David O'Hagan landed his first ever Slaney fish on the Lower Hut pool, a fine fish of around 9lbs
The lower Slaney has been fishing well so far this season, but perfect conditions in recent times meant that some excellent spring salmon fishing was had on the Tullow stretches of the upper Slaney too. The Tullow Trout and Salmon Anglers’ Association have been getting in on the act and sent us in this report to highlight the quality of the fishing available to them. David O’Hagan landed his first ever Slaney fish on the Lower Hut pool, a fine fish of around 9lbs that finally came to the net after some dodgy netting skills by Marcin Odachowski.
Anthony Moran landed this nice fish on the fly.
Anthony Moran and his fly caught fish
Faustas Auralius landed his first fish of the season on the Tullow stretch of the river.
Faustas Auralius’ first fish of the season
Kevin McCall hit this fish early in the opening week on Power’s beat.
Kevin McCall hit this fish early in the opening week on Power’s beat.
Yamil Turcuman also managed to catch this silver torpedo on a nymph – the most recent of the catches on display here. Yamil hooked this fish on the evening of Wednesday 27th and this one took a nymph! Yamil is no stranger to hooking springers on the nymphs – this is his 5th nymph caught springer on the Slaney, but his first of the year on club waters.
Big fish, small fly – Yamil’s nymph caught fish
As mentioned, the lower Slaney is fishing very well but higher up in the Tullow stretches they are competing and landing good fish regularly, the club are also praying for rain in the hope and expectation of an excellent run of fish into May.
Go fishing
The River Slaney continues to get reasonable runs of Spring Salmon. The average weight of the salmon is 10 pounds and they range in size from 7lbs to 20lbs. For more information about the river and its fisheries see this link:
Tullow Salmon & Trout Anglers Association was formed in the 1960s by local fishermen. The club has separate salmon and trout memberships including a juvenile section.
The club controls attractive stretches of fishing in the Tullow area and day tickets are available from €40. If you are interested in fishing on Tullow TSAA waters, contact Gerard Mellett, Secretary, Slaney Fishing, Ardattin, Carlow, 089 4109798, email info@slaneyfishing.com or check out www.slaneyfishing.com
The wait is nearly over! The Irish Spring Angling Fair will get going this weekend on 30th of April and 1st of May.
The organisers promise that it’s going to be a fantastic weekend for all anglers, and they are looking forward to welcoming you all to the show.
With demos, instruction, workshops and more on fly casting, coarse tactics, fly tying sea angling as well as plenty of shopping to be done there really will be something for all anglers – Sea, Salmon, Trout, Pike and Coarse.
20 well known names from the angling world will be there for the weekend including Scott McKenzie, Henry Gilbey, Steffan Jones, Cathal Hughes, Cormac Walsh, Peter Driver, Glenda Powell, Daire Whelan and more.
And that’s not to mention the long list of fly tiers! The Irish Spring Angling Fair will have a dedicated fly tiers area at the show, featuring 17 pro tiers from Ireland and abroad. And it’s not just for the past masters, there will be a designated have a go area where beginners and kids can try their hand at tying a fly.
There will be plenty angling activities for kids to see and do at the Fair too. The organisers are very keen to promote angling to young people. There will be a designated area on the bait lake for free kids fishing tuition during the day, free fly tying lessons and more.
On top of all this will be casting competition, raffles and all the usual fun and frolics of a good spring fair.
Visit irishspringanglingfair.com to see the full list of exhibitors, demonstrations, fly tiers, daily time table and to book your online tickets today.
Location
The Irish Spring Fair will be held at Ardaire Springs Angling Centre near Mooncoin, co. Kilkenny. See the location map for details on how to get there.
Parking
Arrangements have been made to ensure there will be ample car parking for the weekend. See the Onsite Parking page for more information.
Dan O’Neill, fishery manager at Mount Juliet, reports on the Nore:
The weather this weekend was quite windy making it difficult at times to achieve a good presentation of my fly on the water. But last September’s promises I made to myself (getting more fishing done) were echoing in my mind and there was nothing going to stop me trying,
The water level came down a by the weekend bit despite some heavy rain at the beginning of the week which resulted in the river creeping up to .78/.79m and the water temperature dropping to 9.8/10°C. The river is now quickly approaching 12 degrees and slowly coming down to .42m.
I noticed some fish rising behind the shelter of the sallys, mostly taking Olives. There were some decent hatches at different intervals through the day. Nothing too heavy but enough for some of the brown trout to break the waters surface. I had plenty of small trout on the fly in any of the runs I fished.
