Dave McManus, winner of the Arvagh International Coarse Fishing Festival 2022
Eamon Grey of the Breffni Arms Hotel reports on the Arvagh International Coarse Angling Fishing Festival which was fished earlier this month…
This year 65 anglers took part in our annual angling festival. The fishing was great, probably the best in the last 30 years, with large catches of mixed bags showing up in all pegs.
The winner was Dave McManus with a weight of 101.800 kg.
In 2nd place was Simon Stott with a weight of 96.310kg
Gavin Buttler 3rd place with 95.630kg
4th: Wayne Easter 91.470kg
5th: Kevin Johnson 82.525kg
Most of the Anglers have rebooked for 2023 and were delighted with all their catches. There were five sections used in the festival and were drawn and rotated each day.
Dave McManus, winner of the Arvagh International Coarse Fishing Festival 2022
2022 specimen claims have been coming in to ISFC regularly in recent weeks. Please get your claims in now to avoid the rush at end October closing date.
The deadline for submitting specimen claims is approaching fast. If you were lucky enough to catch a specimen fish this year and want to claim it, get your paperwork into the ISFC as soon as possible so that the ISFC can assess it. All specimen claims to be submitted by 31st Oct.
To speed up the process this year you can email a copy of your completed claim form to
Brian Curran, fishery manager at Costello & Fermoyle, reports on the month’s fishing:
Although the weather has not been kind for game angling here in the West, nevertheless it appears to be picking up with wind veering to the west and some rain forecast.
The annual inter club competition between Cornamona and Costello / Carraroe was fished on the Costello Fishery this Sunday and the total catches and all returned were, two salmon, 34 seatrout and about 55 small brown trout for 14 anglers.
The head ghillie on Costello, Sean Bollustrum, has once again shown his prowess and local knowledge catching 8 sea trout on Glenicmurrin and coming away with top rod.
The day is always a great angling and social event and monies raised goes towards developing the spawning grounds for future generation of wild fish.
Seb Morel and Anthony Guimpier were back on the water in the Strokestown area of Co. Roscommon this week. Their French clients were visiting from the Normandy area of France. According to Seb, things started slow with thirteen pike earlier this week. None of these pike passed the metre mark.
Seb Morel with a nice pike
However, things improved yesterday when some better fish were boated including fish of 85, 88 and 91. The best fish of the day however was a cracking fish measuring 106 cm. The fishing continues and we hope to hear more from Seb and Anthony over the coming days.
Congratulations to 11 year old Cameron Dowd from Dublin who landed four different predator species last Saturday.
He was fishing a midlands lake with his dad Damian and Chris Barry of Go Fishing Ireland.
Cameron targeted a “Triple Crown” catch of Rainbow Trout, Perch and Pike. However, he also managed to add the elusive fourth species, a Brown trout, to claim the “Grand Slam”. There aren’t many places in Ireland where you can do this, and it was great achievement for this talented young angler.
A pike for CameronA big ‘Bow’
“The fishing was quite tough in calm, often bright conditions, but Cameron fished patiently and accurately throughout the day”, said Chris. His Dad, Damian, had some nice fish as well.
Targeting multiple predator species in a single day is becoming more popular. It’s a real test of the angler’s skill and ability to work lures and flies at different depths in the water column to target the different predator species.
And a brownieAnd finally a perch
Next up, Cameron has set his sights on landing a 100cm pike this autumn. Judging by his performance so far, we think he’s going to do it. Well done.
Brendan Sharkey just posted some of his latest pike fishing news. According to Brendan “it was great to be back guiding again this week.
I had Eric from France out with me for a few days. We didn’t get off to a great start with only 1 small pike on the first day.
Another Irish pike over the magic 1 m
Luckily it changed for us during the following days with some great fish landed on each of the lakes we fished. We saved the best for last with Eric landing 9 fish of which the 4 best were 90cm, 98cm and 2 fish for 112cm each. In all there were 5 over the meter for the few days 101cm, 105cm, 108cm, 112cm and 112cm.
Following this, Brendan was on Lough Derg last week with some clients. According to Brendan there was “great fishing this week on lough Derg Helping out my mate Paul Bourke of #irishfishingtours.
