On the Ireland on the Fly podcast, Tom & Daire have started a book club to discuss the best Irish fly fishing books and so, for this the 50th show, they’re beginning with an episode on Kingsmill Moore’s A Man May Fish, the seminal work on fly fishing in Ireland.
To give them context and background to Kingsmill Moore, they spoke to Patrick Gageby, a barrister and fly angler who also co-wrote the foreword to an edition of O’Gorman’s The Practice of Angling in Ireland.
Patrick reveals some fascinating first-hand insights about Kingsmill Moore and the places he fished as well as how Moore’s background and legal career helped influence his writing of the book.
Rate, review and follow the show to keep up to date with all the latest Ireland on the Fly episodes on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Munster Coarse Anglers held their Round 2 of this year’s winter league saw on the banks of a very flooded Clondorny lake. They opted to fish the deeper pegs to the right of the slipway in hope that the Roach would have taken up residence for the winter months. Alas that not the case with very few fish showing on the whip and pole lines.
1 of 3
It soon became apparent that in order to again some points skimmers would be the main target fish. So it was a match consisting of long waits, tiny bites and brief flurries of action that saw few fish coming to the nets. The deeper middle pegs fished worst with less than 3lb between them.
Munster Coarse Angling Club are affiliated to the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland, NCFFI the National Governing body for coarse and predator fishing and casting. www.ncffi.ie
Cork angler JP Molloy went one better than his recent silver medal in the Munster Open Shore and took the top honours last weekend at the Munster Closed competition. Organised by West Cork & District SAC, the competition was fished over 3 sessions in the Youghal area, with the famed Slob Bank and Youghal beach providing the venues. As ever, the PRO for West Cork has done a great job of a report, so we will just share it below.
Match 1-Slob bank
The weather had been shocking all week, so a bit of sunshine and dry weather was most welcome for the first match.
The Munster Open Gold was held on the Slob Bank two weeks prior to the Closed and that had fished very well so hopes were high that good numbers of fish would show up.
This match didn’t fish as well as the Open but it still produced good cards for the zone winners.
Zone A winner was Alan O’Dowling with 15 fish.
Zone B winner was Chris O’Sullivan with 9 fish.
Zone C winner was Mark Gargen with 14 fish.
Chris also had a rare conger on the slob to take the round fish pool. There was a good mix of species in this match made up of flounder, bass, cod, poor cod, pouting, whiting, conger, dogfish and silver eels.
Chris O’Sullivan with a rare Slob Bank conger
Match 2-Youghal beach
Unlike match 1, we were greeted by heavy showers and winds at the start of this match.
Alan O’Dowling had a fine painted ray of 76cm at the start which would eventually win the flat fish pool.
Zone A winner on the night was Derek Kenrick with a mixed card of 8 fish made up of cod, whiting, dogfish, bass and coalfish. Zone B had the least amount of fish in this match.
Jamie Santry won this zone with 3 cod 40+ cm and Zone C was won by ‘Mr consistent’ JP Molloy with 9 fish again a mixed card of dogfish, conger, cod, poor cod and pouting.
Match 3-Slob Bank
So, Match 3 would decide the eventual winner.
The results were out on Sunday morning, and it was extremely tight.
A nice morning on the Slob Bank
Any of the top 5 anglers were in with a shot of winning. Numerous times the top position changed during the match. Each one of the top five had been in the lead at some stage, but it was to be JP Molloy’s day and he won Zone A with 11 fish to take the Munster Closed Gold title for the second year in a row.
Outstanding fishing JP and a big well done!
A treble shot for JP
Zone B winner was Derek Kenrick with 12 fish, Derek finished second overall, well done Derek! Zone C winner was Mark “slob” Gargen who kept his fine form on the Slob going with 17 fish. Again like Match 1, lots of species showed on the bank with some nice 40cm+ cod making an appearance.
JP Molloy accepting the trophy from Eric Gosnell
The overall top 5 were:
1st JP Molloy
2nd Derek Kenrick
3rd Alan O Dowling
4th Chris O Sullivan
5th Jamie Santry
These lads will represent Munster at next year’s inter-pros.
Finally a big thank you to all the lads in the club that helped out over the weekend to make this competition a success again. We also like to thank John Dennehy of Munster Council for helping us out. Lastly, thanks to Eric Gosnell for giving up his time to come to Youghal to present the Munster closed cup to JP Molloy.
Evan McGovern was in touch with a report on a recent small boat outing from Cork before they put the boat away for the winter.
We took advantage of the last little weather window we got before it came to the end of our season, and Fair Game was coming out of the water again for the winter. Me and Tony headed out to a wreck about 20 miles from the harbour with a stop along the way to pick up a few mackerel. The macks were patchy as was the case for most of the year.