The larger fish started to move out to the seams of the main channel, and I had some nice delicate takes on the wet fly which almost felt like the fly line being pulled by the current of the river. A gentle lift mostly resulted in a lovely brown trout which soon lost timidness and leapt for freedom
Watching the house martins duck and dive resulted in a few missed takes. Being on the river watching it begin to flourish and become picturesque is one of the joys of spring fishing. Feeling very lucky to be on the river and watching its journey to becoming the perfect picture I decided it was time to hook my olive wet to the keeper eye and begin a walk back that I hopefully will be very familiar with by September.
Water Level and Temperature at time of fishing Water Level .454 cm
Water Temp 9.9°C – 10.2°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.
The 4th match of the Iascaire Spring League commenced in Lough Gowna, Kevin’s Shore.
Expectations were high going into the match; however, with very bright and breezy conditions, the fishing was poor to say the least. Some of the anglers went hours without a bite and only caught the odd fish here and there.
Some of the luckier competitors managed to draw in a few big perch along with some hybrids and they made the difference on the day. That’s fishing for you though, one day there’s a big stamp of fish the next day there’s nothing! This is why we love this sport! At least all of the competitors are fishing the same lake, so it’s a level playing field for everyone!
Qualifier 3 was held today on Sunday, April 24th, on a bright but breezy River Suck. There were plenty of fish caught – mainly roach – with most anglers putting together a decent weight.
Browning angler Leigh Maitland had top weight on the day with nearly 9kg in Zone B. There were two very tight battles in Zones A and C – the top weights within grams of each other when the claxon rang at the end of the day; Richard Pratt and Michael O’Connor were the two unlucky anglers just missing out.
The Golden Ticket Winners from Qualifier 3 were:
Zone A Julian Kendrick
Zone B Leigh Maitland
Zone C Rory Dunne
Action from Qualifier 3 at Donamon
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Section winners.
A Julian Kendrick/Richard Pratt.
B Mark Leonard/Leigh Maitland.
C Rory and Shane Dunne.
Qualifier 4 is in a fortnight’s time on the River Erne Enniskillen, 7th May.
Belmont Anglers fished their Open on Sunday at Shannon Harbour. The weather was beautiful all 12 anglers enjoyed the day. Everyone caught a few fish with some good weights for this canal venue being returned.
Most of the anglers fished the pole but breezy conditions saw some opt for the float rod. The same breezy conditions put a lovely ripple on the water, which was a little coloured and no doubt this helped with the good fishing on what was fairly bright day. Some lovely tench, good roach and few skimmers featured in the catches which helped Ollie Doyle take a big lead to win on 13lb 14oz.
The following are the winners
Ollie Doyle 13lb 14oz
Jason Delahunty 7lb 6oz
Stephen Quinn 3lb 8oz
John Howell 2lb 10oz
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Upcoming events
Belmont Anglers next event is on the 15th May at Shannon Harbour. Details will be posted on their Facebook page in due course.
Join the Club…
Belmont Anglers is taking new members.
Belmont Anglers is a Coarse Angling club based in the Irish midlands. Competitions are held regularly on the Grand canal and river Shannon. All are welcome to participate.
‘We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars’
Oscar Wilde
It has been another one of those weeks – difficult, discouraging and disappointing. Since the start of the season the angling here has followed a dismally familiar pattern which encompasses sporadic catches, hit and miss locations and blank unresponsive waters. There are, however, two consolations here, the first one being that it seems that most trout lakes are going through the same challenging times and secondly we are heading in the right direction i.e. towards a month that will be abundant with trout food and stimulating conditions of warmth and that special light conducive to trout rising. Many anglers who have a lifetime experience of fishing on Lough Sheelin believe that nothing really happens here until the end of April and although boat jetties have been filling up rapidly over the past week or two, the quiet anglers, those who have an in-depth knowledge of Lough Sheelin with all its quirks and oddities are waiting patiently, at most they are taking their boats out for a trial run, perhaps casting a line but for the main part they are just biding their time.
Facing west
The weather this week was harsh for angling. Winds veered from moderate to fresh with the undesirable east always twinning the variable south and north directions. Saturday turned into a ‘white horses’ day with a brisk north east wind clipping across the lake putting a chilly edge to the sunshine. The softness isn’t there yet and the cloud cover is falling short. Water temperatures have finally risen to above 10 degrees with the surface registering at 11.43 and the bottom (12.5metres) at 11.23. This rise in temperature is good for getting the insects down below moving towards their eventual adult status.
