Dan O’Neill, fishery manager at Mount Juliet, reports on the Nore:
Some lovely warm weather resulting in some lovely fly hatches over the past few days enticed me to dust off the dry fly rod and approach the river with added caution. Peeking through the long grass and around some old tree stumps at the spotted back of brown trout is magical, another feeling that is unique to fishing. Figuring out their feed line and what they may be taking in with delicate sips adds to the excitement. Eventually when I had finished peaking around the vegetation I noticed a couple of trout feeding just off a seam created by a sunken piece of oak. It was quite obvious my stalking needs some improvement after a long off season when I donated my first dry fly to a nearby sally tree. Luckily I had some more in my fly box , so after a glance behind me making sure this fly made the water it was off for my first cast to the feeding fish. After a couple of passes one trout made his way to the path my fly was taking. Gently rising just underneath it the trout decided I needed to try harder next time and slowly turned away.
River Nore
I went for a walk downstream and picked out another area that looked interesting. This time the water was being deflected by a nice sized boulder. Watching the seam and taking in my surroundings I felt very lucky to be an angler. I made my way down the bank to a suitable position and I got my first cast to the fish. Without any hesitation the trout hit my offering. There were the usual trout antics when hooked, then I finally got the fish to the net, got a quick picture and sent him back home,.
The fly hatches became stronger, making rises more frequent. I got lost in angling for the next hour, many trout took my fly and many refused it, a great day overall as is any day on the river with the fly rod.
Water Level and Temperature at time of fishing Water Level .40 cm
Water Temp 14.5-15.5°C
Fishing classes
Holding introduction to fly fishing classes May and June, 2 people can participate in each class, classes will cover, water safety when fly fishing, handling and releasing fish, wading, wading aids, equipment needed for chosen method, casting , water craft , fly selection.
Dan O’Neill Mount Juliet
Go Fishing
Mount Juliet has trout and salmon fishing available on site over 2.5 miles of the river Nore. Classes also available for every skill level – learn or improve on your chosen technique. coarse fish ponds also available on the hotel grounds.
Dan O’Neill, Fishery Manager, Mount Juliet Estate, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, Ireland
The river Nore is a beautiful river that meanders it way through counties Laois and Kilkenny before joining with its sister river the Barrow just upstream of New Ross on its way to the sea. The Nore gets a good run of Atlantic salmon and the river which is currently open for angling on a catch and release basis produced 563 salmon in 2015 and 599 salmon in 2016. Salmon fishing is available on a number of stretches including the Mount Juliet Fishery which is located just outside Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, approximately mid-way between Kilkenny City and New Ross.
6/5/22 There were four boats out manipulating their skills this day and sadly their lines stayed slack. On the weather front, there was reasonable rainfall this morning but didn’t last long come afternoon it was bright and sunny. Wind light to fresh WSW and veered WNW in the afternoon.
7/5/2022 The Currane Anglers were all quiet on all fronts this day. Wind Southeast and veered SSW light with reasonable cloud cover at times.
8/5/2022 All Salmon headlines come from the North shore and Vincent’s harbour. So straight to the action, Currane Brown Tag Man, while fishing in the trolling department with his Gillie Mr. Dominic McGillicuddy of www.fishingwithdom.com caught a cracker of an 11lbs salmon and as other anglers looked on they saw the Brown Tag Man’s Gillie Mr. Dominic McGillicuddy net his fine 11lbs Salmon. You could say they were Browned off. Wind South and veered SSW light to fresh with good cloud cover.
9/5/2022 They Say you can’t keep a top-class angler’s fly reel from singing the Currane anthem and today was a perfect example of that and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to whom I’m writing about and yes you have it, the renowned flyman, Gillie Mr. Dominic McGillicuddy of www.fishingwithdom.com while fly fishing with his Brown Tag client caught a fine 9 lbs. Salmon and finished their day off with a fine 3 lbs. Sea Trout which is great news to end on today’s notes. Wind SW fresh to strong followed by heavy rain at times.
10/5/2022 The Lough Currane anglers were all quiet on all fronts this day, but there is some good news tomorrow as I’m sure you all know it’s the last day of the Brown tag saga. So to all you fortunate anglers that won a Brown tag and haven’t ventured out, tomorrow is your last chance at the old Currane saloon. Wind SW fresh to strong at times followed by the odd heavy shower and overcast all day.
The rivers and lakes of Waterville drain a large catchment and are regarded by many as the foremost Salmon and Sea-Trout fishery in the country. The lake system is well developed with access to boats and guides being readily available to the tourist angler. The Sea-Trout caught here are renowned for their size and quantity. For more details see:
Frank Maunsell reports from the Owenmore Fishery in Kerry where the season opened earlier this month:
We had a small rise of a few inches on the river on May 6th. A few fish travelled but it was gone down again by the following morning.
