Finally a spell of dry weather saw water levels fall to normal summer level in Galway, and we had fairly stable conditions for most of the month, although northerly winds for the first week or so saw more water coming over the sluice gates and made for tricky wading and casting. There was no June heatwave this year, which kept water temperatures stable, in contrast to last year, when the fishery closed for 10 days due to high temperatures.
There were 150 salmon recorded for the month, with most of these taken on the fly. The best fish for the month was a 9.5lbs salmon caught on fly in the Rock Pool by Damian Lawless, a long-timer visitor to Galway. This year the average size of the grilse is of note, with a lot of 5-7lbs fish and very few of 4lbs or less. The most successful flies were a Stoats Tail and a Munro Killer in size 12.
Among the lucky anglers were Michael Cosgrove, with sons Blair and Conor, home on holiday from Dubai, who all landed grilse on their visit under the guidance of proud grandad Henry . Brothers Dave and Declan Reilly from Dublin also landed fish, and Frank O’Hanrahan 2 grilse on fly. Brian O’Donoghue landed 3 grilse on fly, while Paddy Gargan and Brian O’Rourke had a brace each, all on fly.
A nice fish for Simon Lenihan, kept in the water once landed and unhooked safely in the net before release.
Lewis Mathews had 2 fish for his visit, and his brother Jasper had one. Simon Lenihan fished the spinner and had a fine 7.5lbs fish, followed by a grilse on the fly. German visitor Werner Meckle had 3 fish for his visit, including a fish of 7.3lbs. John Mcarthy had 2 fish to 7lbs on the 24th, both on the fly. Neil Spellacy also had a stunning fish just shy of 8lbs.  At the end of the month the grilse run was in full swing, with anticipation high for July.
Go Fishing
To enquire about availability, contact the fishery at 091 562388 or email [email protected]Â
PJ Maguire and his daughters Annie (9) and Rosie (6) were out on Inchiquin at Corrofin in Co Clare at the weekend for a bit of trout fishing. The trio were only trolling 10 minutes when the rod Rosie was holding buckled over. At first PJ thought Rosie’s 7cm Ryuki lure was stuck in the bottom because the line was screaming line off the reel. So he took the rod from Rosie to try free the lure. When he suddenly felt the head shakes he quickly handed her back the rod to let her play her catch.
The fish made several long runs and they were all was convinced it was a big pike. PJ was ready with the net and when the fish came under the boat he could see it was a huge brown trout the biggest he’d ever seen. He tells us that at this moment his knees went weak. It took 4 or 5 attempts to net the fish and on the 6th attempt they lander her. With the fish in the boat it was clear the little Rosie at 6 years of age had defied all expectation with what turned out to be a 9lb brown trout measuring 66cm. After a few photos the fish went back strong to fight another day.
As PJ told us, “A day we’ll all remember for a long time.”
May was a slow month with only 1 salmon caught by Urs Leibundgut on Beat 9 in the Gauge Pool on a Cascade weighing 10lbs. June started off slow with low water conditions. The river finally got the first bit of rain on the 9th, after nearly a month of dry weather. Niall Lynch took advantage of the dropping flood the next day, landing a 2lbs sea trout and a 2.5lbs grilse on Beat 9, fishing a Sunray.
John Phelan had two fine catches on the following two days, landing a 12lbs fish on the 11th, and an 11lbs fish on the 12th. Both fish came off Beat 9 and took a Cascade. The run of good fish continued, as the following day Eoin Warner landed fish of 14lbs and 9 lbs on Beat 5, fishing a Sunray tube. Alastair Purdy also landed 3 salmon to 7lbs in the Falls Pool on an Alastair tube.
The next few days saw water levels drop away again, although there were salmon for Jake Delaney and Conor O’Leary, and a few sea trout landed including 2 for James O’Neill to 2lbs.
