Cathal Hughes, winner of O'Callaghan's Feed Festival
Easter festivals are popular fixtures in the coarse angling match calendar and Inniscarra is a popular venue. With big bags always a possibility there’s no question as to why…
Feeder Only Open
The Easter weekend kicked off on Friday with the this popular Open competition. The best of the fishing was on the Garden Section which produced some big weights. No less than 5 anglers broke 20kg, but Marcin Bobka did best and won with an impressive 28.300kg
Top 4
Marcin Bobka 28.300kg
Stephen Whyte 23.280kg
Stuart Blunson 22.580kg
Richard Pratt 22.300kg
O’Callaghan’s Feeder Festival
The next day saw the start of O’Callaghan’s Feeder Festival, fished on the 17th, 18th and 19th of April. The previous day saw Cathal Hughes on 5th place in the Open with 21.130kg.
Cathal Hughes, winner of O’Callaghan’s Feed Festival
He obviously put that fifth place finish behind him as he was the eventual winner of O’Callaghan’s Feeder Festival with 69.120kg, followed by runner-up and junior international Charlie Richards (17yrs) with 63.420kg!
Junior angler, Charlie Richards, took second place with 63.420kg
Great fishing from Inniscarra Lake‘s match sections, including the Greenway, Garden Centre and Graveyard, which produced an average match weight of over 36kg for the 40 anglers.
Reports coming in from the Slaney are that the river has being enjoying a good spring salmon season so far with some lovely double figure fish caught and released. Luke Drea got on the list of lucky anglers when he caught this cracking Slaney springer on Wednesday last week. This fine fish was estimated to weigh 14lbs.
Luke had been watching the water levels, and had seen a little rise on the river from the previous evening’s rain so headed down to the water before work Wednesday morning.
The salmon took the black hair wing fly in the picture, with UV scraggle in the body tied on a 1/4 inch brass tube (tied by Luke’s friend Colin White).
Dan O’Neill, fishery manager at Mount Juliet, reports on the Nore:
I don’t think any of us forgets the first trout we have caught or the first of whichever species is your chosen. I remember my first brown trout which came from the River Barrow near Borris, Co. Carlow. The piece I remember most was my dad showing me how to release the fish safely back to where it belonged and nursing it a little after our battle.
As a guide most of my clients are novices intent on taking up fly fishing as a hobby. It’s very important to me that I show them the correct way to release trout and also teach them the importance of catch and release fishing. This is a strong foundation for them to begin their journey into the wonderful world of angling.
This weekend, after more Easter eggs than I should have had, it was time to hit the river with my apprentice. I have fished many, many times with Anthony – mainly coarse fishing on lakes with a trip to Lough Erne in October for his first pike. But the water was coming right and with him asking me more and more about fly fishing I decided to take him Sunday afternoon and let him swing wet flies at George’s Wall. He was very eager to wade but the water is still a little pushy so we decided to fish from the bank.
Some fish were rising just below us which kept us on the edge of our seat as the fly, one of my own Greenwell’s Spiders, drifted down in their direction. After what was probably the 5th of 6th cast the rod dipped and Anthony’s face lit up. Not used to the feeling of a nice sized trout taking a wet fly on a light set up Anthony looked downstream in amazement waiting on his prize to break surface. With a couple of head shakes and lunges his prize came to the net and immediately he was captured by the beauty of the trout. From the take to the release he went through the motions of becoming hooked on fly fishing.
It was a special moment for me to see this happen especially with fly fishing being so dear to me. After a heavy shower of rain many trout followed with some jumping to add to Anthony’s excitement. Each trout was released very carefully, which we will continue to practice across all our angling adventures.
Water Level and Temperature 17 April Water Level .44 cm
Water Temp @12noon -> 11.1°C
Go fishing
Guiding 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 , contact me for more information .
Dan O’Neill Mount Juliet
Fishing
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.
West Cork Fisher, Jeremy Smith, who usually targets bass along the Cork coast is giving all his attention to gilthead bream recently…
Had a beautiful day in Ring, West Cork at the weekend. I had some screaming gilthead runs and saw a big fat 8lb bass landed at the bottom of the tide. There were also a few 30 to 40 cm bass around but the water is definitely warmer and the whitethorn is out. Don’t cast for trout till Mayflower is out is an old saying. Well, that rings true for bass. Not sure about trout but other species are on the move. Just hope the fair weather continues – Gilthead fever is upon me. I even have a new fork for digging lugs. There’s no stopping me now!
