Siegy Grabher, skipper of Siouxout of Valentia Island reports some great fishing around the Skelligs and Valentia Island for his German visitors. Some good cod and ling have been caught, as well as plenty of pollack.
A nice pollack
Ling
Cod
Pollack
Heading out
Heading in!
Siegy also captured a video of a large sunfish that came close to the boat. These mysterious fish, which can grow to over 3 metres, are regular summer visitors to Irish waters, where they feed on jellyfish, squid, small fish and crustaceans.
Go fishing…
Sioux
The charter boat “Sioux” is an Offshore 105 equipped with a 300 hp Ford Sabre Turbo Diesel engine. The season for most species is from April to the end of September; cod, pollock, ling, coalfish, whiting, haddock, mackerel, garfish, pouting, plaice, ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, grey and red gurnard, seabass, mullet, skate, ray-thornback, conger eel, dogfish, bullhuss and blueshark (July – September)
Keith Miller was in touch with us with some photos of his son Rikus with some nice bass he caught recently.
On a recent trip to Youghal on the weekend 13 to 14 August 2022, to watch Iron man, my son Rikus who is always looking for an excuse to wet a line, got these nice sea bass, which were all released again. 6 fish were caught off the beach, with high tide moving out.
Skipper Tom Collins reports on some great fishing during the recent hot spell of weather. Conditions were ideal, allowing offshore trips, although the shady side of the boat was popular on the hotter days!
Plenty of blue shark showed offshore and an inshore drift produced porbeagle.
Blue shark
Porbeagle
No dentist needed here!
Overall we managed 22 different species and few swims in the 18 degree water.
Pouting
Bluemouth
Bull huss
A nice conger
Tom even managed to capture a rare video of a jumping mullet!
Belmullet Sea Angling Club held a two-day festival over last weekend, with anglers travelling from all over Connacht, and a contingent from the very active Killybegs Mariners journeying south for the weekend too.
Fishing on Day 1 was at Srah (Shraigh) beach facing out into Blacksod Bay. Visiting angler Daragh McGuinness from the Killybegs club took top honours with 8 counting fish. Weed was an issue for many anglers, so to winkle out 8 fish was a great achievement.
Weed left on the beach as the tide dropped
Day 2 was held on Cross beach, facing the open Atlantic. Plenty of flounder, turbot and weaver fish were coming in, along with a couple of nice sea trout.
Cross beachJohn Cunningham with a nice sea troutMind those spikes! The lesser weaver packs quite a venomous punch if not handled correctly.
Stefan Martin with a fine flounder of 36cm
Brian Reidy from Galway Bay SAC might have been a bit despondent after not featuring on Day 1, but drawing the end peg gave him a great start on Day 2, and he made the most of it, catching 19 fish to overhaul the field and take first prize.
Brian receiving his first prize.
In joint second were Daragh McGuinness and Shane Gilvarry.
Joint second – Daragh McGuinness and Shane Gilvarry
And top junior rod was another Gilvarry – well done to Sally Gilvarry on her win!
A future angling star – Sally Gilvarry with her top junior prize.
By all acounts the weekend was a great success, with many of the visiting anglers making a night of it in Belmullet and enjoying plenty of hospitality! Well done to Belmullet SAC on a fantastic festival.
Martin Scott was in touch with a great photo of his son Sean, who was fishing for pike on Lough Derg on Sunday last. 9 year old Sean from Ardcroney, Co. Tipperary was trolling for pike with big lures when he landed a fantastic trout of 60cm. As Martin says,
“Not bad for a first trout and the smile speaks for itself. Released safely to fight another day.”
We love those smiles too! If you have similar reports of young anglers having a great time and catching nice fish, feel free to send them in to us here at [email protected]
9 year old Sean Scott is clearly delighted with a catch that most of us older anglers would be thrilled with too!
East Mayo Anglers’ association, the largest and most extensive club located on the famous River Moy, held a Youth Angling event last Saturday 20th Aug at our disabled Anglers facility at Crillaun, Straide.
It ran from 10am-2pm with volunteers showing the children Fly, Worm and Spinning casting.
We also had Dr Bryan Kennedy, Entomologist who demonstrated what lies beneath the waters which proved very popular with the children.
Afterwards they were treated to some tasty food.
East Mayo Anglers Committee would like to thank all who gave of their time and made the day so special.
James Quinn reports on fishing for the month of July in Galway.
After a great month of June, July was a bit slower but still saw 115 salmon landed, with many more hooked and lost.
Fly accounted for 75 fish, with shrimp accounting for 40, averaging ~4.5lbs. There was no spinning due to only 1 gate open. The catch included 3 springers, averaging 9.37lbs.
Heaviest fish was 10.10lbs on shrimp, caught by one of the best anglers on the river, Michael Leonard.
Laurence Flood on his annual pilgrimage from across the pond had 4 fish over a couple of days on both fly and shrimp between 3 to 4.5lbs.
