Darren Maguire is not just a good angler, he’s also the youngest captain of an Irish loughs team to date and the latest episode of Ireland on the Fly spoke to Darren about his mentorship under his father, how he started guiding at the age of just 10 on Lough Melvin, and how his passion for the sport has remained undimmed since he first picked up a fly rod as a young boy.
At 33, Darren represents the next generation of fly anglers in Ireland and it is his enthusiasm for the sport that should serve as an advertisement for getting more kids and youth involved in the sport.
Rate, review and follow the Ireland on the Fly podcast on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from, plus you can keep up to date on IrelandontheFly.com.
Congratulations to Dublin businessman Philip McKinney who landed his first pike while fishing a lake in Cavan with friend Chris Barry. Philip is normally a keen trout angler, but this season he set his sights on catching his first pike.
On this occasion, the fly rods were left at home and they trolled lures at various depths. During their afternoon session on a bright day, he successfully managed to hook five fish. Three of them shook off the hooks at the net, including a nice double. However, two were successfully landed. Philip was absolutely delighted to show off his biggest fish to date before carefully releasing his first pike back to the depths. This coming Autumn, he plans to target pike with the fly rod and hopefully encounter his first 100cm fish. Well done Philip.
Kevin Lyons of Melview Fishing Lodge has a couple of first time visitors to his angling guesthouse:
Paul and friend Tony from France are over on their first-ever trip to Ireland for a Pike fishing holiday. On the first day, they were given a guided trip to help familiarise them with the water, and what a great first day it was for them with pike to 95cm. And things are still going well for them despite the changes in the weather conditions. We will catch up with them next week and report on how they finished up, so log on next week for the full report.
Kevin has over 30 years experience of fishing in Ireland and is happy to offer a guided tour on your arrival, and to advise where the on-form waters in the area are. We can arrange your bait order so it’s here when you arrive. Melview offers free use of 17ft lake boats with engines to our guests (pay fuel only) and Kevin is happy to assist with any pre-baiting requests. Maps and other information regarding fishing are also available.
Damien Culliney of anglersparadise.ie reports on a recent day out which threw up some cracking pike, including one over the magic 120cm:
Had my good friend Mark out for a day’s fishing recently. With a cold easterly wind blowing hard we were ere not expecting much action. We started in the shallows and there wasn’t a lot going on there so we moved out to the deeper water on the shelves where we met our first fish which was a lovely 103 cm pike, a great fish given the tough conditions. The wind blew up even more as we continued on our mission. About a half later, the rod bent over again, and playing the fish, she didn’t seem as big as the first, but we soon realised when got near the boat we were into something special. After a few energetic tail walks we finally got her in the net. When we put on the measuring boat we realised we had the magic 120cm on the boat Pb’s all-round. What a beautiful wild Irish pike which was in great condition and went back lovely to fight another day. We had one more fish after that which was 96cm .#swimmin dawg #bigpike #www.anglersparadise.ie
Go fishing…
Anglers Paradise Ireland
Trout and Pike Guide
Anglers Paradise Ireland is owned and managed by Damien Culliney, a well known angler and chef in the Clare region and a man passionate about the inland waterways and natural history of County Clare. At Angler’s Paradise, we love the thrill of Game fishing and Pike fishing in equal measure and can take our clients to some of Europe’s most unspoilt rivers and lakes in search of trophy predators and the realisation of their angling dreams.
Keith McDonnell of Impact Fly Fishing had a bad start to his Bank Holiday fishing as he was held up in gridlocked traffic on the M50 as he tried to make it to a small river for an evening’s fishing. Arriving 3hrs later than expected and more than a bit frazzled by the traffic, he found the mellow sounds of the riverbank the perfect antidote for the M50 madness. And the river threw up an unexpected surprise in the form of a cracking brownie that fell to a size 16 Klinkhammer. Keith has put together a nice blogpost to describe the evening’s events which is sure to get you out looking for some small stream brownies…
78 anglers had to face biting and blustery easterly winds last week as they competed for the title of Sensas King of the Canal at Daingan. Strong winds and pole fishing are not the best of bedfellows, and the gusts made it tricky for the anglers to present a bait effectively. With roach still absent due to spawning, most of the better weights came from skimmers with the odd bream or tench an added bonus. In a close fought battle, Willie Wheeler came out on top with a weight of 14lb 14oz.