Rain again on the 21st saw a nice flood of 1.7m on the gauge and the next day Lucy Leigh Livingstone landed a 4.25lbs grilse in the Falls Pool and Ken Livingstone had a grilse of 5.25lbs; both fish took a Park Shrimp. Over the next couple of days there were further grilse landed by Ken Livingstone, Alastair Purdy and Michael Wade, who had 2 fish to 5.5lbs off Beat 9. John Phelan had a grilse and 4 sea trout to his rod.
Another 1.8m flood on the 27th saw good water for the rest of the month, and among the anglers to capitalise were Henry and Eoin Cosgrove, who had a grilse each to 6lbs, Neil Spellacy with a 5lbs grilse, and Eugene McCarthy, who landed a grilse and 2 sea trout off Beat 9.
Keep ’em wet – good fish handling makes for successful catch and release
Unsettled weather was forecast for the start of July, which should help bring in grilse from the bay, and we look forward to good fishing reports next month.
Go Fishing
The Erriff System is comprised of the Erriff River and the two small loughs of Tawnyard and Derrintin. The River Erriff is one of the premier salmon fishing rivers in Ireland. A spate river, it is characterised by lively streams and deep fish-holding pools. It has 8 miles of prime angling water, divided into 9 beats. Beats are un-crowded with only two rods on most and a maximum of 3 sometimes. Angling is rotated on a daily basis.
Peter is back with a weekly round up from Piscari-Fly…
How’s The Fishing?
After spending most of the last month wondering if the Nore would fish to its full capabilities this year at all, finally its starting to really turn on. It has come on really well in the last few days and it is great to see things finally turning around.
David O Donavan, and his team who will fish the European Fly Fishing Championships in Poland later this year had a training session on the river Sunday and the river fished a bomb with lots of good quality fish being picked up on the nymphs through out the day.
Mark was out for the day on Monday and fished some of the beats below Grennan. He remarked on the hatch of fly that was on the river and the trout were up on the surface feeding hard on them, Mark had great action on the drys for a time before switching to the nymphs hunting some bigger fish down deep. Overall it was a good day on the river and it is good to see it really come alive.
If you would like any information or you would like to come fish the Nore make sure and give us a shout here in Piscarifly and we will get you sorted, also Permits can be got here at the shop.
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The 2 nymphs that are working best on the Nore at the moment are our Olive Nymphs and our pheasant tail nymph with pineapple dubbing and hends spectra no 6.
Peter is doing a masterclass with Ireland on the Fly on the dry dropper technique for river brown trout.
At the height of the summer there’s no better way to target river trout than with the deadly combination of dry fly and nymph underneath. Whether they’re taking on top or sub surface, Peter will be giving invaluable tips and advice.
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For river trout anglers this will be a must-see webinar on Thursday the 25th of July.
Peter is starting his masterclasses on euronymphing on the Club this week and they will run for the next 3 weeks so there will be a segment posted every week for the next 3-4 weeks. So make sure to watch out for that.
Hit the coast last week in Wexford in around Poulshone Bay and Glasscarrig. Didn’t see any bass but a few mullet around. Nice evening spent on the beach with Ricky Croke but it was still a bit chilly and while conditions were nice enough we just didnt find any feeding fish. Will be hitting it a bit more consistently over the next weeks.
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Angling Championship Update
The Fips Mouche World Fly-Fishing Championship in France has finished and a massive well done to Team Ireland finishing in 6th place. One of the highest finishes ever for an Irish team in the Fips-Mouche World Championships. Congratulations to all the team William Tanner, John Buckley, Michael Drinan, Robert Hacket, Sean Dempsey and Ciaran Reilly.
Or give us a bell here at Piscari-fly 0879787040 or [email protected]
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What’s Coming
Tafi Leinster are holding an Open Fishing Day at Laois Angling Center. An Introduction into Fishing & Social event for all ages. Admission is free on the day. So why not come along and bring the youths to enjoy a few hours out learning about fishing, ask questions, get tips and much more. A full filled day for all. Contact us if wish for further Information.
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Laois Angling Center in Coolrain, Co. Laois.
