Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers who fished during the 2022 season are being reminded to kindly return their logbooks and any unused gill tags at the end of the season.
Inland Fisheries Ireland is encouraging salmon and sea trout anglers to return angling logbooks (setting out their fishing and catch record) and any unused gill tags from 2022, if they have finished fishing for this year or once the season has closed.
Under the Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Tagging Scheme, anglers can return these in one of three ways:
Using the postage pre-paid business return envelope that was supplied at the time of licence purchase (preferred option).
Posting the logbook and unused gill tags to the Inland Fisheries Ireland office address that is displayed on their licence or logbook.
Scanning and emailing logbook and licence documents to Inland Fisheries Ireland at [email protected]. Important: if you are choosing this option, please scan all sides of documents, including continuation pages, to ensure that the licence names and number can be correctly linked to the logbook.
On average, 70% of anglers in Ireland return their logbooks and these returns provide vital information regarding the status and management of our wild Atlantic Salmon and Sea Trout stocks into the future.
Reminder
In accordance with the Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Tagging Scheme, anglers in Ireland are required by law to return their completed logbook (setting out their fishing and catch record) and all unused tags to the issuing office of Inland Fisheries Ireland within 7 days of licence expiry, and no later than the 19th of October.
As part of the Scheme, an angler must attach a valid gill tag to a salmon (any size) or sea trout (over 40cm) harvested, immediately on landing. They must enter details of their catch and/or gill-tag used into their logbook.
Any questions or queries?
Please email [email protected] and we will respond to your query as quickly as possible.
After a prolonged dry spell, the past seven days have been much wetter than average across the country, with stations recording between 160% and 480% of their typical weekly accumulations for the time of year. The wettest parts of the country were the south and east, while the west stayed relatively dry in comparison. Such was the extent of the August dry spell, rivers in parts of the country that saw a large amount of rain this week are only returning to what might be considered ‘normal’ levels for the time of year.
One river that saw a slight rise in water levels was the Moy, where water levels recorded at Ballylahan Bridge were 0.195m rising slightly to 0.352m after the long awaited rain. Fishery managers along the river agree that this is not enough to flush out the river and say more rain is needed to “freshen” up the system. Only sixteen grilse and one sea trout were reported caught on the Moy fisheries during the week. In the south west, the bit of fresh water was just what anglers in Waterville needed and anglers fishing the Inny, the Commeragh river and the Butler pool all caught grilse. On Currane itself, the sea trout fishing has been ok, with anglers reporting decent numbers of juniors and fish up to a couple of pounds on the drift – as well as the odd grilse. The sea trout fishing improved on the Costello and Fermoyle fisheries with the drop of rain, and a further improvement is expected with more rainfall.
Low water everywhere
The low water made for difficult trout fishing conditions on the rivers, but the Maigue was described as ‘refreshed and with more pace’ following the fresh influx and the trout were more obliging for visiting anglers fishing an upstream dry fly. On the topic of fly fishing, this Saturday, September 10th, the third ever International Women’s Fly Fishing Day will be celebrated.
It’s planned that at 11am, in every time-zone across the world, female fly-anglers will post photos or videos of themselves to FaceBook or to Instagram to share their enjoyment of fly fishing. Also following a fly fishing theme – though the purists might disagree – the Ireland on the Fly podcast this week looks at the art of Tenkara in Ireland.
Offshore, the charter skippers and bluefin tuna boats are still doing well when the wind allows. There was plenty of action in Donegal bay with tuna to an estimated 600lbs, though no reports yet from the south coast where they usually arrive later in the season. Boats fishing out of both the Clare and Galway sides of Galway Bay have had some fine catches of mixed species – along with some great tope fishing, plenty of good sized blue shark and some lovely pollock.
Thomas Moran was the overall winner of the 56th annual Newport SAC Festival and was presented with the Tom Moran Memorial Cup by members of the Moran family, (Bella, Sorcha and Cian)
IFI recently launched the Draft Great Western Lakes Management Plan. Loughs Corrib, Mask, Carra, Conn, Cullin, Arrow and Sheelin are some of the best wild brown trout fisheries in Europe and are collectively known as the Great Western Lakes. Inland Fisheries Ireland wishes to develop a long term management plan for these lakes to address many of the factors currently impacting on the ecological wellbeing of native fish stocks in their catchments.
