The first round of the 2026 Leinster Shore League, doubling as the Eddie Bermingham Open, will be hosted by South Shore SAC this Sunday, 18th Jan on Kilgorman Beach. All details at the link above and on the graphic below.
The Leinster Coarse Fishing Federation are holding their first Leinster Juniors meeting at Kilcock Harbour on 24th Jan.
This is open to any Junior who will be under 18 THIS year, with Qualifiers being held soon to make up the Junior Interprovincial Team.
It’s best to get your name in early, and interested juniors should contact Dean Murray on 089-9526740 for times and any other information.
Dates for the first three legs of this year’s Ultima Munster Shore League have been announced, with the first leg being held at Youghal Beach on Saturday, February 7th. Dates for the final two dates will be announced later in the year. See the graphic below for details.
Last September, we reported on a new league, based around fishing four of Ireland’s commercial fisheries. Well, having fished 7 matches across the 4 commercials, the 8th and last league match was held on 28th December. It was all to play for going into the match, with Johnny Bailey the slight favourite with 6 section wins, just ahead of Leo Lynch with 5 section wins.
As it turned out, Johnny kept his nose in front on the final day, winning the match and the overall prize. The guys had a great time fishing the inaugural Loch Mahon Autumn League, and plan to run a similar format next autumn, adding a few extra competitors into the mix. We look forward to hearing all about it next September.
Avery Happy New Year to all our readers, and let us start by wishing everyone a very successful 2026, particularly on the fishing front. Annual reminder that much of our content is driven by our readers, and we welcome all reports and photos, which you can send to [email protected].
This week started off with a spell of very cold weather, with frost, ice and even snow in parts. (Slightly) milder weather followed in midweek, then we saw the southern counties receive a glancing blow from Storm Goretti, which mainly affected France and the UK, and brought rain and wintry showers yesterday. Despite the weather, we have a number of angling reports to bring you from some hardy anglers who managed to venture out.
Pike angling is in full swing over winter, and this week we bring you another great video from Steve McDonagh on his Fishing with Steve YouTube channel – if you can’t get out pike fishing yourself, this might give you the motivation!
First place went to Ronan Murray and Trevor Martin in the Ardee Pike Anglers final club boat competition of the year, with a fine 105 cm pike helping the duo to the win.
Kai Fischer was fishing a Munster venue recently and a slow day was enlivened by a nice perch taking his soft plastic lure – then taking it again 5 minutes later!
We are lucky to have some very professional angling guides working across Ireland, providing a great service to visiting anglers, and Paul Bourke at Irish Fishing Tours on Lough Derg has certainly enhanced his offering with two fine new boats, kitted out with the latest electronics and trolling motors, so guests will be fishing in luxury this year!
We have a report on the final leg of the Monasterevin & Fisherstown Match Anglers three-man team Winter League, which concluded recently with a leg win for Conor Browne, and an overall league win for the Sensas team.
Despite freezing conditions, no one blanked and there were some surprisingly good bags recorded at the Iascaire Feeder Fishing Club New Year match on Rockfield Lough. with a winning bag of 3.70kg for
It was a similar story at Muckno for the Lurgan Coarse Anglers Memorial Cup match, where top weight on the day was Andy Chapman who had a 3.750kg bag of roach with some hybrids and a bonus skimmer.
And just before Christmas, the 5th round of the Ger Hennesy Winter league was fished at Oaklands, where water temps of 3C made for difficult fishing. John Browne was top weight with 19.690kg of Feeder caught carp, whioe young Finn McCarthy kept up his winning streak in the juniors, almost pipping John in the seniors with 19.53kg!
To the salt now, and Cobh SAC held a fundraising competition for the Irish World Boat Team on December 28th, with good miced fishing reported. Species caught included corkwing wrasse, dabs, dogs, pollock, poor cod, pouting, red bream, thornback ray, tub gurnard and whiting.
The same day saw the inaugural South Shore SAC Winter Pairs Competition at Kilgorman, with 20 pairs travelling from all over to compete. And it was a travelling pair from Uster, Ryan Blair and Drew Ferguson who were top rods on the day.
