Cian Hughes playing a trout to the boat on a fine spring evening.
The Hidden Heartland’s has an open secret – the quality and range of angling experiences here has to be seen to be believed.
Experience Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands, a beautifully unspoiled part of Ireland where life moves at its own pace. Listen to the ebb and flow of trickling waters, fish your way down rivers and streams or explore magical loughs where tall tales were meant to be made.
Meander across expansive boglands, majestic mountains and open valleys. Visit the riverside towns and villages dotted throughout this enchanting region. Make sure to stop and soak up the peaceful atmosphere, there’s nowhere quite like it.
What’s the Catch?
For the trout angler there are miles of wandering rivers and loughs where fly fishing can produce exciting sport.
Coarse anglers can set up on the banks of still waters like the huge expanse of water that is Lough Ree to smaller ponds, all filled with bream, rudd, tench, roach and hybrids. And lets’s not forget the the river fishing and the canals!
Pike anglers can target big fish over shoals of coarse fish all through the year. The might river Shannon and its tributaries produce pike to over 30lb year in year out
The Rock of Cashel , where the Kings Walk brings you straight to the River Suir
The Rock of Cashel, where the King’s Walk brings to to the banks of the River Suir
At first sight, Ireland’s Ancient East is a tranquil and beautiful land of rolling green hills, charming towns and quiet waters, all framed by the River Shannon and the Irish Sea. But dig a little deeper and you’ll discover a region that ripples with over 5,000 years of history. There are compelling characters and ancient mysteries, hidden stories and millennia-old myths. Go fishing in Ireland’s Ancient East, and you become part of the story.
What’s the Catch?
Just about all of Ireland’s most famous trout rivers and streams are found in Ireland’s Ancient East. From the Boyne to the Suir, there is somewhere for every fly angler to find magic.
Ireland’s myths and legends often favour fish. The mighty salmon is central to many of these tales from times past. But did you know that it was on the banks of the Boyne that Fionn caught the Salmon of Knowledge? With rivers like the Boyne, Slaney and Blackwater to choose from you’ll surely learn something about salmon fishing you didn’t know before…
The North East of the country and the parts of the midlands that rest in Ireland’s Ancient East are home to some Ireland’s biggest pike. But though these toothy predators become rare as you travel south, you’ll meet them once more in Cork, where Ireland’s Ancient East meets the Wild Atlantic Way
These same lakes that are host to might pike are also full of coarse fish. Anglers’ favourites like bream and tench thrive in these waters, and rudd and roach abound in great quantities. No wonder so many angling festivals are hosted here every year.
Finally, all along the coast of Ireland’s ancient east are hidden places and secret spots, but there are many places easy to find and good to fish in too. No matter if you want to fish afloat or from shore there is something here for you.
Kieran Collins of Baltimore Angling reports on a great start to his bluefin tuna season…
On Friday evening I put the tuna gear back onboard Radiance to prepare for the beginning of our 2022 Bluefin Tuna season. Derek, Dave, Dessie, Sean and Colm were booked in for 2 days and we were all looking forward to it. Ben came onboard as crewman . Saturday morning we went through the setups checking and double checking everything, then picked up the lads.
Day one saw us get 3 hook ups, with the first one getting off after 10 minutes. The second one also got off the hook after 13 minutes, but third time lucky and we tagged a 97” 589lb beauty.
Day two, Sunday, the lads had to be in early so pressure was on to find fish fast, which we did. We were seeing lots of tuna but they weren’t interested in taking the hook. We did see a few check out the lures and take a swipe but no hook up. Just when we were taking the final run around a bait ball with thoughts of heading home we hooked up and 27 mins later we had a 98” 604lb alongside, which we quickly tagged and after reviving released and headed back to Baltimore with a happy crew. Thanks lads for putting your trust in Baltimore Angling to get you on the fish.
It was still early and as the weather was changing for the worse we headed back out to get a fish for Ben. Not long after getting back trolling we had an explosive hook up but unfortunately after 9 mins he got off. Time passed and as the light started to fade we were on. This time a nice 78” 300lb.
Job done! Baltimore Angling’s 2022 Bluefin Season is up and running.
Skipper: Kieran Collins Base: Baltimore Operational area: 30 miles
out from Baltimore.