Unfortunately the rain that was forecast for earlier this week missed the river and without a flood fishing won’t be great. The levels are still just about fishable, but with wind from the north west and bright skies the conditions don’t suit this charming fishery.
The spring tides towards the end of May should see things improve though. Get in touch for current conditions and prospects.
The 4th qualifier for Ireland’s Feeder King was held on a moody River Erne system last Saturday, May 7th. Top weight today was Charlie Richards with 27kg from peg 16 – Ely Lodge. Philip Jackson was second with 26.4 kg, both Charlie and Philip were pegged beside each other and they had a brilliant ding dong battle all day, with young Charlie coming out on Top.
Corngrade fished hard with former world silver medalist Willie Wheeler coming out on top to claim the much sought after golden ticket, he still has it. Kildeas was patchy, with Howard Kaye from England finishing the best, with a great performance and a weight of 9kg plus.
After the previous week’s noticeable escalation in trout catches, this week was awash with piscatorial hope but Sheelin, true to form, chewed up that hope and spat it out in the form of sporadic numbers of trout which were pernickety and obtuse. To say this is a fickle stretch of water is an understatement, Lough Sheelin is painfully unpredictable and this week its erraticness was almost tangible. There was a gradual increase in daytime temperatures culminating in near tropical conditions of 20°C at the weekend. Bright sunny conditions and variable winds made daytime fishing conditions challenging. There were good hatches of buzzer and olives along the reedier areas of the lake – Rusheen, Corru, Bog Bay, Goreport and Sailors Garden.
Tropical Tonagh, Lough Sheelin
With water temperatures climbing to above 13°C, there was plenty of sub surface movement from the buzzer and olive department, but trout were hard caught. Tuesday was the pick of the fishing days, with light south westerlies and humid conditions bring on huge hatches of buzzer and the trout responding with voracious visible surface and sub-surface feeding. Like the roller coaster that is Lough Sheelin, Wednesday counteracted that good day by being very poor with rain and a north west wind chilling everything down, causing the buzzers to disappear and producing only a smattering of olives all of which consequently caused the trout to disappear down to the lower larder once again.
Evening blast
The best time for fishing this lake over the past seven days was from 10pm onwards when buzzers hatched out in force with enormous swarms and anglers reporting ‘serious’ numbers of balling buzzers with the larger fish rising up to feed on them. The lake seemed to liven up at night which always reminds me of what an old angler once said to me when the trout seemed to be stuck only on nocturnal feeding – ‘sure they’re like my teeth, they only come out at night’ but like his teeth they came out during the day too as he never seemed to have them in much at any time. John Ferran caught a beautiful ‘after dark’ trout of over 6lbs with an eloquently and aptly placed caption under his photograph – ‘ Lough Sheelin finally gives up her gold’. Most of the bigger catches for this week were either caught on balling buzzer patterns, after dark or from daytime epoxy buzzer fishing.
Balling Buzzer (J.Sheehan)
Although there were some nice fish caught on nymph rigs, this week was all about the buzzer. I still find it confusing when anglers refer to the imitations of the larvae and pupae of this chironomid as nymphs when they are not, and the pupa dressing is often called the ‘Buzz’ when the buzzer is the adult. Putting aside this confusing jargon, interestingly in English literature they refer to smutting fish – when the trout were on the rise to small midges or buzzer. Also, I remember reading somewhere that when the fish are feeding on buzzers ‘To try a Wickham’s Fancy – if it doesn’t work go home’. If only things were that black and white.
Emergence – a Sheelin mayfly
Nature is pushing forward, although we have had a few cold nights, these are decreasing and the warmth of the summer is mostly present. Shoreline trees and shrubs are filling in and verges are amass with all sorts of floral blossoms – bluebells, stitch worth, dandelions, celandines, umbellifers and orchids. The blackthorn flowers have been replaced by leaves and the Hawthorn or May Blossom is bubbling up to bloom. The may blossom is synonymous with the forth coming mayfly season here, it is reputed that when this bush or small deciduous tree with its spiny branches is in full bloom then Sheelin’s mayfly will be at its peak.
Getting ready to go out
A few mayflies were spotted this week around Rusheen and Chambers, making pulses race no doubt. Next week will be all about fishing mayfly nymph patterns as these propel themselves up to the surface to emerge to the Dun stage in their lifecycle. There is something very magical about the mayfly. They are a very primitive species, going back about 100 million years, existing long before dinosaurs. In some respects, they should be honoured and revered for this fact alone. They belong to the order ‘Ephemeroptera’ which comes from the Latin word ‘ephemeral’ meaning short-lived and ‘optera’ meaning winged, referring to the short lifespan (a couple of hours to a few days) of the winged adults whose only purpose is to mate. Personally, I am very fond of the Latin names for things but many anglers are also very fond of telling me that trout don’t speak Latin and of course they are right but it doesn’t hurt to know both the Latin and common name for mayflies. Fly fishing is a sport where the more you know, the more successful you usually are at catching fish – I rest my case.