Louis Brennan from Tuam ha a nice brace on the 7th ,3&4lbs. on shrimp.
Conor Quinn had 3 fish on the fly on the 10th and released 2 and kept one for the pot. 4.5,4 and 3.5 lbs. Son of that famous angler who taught him everything he knows!!!! Shows he still has the touch since he caught his first salmon on the weir when he was 11, that was 17 years ago.
International golfer Mark O’Meara had 2 fish for an afternoon on the fly along with Sean McManmon, who would not be outdone and caught a brace as well.
Phil Donoghue had 2 nice grilse on the 15th on the fly of 5 and 3lbs.
Aidan Spooner had 2 fish for 6.5 and 2.5lbs on shrimp.
Kieran Clancy landed and released a 10lb fish on the fly.
Go Fishing
To enquire about availability, contact the fishery at 091 562388 or email [email protected]
No. 3 was hug-worthy! A nice porbeagle shark for Detlef
Skipper Luke Aston reports that a change of tactics saw anglers having a great time fishing with light tackle. Spinning with shads produced great sport and plenty of action on the light lure rods. There are plenty of mackerel about and lots of spurdog on some of the ground.
Fishing can be great fun with light tackleEspecially two at a time!And two more for this angler
A day offshore at shark fishing saw Detlef catch 3 species of shark. Luke has christened him “Four Sharks” as Detlef also claimed a dogfish as a shark too. We think he has a point!
Shark species no. 1 – Bull hussNo. 2 – SpurdogNo. 3 was hug-worthy! A nice porbeagle shark for Detlef
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 John Fleming reports that shark fishing slowed down during the warm spell, with the slack winds not helping matters. Shark were still caught, including a nice couple of blues.
A nice blue sharkIt’s behind you!
Making up for the slower shark action was the mixed and reef fishing, which John described as “on fire”! Check out some photos below…
A full house of pollack!A nice codA fine ballan wrasse
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
While this week saw an end to the “heat wave” and some more unsettled and cooler weather approaching from the Atlantic, low water situations persisted on most lakes and river systems in the country. With the exception of the southeast where severe flash flooding occurred earlier in the week, rainfall levels remained generally low throughout the week and most game, coarse and pike anglers took a voluntary break.
River such as the River Deel in Co. Mayo are still suffering from the drought conditions
However, plenty of angling action took place along the coast and at sea…and what spectacular sea angling there was this week!
If it wasn’t for young Ella, it would have been quite a difficult task to award this week’s “Catch of the Week” as there was such brilliant sea angling enjoyed by Irish and visiting anglers alike. However, future charter skipper Ella made our decision quite easy and she definitely deserves to win the “Catch of the Week”. Read her full story here!
David and Liz Sanford from USA had pike to 111cm on Lough Derg
As mentioned already, there was very little trout and salmon angling reported for the week due to low water levels and warm temperatures, and the reports we received from Lough Currane in the southwest and Lough Conn in the northwest are more or less representative for the rest of the country as far as game fishing is concerned these days. However, we received a great video from RANDADDY’S “A real Taste of Adventure” featuring Randy Lewis’ River Moy Salmon Fishing Experience when he visited Ballina earlier this year in May when conditions were a lot more suitable for salmon fishing but unfortunately not for catching…
Randy getting expert advice on the Moy Fishery
In other news…
Public Consultations
Great Western Lakes Management Plan
Last week Inland Fisheries Ireland launched a 6-week public consultation on 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 first of a number of open evenings will take place on:
Wednesday 24th August: McDermott’s Bar & Restaurant, Bellanagarrigeeny, Castlebaldwin, Co Sligo F52 FN24
Thursday 25th August: Great National Hotel, Rathnaconeen, Ballina, Co Mayo F26 X5P3
Annacotty Fish Passage Project
The Annacotty Fish Passage Project is underway and to create greater awareness, Inland Fisheries Ireland is hosting a Public Information Meeting on Tuesday, August 23rd 2022 at 6pm. The venue is the Castletroy Park Hotel on the Dublin Road in Limerick.
Annacotty Weir, Mulkear River, Limerick
The M.C. on the night will be Noel Davidson of The Entrepreneurs Academy and there will be presentations from the project team at Inland Fisheries Ireland followed by a ‘Questions & Answers’ segment with the audience.
Scattered showers gradually becoming more isolated with improving sunny spells for the rest of the evening. Tomorrow will see a drier start over the south of the country though with just isolated showers and a few sunny spells. The band of rain will track over the south of the country later in the afternoon turning light and patchy. Drier and sunnier weather will follow into northern areas later. Highest temperatures will range from a cool 15 degrees in the northwest up to 22 degrees in the southeast, in moderate to fresh westerly winds, easing later. The outlook for next week is for more unsettled weather with rain and showers and temperatures generally in the high teens to low twenties.