Fishing is continuing to improve in Wicklow Bay according to Kit Dunne of Wicklow Boat Charters. His groups over the past week or so have had plenty of PB’s and firsts, along with a few specimens thrown in for good measure. Species have included Hounds, Tope, Ray and Huss. The hounds certainly seem to be there in good numbers right now but mackerel have been harder to find.
A selection of Wicklow Bay catches
1 of 6
Success in Wicklow Bay
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.
Well 2022 will not be remembered as a vintage mayfly season by any means, although reports from other lakes suggest the poor hatch was not limited to Corrib. Hatches could only be described as patchy at best. Weather conditions certainly did not help either, with windy weather prevailing for most of the month, indeed quite a few days were completely unfishable due to high winds.
Tom Doc Sullivan had a great report on his Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/tomdocsullivan) and while he acknowledges the poor mayfly hatch, his clients still enjoyed some good fishing at times and managed to boat some fine trout. As he says himself “2022 May was tough, no point in putting it any other way. It was one of the toughest Mayfly seasons for a while. This was a pity because it was a lot of anglers’ first trip back after two years of lockdown. We do have to remember that Corrib and Mask are wild fisheries and are subject to a whole number of reasons and causes that affect our fishing, some are obvious and some aren’t. So when they’re not on song sometimes we have to accept it.”
“The best action I had on Corrib interestingly was at the end of May start of June. One rod for four days had 16 trout, this included three trout in or around the 3lb mark and another 4 in or around the 2lb category. Most of these fish were on dries and it’s worth noting one of the days was a blank, 1st of June, as it was a scorcher. The lough was quiet then and I think this had a bearing too as we could rest drifts.”
A fine 3lbs trout for Godfrey
Declan Doyle with a nice Corrib trout
Another one for Declan
Peter Driver from Piscarifly with one of his fish
A lovely trout for Neil on dry fly
Another nice fish from the end of May
Motoring up the drift on a windy day can test the wet gear!
Peter Driver from Piscarifly was a guest of Tom’s during May and shared a nice video of one of his trout going back strongly.
Caenis
Now that the mayfly is over, anglers’ attention switches to the next hatch – in this case the Caenis, which hatches off very early in the morning and can provide exhilarating sport on dry fly for those early risers. The windy weather hasn’t helped, but Larry McCarthy from Corrib View Lodge says that fishing has been very good this week, with fish being caught every morning. Given a spell of settled weather (will we ever get that?!) the Caenis fishing should provide good early sport for the next couple of weeks at least.
Skipper John Fleming says the fishing has been excellent this week in Galway Bay. John says “There was some proper fishing on the reefs around Aran over the weekend, pollack hard on the feed with coalies , pouting, mackerel and sandeels all in the mix. Loads of small cod on the ground which is great to see”
Pollack
Cod
On Monday his crew again enjoyed great fishing with some nice ling, pollack, coalies, cod and plenty of pouting and mackerel as well. On the way home they stopped at a tope mark for a short session. The result was 2 tope and dropped another 2 in an hour on the way home. Great to see the tope in, and the spurdogs will probably be hot on their heels.
TopeTope
Go Fishing…
Brazen Hussy ll
Skipper: John Fleming Licence:1011 (11 passengers and 1 crew) Base: Rosaveal, Spiddal, Galway (Depending on species) Operational area: Rosaveal, Spiddal and Galway up to
20 miles to seat
Notes: A regular day is between 9am- 6pm from either
Rosaveel, 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 addrenaline rush with these hard
fighting blue and porbeagle sharks all being tagged and release safely.
Package deals available
Vincent Corrigan from Wild Atlantic Lure Fishing was back from a short visit to the US, and got out for an early morning session to shake off the jetlag. He was rewarded with pollack and a couple of schoolie bass for getting out of bed early.
Yesterday he was out for a short session with Tomas, and they enjoyed some great fishing, particularly with the soft lures. The soft lures fished on weedless hooks are brilliant for exploring rocky, kelpy ground where conventional spinners just can’t be used. The results speak for themselves!
Tomas with a nice pollackVincent with a pollack of his ownA fine wrasse that fell to a paddletail
Go Fishing – Wild Atlantic Lure Fishing
Vincent will be offering one on one guided rock fishing from summer, mainly for wrasse and pollack, and all within 1 hour of Galway city. I have fished with him myself, and can vouch for his knowledge of tackle, tactics and species.