For more information, including the draft plan, a comprehensive list of Frequently Asked Questions, “open evenings” and how to participate in the public consultation and have your voice heard, check out the web page here: Western Lakes Plan
The final open evening will take place on Tuesday 13th September: Crover House Hotel, Mount Nugent, Co Cavan A82 P2D9
No tickets or registration is required and all open evenings are operating on a ‘drop-in’ basis from 4pm to 8pm.
And now the weather…
Brightening up this evening with some sunny spells. Highs of 18°C to 21°C degrees in light NW breezes. Mainly dry overnight with clear spells, lows of 9°C to 12°C.
Saturday looks set to be a mostly dry day with a mix of cloud and sunshine. The best in the east with a few well-scattered showers elsewhere. Warm with highs of 18°C to 22°C
Outbreaks of overnight rain will extend nationwide on Sunday, turning heavy and persistent with the possibility of localised flooding. Highs of 17°C to 20°C.
Rain will gradually ease and clear on Monday with dry and bright periods developing. Highs of 17°C to 22°C, warmest in the south. Mostly dry on Tuesday with sunny spells, highs of 17°C to 22°C.
Kevin Lyons of Melview Lodge has a few guests from abroad fishing with him this week:
Dutch anglers Ronald and Bert are over once again to stay with host Kevin at Melview Fishing Lodge. They have started their week well with mixed catches of Bream, Hybrids and Roach. And at the time of writing, it looks like the Tench have now turned up too. We will have a full report on how they finished up next week. We will also report on Andy and Pete, who are also doing well with some good catches of Bream and some nice Tench, so tune in next week for full reports on how it all finished up.
Ronald with a good mixed catch on day oneBert and Ronald with some nice bream on day two
Kevin has over 30 years experience of fishing in Ireland and is happy to offer a guided tour on your arrival, and to advise where the on-form waters in the area are. We can arrange your bait order so it’s here when you arrive. Melview offers free use of 17ft lake boats with engines to our guests (pay fuel only) and Kevin is happy to assist with any pre-baiting requests. Maps and other information regarding fishing are also available.
Skipper Luke Aston reports that after the high wind of Monday, Tuesday was a much better day and they got back out to the reefs. The drift was great and plenty of fish were caught. Some nice ling and pollack were the highlight, with bull huss and conger when they anchored up.
A lovely pollackLingPollackBull hussConger eel
The following day a long shark drift prodcuced two blue shark, as well as spurdog on the bottom. One spur even took a shark trace at 25 metres in 90 metres of water!
Blue sharkAnd the second one.Spur dog
Go fishing…
Clare Dragoon
Clare Dragoon is a LOCHIN 366 powered by 650HP engine, skippered by Luke Aston and operating out of Carrigaholt Co. Clare…
I have some offers up on my web site www.fishandstay.com and if anybody is interested in putting a trip together please do get in touch. Also I Twitter from the boat on @fishandstay and try to update my face book page www.facebook.com/CarrigaholtSeaAngling fairly often! To experience some of the best deep sea fishing available in Ireland contact Luke. Telephone: +353 65 9058209 or +353 87 6367544 Email:[email protected]Web:www.fishandstay.com
Skipper Sean Maguire had a crew of “two brothers (and good friends) over from the UK for their annual shark trip, and they were not disappointed again this year. Great company on the boat as usual”. Spurs were landed as well as blue shark.
Spur dog
Blue shark
General fishing has been very steady, with plenty of mackerel providing bait, good pollack fishing and a few other species in the mix.
A full house!Two nice pollackA fine pollackWrasse
Go Fishing
Lady Gwen II
Fishing Adventures on Séan Maguire’s Lady Gwen II, a Lochin 33 M265Ti Perkins charterboat which operates 15 miles from Kilbaha, Carrigaholt, and Kilrush.
Whether you want to go to the Atlantic Ocean for a large selection of species, including different types of shark, or fish the estuary for ray conger tope etc, Fishing Adventures will cater for whatever fishing you desire. Telephone: +353 (0) 877508758 or +353 (0) 894431182 Email:[email protected]Web:www.fishingadventures.ie
Skipper John Fleming says they have enjoyed some great fishing over the last 10 days or so. Some nice tope have been showing, all be it patchy at times, but reef and general species fishing has been brilliant with good numbers of gurnards, wrasse, whiting, pollock and cod about most days.
