Last weekend, round 3 of the CM Lakelands Muckno Winter League took place on Black, Yellow and South Lodge, with 13 coarse anglers competing in particularly challenging winter conditions. Fishing proved difficult across the venue, with South Lodge emerging as the most productive section, producing the top three anglers on the day.
Steven Whyte claimed overall victory from peg 249 on South Lodge, targeting roach at distances of 40 metres and beyond. His consistent approach paid off, as he topped the scales with a winning weight of 3.380kg. Finishing second overall, Darren Fairhurst drew the adjacent peg 248 and employed similar long-range tactics to weigh in 3.010kg. Damien Folytn, fishing on the opposite side of Steven, completed the podium in third place with a total catch of 2.660kg.
Sections:
Black: Piotr Horbiński – 2.650kg
Yellow: Rimantas Kondrackas – 2.425kg
South Lodge: Mariusz Kilian – 1.170kg
The competition continues with Round 4 scheduled in two weeks’ time, where anglers will once again be hoping for improved conditions and better weights.
Ireland’s Feederking dates have also recently been announced and are available on the CM Lakelands Facebook page.
The Edenderry Coarse Anglers have published their club event calendar, including dates for their popular 5-day festival, which will be held between Sunday, 1st June and Friday, 5th June. Details of that and other events on their calendar are in the graphic below.
Tom Lynch and Co. headed out on a cold January day in search of specimen spurdog—and they weren’t disappointed. Despite freezing conditions and a late start, spirits were high as we ran straight to the deep channel. With big baits dropped into a ripping tide, holding bottom was a challenge, though the tide was steadily easing.
It didn’t take long for the first spurdog to come aboard: an 85cm fish for Bert McGregor, soon followed by several 1m-class fish, keeping the measuring mat busy. An hour in, Cairan O’Toole took a powerful bite and produced a superb specimen spurdog measuring 114cm.
Ciaran O’Toole has his specimen spur box ticked for 2026
More metre-plus fish followed before Bert struck again—another cracking 114cm fish on the mat.
Bert McGregor gets his one too
Overall, a great day on the water and a welcome break from the relentless winds. Fingers crossed for a few more fishable days over the next couple of months. Plenty of charter dates still available, with January already seeing seats filled.
East coast waters are home to some of the best fishing in Ireland, with Wicklow boasting record catches of Tope, Bull-Huss, Ray and Spurdog in recent years. Catch Gurnard, Pollock and Codling on the inshore rough patches or on the offshore banks. Target your Specimen Tope, Spurdog, and Bull-Huss with Kit your local experienced skipper and accomplished Irish International Angler.
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 – Manannan Mac Lir 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.
Rod and tackle hire available, coaching and Bait supply on request.
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.
Castle Maiden
Offshore 105, 370 Hp Iveco
Skipper: Kit Dunne Licence: P5 Base: Wicklow Harbour Operational area: Wicklow, Arklow, Bray, Dun Laoghaire, and Courtown – 30 miles from ports of departure.
Manannan Mac Lir
Swiftcat 11.4m, 2 x 420hp Iveco
The new vessel, called “Manannan” for short, is an 11.4m, (37.5’), x 4.4m, Swiftcat, a state-of-the-art Charter Boat with great speed, safety, stability & comfort. She has a very spacious flush deck with walk around wheelhouse giving ample flush deck space all-round. With today’s high level of design options, she is well fitted out with all mod cons. She is a twin-engine shaft driven Catamaran, fitted with 2 x 420hp Iveco FPT NEF67 engines, she cruises at 18-20 Knots, with a top speed of 28 knots.
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.
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 anglingqueries@fisheriesireland.ie.
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!
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!
Kai Fischer and the perch that bit twice
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!
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!
Finn McCarthy
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.
David Norman with a shore caught December pollack
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.
Other news..
Sponsorship Programme 2026
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.
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
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.
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…?
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.
Castle Maiden
Manannan Mac Lir
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.