Lots of quality pike and a lot of meter + fish between the two boats, best going to 107cm.”
Go fishing
If you want an exceptional fishing experience with the opportunity to hook into some really big pike and trout why not contact Brendan. Contact details below.
Des O’Connell of Kerry Sea Angling Charters was in touch to let us know of a superb record-sized pouting he caught on a recent trip. Weighed on board, the fish came in at 5lb 8oz, which would smash the current record of 4lb 13.5oz. However, fish need to be weighed on land to put in a record claim to the ISFC, and as he was offshore, this would have meant killing the fish. So, rather than do that, Des very sportingly opted to return the fish to the water and forgo the chance of being a record holder. He held the fish in the landing net until it was fully revived and then let it loose back to the depths.
Des also reported some great pollack from deepwater marks, but they were being intercepted on the way up by a large predator, possibly a porbeagle or blue shark.
Go Fishing
Fuego
Ocean Tramp 37′. 370HP Cummins Skipper: Des O’Connell Licence: 562 Base: Caherciveen Operational Area: Up to 30 miles from Caherciveen, Knightstown and Portmagee.
Notes: Deep sea fishing around Dingle Bay, the Skelligs and Blasket Islands. All types of fishing catered for – conger, ling, pollack, garfish and many more species. Can take 10 anglers comfortably. Half day fishing trips and mackerel trips also available.
My neighbour went off to sunny Spain last week and tasked me with watering the plants in her front garden. She needn’t have bothered… as the rainfall was 2 to 3 times the average across much of the country, and the watering can stayed put in my shed. There was a markedly autumnal feel in the air last week as temperatures cooled, bringing a nip to the air in the mornings and evenings. In other years, many of us might have fired up the central heating for the first time to take the chill out of the air, but being the year that it is, most of us probably opted to grit our teeth and put on a jumper or two…
Autumn normally sees a tapering off for our charter boat fishing as a combination of unsettled weather and species moving offshore limits the fishing opportunities. Luckily, that decline has not happened just yet, as reports of good fishing came thick and fast over the past week. Blue shark seemed particularly active, and we have reports of top-quality shark fishing from a couple of our charter boats. We’ll start in Courtmacsherry, where anglers fishing with both charter operators had their hands full with quality blues during the week. A group of Belgian anglers fishing with Courtmacsherry Angling hit the jackpot with 10 blues boated, including three over the 100lb mark. Also in Courtmacsherry, anglers fishing with West Cork Charters had a similar bonanza, with one group recording 16 blues and another group recording 10 blues, a couple of those also being specimen sized. Anglers fishing on the Clare Dragoon also had the blues, and enjoyed some decent fishing for spurs pollack and tope as well.
It takes two to tango with a big blue.
Staying in Clare, the Lady Gwen hosted some anglers from Mississippi last week, and they brought some US-style lures and rigs to try out on Irish fish. It seems the fish were quite taken by the new-fangled rigs, as codling, pollock, ling, haddock and gurnards all fell for some US Steel. Next up, anglers fishing with Blue Shark Angling in Galway had some nice tope alongside a decent mix of other species and the odd squid thrown in for good measure. And to wrap up our charter report, Wicklow Boat Charters have been experimenting with some new tactics of late, namely targeting bass off the Wicklow coast. And with three out of four trips proving successful so far, it looks like they have added another species to their repertoire.
Some US Steel worked wonders for Irish fish!
On the shore scene, the Killybegs Mariners kicked off their winter league with a trip to Rossnowlagh, where 20 anglers turned out and had some good fishing in terms of size, if not numbers. Meanwhile, South Shore SAC had to change the venue for their match last week, switching to Wicklow North Beach, as their preferred venue of Kilgorman looked too blustery. 31 anglers fished in day-long torrential rain, and as if that wasn’t enough, the fishing was a bit on the dour side too. Over in the west, Brian Reidy won the final leg of the Galway Bay SAC Master Angler, making him the champ for the second year running. Brian will also captain the Connaught team in next year’s inter-pro, so he’s on a bit of a roll…
Damp day on Wicklow North Beach
Moving to small boat fishing now, over 90 anglers from Ireland and the UK competed in this year’s Rosslare Small Boats festival last week. The competition had to be cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid restrictions, but anglers flooded back to the event after a couple of years of absence, and it was Liverpool-based boat Nirvana that came out on top with a total of 26 species.
