It was good to see faces old and new at the annual coarse fishing festival held this August bank holiday weekend. After the two-year break it was always going to be interesting to see what the catches would be like but the County Monaghan lakes provided for a fish-full festival.
Wet wet wet
Annaghmekerrig started and finished poorly but produced a fine stamp of roach mid-festival with a top catch of 20.600kg by Neil Mazurek. Popular Baird’s Shore didn’t produce tench in the usual numbers but provided regular mixed bags and a top weight of 15.600kg for John Potters on the final day, also on White Lake, Bream Rock fished steady over the four days with a good number of hybrids and a top weight of 21.000kg for Niall McKitterick. Mullanary although generally difficult did produce specimen fish for some and a top weight of 11.950kg.
Some good sized fish were caught
It was a close-run match with no clear winner until the final day – which was fished in torrential rain. John Potters’ 231 fish on the whip at 4m gave him the festival on the last day with a total of 48.780kg, leaving Mark Theedom just 640g behind and this year’s runner-up. In third position was Neil Mazurek with 46.650kg and in fourth Tony Kersley with 44.650kg. Congratulations to all the winners and framers throughout.
Winners and grinners
The Clones Coarse Anglers would like to thank all those who took part for their company and camaraderie on the bank. It was an enjoyable festival indeed made possible with the support of the local landowners, bait supplies from Irish Bait and Tackle Limited, The Tyrone Guthrie Centre Annaghmakerrig and Clones/Ballybay Municipal Council. Thank you to the staff at the Creighton Hotel Clones for their hospitality throughout.
See you next year Fri 04th to Mon 7th August 2023!
As ever in Ireland, the weather has a huge effect on fishing of all types and over the past seven days, rainfall totals were quite varied across the country. The wettest conditions occurred in the north of the country, where one third of the average monthly rainfall fell in one hour, bringing flash flooding to parts of Donegal. Meanwhile, people living in the south midlands experienced the driest conditions, registering just 4 mm of rainfall in places (30% of the expected average for the week).
And it’s in the midlands that we start this week, where the Irish youth team retained the Bob Church trophy in the Home Countries international that was held on Lough Lene in Westmeath. The team of 14 anglers, captained by Jim Kelly of Cloghans, Mayo, managed to catch and release 14 fish, in what were difficult conditions on the competition day, to finish ahead of England in second place. Congratulations to Team Ireland, they win our Catch of the Week this week (particularly Eanna O’Leary who swept all the honours with a superb six fish, winning the Brown Bowl, Longest Fish, Best Bag and any other accolades that were on offer).
Team Ireland
Team Captain Jim Kelly would have been glad that he was fishing on Lene this week, as back home on loughs Conn and Cullin the fishing has been poor of late. Water temperatures are high, fly life is scarce and local anglers say that no fish are moving at all…
From rainbows, to browns, and now to the sea trout of the Costelloe & Fermoyle fisheries and reports are that fishing has been pretty good on the loughs in the upper parts of the system. Runs of both salmon and sea trout have continued throughout July despite the small amount of rainfall, and eleven salmon were reported from the fishery during the month. Topping that figure was the Owenmore Fishery in Kerry, where fishery manager Frank Maunsell reported fifteen grilse landed in one day when the stars aligned and conditions came good, that’s not to mention the numerous sea trout that have provided great sport lately too. On the Moy, fishing activity has slowed down considerably with the low water levels, though some 201 fish were still reported for the week. In Galway, young angler Gary Nolan managed to banish his GAA blues with his first ever salmon caught just an hour or two after his heroes lost out on All Ireland glory.
Gary and his first salmon
The coarse fishing festival season is well upon us, and various events are currently taking place around Cavan and Monaghan. The Belturbet Festival was won by Wayne Easter who topped a field of forty with just over 65kgs while on Lough Muckno the 4th Qualifier of the Irish Feedermasters was held where Sean Donnelly triumphed in style off Black Island. The Clones Festival is taking place this weekend and we’ll bring you news from there next week.
