Well known angling guide and casting instructor Dan O’Neill recently attended Italy’s biggest angling expo in Rimini. Check out his report below…
It’s always nice to travel to different rivers and areas to see a different perspective on angling and how people approach certain angling situations. When I was invited to attend the Pescare show in Rimini, Italy, by the editor of H2O magazine, Giorgio Cavatorti, I jumped at the chance. Things would be a little different this time for me at the show, as I would be attending to tie river nymph patterns that I had mostly thought up myself, although I’m sure they exist elsewhere. I have always been a person who agrees and accepts first, and then figures out afterwards how I will manage it. For me, it’s the only way to progress, as you now have a deadline to be ready and make sure you’re presentable. Throughout Italy, the Pescare show is known as being a premier fishing fair. All types of angling are covered, and the latest in boating and angling technology is available to see and even try out. Stands with various meats and cheeses lined the back wall, and four outdoor casting ponds always had someone trying out rods, teaching adults or kids, or just people like me who went out to have a cast and ended up giving some tuition. As an instructor, I always find it beneficial to try to teach someone who doesn’t speak any English, as you rely on a different set of skills to be able to get your point across. It’s quite useful and has helped me many times during demos and tuition classes here in Ireland; it makes things very clear and simplifies your explanations.
So now to speak a little about my fly-tying experience. I sat behind a table covered in a red Fulling Mill cloth and just looked around me, taking it all in. What a privilege to be at such a fair. To my left I had Hans Van Klinken and Barry Ord Clarke; to my right I had tyers from Italy, America, and many other countries who were at the top of their game. Something I noticed was how humble these people were. It made others feel at ease and not afraid to approach them. It’s a skill in itself, and one that certainly has been highly tuned by them. I found myself beckoning over kids and parents to tie a fly with me. It was very simple, but watching the kids walk away smiling, putting the fly safely in a bag or in Mum or Dad’s wallet or purse, made me smile. Most of the kids, when they were finished tying with me, I would take to Hans Van Klinken or Barry Ord Clarke to check out the fly they had just tied and then tie something with them. I started out my weekend with 175 hooks and came home with three.
Back home in my community, I am that crazy guy who waves a fly rod around on the green in all sorts of weather or stands in the local duck pond while Spey casting with a double-handed rod. At the fair, I was just another enthusiast surrounded by many, many more enthusiasts. It was eye-opening and shows that it goes beyond passion — it’s discipline. Discipline is what separates most. The days were from 9:30 to 18:30 each day, and when you looked at the exhibitors and demonstrators, they had the same level of enthusiasm for the first person at 9:30 as for the last person at 18:30. That, to me, is the difference. If you’re feeling tired, it doesn’t matter; you’re disciplined and find it within yourself to give everyone you come into contact with the same experience.
So to all the people I came into contact with at the fair, it was for sure a pleasure, and I hope to see you all again at the 2027 Pescare show. I was delighted to have received an invite back to the show, and I accepted without hesitation.
Dan has been guiding on the River Nore from the age of 14. He holds a wealth of knowledge in many different techniques. Dan provides guiding for Trout, Salmon and coarse fish.
All levels from beginner to experienced are welcome.
Available for guided trout and salmon fishing in the South East
Fly Casting Instruction
Dan is a APGAI Ireland qualified single handed fly casting instructor. All levels from beginner to experienced are welcome.
Dan also holds regular fly fishing classes on the River Nore for groups and individuals.
Chris O’Sullivan, aka The Inshore Angler, has a popular YouTube channel where he gives insights into shore fishing around Ireland, with particular focus on his home turf, the Kerry beaches. Chris has just released a short video of him targeting some winter painted ray and bass in Brandon Bay.
Vincent Appleby reports on another blank week in South Kerry:
11/2/2026. Just one Currane boat out, and his report was fast and simple, no good. Now for Currane’s words of wisdom, as from tomorrow, the Currane anglers have got a great chance of catching the first Salmon in the 2026 season, so get out there. Personally, my Dad RIP and I always said the 17th of February, but I’m biased. Now for the Currane weather chart, wind SW fresh and overcast. Yesterday’s weather: amount of rainfall 9.3 mm, maximum air temperature 12.3°C, amount of sunshine none. Now, back to the Butler Arms Hotel, the year was 1968, in the hotel bar, as you can see by the picture, can you tell me who this lady is?
12/2/2026. Currane angler reports that it was very quiet out there and to make things worse, no fish, so much for your Currane’s words of wisdom, and to make this worse, it was rough out there, so on that note here is the Currane forecast, wind NW strong breeze winds speed 40 km/h, 43 km/h followed by showers and reasonable sunshine at times. Yesterday’s weather: amount of rainfall 7.1mm, maximum air temperature 10.8mm, amount of sunshine 5 minutes.