Getting off the starting block – Jim Sheehan’s mayfly pattern
Although Denis Goulding caught a lovely fish on a Humungus Booby, he was the exception to the rule and most trout were caught on epoxy buzzers with wets, a single dry fly or nymph patterns bring in the minority of this week’s results. Lures have very much taken a back seat and it is now all about fishing the buzzer imitations, casting a dry and rooting out those mayfly patterns.
This week's golden browns
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The wild west - Stuart Topp from Orkney with his Sheelin trout
On the shore - Larry Moley with his 6lb 9oz trout
Michael Polin, Northern Ireland with his 6lb buzzer trout
John Brennan, Longford with his 8lb trout
Four pounder
Dark delight
Denis Goulding's best of 5 trout on a Humungus Booby
Catch & Release
A twist of faith
Scaly success
The full of the net
On the board - 5lbs 9ozs on a Dry Olive
Epoxy buzzer patterns brought in the highest number of catches but other flies that worked were the Bits-type patterns in claret, fiery brown, black, ginger, orange, hare’s ear, olive and grey, the Klinkhammer, a Griffiths Gnat, Grey Duster, Nymphs – Pheasant Tail, Diawl Bach, Hare’s Ear and Olive in sizes 12 and 14, Mini Muddler as a top dropper, Epoxy Buzzer, Shipmans Buzzer, Flashback Buzzers, Black & Peacock Spiders (good snail imitation), CDC Emergers, Greenwell’s Glory, Wickhams Fancy, Bibios and Dabblers.
Bugs, critters and a lakeshore view
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Follow the leader - Heather Beetles (Lochmaea suturalis)
This survey is easy to do, takes a maximum of 10 minutes (unless you want to add extra in on the comments section) and is important. We are asking anglers to have their say by taking the time to complete this survey. The link is included in this report and if contact details are submitted that person will be automatically entered into a draw for angling tackle (one voucher at €200 and two for €100) but this is entirely optional. If anglers are having difficulties with the online version, please contact IFI where the local staff at Sheelin are more than willing to help out.
Competitions
McDonald Cup 13th of August
LSTPA Stream enhancement competition 2nd of October
Interprovincial Championships 20th of August
Please remember anglers to abide by BYE-LAW 949 which strictly prohibits from June 14th, 2017 onwards:
The taking of any brown trout of less than 36 centimeters.
For a person to fish with more than 2 rods at any one time.
To fish with more than 4 rods at any one time when there is more than one person on board the boat concerned.
For a person to take more than 2 trout per day.
All trolling on the lake from March 1st to June 16th (inclusive).
To fish or to attempt to take or to fish for, fish of any kind other than during the period from March 1st to October 12th in any year.
A very happy group of anglers at Watermill Fishing Lodge
Pascal Brissaud of Watermill Fishing Lodge reports on his Facebook page that one of his groups that visited recently had 380 pike for their weeks fishing. Amongst the catches were 9 fish of 1m and over with the largest fish measuring in at 115cm. In addition, there were 47 pike of more than 90cm and other smaller fish. The end result was a Very Happy Team!
A very happy group of anglers at Watermill Fishing Lodge
Go Fishing
If you would like to try out this fantastic location, why not contact Pascal and his team at
Brendan had a few good days this week with his friend David Reynolds. Fishing was sometimes difficult with only short periods of feeding. But when they fed, we were in the right place. We only caught 3 fish above the meter, but 2 of them were monsters. On the first day, David had a fish of 101 cm and another of 110 cm for 9.5 kg. The second day came a new personal best for David a very large fish of 111 cm which weighed 11.7 kg. It was great to see David again and we can’t wait for our next trip.
The New Personal Best Weight
Go fishing
Brendan operates in the northwest centred mainly in the Sligo, Roscommon, Galway, and Mayo areas. If you want a great fishing experience with the opportunity to hook some big pike and trout, why not contact Brendan. His contact details can be found below.
Preparing for the off at the Lough Ree Pike Festival
The country seemed to press the reset button as we passed from April into May, with the cool easterly winds that had been nagging us for so long giving way to a warmer air mass that also brought some much-needed rain to parts of the country. In Leinster and Ulster, rainfall levels were above average with up to double the normal for this time of year. Things were different in Munster and Connacht, as rainfall levels in both provinces remained below average. The warmer air mass didn’t bring much sunshine, though, as dull cloudy weather predominated, with the sun breaking through only every now and then. Warmish, overcast, light winds…sounds like fishing weather!