Going for gold
It is easy to get confused as anglers often refer incorrectly to nymph fishing as buzzer fishing when buzzers do not have a nymph stage in their development and really it is the pupae stage they are referring to. Very few of us are entomologists but the easiest way to remember this is that the insects that go through a larval stage undergo completed metamorphosis in becoming adults, and those that go through a nymphal stage undergo incomplete metamorphosis. As an angler, this means that nymphs generally look like the adults of that species whereas larva look a lot different from the corresponding adult. Even more basically speaking, the more insect looking ones are the nymphs and the more wormy looking ones are the larva. Caddis flies and buzzers don’t have nymphs they have larvae and pupae, whereas mayflies, stoneflies, alderflies, dragonflies and damselflies all have true nymphs (olives are included in the mayfly category).
Lining upReflecting on you – a newly hatched Damselfly, shuck below
That is the scientific bit but to add further confusion to the matter, nymphing is a general term used to describe a wet fly that represents subaquatic insects, so from a collection of angling data point of view and to avoid tying myself into a total knot this is what we will stick with. Nymph flies are intentionally designed to look like immature insects in a juvenile or larval stage. Many types of insects spend more time in the nymph stage of development than the adult. It is estimated that 75% – 90% of a trout’s diet consists of nymphs so they make up a big part in the diet sheet. The most common insects that are eaten are the nymphs (mayflies, olives and stoneflies), pupa (caddis flies and buzzers) and emergers.
Holding it together
With the increase in water temperature, all these insects will begin to move and paralleling their rise in the water column will be the trout. Trout catches were sparse throughout the week and the bulk of the results fell to anglers using nymph and buzzer patterns. The weight of the week was by Larry Moley with a 7lb trout caught on a nymph pattern followed by another close to 5lbs again on nymph fishing around Derrysheridan.
Crippling along – a female buzzerBuzzer dimensions
Daytime temperatures rose, triggering good hatches of buzzers from mid-day to late evening. There are rumours that the Campto buzzer will soon be hatching off, this pupa is huge compared to the more usual buzzer and it’s pretty much impossible to fish a buzzer that’s too large to imitate it. Buzzer fishing was best in the Bog Bay area of the lake and the siltier areas.
There were good hatches of olives and fishing olive nymphs worked well for several anglers.
Sheelin’s lake olive
Smaller lures worked better than the bigger ones with Chambers Bay, Wilsons and Kilnahard yielding the best results using these tactics.
UV Dabbler
Flies that worked well were the Black Pennel, Blue and Black Zulu’s, the Bibio, Connemara Black, Wickham’s Fancy, Black & Peacock spider and the Kate McLaren – a selection in sizes 10, 12 and 14 covered most eventualities.
Smooth exit
The Dabblers are still featuring as are epoxys, Shipman’s, Pheasant Tail, Diawl Bach, Hare’s Ear, Olive Nymph (size 12 & 14), Olive Bumble, and a Mini Muddler (effective as a top dropper). A beautiful 4lb trout was caught on the Dennis Moss’s Cluster, this one imitates the olive green buzzer.
A red Shipmans Buzzer and a buzzer shuckDavid Oates thorax only Buzzer
The Lures are still making a wave – Humungous, Minkies and Snakes with the Streamers particularly the Wooly Buggers (in sombre colours of black, olive and brown) being popular choices.
Donal Harten with his Buzzer trout
The season is moving on and this progression was heralded in by the very welcome sound of the cuckoo echoing clearly across Bog Bay on Saturday morning. The blackthorn blossom is fading into the hedges, soon to be replaced by the may blossom and two sea eagles have been spotted with yellow and green tags on their wings which in all probability are some of the Norwegian chicks that were released in August 2020 in either Kerry or Lough Derg.
Stretching the spots
The Oscar Wilde quote at the beginning of this report is reflective of some of the anglers fishing this lake. Fishing is tough but there are determined anglers out there, who regardless of the challenges remain positive and focused on their goal to catch those elusive Sheelin trout and then there are others who give up their dreams too easily. Lough Sheelin is a notoriously difficult lake to fish, nothing is easy but the piscatorial rewards, however sparse are undoubtedly worth the effort.
HawthornsKilnahardBack inWaving goodbye
Competitions
McDonald Cup 13th of August
LSTPA Stream enhancement competition 2nd of October
Interprovincial Championships 20th of August
Smooth exit
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.
As is often the case in Ireland, over the past seven days there was plenty of rain across the western half of the country (between 20 and 37mm), while in the east, amounts were well below average (4 to 9mm). There was less sunshine than the average too, but it has been slightly milder than usual, with stations recording mean air temperatures up to 1.1°C above normal; there is definitely more of a spring feeling in the air, and that has been reflected with an improvement in some of the fishing reports from around the country.