13/2/2026. I start with the sad news that renowned bartender Ann Marie O” Shea RIP sadly passed away yesterday. As we all know, Ann Marie worked at the Butler Arms Hotel’s Fishermen’s Bar for fifty years. Ann Marie had held court behind the bar. She’d listened to countless tales of the one that got away, celebrated triumphant catches, and offered a sympathetic ear to anglers. I can say Ann Marie will certainly be missed by all her customers, and especially by us anglers. I can just see her working in the Heavenly St. Peter’s Fisherman’s Bar giving out dinks to her father Jack, her mother Kathleen and her brothers Patrick, James, Francis and Timothy. So, on behalf of the Currane anglers, all the good people of Waterville and all the good people of Kerry, our Sincere Sympathies to all the O’Shea family.
14/2/2026. The Currane anglers were all quiet in all departments today, so we head for the Currane anglers’ weather chart. Wind SE fresh to strong and overcast followed by showers and very cold & felt like O°C. Yesterday’s weather amount of rainfall 1.3mm, maximum air temperature 7.3°C, amount of sunshine 4 hours and 4 minutes.
15/2/2026, The Currane anglers have a new National Anthem, and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know the words, and yes, you have it, “why are we waiting”? Need I say more? All I can say is I started the art of fishing in 1966 and fished with the Finest Currane angler Mr. Jack O’Sullivan for 15 years and I can tell you this- get out there, you will catch my Noble Salmon, but to be fair to the Currane anglers it was fairly rough out there today as you will see by the Currane weather chart, wind West fresh to strong and followed by showers and reasonable cloud cover. Yesterday’s weather: amount of rainfall was 19.4mm, maximum air temperature 10.8°C, amount of sunshine none.
16/2/2026. It was a rough day out on the lake, with an average wind speed of 47 km/h, followed by strong gusts up to 59km/h, followed by heavy showers throughout the day. Just for the record, there was only one boat out, and he texted no good. Yesterday’s weather: amount of rainfall 5.6mm, maximum air temperature 11.1°C, amount of sunshine 4 hours 5 minutes.
17/2/2026. Just two boats out trying to catch that wild Atlantic Salmon, but to no avail, saying that it would be nice to see a few more boats out there. We head for the Currane weather chart, wind moderate to strong SE followed by showers throughout the day. Yesterday’s weather: the amount of rainfall was 9.8mm, the maximum air temperature was 9.8°C, and the amount of sunshine was 1 hour and 3 minutes.
Sunday saw the penultimate round of the VDE Baggers Winter League, and with an out-of-sorts cold and rising river, the fishing was tricky, but still competitive! The top 3 all came from Bellenaleck Marina black path, with A.Gregg taking the honours with 6.750kg, closely followed by Jack Tisdall with 6.640kg and Paul Hutchman in 3rd with 4.93kg!
Aaron Hutchman won the low numbers on Bellenaleck Marina catching 76 roach very late on the long pole to weigh 4.700 kg The favoured new sections, Belturtbet Boards and Corraquil Lock, suffered badly from the cold rising river and unfortunately didn’t produce as well as they had been, but tightly contested fishing was still had, with Dark Horse Davy Wellwood taking the honours with just under 4 kg from the boards and Paul Eyres pipping Corraquil section with just under 2 kg.
This post was compiled from angling reports shared on the Menapia SAC Facebook page:
Menapia Sea Angling Club’s first competition of the year took place over the weekend, and despite coloured water and a fresh westerly wind, the North Wexford beach delivered excellent fishing.
Running from 4pm to 8pm, anglers were into fish straight from the first cast. It quickly became clear that the venue was teeming with spurdog pups and dogfish, with the higher-numbered pegs enjoying consistent treble-shot fishing. Several anglers recorded 15 or more spurs on their scorecards.
Lower-numbered pegs saw a greater mix of whiting and dogfish, and although their bags were solid, the sheer volume of spurs caught further up the beach meant those drawing the higher pegs were well ahead on points.
Joey Brady took the win on the night with over 1,300 points, narrowly edging out Brian Cantwell, who finished just one point behind. Joe Carley secured third place with a tally just over 1,100 points. Joey also claimed the biggest fish with a 61 cm Spurdog.
Overall, it was a strong start to the season, with the average bag totalling 27 fish, including spurs, dogfish, huss, whiting, and dabs.