A nice codCodBrightly coloured red gurnardA fine pollackPollackDouble hook up for father and sonTopeTopeNice topeand another one
Go fishing…
To book fishing with John aboard the Brazen Hussy II, give him a call on 087 7571320
A regular day is between 9am- 6pm from either Rossaveal, Spiddal or Galway depending on species being sought after. Fishing on the inshore reefs for pollock, cod, ling, wrasse, conger eel and mackerel can be reached in 10 minutes from departure, while our offshore reef marks are within 45 minutes of departure. Our ground fishing for tope, spurdog, ray, bullhuss, turbot, plaice and the giant common skate can all be reached within the hour which ensures the most amount of time is spent fishing.
The shark season usually starts at the end of June and runs into late October, this is the ultimate angling adrenaline rush with these hard fighting blue and porbeagle sharks all being tagged and released safely.
Package deals available
Damien Culliney of Anglers Paradise reports on a great day afloat in east Clare yesterday:
My friend Chris and I had some great sport on an east Clare lake yesterday. After a long spell of high water temperatures, which had made the very pike sluggish, it was great to see water temps finally dropping off, and it definitely had an impact on the fishing. We had 15 fish to the boat with a 103 cm being the best fish of the day. The fish were all in top condition and there was plenty of jumping and tail-walking action to add to the excitement. Between casting and trolling, the lure of the day was a ‘Swimmin Dawg’ from Muskyinnovations. Looking forward to some great fishing over the coming couple of months www.anglersparadise.ie 🎣👍
As expected, water levels are at an all time low throughout the Moy system. This has a huge impact on angling and fish movement.
Water levels recorded at Ballylahan Bridge on the Monday morning were 0.195m (waterlevel.ie) and rose slightly at the weekend after some long awaited rain to 0.352m on Sunday night. Fishery managers are all saying this is not enough to flush out the river and say more rain is needed to “freshen” up the system. Sixteen grilse and one sea trout were reported, with 4 grilse released plus the sea trout.
The Moy Fishery recorded 1 salmon and 1 sea trout for the week, all released.
Byrne’s Fishery reported 3 grilse all caught on the prawn from their water.
The Foxford Fishery reported 5 grilse, all caught on bubble and fly.
Foxford Salmon Anglers reported 2 salmon from their Rinnaney stretch.
Foxford Rocks Fishery reported 2 salmon for the week.
East Mayo Anglers recorded 3 salmon for the week, and all released.
25 anglers took to the banks on the Erne system during the week to battle it out in the 4-day River Erne 100 event. The fishing was tough right from the outset, with only a couple double figure bags of 11.4kg and 12.4kg, with the majority scoring below 5kg for the day. And things didn’t get any better as the week went on, with the average weight per angler per day being a poor 3.3kg. By the final day of the competition, it was tight at the top, with Tony Green’s total of 30.2 just pipping Martin Bendell’s 29.28 to win him the prize money.
A number of bluefin boats based in the northwest enjoyed another great week of tuna action.
Adrian Molloy of tuna.ie reported five bluefin tuna to the boat today (Thursday 9th Sept.). Earlier in the week conditions were a little tougher but tuna also showed up in good numbers.
Smiling faces for customers of tuna.ie
Killybegs Fishing Trips also had a mad day at the bluefin tuna with a total of four hook-ups. One fish of 90 inches and about 435 lbs. was caught, tagged and safely released.
Killybegs Fishing Trips doing well
It has also been a busy time for TunaMick with four groups of customers and the Marine Institute managing 28 fine fish, of a wide range of sizes, to the boat. The fish measured from 180cm to 245cm. The 245cm fish was every bit of 600 lbs. and strong.
Marine Institute tagging a fish
A little further south fishing out of Mullaghmore, Declan Kilgannon, skipper of Kiwi Girl, also reported great tuna action during the past week.
Tuna CHART (CatcHand Release Tagging) utilises authorised vessels to catch, tag and release Atlantic Bluefin Tuna for data collection purposes off the Irish coast. The programme, developed by Inland Fisheries Ireland and the Marine Institute in partnership with the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Department for Environment, Climate and Communications, operated on a pilot basis in 2019 and 2020.