The low rainfall on the east coast has seen water levels on the Boyne and Kells Blackwater rivers drop to give good conditions for salmon fishing and, while catches have been sporadic at times, there have been periods where the fish have been taking, including a 90 minute spell near Navan where four fish were hooked and lost in quick succession. Fish of 10lbs -17lbs have been reported from the system this week. Further down the east coast, the springer fishing on the Slaney has been consistently good, with a bigger average size of fish reported than the last few years. On the south coast, reports are that the Munster Blackwater has a good spread of fish throughout the system, the lower river fished well before a flood pushed fish through last weekend and, further upstream, some lovely spring fish have been caught on the fly around Mallow.
We would like to remind all anglers that salmon smolts are running our rivers right now, and they will often take a fly meant for larger fish. The smolts are very delicate and don’t respond well to handling, so make sure to take care if they turn up while you are fishing and try and release them with as little handling as possible. View the video here to see how to best release a smolt.
Pike anglers love this time of the year – this is the Goldilocks period when the water is not too hot and not too cold, the days are getting longer – mixed with dull and bright periods – and the fish are feeding greedily to recover condition after spawning. Many of our overseas angling visitors value pike above all other species and it is wonderful to see so many tourist anglers fishing our lakes and rivers once again. Melview Lodge has welcomed French and Austrian guests of all ages back this week – where 12-year-old Leo caught a thumping 107cm pike to share our Catch of the Week.
As mentioned above, IFI has launched a new survey that will tap into the knowledge of trout anglers in Lough Sheelin and also a sea angling diary to help understand the health of fish stocks in our coastal waters.
Spotted Success
The Sheelin survey features questions for anglers about their trout catch and about different aspects of the fishery now compared with when they started fishing on the lake. Each participant also has the opportunity to enter into a prize draw for angling tackle, with one €200 voucher and two €100 vouchers to be won. If you fish for trout on Lough Sheelin you can find out more here.
The application also creates a handy personal dashboard for your own use and each logged diary session will be updated here. This gives you the user an opportunity to view when, where and what fish you have caught along with any other notes (tides, rigs etc), that you may have submitted. A summary is also provided to give you an insight into how your season is progressing.
Another reminder about the Irish Spring Angling Fair on the 30th of April and 1st of May. The organisers promise that it’s going to be a fantastic weekend for all anglers, and they are looking forward to welcoming you all to the show. With demos, instruction, workshops and more on fly casting, coarse tactics, fly tying sea angling as well as plenty of shopping to be done there really will be something for all anglers –Sea, Salmon, Trout, Pike and Coarse.
And now the weather
Mostly dry overnight on Friday with clear spells, lows of 3°C to 7°C, in north easterly breezes. The weekend will be mostly dry with good sunny spells and the odd shower. Highs 12°C to 17°C, mildest away from Irish Sea coasts, with brisk easterly or northeasterly winds. Overnight lows of 4°C to 8°C. Early next week will remain mostly dry with highs of 11°C to 15°C in light easterly breezes, lows of 2°C to 6°C overnight; current indications are that it will get a little cooler and unsettled later in the week though.
Kevin O’Boyle reports on the week’s action on Loughs Conn & Cullin:
It was a very slow week on Loughs Conn & Cullin due to the persistently cold north-westerly and easterly winds scouring the lakes. As a result, there was very little fly life to be seen, with just the odd Olive hatching.
Peter Roche from Cloghans and Gary Binley from Foxford had a fish each averaging 1.25 lbs on Claret Dabblers and Cock Robin around Roe and Castle Island in North Conn. They boated on average five more small trout each, and all were released.
Poor reports & poor weather for the rest of the week stopped a lot of anglers from venturing out. Towards the weekend, it warmed a little but still, not much fly life was evident.
On Friday, Peter Gray from Castlebar and Paul Casslin from Ross had some good fishing in Massbrook with a few trout each to Dabblers, all of which were released.
Padraig Traynor from Crossmolina and Colm Mc Andrew from Lahardane fished out of Gortnorabey and had 5/6 trout each to the boat, all released. Padraig’s best fish was 2.75 lbs on a black Dabbler in Bog Bay.
Simon Leonard from Ballina had two trout averaging 1.5 lbs while trolling for Salmon at Kent’s Pool on a silver and blue Toby.
Adrian Murphy from Cloghan’s had a trout for 2lbs on a Claret Dabbler in Ned’s Bay, North Conn.
Peter Flynn and Michael Moran from Athlone had seven small trout to the boat in Massbrook and Sand House Bay on Green Peters and Fiery Browns, best 1.5 lbs, all released.
Peter Gray released this 1.75 lb trout caught on a Ginger Dabbler
