Bryan Ward reports that it was a poor week on the lower Moy fisheries around Ballina town, not surprising with virtually no angling effort combined with high water levels. The most significant catches were recorded in the mid and upper stretches of the Moy, where the weekly combined catch totalled an excellent 376 salmon. However, the upper Ballina Salmon Anglers’ water did produce good catches as did the Mount Falcon fishery, where John Price, U.K., landed a total of 10 salmon, releasing all but one.
The Knockmore, Attymass and Coolcronan water’s all produced relatively good sport. At Coolcronan, Chris Cosgrove and Dickie Harte, N.Ireland, both had success landing a grilse each to the worm. At Byrnes, angler’s enjoyed some success, while good angling was reported from Armstrong’s and Gannon’s. The Foxford Fishery also enjoyed a good week, as did Rinanney and the Foxford town fisheries.
At Cloongee, anglers enjoyed relative success, again despite the low angling effort. Among those catch fish at Cloongee were Christian Moranzoni, France, who had two small grilse and a further 5 lb. grilse while spinning. Marco Kelser, Switzerland, also had one of 5lbs while Beatrice Valaize had a fine fish of 10 lb. also to a spinner.
East Mayo Anglers’ water also enjoyed success, with fish being caught on fly, spinner and worm, the majority of which were sportingly released. Christian Lischke, Germany, had two on spinner at East Mayo, as did fellow German Thomas Weiss, while Matthias Engles (also Germany) had two small grilse on fly.
Larry Durrigan with a salon of 19 lb. from the River Glyde
River Dee
From early Last week both rivers got about 2~3 inches of water and a good steady run of both sea trout and salmon entered the system, The water had a nice bit of colour but there was about 2 foot of clarity so it made the sea tout fishing on the fly during the day more successful. l
We had a sea trout competition on the Dee last Sunday, the results are as follows:
1st Martin Mc Kenny Ardee 3 lb 1 oz
2nd Jim Kerns Stabannan 2 lb
3rd Brain Johnson Ardee 1 lb 3oz.
Lots of fish about 0.5 -1 lb where caught and returned,small sea trout seem to be the bulk of the fresh run at the moment, lots of salmon where observed rolling and pitching on the day.
River Glyde
Salmon fishing on the Glyde has been good, the main run is on with salmon been caught every day despite low angling pressure.
Last Wednesday Larry Durrigan Ardee had 3 salmon including 1 great fish which measured a little over 35” which on the conversion table puts the fish at 19 lbs the other 2 where 5 lb and 9 lb.
On the same day our chairman Gerry Keenan had 2 salmon 7 lb & 6 lb.
Peter Callaghan Ardee 1 x 6 lb,
On Friday Antony Reynolds Castlebellingham had 2 salmon and Ray Thomson also had 2
Sunday morning Peter Callaghan had another fish of 8lb and Gerry Keenan had another 2 fish,
Monday Peter Mc Caughty had1 fish and Antony Reynolds 1 fish. All fish where fresh caught on shrimp and returned
Prospects look good this week with fresh fish coming in on most tides and with the fish pass working again on Lynns weir on the Glyde its driving the fish up the system.
The last two weeks has seen a great improvement in the number of Salmon arriving in the River Fane. Some very big Salmon have been taken including a 16 lb fish caught by Michael McKenny from Ardee which was returned. Patsy Mathews from Dundalk had a 13lb fish from the Mill Pool and David Crawley from Dundalk had a lovely 11 1/2lb Salmon which won him the Annual Salmon Competition for the Irene Quinn Cup. Robert Babington had a fish 14lbs which was returned, Eamon Berrils from Dundalk had a 15 lb fish, Seamus Morgan from Crossmaglen had a 11lb fish.
There are plenty of Salmon in the river however more rain is needed to take the fish upriver to the faster water at Stephenstown and Knockbridge. Most of the of the Salmon are being taken in the river from Stephenstown Bridge down to the sea.
John Holmes specimen wrasse 2.36 kilos with Suzanne Campion, head of Business Developement, Inland Fisheries Ireland.
John Holmes specimen wrasse 2.36 kilos with Suzanne Campion, head of Business Developement, Inland Fisheries Ireland.
‘Screaming Reels’ from Rosie’s sea angling club in Cork won the 26TH Rosslare Small Boats competition, which was held from 10-16th September with 26 different species of fish in what was a very tight competition, beating 35 other boats from Ireland and the UK.
