Address: Moneygold, Grange, Co. Sligo.
Telephone: +353 (0)87 6224348
Email: [email protected]
Michael Righton was in touch to tell us about a fine Lough Mask trout he caught on Monday:
He was fishing out of Cushlough, and the lake was flat and calm. He had been in hospital for the previous 3 weeks with a very rare virus and had been quite ill. As a consequence, he chose not to go out too far as he was fishing on his own and wanted to see how he coped in the boat. The lake was very high, but he decided to fish the shallows. He came across some hatches of very small buzzers along with some caenis, but there was no sign of fish showing to them.
As the day progressed, he saw two fish jump at the end of a bay, a place where he had come across fish before and set his boat on a drift in that direction. He was fishing a 5lbs leader with 3 flies, and a slow figure of 8 retrieve on an intermediate line. As he approached the end of the bay, he had a gentle pull, but nothing came of it. However, another 30m down the drift, he had a nice solid pull and connected with a fish. The trout pitched straight out of the water and then put up a very dogged fight to the net. The fish measured 52cm and was nice and plump, and Michael estimated from tables that it weighed 4 lbs plus. He caught it on his self-tied Gold-head hares ear nymph, which was duly removed, and following a quick photo, the trout was returned to the lough.
No doubt a trout like that was the perfect tonic after his spell in hospital, a worth winner of Catch of the Week.
Having experienced plenty of foul days over the winter months, the 27 anglers who turned up to fish the 2nd leg of the South Shore SAC Master Angler at Roney Point were greeted by unusually clement weather, with mild temperatures and a gentle westerly breeze. What could go wrong…?
Well, plenty as it seems, as anglers were left looking at each other in puzzlement as their first casts failed to produce any bites, and so it continued with their second casts and their third casts…
It seems the fish prefer the lousy weather after all, and while the turn of the tide did bring an uptick in catches over the final hour, unfortunately there were still a few blank scorecards at the end of the competition.
It turned out to be a battle of two Fogarty’s, as Gavin Fogarty steamed to the top of Zone A with 9 fish on his card. Brother Ciaran performed similar feats on Zone B, with his 10 fish leaving him top of the Zone, and just pipping his brother to the overall win.
Full report on the South Shore SAC Facebook page.
Results as follows:
Newbridge District Pike Anglers will be hosting a junior IFPAC qualifier on the 13th April. Fishing will take place from 11am to 3pm, and the event will be free for all children up to 18 years. There will be three categories, Under 9, Under 13 and Under 18, and there will be plenty of prizes kindly donated by Southside Angling and IFPAC.
The Leinster Coarse Fishing Federation were on the water at Haughton’s Shore on Garadice at the weekend, as 16 of them lined up for the 8th leg of the Leinster Open. Unfortunately for the anglers, the fish were just not on form, and the fishing was scrappy to say the least, particularly for those who opted to fish the feeder. Most of the fish landed were on the small side, with roach, hybrids and perch all featuring in catches. In the end, Tommy Dowd took top honours, with Gary Rogers not far behind in second and Remigijus Cmukas taking third.
Full results as follows:
Overall
1st…Tommy Dowd………….7.38.
2nd..Gary Rogers…………….6.88
3rd..Remigijus Cmukas…..6.06
Section “A”.
1st…..Remigijus Cmukas…..6.06
2nd….John Kavanagh………..3.70
Section “B”.
1st…..Tommy Dowd…………..7.38
2nd…Gary Rogers………………6.88.
The VDE Baggers held another match on Creeve Lough at the weekend, and they had to work hard to fill their bags. Bites were a bit streaky, with some long periods where no bites at all materialised, possibly due to a swirling wind that constantly changed direction.
So it was a day when every fish was hard-earned, and in the end, it was a close-run thing. Aaron Nabc Hutchmann continued his good run of form to bag the top prize with 101 roach for 2.9kg. Close behind was David Herron with 2.8 kg, with Dominkyas Kuklys coming third with 2.3kg. A special mention goes out to new junior member Oliver Neill, who placed 4th in his first-ever match. 👏
The Baggers will be out in force for their next match on 14th April, which will be in memory of their recently passed member Slawek Siembida. With 65 anglers already booked in, it promises to be a fantastic event, and if you want to take part, then drop the Baggers a message via their Facebook page.
Regular contributor Andrew McGall was in touch with us and wanted to share a magical birthday morning back in May of 2023. Andrew had turned 50 and decided to spend the morning fishing on the River Finn in Donegal, where he hoped to land a springer.