Andy hooked the biggest fish on the lure - super surprised
Steven Powell of Lure Guides reports on his weekend’s adventures…
It was not clear if we actually were able to get out on the boat this week but with a udden shift of plans we were on the road once again.
This month’s been super busy – pulling boats apart and rebuilding them – with the latest project being the Motocraft make over. The new deck and flooring have made a considerable difference with the creation of extra space. We’re also waiting on a few bits and pieces to finish off our Alumacraft competitor upgrades. That will be good to go soon too. All being well in the next month or so looking forward to that.
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First perch of the day
Perch were feeding up and occasionally some nice ones appeared - technique and lure specific were critical
Right Lure at the Right Time
Double hook ups with pike and perch
Anyway, we headed off on the Motocraft at the weekend. The perch were feeding up and easy enough to catch while the pike were playing cat and mouse. The were chasing the lures, not taking, but kept it us interested as we saw them every now and again. Watching them chase the lure, then slowly disappear into the dark water was just as good as catching them and wondering what size they were. Best part of today was Andy and l getting double hookups – and all of us getting triple hook ups on the perch it was absolutely adrenaline pumping stuff.
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We had our all weather goretex gear stored in our dry bags just incase - Sod’s law here in Ireland be prepared for random weather
Dave landed this nice pike - what a surprise , and fought like crazy. Good days fishing are hard to beat
Andy hooked the biggest fish on the lure - super surprised
Our rods were put to the test again. This time we were light lure fishing with the Legitdesign Standout series rods and as usual were impressed with their performances. Switching over to the Wildside bigbait specials and taming some sport we had some great fishing.
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Pigshad rocks - we liked the look of this colour - olive spotted bullhead from StrikePro. The pikecraft harness rigging is so easy and storage is now even easier - no mangles tangles and less terminal tackle required
Custom lure - even the hooks
A note on the methods and rigs. Dropshotting, jighead fishing and all sorts of other methods put fish on the boat. Rigging up our pigshads on the Pikecraft harness made our fishing trip effortlessly easy.
Go Fishing
Come fish with us for big predators in Ireland on Lough Erne in Northern Ireland, a stunning waterway with many many specimen pike perch and trout. Come visit and catch your dream. Fish with us using lures for predators such as pike perch and trout.
We get about on a competition spec polarkraft aluminium 16.5ft with good deck and casting area design – powered by super reliable 40hp Yamaha getting about won’t take long traveling at high speed on open water.
Lough Sheelin Angling Report April 11th – April 17th, 2022
‘If there is no struggle, there is no progress’
Frederick Douglass
This was another grueling week for fishing on Lough Sheelin with only small windows of piscatorial opportunity being offered to the anglers. This lake is refusing to give up its trout and although catches did happen on a daily basis, it was a bit of a painful business with returns stubbornly remaining in the single figures. Lough Sheelin is capable of so much more but is, for now, refusing to play ball with its anglers. It is still early in the season, we are still in spring and in my view this is the time of the year which is the most tiring – everything is greening up, bird song has gone up several decibels and we are inherently driven by a desire to reach this symbol of warmth that is spring with summer on the horizon. But it seems that every time the scent of seasonal progression comes within reach, it is maliciously whipped away by the remnants of winter – frosts and biting winds, which draw out this seasonal journey, sapping at patience and fueling tempers.
First cast. Fish were caught, but not in numbers
Water temperature sits at just under 10°C, with 9.8°C at the surface and 9.2°C at the bottom. A few trout are pitching, and some have been moving up into the top layers, but the main food attraction still appears to be in the lower regions of the lake with its food assortment of asellus, freshwater shrimp, caddis and snails. Dennis Moss refers to this time in the trout fishing season as the ‘transitional stage’ when the fish start to leave the declining larder down below and move up through the water to feed on the fauna. By late March/early April, the activity of asellus and shrimp is on the decline, this is the time these small crustaceans breed and then die so trout are on the lookout for alternative food and with the buildup of zooplankton they switch from bottom feeding to mid-zone feeding. Nature balances things out. The decline of one coincides with the proliferation of another. It is an encouraging thought.
Early bird menu – Gammarus lacustris (freshwater shrimp), Corru Bay
As this month progresses so too will the change in feeding patterns strengthen but for now fishing is challenging with anglers reporting on plenty of movement but little or no takes. Anglers commented throughout the week ‘that there were no buzzer hatches’ and cool daytime temperatures did nothing to encourage an increase in these chironomids.