When we eventually got to the mark and dropped anchor we didn’t have long to wait before we were into a steady stream of congers with a few decent fish thrown in the mix. We were fishing a mix of baited pirks and running ledgers.
Tony hooked a good fish so the other rods were cleared out of the way and I stood by with the landing net. When it came to the surface finally after a long battle, we knew it was a decent fish so we lifted her onto the deck, laid her out on the measure and took a few quick snaps before releasing.
A fine conger of almost 180cm, well over the 165cm specimen length
It was Tony’s first specimen fish so he was delighted and I was happy to be there with him to witness it. Great way to end the season!
Evan McGovern was in touch with a report on the recent Cork Small Boats Festival held in September. Thanks Evan!
Cork small boats festival was back up and running this year after a break of two years due to covid. We were happy to see our regular boats returning after the break and a few new boats added to the mix. The festival dates were the 9th till the 16th of September and we fished from Monday to Thursday with a mixed bag of weather. We had 3 unrestricted days fishing and one day restricted to the harbour due to wind.
Kingfisher Crowned
There were some decent scores on day one with “Nailed it” leading the pack on 14 species. Day two saw some decent scores coming in again with “Quattro” adding 11 species to take top spot with 20 species. Day 3 was a bit slower but a few more boats came up the ranks and made it a close battle to the finish on day 4. In the end “Kingfisher” added 2 species on day 4 to leave them with a total of 27 which was enough to give them their long-awaited win.
Measuring a blonde ray
There were some great catches throughout the week as always with anglers photographing and releasing a huge range of species with bass, smoothhound, conger, wrasse, Pollack, gurnard, plaice and ray to name but a few.
Gurnard
Bass
Smoothhound
The craic and banter between the boats is always second to none both on the water and in Rosies bar in the evening after the days fishing.
Cod
It was all back to Trabolgan Holiday Village later that evening for the presentation. 2022 was the first year that the festival was fished on a 100% catch-and-release basis and it went off without a hitch. I’d like to thank all the competitors for their efforts. We had the support of so many great sponsors again this year and we’re very grateful to each of ye that we mentioned on the Facebook group page and at the presentation night. There was a great prize table this year thanks to our sponsors with rods and reels from Daiwa, a range of gear from Shamrock Tackle, electronics from Lowrance and much more. No boat came away empty handed with everyone winning both cash prizes and table prizes.
A beautiful trophy for the winners
2023
Planning has already begun for the 2023 festival which will be fished from the 15th to the 22nd of September 2023. We have a lot of interest already so be sure to get the bookings in early. You can find us on Facebook at “Cork Small Boats Festival”.
Even though we have had lots of rain and the weather has been very changeable the pike just keep coming. Father and son team, Neil and Sam Byrne had an outing towards the end of October. They were fishing in the Killashandra area targeting pike using dead-baits. Sam was first off the mark with a nice hard fighting pike. He also followed this up later with a second fish before Dad Neil got ff the mark.
Sam carefully cradles his second pike of the day
However, Neil also got on the score sheet producing a very nice pike.
Neil shows a nice pike caught during the outing with son Sam.
So while Ireland parched for much of the late summer & early autumnperiod, the rain gods have been working overtime in recent weeks, ensuring that the country is well and truly drenched as we turn into November. Rainfall was 2 to 3 times the normal amount last week, and that fell on ground that was already completely sodden. All around the country, rivers are at overflow, lakes are brimming to the hilt, and even the fields are flooding out. What angler would dare head out in all that…? Well, luckily for us, some did, and though reports are thin on the ground this week, there are still some quality fish being caught out there.
We’ll begin this week’s roundup with some surprising reports of quality pike fishing. Lots of freshwater flooding into lake systems usually puts the dampeners on pike fishing as they tend to go off the feed in these conditions. But last week seems to have been an exception to that rule, as we have a few reports of fine pike being landed. Starting in the Boyle area, German visitor Michael Hackenberg, guided by Angling Services Ireland, had some insane big pike action, with 6 pike over the magic meter mark, the largest of which was over 10kg. With plenty of good 90+ fish too, it was certainly a week to remember for Michael.
To the coarse angling scene next and Lough Muckno, where the Halloween 3-day festival was held in almost constant rain, and on a lake verging on unfishable. But the fish didn’t seem that put out by the downpour, and catching was quite consistent over the three days, with a respectable 25.8kg topping the table for Stephen Whyte. No sooner than the weigh-in was completed, the lake spilled over & flooded the access roads, meaning all events have been cancelled over the next few days… Next, we have a young angler who has helpfully shared some of his tips and tricks for fishing at his favourite venue, Lough Ramor. Brian Smyth has been fishing for four years, and you can tell he has learned a lot in a short space of time as he describes some of the rigs that have brought him success fishing the venue.
