The species hunt is going very well with the Mariners out on the shore over the weekend and a few new species to add. Two new species for Cormac Walsh bringing his total to 47 for the year with a Portuguese or red blenny along with a rock cook or small mouth wrasse. Also a new record length tompot, cuckoo and red blenny. Gavin Dorrian also had a new record bluefin tuna (boat) and Sean Harte had plenty of species also added in along with a new porbeagle shark (boat) record and a boat record whiting of 38cm for Pat Cunningham.
The hounds are also in!!! Well done to David Mathhews, Sean Harte and John Higgins on getting the clubs first hounds of the year on Donegal Bay from the shore. Smooth-hounds to over 90cm setting the mark. A nice species to get around here!
Sean Harte with a smooth-hound
Mariners sea angling club Killybegs Co Donegal. The club runs a shore league and boat competitions and angling trips around Ireland doing the sport we love. Get in touch at www.facebook.com/mariner.sac
Skippers from the CHART Tuna fleet have followed up last week’s firsts of 2022 with some more solid tuna fishing this week. Reports are that Donegal bay is alive with bluefin, not to mention humpback and minke whales, dolphins, all manner of diving birds and masses of shearwaters.
Alongside Kiwi Girl
Kiwi Girl and Deep Blue kept their momentum up, with fish of up to 500lb landed, tagged and released for Deep Blue and good numbers of fish instead of big ones for Kiwi Girl. Declan Kilgannon, skipper of Kiwi Girl, was surprised at the numbers of fish he saw – hopefully something that bodes well for the season ahead. Adrian Molloy aboard Deep Blue thought that some of the fish he encountered looked a bit lean – something he expects to change now that the fish are in the rich feeding grounds off the Irish west coast.
A tuna.ie fish
Tuna Mick aboard the Leah-C managed four fish on his first tuna trip of 2022; the captured fish ranging from an estimated 320lb to 420lb.
All smiles aboard Leah-C
Sligo Boat Charters took advantage of a window of opportunity to chase some tuna too, their crew nabbed the first of 2022 for the Sarah Marie – a fine fish estimated to be around 350lb.
One for Ewing’s
Go Fishing…
Kiwi Girl
From Mullaghmore Harbour, our Sea Fishing Ireland experience aboard the M.V. Kiwi Girl will bring you to some of the best inshore fishing grounds in Europe. We offer a wide range of Sea Fishing Ireland Boat Trips to suit both novice and expert, from Short 2 Hr Sea Fishing Boat Trips to Big Game Options.
Kiwi Girl is a Fastcatch Kingfisher 31′ with a 420 HP Caterpillar engine.
Skipper: Adrian Molloy Base: Killybegs Operational area: Up to a 30 mile radius from the point of departure.
Authorised bluefin tuna boat
Notes:We can also offer you some of the finest Sea Angling in Ireland, inshore and offshore on the best boats and with the best skippers.
Whatever your angling interests from ultra light tackle and fly fishing for big reef pollack to trolling and stand-up tackle for fast fighting Tuna – we aim to please ! Dolphin and whale watching, scenic tours and wildlife trips available along some of the most spectacular scenery in Ireland. Shark fishing! Skate fishing! Tuna fishing! Donegal has it all.
Sligo Boat Charters are based in Rosses Point, Sligo (10 mins from Sligo town on local bus route). Services available include deep sea angling, reef fishing, shark fishing (August-October) and eco tourism cruises. Trips can be tailor made to suit anglers and include modest half day, full day and evening trip rates for groups, individuals, and children. Rods and tackle are available for hire on board and skipper can arrange accommodation if contacted in time. Gift vouchers are also available. Sight seeing tours for non anglers.
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.
Siegy Grabher, skipper of Siouxout of Valentia Island reports some great fishing around the Skelligs and Valentia Island in the past week for his German guests from Wolfsburg.
The anglers targeted pollack on lures around the Skelligs early in the week landing some really good sized fish in spectacular surroundings. They then went after big ling and conger towards the end of the week and they weren’t disappointed, catching some real beasts.
Ling and conger
1 of 3
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)
There have been some very big tope caught off Greystones in recent weeks, so it’s definitely a venue that’s on fire at the moment. So what better time to have a crack at them than this August 20th & 21st, when Greystones Ridge Angling Club will be hosting their Monster Tope Festival. It’s a mix of tope fishing and other animal species (ray, bull huss, lesser spotted dogfish, spurdog and smooth hound), and there are great prizes on offer. They have extended the closing date for entries, so any interested anglers should get in touch.
Wicklow Boat Charters clients have been getting the best of both worlds recently as both the inshore and offshore fishing has been exceptional. Inshore has seen some great ground fishing for hounds, huss and tope.
Specimen sized HoundSuper Huss
Meanwhile, 30Nm offshore, the wrecks are fishing very well with plenty of pollack to 9lb caught on lures.
Super pollock from a wreck
Go Fishing
Angling Charters are offered on a full-day, half-day and evening trip basis and can be tailored to suit your needs. Two boats are available – Lisin and Castle Maiden. All levels of anglers are catered for. Anglers will benefit from your skipper’s angling experience and local knowledge with advice and guidance on-hand at all times.