Special mention on the sea fishing front this week goes to Sean Ward who caught his first ever golden grey mullet. Not interested in small fry, Sean went straight in at the deep end, tackling a specimen sized fish on his very first try! Great job!
A rather warm, humid and breezy Friday night, with lowest temperatures of 14°C to 17°C, in moderate to fresh southwest winds. Highs of 18°C to 23°C on Saturday, with showers and warm sunshine possibly breaking through away from Atlantic counties, heavier rain moving in across the country overnight. Dull on Sunday and Monday with outbreaks of rain, heaviest in the south. Sunny spells will, however, develop with just well-scattered showers following by the afternoon. Highs of 18°C to 23°C both days, warmest in southern counties in light northwest or variable winds.
Brian Curran, fishery manager at Costelloe & Fermoyle, reports on the month’s fishing:
The month of July has seen the runs of salmon and sea trout continue with only small amounts of rain. The flood in late June kept the system’s water level high and allowed fish to enter and run up the river and into the loughs for several weeks.
There have been 11 salmon caught and most were released. There was a small rise in levels from a short burst of rain on Saturday 23rd July, and that fresh water stirred both the salmon and sea trout into taking. On Monday 25th July, Head Ghillie Sean Bollustrum had a 7lb salmon while local Spiddal angler Thomas Naughton had his first salmon this year of 3 3/4lbs while John Holstead, from west Kerry (may have got lost on his way back from Croke Park), had 1 salmon and lost two more from Fermoyle Lough.
Costelloe and Fermoyle continues to be ranked as one of the leading seatrout fisheries in Ireland and in recent days has seen father and son Martin and Robert Byrne catch 8 seatrout from loughs in the upper part of the system while John Holstead’s party also on Wednesday 27th July had 6 seatrout.
With higher tides this week and more rain expected early next week, angling conditions should be good over the coming period.
Bookings can be made through the web site, irelandwestangling.ie or by contacting Fishery Manager Brian Curran at 0872509722.
Skipper Dave Edwards of West Cork Charters, and crewmate Paddy, took advantage of the brilliant weather and a cancellation last weekend to trial a few shark lures on the Silver Dawn’s new downriggers. He headed south westerly from Baltimore and trolled for a couple of days with very little sign of wildlife and only a few dolphins to break the calm – even after covering 140 miles of water.
Finally, on Sunday, he did get a couple of takes on the downriggers and surprisingly they were blue sharks that were clearly pumped up by the warm surface temperature, giving great accounts of themselves. Not the Mako they were dreaming of but still a great two days messing about on the water!
Dave was experimenting with mixed lures and mackerel/pollack/squid baits and fished two on downriggers and two just sub surface.
Finally a shark onboard
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.
The NCFFI invites your club to present a team at the 2022 edition of the All Ireland Championships for clubs. The five person team event is float fishing only to CIPS/FIPS rules with a 13m pole limit. The championships will take place over the weekend of 20th & 21st August on the Upper Lough Erne in County Fermanagh hosted by the ERNE Anglers. Bait limits apply.
Entry is open to NCFFI member clubs at €125 per team. Registration is in advance with payment for the €25 administration fee only. €100 pools will be collected on the day and shared among the winning teams. Clubs may enter as many teams as they wish. Book in at https://www.ncffi.ie/flcq
The draw will take place at the Carrybridge Lakeside Lodge. Sections to be fished may include Bellanaleck, Schools, Innismore Viaduct, Dolan’s Ring and Cleenish and are dependent on numbers.
The championship will also serve to select the club teams to represent Ireland, at the FIPSed World Club Championships to be held in Poland in 2023. There may be an opportunity for two teams to qualify dependent on availability to be confirmed by the host nation at a later stage.
Entry to qualify is €225 per team. The €25 pegging/administration fee will be collected on-line in advance along with the €100 to be awarded to the qualifying teams. A further €100 pools is payable on the day.
All clubs are invited to take part in the championships. Eligibility rules apply only to those who wish to qualify to represent Ireland with the option to present a team including two foreign nationals i.e. those who do no hold a UK/NI or Eire passport.
Entry closes 13th August. Details have been sent to all member club secretaries.