About us
Based on the River Nore just outside Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, Ireland. Piscari-Fly is a growing Fly Tying and Fly-Fishing business with a vast amount of experience and knowledge. If there is ever anything I can do to make my service better for you please feel free to suggest it to me and I’ll gladly try my best to accommodate your requests. Thanks again. Peter Driver.
As a small business we depend on the satisfaction of our customers and there word of mouth reference, google reviews are important to our online presence and we sure would appreciate your review. Just head over to this link and give us a quick review.
A grandfather (John) and his 15-year-old grandson (Cal) took a day’s guided fishing with Chris Scally from Fish Tales on Lough Ree recently. The quarry was pike, and the aim was to break a few PB’s. It’s fair to say that the goal was more than achieved, as Cal managed to break his PB three times, and John managed to break his too.
Some of Cal's catches
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There were seven fish netted during the day: pike of 96cm, 94cm, 90cm, 84cm, 80cm, 72cm and one small jack. No doubt the guys will be back to try and crack the magic 100cm next time!
Mark Gannon of Courtmacsherry tells us that the fishing has been excellent off Courtmacsherry the last few weeks with good numbers of blue sharks, plenty of ling on the wrecks to near specimen weight, great sport on pollack and poalfish with light tackle, congers on the reefs to 30lbs. Even closer inshore the Self Drives are getting stuck in with thornback ray, dabs, plenty of pollack and good sized Bass.
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There wre big ling over the wrecks
Blonde Ray to nearly specimen size
Belgian anglers were out with Mark last week. They are regular visitors to Courtmacsherry and targeted Common skate for two of the charter days. In all they boated 26 Common Skate, one near specimen and 14 of them Irish Specimens. The heaviest over the two days was 2.09 metres total length, with another four over the 2 metre mark. Also caught were Blond Ray to near specimen weight, thornback ray, and plenty of bullhuss.
A different group were out for an evening session after the Belgian anglers returned home and for two hours fishing another 6 Common Skate were landed. Two of the fish were recorded as Irish Specimens.
The following day a charter group from Bantry accompanied by Dr Dani Orrell, a marine biologist who’s conducting research called the Cetus project, boated 9 Common Skate and Dr Dani tagged them with satellite tags.
Danni Orrell tagging a skate
In all over a space of 3 weeks the Lady Louise skippered by Sean Maxwell has tagged an astonishing 49 Common Skate, recording 22 Irish Specimens and an incredible 7 recaptures.
Let’s hope the weather settles a bit so we can venture out south and try for some big ling and conger!
Courtmacsherry Sea Angling Centre offers charter boat fishing and inshore small boat hire.
Lady Patricia
Aquastar 38′. 370 HP Skipper: Mark Gannon Licence: 819 Base: Courtmacsherry Operational Area: 30 miles out from Courtmacsherry
Notes: Mark has two Aquastar 38’s, Lady Patricia and Lady Louise. Specialising in wreck fishing, Mark’s boats have consistently provided specimen fish over the years. Shark, reef and general inshore angling also on offer.
Lady Louise
Aquastar 38′. 370 HP Caterpillar Skipper: Sean Maxwell Licence: 818 Base: Courtmacsherry Operational Area: 30 miles out from Courtmacsherry
Authorised blue fin tuna boat 2026
Notes: Mark has two Aquastar 38’s, Lady Patricia and
Lady Louise. Specialising in wreck fishing, Mark’s boats have consistently provided specimen fish over the years. Shark, reef and general inshore angling also on offer.
Inshore small boat hire
With our Self Drive boats several different activities can be enjoyed. Our self drive 16′ Boats are equipped with 8 HP Yamaha 4 stroke engines. Equipment includes:
•   Set of oars
•  Life-Jackets
•   Anchors
•   Charts of local area
The sixth qualifier of Ireland’s FeederKing 2024 was held on Lough Muckno on Sunday, June 30th. Sections fished included Black Island, White Island and Yellow Island. With the roach away spawning, most of the weights were made up of skimmers and small hybrids.