In west Cork, Dave Norman of Angling Adventures West Cork managed a few outings between Christmas and New Year, with some nice shore caught pollack rounding off his successful year. This fish wins our first Catch of the Week for this year.
In Donegal, the final leg of the Killybegs Mariners winter league, doubling up as the club’s Closed competition, saw Shane Cunningham win out on the day with 5 fish, and Darren Rawdon took the overall league title in a closely-fought finish.
Salmon fishing now, and we have no update on the proposed salmon regulations for 2026. Open, closed and catch and release rivers, quotas and bye laws remain the same as in 2025 while the Department considers the views expressed in the Public Consultation as part of the process to finalise the Regulations, which is expected to be completed later in the New Year.
We feature the Delphi 2025 newsletter this week, which is an evocative reprise of the 2025 season at Delphi written by fishery manager David McEvoy, and contains tons of info and stats on the season just gone by. It’s just over 3 weeks to the 2026 season there, and we’re sure the newsletter will whet your appetites for that.
The season itself kicked off on the 1st of January on the River Drowes, but so far we have no reports of fresh salmon caught.
Inland Fisheries Ireland has announced details of its Sponsorship Programme for 2026. The programme aims to promote angling tourism in rural areas in 2026, whilst also supporting activities for novice anglers and supporting Irish international teams at overseas championships. It is one of IFI’s main funding mechanisms to promote sustainable angling in Ireland and in 2026, €40,000 will be awarded to angling clubs, federations and tourism bodies to support their angling events.
The tender process for IFI State Fisheries for 2026 is now open and a list of available fisheries has been published on fisheriesireland.ie. If your club wants to tender for one or more fisheries please download and fill out the Condition of Tender Questionnaire and return to IFI at the address indicated or you can apply online.
As most people know, the 2026 salmon regulations have been delayed as the Department continues to analyse the submissions made during the public consultation. As of now, the 2025 regulations remain in force
Salmon anglers who have not yet returned their logbook and unused tags from 2025 are asked to do so now.
Cold today with some sunny spells but scattered showers, some wintry, mainly in the west, snow possible over high ground. Starting cold in places on Saturday morning with frost, ice and fog slow to clear. Dry with sunny spells for most though a few well scattered wintry showers in Ulster and Leinster. Cloud will build from the west through the afternoon with outbreaks of rain and drizzle developing across Atlantic counties, extending eastwards in the evening.
Sunday will be windy with widespread outbreaks of rain, turning heavy in places with a chance of hail. Milder with highest temperatures of 8 to 12 degrees. Southerly winds will be fresh to strong reaching near gale force at times.
The outlook is for unsettled weather for the early days of next week, with plenty of showers and longer spells of rain, but milder with temps of 7-11C.
Don’t forget to double-check the forecast before going fishing, and if you’re going to sea, check the tides.
Safe fishing to all and tight lines, especially here in Ireland.
IFI Staff
Catch, Photo, Release
If you have an angling story to share with the Irish Angling Update, please send it to [email protected].
Steve McDonagh, of the Fishing with Steve YouTube channel, has been busy over the Christmas break with a couple of new videos posted up for his subscribers.
For his last session of 2025, Steve fished one of his favourite river swims – a spot where he has had good success in the past and one that was finally fishable after high water levels had eventually subsided.
For his first session of 2026, Steve is joined by fellow pike angler Rob McMasters in Monaghan, where they had hoped to fish for big pike on a popular trout fishery. They started out with high hopes for this session, but unfortunately their chosen venue was packed with other anglers who had the same idea!
Instead, they headed back to a much bigger lake that Steve’s regular viewers will recognise. To make things even more interesting, this session took place during a Wolf moon, a time many anglers believe can seriously influence pike behaviour. Would it work in their favour…?
If you enjoy Steve’s videos, don’t forget to give them a thumbs up and subscribe to the Fishing With Steve YouTube Channel.
Steve can be contacted at:
For all your fishing tackle needs checkout Steve’s sponsor https://www.sportfins.ie
Fishery manager David McEvoy has published the 2025 Delphi Fishery Newsletter, and as always it makes for great reading.