On arriving at the river bright and early, he found conditions to be perfect for salmon fishing and a bounty of seven salmon, each in perfect condition, was to follow. Andrew takes great care with each precious fish he catches and each fish was kept in the water and released to continue the journey up the river.
For Andrew, this perfect day was fifty years in the making but well worth the wait, with memories that will live on for many years to come. If you like Andrew’s work, don’t forget to like and subscribe to his channel.
Dan O’Neill reports on guiding a young angler to his first Irish fish:
With current conditions in most areas being less than ideal, the show must go on as they say. This week saw me meet two very keen anglers from Michigan. Casey and Cooper Carnahan have been fishing in some areas of the world that I dream of. Cooper reminded me of my son and eldest apprentice, Anthony. Very keen and all about fishing, walking along the bank to the fishing spot, we shared stories of some of our fishing adventures, which I really enjoyed. Cooper, aged 11, was a very accomplished young fisherman and matched any fishing story I told.
Getting closer to the lake we spoke of the species in the lake and what we had hoped to catch today. It was quite breezy, so we groundbaited two spots on the lake, one in the shaded area and one 50m to the left. I had 3 rods with me today, my trusty Cadence 10ft Pellet wagglers; the plan was to spread out a little, find the fish and concentrate on that area. We cast in each rod, and the wait began. I was tying some hook links during the wait, which wasn’t very long. Cooper’s float slowly disappeared, and before I could get the words out of my mouth, Cooper had hit his first fish. A lovely, good-sized roach came to the net. After this fish, me and Casey re-baited and cast back in, feeling we would get a roach also. Cooper, however, had other ideas and hit another roach and another, and, yes, another. What really baffled me was Cooper took my rod, cast it in, and caught a roach on it just to prove to me my bait was ok.
The wind picked up a little, and the rain started to get a little heavier, so we moved to the sheltered area and put the brolley up. We cast in the 3 rods, and need I say who caught the first roach in the new spot? Another nice palm-sized roach, and another point to Cooper.
As the wind picked up, we found ourselves getting further and further under the brolley and talking about our daily lives, fishing trips and Crubeens!! Casey and Cooper were great people, and sharing stories under the brolley for the last 30 minutes of our trip was an absolute highlight. Exceptional angling from this young man, and I have no doubt I will see him again someday, where he will have many more tales to tell me.
Over Easter I have two course days available will cover fishing with polyleaders, sinking lines, leader construction and casting styles. For information contact me on the details below,
Peter Driver of Piscari Fly shares a few reports on some early-season river trouting:
Mark hit his local river on Sunday, the River Erkina, a tributary of the River Nore, just past Durrow Co. Laois. A river well known for its early season fishing & great numbers of fish with some fine fish to be caught, too, Mark always reports. Local GALA shop sells day tickets and membership. Though the Erkina has many stretches of water, Mark reports always enjoying the stretch from the joinings of the Nore to the town bridge on the Erkina, which is about 1.5km in length, with some fine pools & flats to entice fish from. Mark fished for 3hrs prior to work, with fellow fishing partner Roger. Mark geared up with a dry-dropper & nymphing setup. Getting some good action on the dry-dropper to start with on certain pools fishing 5 feet from the indicator fly, but later changing to Nymphs and nymphing deep, as Roger was getting good numbers on a Black Frenchie nymph.
Mark was into fish straight away with nymphs on the new Piscari Venator rod. Water clarity appeared clear in shallows, but deeper pools showed more clouded, so silver-beaded Black Frenchies seemed to be out-catching other pheasant tail nymphs as they were more visible to the fish. They then fished a nice pool Mark knows holds a good number of fish, and both caught some great numbers, finishing up with 40+ fish each over the 8-inch mark. Not a bad way to spend 3 hours on a Sunday morning to blow off some winter cobwebs before work.
Ricky Croke was out with 2 of his mates, Lacey and Wikus, in Kilmacow. The river was down a good 4 inches, and the fish are moving into some of the slower runs. Tight line dry dropper was working well with the same nymphs as last week. “I’m pretty sure I now hold the world record for the smallest trout ever caught on a fly rod” Ricky said
Ricky said he used the same klink for 3 hours after treating it with Dry-X and bar having to blow off some of the excess water at the end, she stayed floating without any other product, even after 2 different fish took it and brought it under.
Senan Stanley is back on running water in his latest trout fishing videos. A bit of spare time after work turned into a few fun 1 – 1.5 hours sessions with the spinning gear. Using a very light 1-4.5 gram rod with tiny Mepps spinners he had some great sport catching wild brownies on the river. All catch and release as always.