Howth Sea Angling Club are looking for anglers to register for their Open Boat Species Hunt Competition on the 6th – 7th of August.
There are up to €5,000 available in prizes with some top sponsors on board.
There is ample free parking and a limited number of free overnight boat berths in Howth for boats wishing to travel. There is also a limited number of trailer parking spaces still available for participants wishing to enter the competition.
A solid 46.5kg on day one, the best weight of the week, made up the bulk of Wayne Easter’s 65kg overall that held off strong competition from Julian Kendrick and Dave Pickering to see Wayne win the Belturbet Angling Festival this week. Killykeen/Derries was the strongest section all week with 150kg-160kg caught each day. Gulladoo, Glasshouse and Town Lake posted lower numbers but fished fairly consistently all week.
With a couple of late drop-outs, there were 38 anglers fishing in a strong field over the four days of the event.
Congratulations to Team Ireland who retained the Bob Church Trophy with a comprehensive victory in the Home Countries fly fishing international held this week on Lough Lene in Westmeath. Conditions were difficult over the two practice days and the competition day itself on Wednesday, but the Irish anglers persevered and managed to land fourteen fish to take the honours.
Team Ireland
The official standings were:
1st IRELAND
2nd ENGLAND
3rd WALES
4th SCOTLAND
The Team of 14 and a reserve was magnificently lead by Jim Kelly, a member of the renowned Kelly’s of Cloghans on the shores of Lough Conn and a 4th generation international angler.
The winner of the Brown Bowl was Eanna O’Leary with a superb catch of 6 fish, which are still swimming in Lough Lene as the match was of course run on a catch and release basis. In fact, Eanna won every category that he was eligible for, Brown Bowl, Longest Fish overall, Best Bag and Best Fish on the Irish Team.
The team was coached by Sean Dempsey, Denis Goulding, Ken McCarthy and the previous Brown Bowl winner, Chris Fehilly.
The team manager was Noel Farrar, who had this to say:
‘There were many extremely important contributors to the success of the team. Although I mention Jackie McMahon for his fabulous flies and Tom Sullivan for the Fulling Mill Fluorocarbon there were others too numerous to mention but equally appreciated. Many thanks to all’.
‘Lastly we acknowledge the contribution financially and physically in preparing and monitoring the match that both Inland Fisheries Ireland and Westmeath Co.Co. have provided’.
Inland Fisheries Ireland are proud to have sponsored the event, full marks to the anglers, the coaches, the organisers and all of the support who contributed to the successful outcome for the Irish team.
Collinstown, Co. Westmeath, was a hive of activity on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings as the youth teams from Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales prepared to fish. Boats were brought from moorings around the lake to The Cut on the eastern shoreline, where teams, coaches and their families had assembled each morning in preparation for the off.
Frank Maunsell reports from earlier this week on the Owenmore river in Kerry:
25th July 2022
Since the water levels have dropped we are having terrific fishing. All the fish that should have been coming in during the dry spell have arrived together. Now it’s still raining in the hills which means the river is rising and falling but everybody is meeting fish and seeing fish running through. On Sunday alone there were 15 grilse landed and numerous seatrout. The river is a little high at the time of writing but will be perfect before long.
This week’s Ireland on the Fly guest is Garrett Fallon – someone who grew up in Ireland fishing the Boyne, Corrib, Deel and other rivers and lakes around the country but since the 1990s, he has been in England working in publishing and design.
The last few years however has seen him combine his love of fishing, writing and publishing to create the very popular fishing quarterly, Fallon’s Angler, which is dedicated to longform writing about every type of angling with the likes of Chris Yates and Kevin Parr featuring in each issue.
Garrett is also the son of Niall Fallon, an Irish Times journalist who wrote the well-respected Fly Fishing for Irish Trout in 1983 and Daire and Tom speak to Garrett about his father’s influence growing up, his own memories of fishing in Ireland and why Fallon’s Angler has helped him find the soul of angling along the way.
Rate, review and follow on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from, plus you can keep up to date on IrelandontheFly.com.