Irmantas Sriupsa was in the right peg on White Island, landing 10 bream for over 12kg to win the day.
FeederKing Q6 from Muckno
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Brenton Sweeney was best on Black with a weight of just under 9kg of small skimmers, while Piort Horbinski was the best on Yellow Island – where fishing was uncharacteristically poor –Â with just under 5.5kg.
GOLDEN TICKET WINNERS.
Zone A (white) Irmantas Sriupsa.
Zone B (black) Adrian van de Heer.
Zone C (yellow) Darren Fairhurst
SECTIONS.
WHITE: Irmantas Sriupsa 12.500kg/Johnny Keith 7.875kg.
BLACK: Brenton Sweeney 8.720kg/Mick Smith 3.360kg.
Yellow: Piotr Horbiński 5.460kg/Mariusz Killan 4.400kg.
With only two more qualifiers left the field for the FeederKing final is taking shape, next round is is Lough Garadice on July 14th.
he weather over the past week has been a mixed bag, with some nice sunshine earlier in the week, but cooler and wetter weather over the past couple of days. Temperatures were more like June earlier in the week but definitely feel below normal now. The rain has brought a welcome rise in water levels on many spate rivers, where we hope to see an improvement in salmon fishing this week.
Salmon angling has improved further on the Moy this week, despite low water levels and reduced angling effort, with 272 fish reported throughout the system.
Billy Crory releasing his 7 lbs catch back to the waters of The Ridge Pool this week
A sea trout competition on the Moy Estuary also produced some fine fishing, with 64 trout landed. The best fish of the week on Judd Ruane’s boat weighed just over 3lbs, a nice sea trout indeed.
In Kerry, a fine 12lbs salmon was reported caught (and released) from the Kerry Blackwater, with a few more fish off the Roughty near Kemare, and on Lough Currane, catches picked up slightly with 7 salmon and a number of sea trout reported.
Over on the Munster Blackwater, catches were described as sporadic but the quality of fish being caught was good, with most fish over 4kgs and not many grilse reported yet.
Lucky angler Ethan with a beautiful doubled figure fish from the Blackwater Valley Fishery’s Ballyduff Bridge beat last Thursday
June to date has apparently been one of the drier Junes on record, but hopefully that drop of rain over the last couple of days will get fish moving and we will see a big improvement in fishing through July.
Trout angling on the lakes has been fairly quiet, with many fish feeding on coarse fish fry now, but Senan Stanley found fish in a feeding mood for his lures when he hit Lough Derg after a break.
Sea trout are scarce yet on the Bride, but brown trout angling was reported to be quite good. The River Whispers is fortnightly newsletter from fishing guide Dan O’Neill, and he has a few tips from himself, and other seasoned anglers, about tactics and flies for this time of year on the river.
Peter Driver reports on the fishing on the Nore, which he says can still improve a bit, as well as on the progress of the Irish team at the World Championships om France, where they started very well earlier in the week.
The Irish team in France
The Ireland on the Fly podcast this week talks to flyfishing expert, casting instructor and fishing show organiser Stevie Munn, well known in the fishing community throughout Ireland. Stevie talks about growing up in Belfast during the Troubles, and how fishing offered many an escape from the stresses of those times.
Sea angling suffered from windy conditions on a few days this week, but we still have some great reports in. Young angler Callum had an enjoyable day with uncle Christopher out of Killybegs, catching 11 species, including a most unusual bass from the boat in Donegal Bay.
Reef fishing is also producing well there, and guests on the Isle of Aran had some great sport with pollack, ling, coalies and spurdog coming aboard.
On the shore competition scene, JP Molloy was definitely not a surprise winner of the West Cork competition at Bantry airstrip with a fine catch of 22 dogfish. Thornback ray and bull huss also featured in the catch. In Clare, the Fanore club held a competition in slorious sunshine at Ballyreen, with some fine fish caught, including this conger for Tom Faley which is our Catch of the Week.