SPECIALIST ANGLING CHARTERS
Specialist Angling Charters are offered for those who wish to target specific species, specimen fish or try new angling methods.
ANGLING COACHING
Whether you’re a Club, Individual, School or Junior, you can have an angling coaching session or programme tailored to suit your needs.
Skipper Dave Edwards of West Cork Charters, had a good crew out targeting blue shark at the weekend. The lads made the most of a calm day on the water to land nine blues in total, with a few more chances missed.
Dave assists with IFI’s Marine Sportfish Tagging Programme and has recaptured tagged fish as much as five years after the initial capture (he has also got them the very next day!). Dave says it’s Important to use barbless hooks and no stainless steel and to also support their bodies when out of the water. If they are out for more than a couple of minutes aboard the Silver Dawn, water is piped through the gills until they are ready to go back.
Blues on board
1 of 2
Go fishing…
West Cork Charters operates the Silver Dawn, a 41′ Rodman 1250 with twin 430 HP Engines out of Courtmacsherry. The range of fishing found within close range of Courtmacsherry is superb, with trips producing anything between 6 and 15 different species as a norm and in excess of 20 is possible if anglers are prepared to change methods and use different baits and lures throughout their trip. As a rule mackerel, pollock, cod and ling are usually encountered but several species of wrasse along with whiting, pouting, coalfish, bull huss, conger and many more are often added to the catch.
If you do choose to head offshore to sample the superb shark fishing available within 10 miles of Courtmacsherry, there is a very strong chance of encountering blue sharks and an increasing chance of bringing a porbeagle shark to the boat.
Joy unconfined for Michelle - our Catch of the Week!
Niall Butler and Michelle Kane recently went to a small lake in Fermanagh that was known for holding small coarse fish. They set their gear up accordingly, hoping to catch a few roach & perch etc. and they were soon into the action as the roach were biting as expected.
Roach were the target, and they seemed to be biting well…
However, they were surprised when a fish took, and put such a bend in the rod that they knew it couldn’t be a roach… After a while, they saw a green back emerge through the water and were astonished to see a trench on the end of the line, as they had no idea that there were any tench in the lake. It wasn’t the only one they caught either, so now Niall and Michelle have a new tench spot. Lucky them!
…but the tench were totally unexpected and very welcome…
Danny Lambert from Lancaster, England, sent in this report of his recent trip to the Moy:
We have just returned home from a family holiday. We visited the west coast of Ireland and stayed in Enniscrone, a beautiful beach town on the Wild Atlantic Way. Whilst there, we headed for the town of Ballina to fish in County Mayo on the river Moy. The town is a world-famous hot spot for salmon anglers.
We went to the shop called the Angling Centre in Ballina and met Robbie, and his advice was brilliant. He kindly arranged for my son Frank Lambert who is 8 years old, to obtain his juvenile fishing licence and permit to fish on the river Moy. Frank also joined the Ballina salmon anglers association as he met Peter in the shop who runs the club. Peter issues all permits and was only happy to advise and show us local hot spots for fishing. This local club are doing excellent work for their community in promoting youngsters to get into the sport of fishing.
Robbie kindly offered to show us the ropes in his spare time after work on the banks of the Moy and met us on the evening of 27th July, and he kindly brought a life jacket for my son to use whilst we were fishing on the side of the fast flowing river. Frank was trying to land his first catch. This was the first time Frank had ever been fishing. The spot Robbie picked was busy with locals and was just up river from the famous ridge pool where Jack Charlton used to fish.
We fished using Frank’s new rod and reel with a float on live bait using a single worm. Within 60 seconds of the first cast, we had a bite! Incredible! It was Frank’s first fish, a 3lb wild Atlantic salmon. An amazing experience he will never forget.
I cannot recommend the Angling Centre enough to anyone interested in visiting Ireland for a fishing trip on the Moy River. The hospitality and advice from Robbie was excellent.
River Suir angler George McGrath got in touch about an issue that has angered and energised him and many of you in the Irish fly fishing community in recent weeks in relation to weed growth in Irish rivers and lakes that has been as bad in living memory.
So, what’s going on? Who’s responsible and more importantly, what can be done about it?
George McGrath joins Daire & Tom to tell them what he has seen, while fisheries scientist, Ken Whelan, gives his scientific explanation as to what is most likely the reason, plus who to contact and what pro-active measures can be taken to ensure that this problem does not go unaddressed.
If you have seen similar weed growth and conditions that George McGrath has described, then get in touch with LAWaters.ie to start the investigation.
The Ireland U20 coarse fishing team are competing this week at the FIPSed Coarse Angling for Youth World Championship which is taking place on the River Sava in Slovenia.
The squad of John Browne, Brian Clark, Donagh McSherry, Charlie Richards and Rhys Walsh have done their reconnaissance on the Sava River and are training this week ahead of the official match days of August 6th and 7th.
Checking out the venue
The team is managed by Gavin Walsh and have great support on and off the bank from accompanying parents, Martin Clark, Adrian Brown, Nick Richards and Lorraine McSherry.
Training for the main event
1 of 5
The very best of luck to the team, we’ll keep you posted on their progress…
