winner was Neil Mazurek with 15lb 10ozs.
Kevin Lyons of Melview Lodge Guesthouse in Longford had his own personal best pike over the weekend. The pike weighed 32lb 8oz and was taken on a mackerel dead bait. It was one of a number of big fish taken by himself and guests on jerk baits, dead baits and fly in the upper Shannon area. Fishing on Lough Erne a group of anglers from the UK had 150 pike, several were double figures with the largest tipping the scales at 16.5lb. Good doubles also featured at some midlands venues and in the Belturbet area.
The warm weather and long evenings over the last few days brought on a hatch of fly and anglers reported some lovely small river and stream fishing. Dark Olives and other early baetids will be hatching on nearly all rivers now and anglers will be eagerly looking forward to the weekend and St. Patrick’s Day, the traditional start to the trout season for many fly anglers.
Congratulations to Ciaran Reilly from Loughrea, County Galway who won the 2012 Youths Inter-provincial Fly Tying Competition over the weekend and good luck to Portroe natives Paul Bourke and Danny Tiernan who launched Irish Fishing Tours last Friday.
Finally, water safety is a big issue and last weekend at Hooked Live Irish Water Safety launched their campaign for 2012 encouraging the wearing of life jackets. We encourage everyone who goes afloat to wear a life jacket and please don’t take any risks with your safety.
Tight lines especially in Ireland
Paul Bourke
Angling Information Officer.
Catch, Photo, Release
THE Munster bank flyfishing championships were held at Ballyhass Lakes on Sunday. Anglers from all corners of Munster turned up to compete in very diffucult conditions due to icy winds and frequent wintry showers.
The competition was fished under international rules with anglers rotating positions every hour. Each competitor fished a total of four one hour sessions…….
The Corkman, 8th March 2012. Read the ful article: http://www.corkman.ie/sport/other-sports/kanturks-shane-bird-comes-second-in-munster-championship-3044348.html
With only a small window of opportunity and the tide fast dropping, Myles Kelly managed to catch the first mullet reported to our offices this year. The fish, caught in Cork Harbour, took the bread bait a number of times before being hooked in the lip. Played on light tackle it took an anxious few minutes to tire before it was safely guided around the stands of sea weed to the shore where it was carefully released after a quick photo.
27 anglers from far and near turned up today to fish the knock up organised originally for Black Island, but due to felling in the foresty the venue was changed to Concra Wood.
It was a tough days fishing on a venue that hasn’t been fished for many months now, but there were still plenty of fish about. With this in mind we decided to pay out on every 4 pegs, and 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th overall.
Section wins were as follows:-
Overall winners:
Ballybay Angling Association would like to thank Concra Wood Golf Club for access across their grounds, Enda Hickey for helping organising the “knockup”, Andy Chapman for helping out with the pegging, etc, and lastly to all the anglers who turned up to fish the match, hope to see you all again soon.
Inland Fisheries Ireland beginners course on Saturday at Annamoe Fishery. 21 participants were taught some fly fishing skills by Glenda Powell (Blackwater Lodge) and Mark Corps (Angling Advisor, IFI). After some schooling in the basics of fly fishing some managed to catch fish up to 3 1/2 lbs. There was no charge to take part but everyone was asked to make a donation to the Irish Cancer Society.
To find out more about fishing at Annamoe call Brian Nally – Mob. 086 2598563
Angling guide and ghillie, Vincent Appleby reports on the latest fishing reports from Lough Currane.
14/03 All quiet on the SW front in all departments, be it fish or wind. No fish caught since Sunday.
11/03 My Noble Salmon may have taken a rain check on today’s manipulating of Flies and Repala’s, but local Gillie Mr. Brod O’Sullivan of Stella Maris Guesthouse Waterville, was telling me that he caught the first Junior/ Sea Trout on the troll of the 2012 Season, and lets hope the next Sea Trout caught, is the great-grandfather or the Great-grandmother of that Junior. Wind SW light to calm and overcast.
No Spin No Fly’s just facts.
Vincent Appleby
Eureka Lodge
Caherdaniel West, Co. Kerry.
Telephone: +353 (0) 87 207 4882
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.salmonandseatrout.com
13/03 It’s been a very good seven days and we have had 3 cracking fish since my last update on Sunday, despite water conditions becoming relatively low.
Keith Pilkington had a 9lb 8oz fish off the Rock Pool yesterday morning. The fish was taken on a Green and Black tube at 9.20am. It was netted by Keith’s long time fishing partner Peter Morrison who did according to Keith attempt to knock the fish off a couple of times but failed to do so and landed the fish safely.
This morning Laurence Lock landed a beautiful 12lb 9oz fish as seen in photo. It was taken in the Rock Pool with the river at 20. The fly was once again a Mediator. Laurence has now landed 3 fish in 4 days which is pretty impressive at this stage of the season.
This afternoon Stewart Woodhead landed a 10lb 8oz fish from the Rock Pool again, 10 minutes after he started to fish on a Dundee United.
The other fish were 1 on Friday, 3 Saturday and 1 on Sunday morning. Friday’s fish was caught by Liam Dunne off Finlough in the stream and weighed in at 10lbs and .5 of an ounce. It also took a Willie Gunn. His fishing partner Paul Smyth had lost one on the river in the morning.
Laurence Lock is back and managed to hook and land a fish within 10 minutes of starting in the stream on Finlough. The fish weighed in at 8lbs2ozs and was taken on a Mediator.
Brian O’Donohue who started on the river on Saturday morning landed 2 fish from the Whin pool, in 30 minutes. The first weighed in at 6lb 5oz and the second was approximately 10lb. Both fish were surprisingly taken on a Willie Gunn!
Laurence Lock had the first salmon off Dooloughon Sunday. The fish weighed about 7lbs. This was taken on a Blair Spoon in Weedy Bay.
The river is still at 20 and hopefully we will get a top up in the next few days. There is still some availability up till and including Friday.
D McEvoy
Delphi Fishery
Delphi Lodge, Leenane, Co. Galway.
Tel: +353 (0)95-42222 Fax +353-95-42296
Web: www.delphi-salmon.com