Sponsored by Inland Fisheries Ireland, Failte Ireland, Daiwa Sports UK and Sea Angler magazine, the event attracted more than 100 anglers from the Isle of Wight, Southport, Liverpool, Blackpool, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. All anglers stayed locally for up to two weeks. Weather conditions for the competition were extremely challenging with hurricanes blowing early in the week making boat fishing impossible. However as the week wore on, conditions improved and competitors managed to fish the normally four day competition in three days by launching their boats once from Kilrane in Rosslare and twice from Kilmore Quay and fishing restricted areas along the Wexford Coast. The fishing was excellent with a total of 33 different species recorded!
The competition was exciting from start to finish due to the close results each day. The overall results demonstrated this with first place going to ‘Screaming Reels’ (Martyn Rayner, Seirt Shults, Neville Murphy, Rosie’s Sea Angling club in Cork) with 26 species for 31.16 kilos. This is a fantastic achievement for this team of anglers who have won the competition three times in the last four years.
This was followed closely in second place by ‘Nirvana’ (Richie Stead, Keith Pemberton from the Wirral boat angling club) with 26 species for 19.20 kilos. In third place was ‘Rogie’s Girl’ (Mark Rogan, Jake Rogan, Darren Leatherbarrow, Mike Woods from Southport boat angling club) with 24 species for 19.88 kilos. Jake Rogan aged 15 was also the winning junior of the competition and it is the second time he has fished it with his Dad, Mark Rogan.
A great variety of fish were recorded during the week with 33 different types of species including coalfish, dogfish, dab, flounder, pollack, ray, wrasse and many mini species such as corkwing wrasse, dragonet and sea scorpion. There were some fantastic specimen fish caught during the week with two specimen ballan wrasse caught, one weighing 2.36 kilos caught by John Holmes from Blackpool and the other weighing 2.20 kilos caught by Phil Dawson from Lincolnshire. There were two other specimen fish recorded, one a fine specimen bull huss of 7.92 kilos caught by John Williams on board the boat ‘Uptide Girl’ from Wallasey. Stefan Young on board the boat ‘Northern Lights’ from Wigan caught a rockling of 0.82 kilos. (All specimen fish have to be verified by the ISFC).
The heaviest round fish was a conger weighing 8.78 kilos caught by the boat Cod ‘n’ Bass and the heaviest flat fish was a flounder weighing 0.40 kilos caught by the boat ‘Reel Action’. The best female angler was Sue Tait from the boat ‘Predator 2’, from Cork who had 24 species for 16.40 kilos.
‘Redmond’s The Bay’ in Rosslare Strand hosted the prizegiving for the first time in the history of this competition which was a great success, the hospitality of John Redmond and his staff was outstanding. Prizes were awarded in a variety of categories including the best specimen, heaviest flat fish, heaviest round fish, winners from each day as well as the overall winners. The prizes were presented by Josie Mahon, Inspector, Inland Fisheries Ireland, Blackrock.
Screamin Reels 1 team winners with Josie Mahon, Inland Fisheries Ireland
The total prize fund for the competition was €14,000 and consisted of a variety of prizes including fishing equipment products as well as substantial monetary prizes and engraved trophies. Sponsors for the competition in the UK are Daiwa Sports Ltd and Sea Angler magazine and in Ireland, sponsors included Inland Fisheries Ireland, Failte Ireland and the Kilmore Quay Harbour office. Josie Mahon Inspector – Eastern River Basin District
Tel +353 (0)1 278 7022
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Kevin Crowley reports that the high winds of the last 10 days have made boat angling next to impossible, and many charter boats are confined to harbour at the moment. Shore angling is going well, however, and Shane Rochford from Collooney, Co. Sligo managed a fantastic catch over the weekend, landing a bull huss of 20lbs from a mark in Clew Bay. I also have reliable reports of good bass fishing on lures from the north Clare area. If the weather settles down at all I would expect to hear good reports from charter boat anglers, as this time of year is very productive if you can get out at all.
Kevin Crowley reports that the Connaught Angling Council in conjunction with the Tuam Anglers Association held the TAFI Interprovincial River Championships on the Clare River last Sunday. Anglers participated from the four provinces of Ireland with people travelling from Warrenpoint, Cork, Kerry and the midlands. The competition was held on a catch-and-release basis with 22 trout caught for 26 anglers. Conditions could only be described as challenging with high water levels.
Ian Howard from Munster won the individual event and the team prize was contested between Leinster and Munster, with Leinster taking pole position. The Connaught Angling Council would like to thank everyone who helped with the event including the staff and management of the Ard Rí Hotel. My thanks to Sean Finnerty, PRO of the Connaught Angling Council for the report.