Up on Lough Sheelin, hardy anglers who have stubbornly persisted through the dour early months of the year, have been waiting for that magical change when the trout respond to the growing numbers of insects in the water and start to feed on, or close to the surface. That magical switch seemed to have been flicked sometime last week, as April angst dissipated in the warm waft of May air and anglers started to catch fish on dry flies. Anglers fishing the Nore also noticed that trout responded well to the change in weather with plenty of surface activity during the middle of the day. Fishing was also pretty good on the River Bride, where Conna Trout Anglers hosted the Munster River Trout Angling competition. With the river running low and clear, conditions were perfect, and plenty of trout were caught on the day. Anglers on the Mayo Loughs, Conn & Cullin, found things hadn’t warmed sufficiently to bring an increase in fortunes. They were still plagued by the north/east winds that have hampered fishing in recent weeks, but those that ventured out found some fish feeding on olives & mayfly in the sheltered bays.
Susan Byrne with a magnificent Sheelin trout caught on a nymph
Anglers up on the River Finn in Donegal were keenly watching the depth gauge, as some late April/early May rain was forecast, and hopes were high it might spur a run of fish into the system. Those hopes weren’t dashed as both the rain and salmon came, leading to some good catches for the lucky anglers that made it to the river bank.
The Moy estuary seems to be firing on all cylinders right now, with reports that the water quality and the stamp of fish being caught are combining to make it the best season in years. Judd Ruane had fellow angling guide Colin Chartres out with him this week, and the fishing didn’t disappoint as they managed to land a sea trout of 4.78lb, easily beating last week’s best of 3.6lb.
A super Moy Estuary sea trout
Pike anglers are still hard at it and taking advantage of the post-spawning feed up that will continue into May. Circa 200 predator anglers from around Ireland and further afield descended on Lough Ree last weekend to fight it out in the Lough Ree International Pike Festival. Run over three days, with the longest fish counted on each day, the competitors were seeking a consistent haul of those magical 100cm+ fish. It was great to see RTE show an interest in the competition and give angling some well-needed promotion. One of the competitors, Sean Stanley, put together a short movie to capture his experience of fishing the competition.
The competition was tight, with the top four teams all managing to average a 100cm+ fish per day. However, Krzysztof Sibiga & Marcin Gregorczyk came out on top to take the title with a combined length of 314.5cm. And, if that’s not impressive enough, the long-standing festival record was broken by an outstanding fish of 119.75cm, caught by Danny Colleran. Any angler who comes out on top when fishing against such a high-quality field deserves credit, so Danny wins this week’s Catch of the Week.
Danny Colleran, with his new competition record pike of 119.75cm which wins this week’s Catch of the Week
A band of rain is currently sweeping the country, but drier weather will spread from the northwest as the day goes on. It will remain dry for tonight and for tomorrow in most places, with temperatures between 15 and 19 degrees. Similar conditions will prevail on Sunday, with an odd shower appearing now and again. Monday will begin dry, but rain will spread eastwards across the country before clearing on Monday night. Tuesday will have some showers with some heavier rain moving in towards the evening.
On the 30th of April Siegy Grabher, skipper of the Valentia Island based charter boat Sioux, started a week of fishing with guests from from Gelsenkirchen in Germany on a nice calm day which saw lots of good pollack landed.
May 1st was a bit foggy but the fishing was great. The next day saw more happy anglers on board Sioux as they again caught plenty of pollack.
May 3rd saw the anglers switch up tactics. They went bottom fishing and the ling put on a good show for them.
Kiaran Collins of Baltimore Angling tells us that the charter boat Radiance is back on the waters off West Cork and what a start to the season she had.
It was great to get back out fishing again. Over the last couple of days We had huge numbers of pollack on the reefs with fish up to 8lbs coming up in twos and threes, along with the pollack we had a few ling to 11lbs and cod to 9lbs. We also had a mix of Ballan and Cuckoo wrasse, Coalies, Pouting, Poorcod, Sardine, Octopus and Sandeel.
Skipper: Kieran Collins Base: Baltimore Operational area: 30 miles
out from Baltimore.
Authorised blue fin tuna boat 2025
Notes: Wreck fishing, shark fishing and common skate fishing are three kinds of sea angling that Baltimore is famous for, but most of the popular sea angling species of Britain and Ireland are found in these waters. And off Baltimore they are joined by a number of more exotic species, courtesy of the Gulf Stream. Fishing like this is no more than a distant memory in so many other places once famed for their sea angling.
We are involved in tagging programmes with Inland Fisheries Ireland – in which we are tagging shark and common skate.
Radiance