Padraig English, of Louth Pike and Trout, was back on the bank recently as he targeted lough pike in Monaghan on a truly terrible winter’s day in the northeast. Such was the foul forecast that Padraic had to choose a venue where he could park the car within a stone’s throw, just in case he had to beat a hasty retreat. The venue he chose is usually a popular one, but on this day, few other anglers would risk the elements!
Padraig has some nice instructional videos up on his YouTube channel, and we’ll be keeping an eye out for more content once the weather gives us all a chance to get back on the water.
John Paul Baska of Northwest Charters, based out of Burtonport, Donegal, sent us in a brief report from a recent trip. While fishing at the back of Aranmore Island they came across some beautiful cuckoo wrasse – like the one below, caught in 30 metres of water by Cathal McGinley of Falcaragh in Donegal.
The crew also caught plenty of pollack and ballan wrasse in their sheltered spot behind the cliff face.
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The fish were returned to fight another day after helping to bring a bit of colour to an otherwise grey, cold, windy day on the water!
Dreaming of a getaway? Let us make the arrangements for you. North West Charters has been is offering first-class fishing and sight seeing trips and guidance in Donegal. Our skilled skipper are experts at finding the best fishing spots and helping you secure the best days fishing you could find in the North West.
Pick ups at Burtonport, Kincasllagh and Arranmore piers.
Since 1967, Baltimore, Co. Cork, has been home to the Baltimore Deep Sea Angling Festival – a thrilling four-day competition in some of the richest fishing waters in the Atlantic.
Renowned for its great fishing and legendary camaraderie, the festival attracts around 70 anglers each year from across Ireland and abroad, making it one of the longest-running and most respected sea angling events in Europe.
The dates for the 2026 edition of the event have been announced by the organisers – it will take place from Thursday, 27th, to Sunday, 30th of August 2026. Anyone interested in taking part should visit the event’s dedicated website for more information:
Competitors usually experience shark tagging on day one, followed by three days of deep-sea competition for skate, conger, bull huss, ling, pollack, cod, and more. Fishing is aboard licensed charter boats with skilled local skippers, ensuring a safe, enjoyable, and memorable experience for all. Anglers can enter as individuals or as part of a team, with all levels of expertise welcome.
The first round of the inaugural Ultimate Team League was fished by twelve teams on a challenging Lough Garadice and Town lake, Carrigallen area, over the weekend.
As we all know, the weather has been brutal of late, and the competition day was no different, with extremely difficult conditions facing the competitors. Having said that, the fishing was actually good on some sections, with skimmers showing in some pegs.
1st overall was Adrian Van Der Heever of the Ringers team with an impressive weight of 5.830kg made up of skimmers and roach from Houghton’s shore on Garadice.
2nd overall was Darius Sakalys (East Coast 1) with another good weight from Houghton’s, he had 4.740kg of skimmers and roach.
3rd overall was Nytro’s Richard Pratt with a mixed bag of fish to weigh 3.810kg, also from Houghton’s shore.
As I write this on Friday morning, the news is full of reports of road closures across the country due to more heavy rain overnight. Over the past week, rainfall was as high as 380% of average in some areas, with the eastern part of the country again faring the worst. It’s starting to feel somewhat biblical at this stage, as I’m sure we have surpassed the 40 days and 40 nights of floods that Noah had to deal with. So, it’s no surprise to see that angling reports are still pretty scarce on the ground, as many of us hunker down, hoping that this never-ending gloom finally lifts…
Sunday 15th February is a day many anglers across the country will have been gearing up towards over the past few weeks, and even months, as it will mark the opening day of the trout season on some of our most iconic fisheries. Loughs Corrib, Mask, Conn, Cullin and Melvin, amongst others, will all welcome trout anglers back to their waters after the winter closed season. It’s normally a day of celebration on these loughs, as anglers work the rust out of their systems by having a few drifts and making a few casts before retiring to one of the islands for a bite to eat and a catch-up with other anglers. It’s also a time of year when anglers start to move boats from their winter berths to the water, or from one lake to another, and these movements bring increased risks of transferring invasive species from one water to another. Over the coming months, we’ll be featuring some content from the National Biodiversity Data Centre, aimed at informing anglers of the risks posed by invasive species, and to kick off the series, they have prepared a short video, centred on their mantra: Check, Clean, Dry.
Sea anglers seem to have been the most active over the past week, and we begin our roundup with the Ringsend Irishtown Angling Club, who headed to Duncannon for the first round of their Master Angler 2026 series. After an enforced change of venue due to weather, the 16 anglers finally set up on Duncannon Beach, where they endured a tough enough session, with only 20-odd fish between them. Jamie Forsyth took the win with 80 points, bagging the longest flat as well.