Authorised blue fin tuna boat 2025
Notes: Wreck fishing, shark fishing and common skate fishing are three kinds of sea angling that Baltimore is famous for, but most of the popular sea angling species of Britain and Ireland are found in these waters. And off Baltimore they are joined by a number of more exotic species, courtesy of the Gulf Stream. Fishing like this is no more than a distant memory in so many other places once famed for their sea angling.
We are involved in tagging programmes with Inland Fisheries Ireland – in which we are tagging shark and common skate.
Trigger fish - species number 59 for John Cunningham for the year
Well, after the recent wet weather, this week has been fairly dry with rain in places but overall much less that what’s considered normal for the time of year. “What’s new?” says you… The shift to autumn continues though and it’s getting a little cooler all the time especially in the evenings. The days have been mostly bright and sunny and not too windy, so we’ve a decent mix of fishing to report on this week, particularly from the sea angling scene…
Keith enjoyed his time on Blackwater Valley Fishery
The river Moy was very low again last week and only 15 salmon were reported. We have reports in from Kerry, Cork and Connemara but salmon catches were not great anywhere. Visiting anglers on Lough Currane bucked the trend there as they have met a few salmon and sea trout on their holiday. Anglers on the Laune and Lough Leane reported no salmon in the same period. West Cork anglers did better particularly on the Ilen and Coomhola rivers. There are a few salmon coming from the Munster Blackwater but no sign there of the much hoped for Autumn Run. Lastly a competition fished on Fermoyle and Costello saw only a couple of salmon caught but the anglers were entertained well enough by their smaller cousins and 34 sea trout and 55 brown trout were caught and released.
Brendan Murphy playing his fish on Conn
Trout anglers seem to have been quiet this week. Reports in from the Laune system are that there are a few fish being caught on the river and lakes. Meanwhile one fish of 1.7lb was enough to win Brendan Murphy the Chris Downey Cup on Lough Conn.
Dave Finnegan
On the coarse angling front Dave McManus won the Arvagh International Festival with 101.800kg caught over 5 days. In festival news from Lough Muckno, Craig Ellis and Dave Finnegan won the Co. Monaghan Pairs and Robertas Zilatis took top spot in the IADA Feeder Championships.
Alessio with a cracking Boyle pike
The cooler conditions have seen pike fishing pick up and good catches were reported from Lough Derg and waters in Co. Rosommon. Italian anglers fishing with Bodo Funke caught a number of 100cm plus pike. Brendan Sharkey had anglers out in the Boyle area too. They also had a number of 100cm plus pike with the biggest making 112cm. Brendan’s run of luck continued later in the week on Lough Derg where pike to 107cm were landed. Co. Roscommon was where it was happening last week and French anglers in the area had good fishing last week and again earlier this week.
John Cunningham with his 60th different species for the year – a saury. Fantastic angling
The Killybegs Mariners having been keeping track of the species caught by their members this year and their total currently stands at 70. Club member John Cunningham caught his 60th species for the year last week – a saury. The Sauries are an important bait fish for the bluefin tuna and they are about in good numbers. So it’s no wonder that the bluefin boats along the northwest coast reported excellent tuna fishing over the past two weeks with many fish in the 250 to 450 lbs. range being caught, tagged and released.
John Dory
Shark anglers on Galway Bay got the better of calm conditions last week. They took what species were on offer before changing ground and tactics and concentrating on tope which gave great sport. Staying on the west coast, anglers fishing on the Clare Dragoon had a good mix of species with with big blues, spurdogs, conger and whiting featuring. Mixed species were also on the menu for Lady Gwen II and her anglers had all the usual suspects and some less usual ones too like john dory, megrim and squid.
Could have been a contender. This record sized pouting was released to fight another day
Charter skipper Des O’Connell was in touch to let us know of a superb record-sized pouting he caught out off Caherciveen. The fish was weighed on board at 5lb 8oz, which would smash the current record of 4lb 13.5oz, but was sportingly released. The humble saury was seen off West Cork too last week. They proved entertaining to catch for shark anglers on Loch an Iasc and are also good bait. Essential when you’re catching up to 15 blues a day. Good numbers of shark were also seen off Courtmacsherry where the Silver Dawn had serious fishing; 40 ling from 5 to 22lb and 43 Blue Sharks including 2 specimens landed. The wreck and bass fishing in Courtmacsherry is also going well at the moment. The Osprey in Cork Harbour reported a good mix of species last week with thornbacks, turbot spurdogs and conger keeping anglers happy there.