Kevin Crowley reports that the season is coming to an end on Lough Corrib, where fishing has been reasonably good lately. I just have reports from a few local competitions fished on the lake over the weekend. The Ennis Anglers held a competition out of Greenfields, with local guide Basil Shiels taking first place with a catch of 4 trout for 6.25 lb. Second place went to Ger Colohan and another angler whose name I haven’t received, with one fish for 1.5 lb. each.
The Martin Molloy Cup was held out of Derrymoyle, with 27 anglers recording 12 trout over the size limit. Tim Molloy took first prize, with 2 trout for 1.55 kg. Peter Curran was 2nd, with 1 trout for 1.02 kg, and Gerry Dixon was 3rd, with 1 trout for 1.008 kg.
The McGrath Cup, a team event, was won by Harold O’Toole and Stephen Greaney, with 7 trout for 8.25 lb., while Pat and Mike McGrath took second place with 4 trout for 4.8 lb. 50 anglers competed and landed 32 trout over the limit.
The only other report I have is from Sean Naughton from Tuam, who landed a fine trout of 7.5 lb. on the fly.
High winds today will put many anglers off the lake, but winds are due to moderate over the next few days and fishing should be good over the last week or so of the season. At this time of year many trout are getting ready to spawn, so please exercise restraint and don’t take gravid fish – releasing fish now will pay off with better fishing in the years to come.
The Connaught Angling Council in conjunction with the Zetland Hotel held the TAFI Interprovincial Lake Championships on the Gowla and Athry Fisheries last Saturday. It was a great success, with 30 anglers participating representing the 4 provinces of Ireland. Anglers travelled from as far as Warrenpoint, Co. Antrim, Kerry, Cork and Donegal. The competition was held on a catch-and-release basis with 80 trout caught for the day.
Kenneth Cormican from Loughrea Anglers won the individual event and also the longest trout, a fine specimen of 50 cm. The team event was closely contested by Connaught and Munster, with Munster taking the prize in the end. The Connaught Angling Council would like to thank everyone who travelled and participated including Mr. Colm Redmond and all his staff at the Zetland Country House Hotel. My thanks to Sean Finnerty, PRO of the Connaught Angling Council for the report.
Nigel Rush reports from Kylemore on good fishing, with 132 salmon landed for the season, almost up to last year’s total of 137, despite much lower fishing effort. Geoffrey Fitzjohn had a good day on Sunday, landing 5 fish including 2 from the Middle River and 3 from the Lower River. 4 fish were landed on Saturday, including one for Denis McMurry, and 2 for Nigel himself. Michael Blake had success with one fish at 8.5 lb. from Adam’s Pool on the Upper River, and angling partner Russell Whiteman landed one of 4 lb. from Bog Dale also on the Upper River.
To book fishing at Kylemore Abbey, contact Nigel at +353 (0)95 41178 (fishery office) or +353 (0)95 41161 (home).
John Roulston 11.5 lb Fish Heffernan's Wed 14th Sept
John Roulston 11.5 lb Fish Heffernan's Wed 14th Sept
Laune Salmon and Trout Anglers’ Association waters and Beat 3.
As of Wednesday 21st September water at 3 feet on the gauge at Johnston’s. A bit high and carrying a bit of debris and fallen leaves but easy to put up with when there is a good chance of a pull on fly or other method.
There were a lot of fish caught by all methods this past week among the anglers in luck were Michael O’Shea, Jerome Dowling, Michael Spillane, John Roulston, Richard Barry, Billy Downes, Sinead Downes, Garry Fernane, Tony Murphy, Paul Murphy to name but a few.
Visiting anglers: Greg Vincent had seven fish for the week, Stuart Pitman had two the best 10 lbs,. These two Welsh anglers returned all but two of their fish, they got one each smoked at the Fishery in Killorglin for return to Wales. Ben Hanson fishing with John Roulston on his first trip to the Laune had two fish on lost a 12 lb fish at the net and returned a 9 lb red fish.
Double Figure Club: This week John Roulston, Richard Barry, Stuart Pitman and a French visitor had fish in double figures respectively, 11.5 lbs, 10 lbs, 10 lbs and 14 lbs.
Towards the end of the week and over the weekend fishing was slow to the fly, it should improve if the water ever settles.
There were 30 salmon reported for the week.
Beat 3: The fishing on Beat 3 is a bit disappointing as I would judge the water level to be perfect but most anglers are blanking there on all methods.
Note to Permit Holders:
Please not there may be a restriction on the sale of permits depending on demand. Also note that Permit Holders cannot fish Johnston’s after the 15th of September. You may be asked by any member to show your permit and make sure that you display the appropriate portion of the permit of on the dash of your vehicle. Also our five Warranted Officers will be patrolling and checking for permits, these officers and indeed the members will be delighted to assist you with advice on tackle and where to fish.