Packed full of information that looks back on the weather, the fishing and the people of the 2025 season, David’s wordsmithery brings to life the trials and triumphs of a difficult season that produced some good fishing at times.
Although catches, like most other fisheries in the country, were down on average, there were some good stories to tell. The average size of the grilse last year was the heaviest they have recorded at Delphi, averaging 4.8lbs. And sea trout catches were exceptional, the highest recorded for many years, with some red letter days – notably for Dan O’Donovan and Denis Daly who had 21 off Glencullin for one day in late August.
But don’t take our word for it, stick the kettle on, head over to the Delphi website here and check it out here over a cup of tea.
The Monasterevin & Fisherstown Match Anglers three-man team Winter League concluded recently, with the third and final round held on a cold Grand Canal.
Sensas angler Conor Browne took individual honours on the day from end peg 31, catching over 100 fish for a winning weight of 7lb 2oz, mainly small roach with a few perch and hybrids. Second place went to Caster Blasters’ Ron Durkin with 3lb 12oz of small roach.
In the team standings, Sensas secured the overall league title with an excellent final-round performance, scoring just six points across the three sections. A close battle followed, with Matrix Gold finishing second overall on 32 points. Nytro moved up from fourth to claim third place on 33 points after outscoring Matrix Silver in the final round, with Matrix Silver finishing fourth on 34 points.
Cobh SAC report on their annual Fundraiser for the National Boat Teams …
Cobh SAC hosted the annual Fundraiser for the National Boat Teams on December 28th with 32 anglers braving the cold. The Fundraiser is the highlight of the year for many, a fun competition with prizes for the longest of each species caught, best score, best newcomer, and more. Depending on the number of prizes provided by the anglers, this has occasionally extended to best beard and best hair.
Surrounded by dolphins and the occasional seal, fishing was mixed with boats changing location in search of different species as the day progressed. The fleet landed corkwing wrasse, dabs, dogs, pollock, poor cod, pouting, red bream, thornback ray, tub gurnard and whiting.
Longest Round Fish – Tim O’Herlihy 46cm Whiting
Biggest Score – Tomasz Kujawa
Longest Dab – Peter McKeon
Longest Dogfish – John Griffin
Best Lady Angler – Siobhan Cherry
Best Visiting Angler – John Bellamy all the way from England
U21 Angler:
1st Noah Tarhan
2nd Kevin Roche
3rd Sean O’Herlihy
4th Jack Walsh
5th Finn Purcell
6th Cerdic Reponen
Boat Winner – John Angles
1st Closest – Mark Greenwood
2nd Closest – Heniek Matczak
3rd Closest – Tomasz Zbiczynski
4th Closest – Eoin Moriarty
5th Closest – Dave Cherry
Best supporter of Irish Teams Piotrek Nowakowski.
Thank you to our skippers Alan Kennedy of Lagosta 2, Tony Lane of Camden Mist, Dylan Geary on behalf of John Barry of Cuan Bawn and Alan Treacy on Osprey. Thank you also to the anglers who were able to donate prizes on the day and boat Captains Pat Condon, John Dennehy, Dan Lynch and Piotrek Nowakowski.
Round 3 of our Light Lines league is on Sunday 11th January. Another opportunity to learn from the best in Ireland.
Cobh SAC is a very active club with a great series of competitions across the year.
The club is very welcoming to new members.
If you are interested in joining the club or fishing any of their competitions contact them via Facebook.
Paul Bourke at Irish Fishing Tours has announced some big changes for 2026…
Just taken delivery of not one, but TWO new boats; a Finval 595 Fish Pro, powered by a 150hp Suzuki and a Finval 515 Evo, powered by a 100hp Suzuki!
Both are fully kitted out with the latest Garmin electronics and the Rock solid Garmin Force Pro trolling motor, sitting proud on Pega boat trailers — absolute weapons on the water.
Huge thanks to Brian Connaughton of Wildhunter.ie and his team and to Frank Schaper of Finval Berlin for all the help supplying and fitting these builds. Top-class service from start to finish.
I am taking bookings for the 2026 season now. Contact me on [email protected],
www.irishfishingtours.com or Paul Bourke 087 1953554