Junior angler Brian Smyth shows off a chunky, well-marked Ramor Perch
On the sea angling front, most boats would have spent much of the last week ashore, but Killybegs Fishing Trips made the most of a weather window to head out after Bluefin Tuna, and they were well rewarded with a fantastic fish that measured 103 inches or a whopping 700lbs. They had managed a 600lb fish the day before and thought that was going to be hard to beat, so they are definitely on a roll right now, and fish of that stamp deservedly wins this week’s Catch of the Week.
700lb of bluefin tuna
It would take some really foul weather to keep the Killybegs Mariners away from the beaches, so it was no surprise to hear they were back in action again last week. This time it was one of their younger members that came to the fore, as junior member Cormac landed some nice turbot, coley and flounder.
A happy Jacques Bronkhorst with a fine fly-caught pollack
In another welcome retrospective, salmon angler Seán Woods shared a video of the various venues he has visited in search of salmon in 2022. By the looks of things, he gets plenty of days on the water, and makes the most of those days in terms of fish, photos and video.
To wrap up, the latest podcast from Ireland on the Fly has just been issued. With the title of “Boiled bluebottles & more…the fly tying secrets of Jackie Mahon”, this one really has me intrigued, and I have the headphones ready to listen in, just as soon as I have finished this update…
And now the weather
Friday will be mainly dry, with some isolated showers, mostly falling in Ulster. Rain will spread from the southwest overnight, with some heavy falls in places that may lead to spot flooding. Saturday will begin wet but will clear to sunny spells in the afternoon before showers return to the Atlantic counties towards evening. Sunday will again bring heavy showers, and the unsettled weather with plenty of rain looks set to continue at least into midweek.
Junior angler Brian Smyth was in touch recently to tell us about some of the success he has been having fishing up on Lough Ramor. He has been fishing for four years, and specialises in fishing for roach, bream and perch.
Brian with a nice skimmer
For any angler looking to fish the venue, Brian has shared some of his favourite setups. For bream and roach, he uses a waggler, with the hook bait just sitting off the bottom and also uses a cage feeder with groundbait and sweetcorn. For perch, he prefers a maggot feeder and also gets success with small plastic lures.
Brian shows off a chunky, well-marked Ramor Perch
He finds that the Sensas 3000 dark mix groundbait, used alongside sweetcorn and hemp works best at this venue, as it has a strong smell which attracts and holds fish in the swim. Brian certainly seems on top of his game with his setups, which he has tried and tested with good results, and we hope to hear more about his fishing exploits in the future.
The Lough Muckno Halloween 3 day festival was fished in desperate high water conditions and in almost constant rain. The good fishing on offer more than compensated however, and all competitors tonight were more than happy with the Festival experience and the highest level of competition throughout.
A fine cumulative weight of 25.800 kgs saw top angler Stephen Whyte prevail, from a now mightily competitive Bruce Zhou on 20kgs. The ever challenging tough veteran Alan Larkin on 19 kgs plus was a close third, holding off the solid venue specialist Piotr Horbinski in 4th spot on 18kgs plus.
The final two places in the podium payout were the experienced pair of J McKinley and Darren Fairhurst in that order.
The organisers would like to thank and congratulate all of the competitors and wish their travelling friends from the UK a safe journey home.
Following an inspection on Wednesday, and following constant rain in recent days, Lough Muckno has been deemed unfishable this weekend due to high water.
The road onto White Island is flooded to the gate and as a consequence the code has been changed to avoid any health and safety issues from vehicles attempting to negotiate the flooded area there. The scheduled Kayak event has been cancelled and all anglers intended on using the venue over the coming days are advised that conditions are likely to be too challenging for the safe running of any organised event.
We have finally done it! Last Monday we had a BFT at 103″ which is estimated at over 700 lbs, and after getting a 600 lbs+ fish on Sunday we thought that would be hard to beat.
A big well done to our great friends from Wales Gary and Chris on getting this monster to the boat, and a big thanks to Peter for the great help on boat that day.
Go Fishing
Fiona Tee
33′ Interceptor. 300HP Caterpillar Skipper: Michael McGettigan Licence: 961 Base: Mullaghmore Operational area: Donegal Bay. Within 30 miles of land.
Notes: With over 40 years experience in Sea Angling in Donegal Bay, we bring you to the best locations and guarantee the best that angling in Donegal Bay has to offer. The MV Fiona Tee is equipped with all the latest technology ensuring all our fishing charters are monitored and offer real time tracking. We are also fully equipped with the latest in onboard safety equipment.