And for any small boat anglers that fancy a bit of competition this weekend, Greystones Ridge SAC has asked us to remind you that they still have some places in their Monster Tope Angling Festival this Saturday & Sunday.
A well-coloured September salmon being carefully released on the Bandon
We also have monthly reports for August from both the Erriff and the Galway Weir fisheries. As one might expect, the very low water levels combined with high water temperatures made it a month to forget for most anglers that wet a line.
And in a reminder to all salmon and sea trout anglers, the season will end in the next couple of weeks, so your logbooks and unused tags will be due for return. Please remember to get the logbook and any unused tags back to IFI by October 19th.
September normally sees a return to action for many of our pike anglers and pike angling clubs, and true to form, we have seen an increase in piking activity over the past week. Newbridge & District Pike Anglers kicked off their winter season with a double competition held last Saturday and Sunday. With many opting to bivvy up on the bank overnight, it was a good opportunity for catching up with old fishing pals as much as it was to do a bit of fishing. Limerick County Pike Anglers also resumed their competition schedule last week, but the heavy rain forecast meant a low turnout as only 7 anglers were brave enough to face the dirty conditions.
On the coarse angling scene, festivals are still taking place around the country, and at the Belturbet festival, anglers found that a long-forgotten venue was, in fact, a hidden gem, with some quality catches for anglers that got to fish it. On Lough Muckno, 19 of Ireland’s finest feeder anglers endured torrential rain as they competed in the final of the Irish Feedermasters. In the end, only grammes separated the top spots, with Robertas winning out with a bag of 11+kg.
If you have an angling story to share with the Irish Angling Update please send it to [email protected].
And now the weather…
Friday will be fresh and mostly dry with a sprinkling of autumn sunshine. It should remain dry overnight and Saturday will start crisp and cool, leading to some dry, sunny weather across most of the country. The dry, settled weather will continue into early next week, with a slight change coming on Tuesday as showers will spread eastwards from the Atlantic coast.
4.8 lbs. "trout of the year" caught by Brendan Murphy on Lough Conn
Kevin O’Boyle reports from Loughs Conn & Cullin…
Not many anglers ventured out on the lakes, due to warm, calm conditions and bright sunshine. However, two “End of Season” Angling Competitions tempted a few anglers out on the lake.
Murphy’s Bar & Kieran Lynn Memorial Cup recorded 9 trout. Billy Murphy won the Competition with 2 trout including the heaviest fish for 1.82 lbs.
On Sunday, only 3 trout were recorded at the Paddy McDonald Cup, hosted by Lough Conn & Cullin Anglers, with the winner Brendan Murphy from Cloghans. Brendan caught a 4.8 lbs. trout outside Cloghans Bay on a Black Dabbler, the biggest trout recorded on Lough Conn for the 2022 season so far!
Elsewhere, Kevin Barrett from Belfast fishing with Gerry Fitzsimons from Enniscrone fishing in North Conn had a trout for just under 3 lbs. at Woodford shallows near Castle Island shore, which he released.
Kevin Barrett, Belfast, released this trout for just under 3lbs near Woodford Shallows
There are also reports of two salmon caught trolling spoons in the Massbrook area.
Low water levels prevail, even after some rain and a small flood which didn’t even reach the lower sections of the Moy, which was a disappointment for anglers.
Water levels recorded at Ballylahan Bridge (waterlevel.ie) on the Monday morning were 0.567m and rose over a few days to 0.569m and dropped back to 0.281m by Sunday night. Still 43 salmon and 4 sea trout were reported, with 15 of these salmon released and the 4 sea trout were also released.
The Moy Fishery recorded 4 sea trout for the week, all released.
Mount Falcon Fishery had 4 salmon for the week and 1 released.
Armstrong Fishery recorded 1 salmon caught on the bubble and fly.
The Foxford Fishery reported 12 grilse, all caught on bubble and fly.
Foxford Salmon Anglers reported 3 salmon from their Rinnaney stretch.
Foxford Rocks Fishery reported 1 salmon for the week.
East Mayo Anglers recorded 20 salmon for the week, 14 released.