You can expect a largely dry day tomorrow, Saturday, with sunny spells and scattered showers in a light to moderate northerly breeze. Sunday will be a cloudier day again with well scattered showers. Rather cool and turning breezy later in the day with moderate to fresh westerly winds developing, accompanied by spells of rain during Sunday evening or early Sunday night. Monday will be windy and cooler still and cool unsettled weather is likely to remain in place for much of next week.
Pro Fisherman 33 Skipper: Pat Condon Licence: 1350 Base: Crosshaven and Cobh Operational area: 30 miles from Crosshaven, Kinsale, Cobh, Monkstown and Ballycotton.
Notes: With more than 30 years Sea angling experience in hand and having won several national & international sea angling competitions, Pat Condon offers his clients the wealth of his angling skills as part of their experience.
Anglers can fish many reefs near the Cork harbour for ling, cod, conger eel, pollack and coalfish. Shark fishing off Cork Harbour is from mid june to september.
Even if the weather is poor you can fish within Cork harbour for species such as bass, blonde ray and thornback ray, plaice and dabs.
Kevin O’Boyle reports that it was a case of 2 in a row on Lough Conn for local Angler Brendan Murphy from Cloghans.
Brendan won the Chris Downey Cup with a trout of 1.7lbs. This is a repeat of the week before in the Lough Conn and Cullin Anglers Association Competition. He caught the trout in the same place with the same fly at the same time!
Billy McGee from Ballyvary came second in the Competition with a trout of 1.4lbs.
1 of 2
Brendan Murphy with his 1.7lbs. trout caught on Lough Conn
Kevin O’Boyle reports that there were 15 Salmon recorded for the week ending 18/09/2022, with 6 of these released. Water levels were extremely low for this time of year. Water levels recorded at Ballylahan Bridge (waterlevel.ie) on the Monday morning were 0.301m and dropped off to 0.192m on Sunday night.
The Moy Fishery recorded 5 sea trout ranging in weight from 1.5lbs.– 3lbs. all released and 1 brown trout for the week also released.
The 2022 Water Blitz will ask citizen scientists countrywide to sample and test the water quality in their local river, lake, pond or stream for nitrates and phosphates using kits supplied to them when they register for the event.
WaterBlitz event are open to organisations around the country like angling groups that have an interest in checking and maintaining the water quality of their local river or stream. The aim is to collect as much data as possible through the FreshWater Watch app to determine the status of water bodies nationwide, celebrating the cleanest water bodies and identifying pollution hotspots.
Many angling groups took part in previous successful Blitzes in 2019 and 2021 which yielded interesting results and FreshWater Watch are hoping to continue this work and monitor many more rivers this year. See details of upcoming WaterBlitzs below…
Deel WaterBlitz
7 October – 10 October 2022
Do you live near the River Deel in Ireland?
The Deel WaterBlitz event will be taking place this autumn across County Cork and County Limerick over a four day period from Friday 7 October to Monday 10 October.
People living locally can sign up to receive a free water quality testing kit and upload their data to a shared online map. The aim of the event is to make the invisible, visible through people powered citizen science and find out what is happening to the water quality of the River Deel.
Registrations are now open below! They will close on 28 September.
Are you part of a river or community group across Ireland and interested in checking the quality of your local waterbody?
The Irish WaterBlitz 2022 event will be taking place across the entire country over a four day period from Friday 7 October to Monday 10 October.
Interested groups can sign up to receive free water quality testing kits to distribute to members of their group who can test the waterbody or catchment area that they champion. The data collected will be uploaded to a shared online map available to all participants where the power of citizen science will help discover how good our freshwater quality is across the country.
Registrations are now open below! They will close on 2 October.
Purple Mountain over Muckross Lake,Muckross, Killarney Co. Kerry.
Water Levels dropped during the week. Angling efforts increased on the Laune and anglers are mostly spinning for salmon and fly fishing for trout. No reports of salmon catches on the Laune, but plenty of fish have been seen.
The Lakes are quietening down and less anglers are out on the water. all the same, brown trout are still being caught on wet fly.
Radiance
Osprey