A fine shore conger
Pike fishing is having a lull at the moment, and we have no reports in this week.
In coarse angling, the 2-day Roslea Lakes festival was won by Pete Jones with 9.325kg. Conditions were good for both days of the event, but the fishing was hard with bonus fish deciding the results.
The Breffni Arms Hotel in Arva recently hosted its 5-day over-50s competition, which proved to be a smashing event. Over the course of the festival, there was some superb fishing, w with plenty of 10kg+ bags and some amazing bags, including Steve Canty’s 50.06kg on Day 1. Read on to see if this was enough to take the title for Stave.
The NCFFI All Ireland Method Feeder Final will be held in Oaklands Lake this September, and the first of two qualifying rounds was held at Gaulmoylestown at the weekend. It was a close run thing at the top, as Karl Page with 64.48kg just pipped Johnny Bailey with 64.08kg to top the rankings on the day.
In other news
Inland Fisheries Ireland calls all sea anglers to participate in the 2024 IMREC Survey. The Irish Marine Recreational Angling (IMREC) Diary was launched in 2021 to help monitor recreational catches of marine species in our waters. A primary aim of the project is to collect data that will help all stakeholders to better manage, conserve and protect the fisheries resource, thereby providing benefits for recreational sea angling in Ireland and supporting those small businesses involved in the sea angling sector.
And now the weather…
Mainly dry today (Friday) but cloud increasing from the southwest. This evening, rain and drizzle will gradually spread over Munster and Connacht. Highest temperatures of 14 to 19 degrees, with light to moderate west to southwest winds. Rain and drizzle spreading countrywide tonight, and clearing slowly eastwards during the day on Saturday, followed by sunny spells. Highs of 15 to 20 degrees with light to moderate northwest breezes.
Sunday: Mostly dry with some showers in Ulster, and showery rain arriving into Atlantic counties during the late afternoon. Driest and mildest across the midlands, south and east with sunny spells. Highest temperatures of 13 to 20 degrees, all in light to moderate westerly breezes.
Monday: Cloudy conditions with outbreaks of rain and drizzle will give way to sunny spells and well scattered showers. Breezy in moderate to fresh northwest winds. Highest temperatures of 13 to 20 degrees, mildest across the southeast.
Current indications suggest that Tuesday will be mostly cloudy and bring outbreaks of showers merging into longer spells of rain at times. Highest temperatures of 14 to 18 degrees, with moderate westerly breezes.
Don’t forget to check the forecast before heading off and if you’re going to sea, check the tides.
If you have an angling story to share with the Irish Angling Update please send it to [email protected] and don’t forget that all of our fishing reports are available on our dedicated Angling Ireland Facebook page.
Stevie Munn is a well-known name in Irish and UK fly fishing circles as someone who has worked in the tackle trade, guided and instructed and also set up the Irish Fly Fair first in Galway before moving to Enniskillen.
Stevie is a fanatical fly fisherman who will cast a fly for salmon, sea trout and brown trout – especially the beloved dollaghan trout of Lough Neagh which have included 20lbers in the past.
Growing up in Belfast at the height of the Troubles, Stevie tells Tom & Daire why fly fishing in the nearby countryside was such an important escape for so many from the city and it’s little wonder that Belfast still has such a sizeable fly angling community to this day.
Rate, review and follow the show to keep up to date with all the latest Ireland on the Fly episodes on Apple or Spotify:
Recently, Mariners’ member Christopher enjoyed a great day’s fishing aboard St. Catherine together with his nephew Callum. They had a total of 11 species including pollack, ling, pouting, whiting, dab, tub gurnard and cuckoo wrasse.
The highlight of the trip, however, was a boat caught sea bass for Callum…a pretty rare catch  around Donegal Bay!
Sea bass for CallumBig Donegal Bay pollack, one of 11 species for Callum and Christopher
Lady Patricia
Lady Louise