The recent publication of the Irish Specimen Fish Committee Annual Report saw numerous anglers achieve the much-coveted ‘specimen’ across a range of species. An even greater and much rarer feat is to claim a record fish, and there were three new record fish landed in 2025. One fish in particular, Sean Bannon’s Thick-Lipped Mullet, absolutely smashed the old record, and Sean recounts his glory day in his own words here. Although it was caught earlier in the year, we didn’t report it at the time, as the record had to be verified by the ISFC, so Sean’s fish gets a well-deserved, if somewhat late, Catch of the Week.
Sean’s super mullet smashed the Irish record
Competition shore anglers will be delighted to hear the popular Daiwa Pairs competition is returning to a full schedule in 2026, and the dates have been set for September 19th to 25th. The festival consists of a number of pegged matches on beaches around the Dingle Peninsula, as well as a specimen hunt that rewards anglers for the best fish of each species caught during the week.
To coarse angling now, and the VDE Baggers fished the Newry Canal at the weekend in a match that saw them tightly pegged together on the bank. And at rods in, it was tightly contested at the top as well, with the top three anglers separated by just 350g, and Maurice’s 14.8kg sufficient to take the win on the day.
To pike angling news now, and one of Europe’s most high-profile pike angling competitions, ‘Fly vs Jerk’ has been running for 17 years and has a huge following on YouTube. This year, there is a massive Irish interest, as the competition features an Irish team, Team Wildhunter, fishing here in Ireland. Luckily, the filming was done last year, so the competitors didn’t have to contend with the floods we have been experiencing of late… The first episode dropped last Friday, and you can find out more about it right here.
Tune in to see how Team Wildhunter do in Fly vs Jerk
With all the freshwater flooding our river and lake systems, pike angling has been tough going in recent weeks. Steve McDonagh of the Fishing with Steve YouTube channel has certainly struggled since the start of the year, failing to register a fish so far in 2026. He set out on his latest adventure, determined to break the blank, but did the fishing gods smile on him? Check out his latest video to find out.
In salmon angling news, there were a few anglers out on Lough Currane last week, but the slow start to the season down there continued, as nobody managed to boat a fish. We are hearing reports this morning that the Delphi Fishery is off the mark for 2026 with a salmon of 9lbs landed by Toby Gibbons. Let’s hope it’s the first of many for the year. We don’t have a photo of the fish, but we do have this spectacular shot of the fishery which was taken during the week:
Little to report in trout news this week, but we expect that to change over the coming weeks as the loughs open up for fishing. But the Onthewater.ie team were in touch to let us know that they have added Ballymore Eustace Salmon and Trout Anglers Association to their permit listings from 2026.
Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Tagging Scheme Regulations 2026
Minister of State with responsibility for Fisheries and the Marine, Timmy Dooley, has announced the launch of a second public consultation on the draft Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Tagging Scheme Regulations 2026. This consultation provides stakeholders and members of the public with a further opportunity to comment on the draft Regulations before they are finalised. The consultation will be open for 30 days, closing at 5:30pm on Thursday, 5th March 2026
Job Opportunities
Inland Fisheries Ireland has launched a national recruitment campaign to fill several seasonal roles, including Fisheries Officers and Research Assistants, with positions available across the country. The outdoor roles will begin in April and offer opportunities to work in rivers, lakes, and coastal environments. These seasonal opportunities would be well-suited to those with an interest in protecting, managing and conserving Ireland’s inland fisheries and sea angling resources.
And now the weather
Cold, wet and unsettled conditions will persist through Friday and into the weekend. Rain and low cloud linger this morning, especially in the south and east, bringing spot flooding and some sleet. Conditions will gradually improve as the rain clears south-eastwards later, with scattered showers developing mainly in the north and west. Temperatures today will remain low at 3–7°C, with brisk northerly winds easing later.
Tonight will be very cold, with widespread frost and icy patches. It will be mostly dry, apart from isolated wintry showers in the northwest. Lows will fall to between 0 and -4°C.
Saturday will start cold, dry and bright. Cloud will thicken from the west as rain spreads across the country during the afternoon and evening. The rain may become heavy at times and briefly fall as sleet or wet snow in western and northern areas before reverting to rain. Afternoon highs will be just 2–5°C, becoming milder from the southwest overnight. Winds will strengthen later, turning gusty.
Saturday night will remain unsettled, with spells of heavy rain and some wintry precipitation in the north and east. Clearer spells and scattered showers will follow from the west. Sunday will see sunny spells and frequent showers, some heavy with hail, and a slight risk of thunder near the coasts; highs of 7–11°C with strengthening westerly winds. It looks like it will remain unsettled for most of the coming week.
Don’t forget to double-check the forecast before heading off, and if you’re going to sea, check the tides.