A female duck fly – buzzer hatches were sparse
Most days saw good hatches of olives. Olives are seen as a ‘foul weather fly’ with wet and windy conditions seeing the densest hatches. Wave action, creating a weaker surface film, and windy conditions help the newly hatched adults to take flight sooner. But, in more wet, colder weather these duns may stay on the water’s surface longer, providing easy pickings for trout. This is what is supposed to happen in an ideal trout fishing scenario but the Sheelin trout still have not fully made that transition to a new menu and most are staying down in the deep.
Darkness into light and an olive wave on the water
Day time temperatures struggled to reach a comfortable heat to encourage hatches so there was an obvious lack of these midges. Winds were predominantly south to south westerly but had a nasty habit of becoming variable resulting in sudden changes in drifts making things testing for the anglers. Small lures are replacing the larger earlier season ones and some of the more successful ones looked like something that you might be tempted to feed – wads of purple fur with eyes. With the appearance of large hatches of olives, many anglers are turning to nymphing, patterns which covered a multitude that had nymph stage in their lifecycle – mayflies, olives, stoneflies, alderflies, dragonflies and damselflies.
A delight from the depths
Although conspicuous by their absence, imitations of the pupae stage of the buzzer did work by attracting trout and some nice fish over 2lbs were caught on epoxy patterns. Pat Magee’s Rambler fly with its hopper like legs worked its magic by claiming several trout in the deep. Anglers preferred the more silty areas like Bog Bay and the Sailors Garden for nymph fishing and down along the Crover shore for trout still feeding on the bottom asellus dwellers, the lures favoured more open water out from Chambers, Kilnahard and Wilsons while the fly anglers literally went from one drift to the other with the deeper areas more successful for the teams of wets.
Buzzing
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Teaming up - 7 duck fly pupae and an alderfly larva
On the verge - A duck fly pupae about to hatch
A scattering of epoxys
Buzzer emerger
Buzzer pattern
Buzzer time
Hooked up
Effulgent epoxy
Skating along - no buzzing, a pond strider (Gerris lacustris)
Sheelin's freshwater shrimp
Most i.e. 90% of the anglers I met on my travels, except the ones, of course, who had struck lucky, referred to the fishing in derogatory terms so because of the words they used I photographed the cow dung fly as a representative of their words. Despite its appalling name, the cow dung fly (family Scatophagidae) is incredibly beautiful which is reflective of Lough Sheelin – an incredibly beautiful if not capricious stretch of water.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder – the Cow dung fly
Best nymph patterns were Pheasant Tail, Diawl Bach, Hare’s Ear and Olive nymph, in size 12 and 14. A size 12 Olive Bumble or a palmered pattern was good well as a top dropper.
Other flies that worked were the Bits patterns in claret, fiery brown, ginger, black, orange, hare’s ear, olive and grey, Klinkhammers, Stimulators, Claret & Mallard, Silver Invicta, the Rambler, small black Buzzer patterns, Epoxys and Emerger Buzzer patterns, Kate McLaren, Bibio and Dark Wickham.
Successful lures and Streamers were large and bright – Snakes, Humungus, Muddlers, Blue Flash Damsels, Titanic Bug Black, Cats Whisker, Boobys, Wooly Buggers, Clouser Minnow, Minkies and Zonkers.
The biggest fish for the week was 6lbs trout caught on a small lure by Latvian angler Markuss Helmanis.
Total number of trout recorded: 21
Selection of Catches
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Piscatorial perfection
Pleasantly plump
A hand on the future
A returned juvenile
Buzzer bounty
5 pounder
A 2.5 Dabbler release
On the edge
Keeping a grip
Catch & Release
Selection of Catches
Thomas Harten, Kilnaleck – 2 trout on Epoxy Buzzers and The Rambler fly, heaviest at 3 lbs
Aidan Heffernan, Kildare – 1 trout at 3 3/4 lbs on nymphs.
Pat Magee, Northern Ireland – 1 trout at 4 1/2 lbs on a Rambler.
Valdas, Dublin – 1 trout at 2 1/2 lbs on a small lure.
Kazimieras Ambrozaityte, Naas – 2 trout, heaviest at 4lbs on a Cats Whisker.
Radoslav Jatnieks, Dublin – 1 trout at 5lbs on a lure mid lake.
Vladislava Minglinierks, Dublin – 2 trout, heaviest at 5lbs using lures at the back of Church Island.
Sheelin scenes
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Ross, Lough Sheelin
Rusheen Bay
Spare tyre - Rusheen, Lough Sheelin
Inchacup
Heading off
Faded dreams
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.
Inland Fisheries Ireland has launched new survey that will tap into the knowledge of trout anglers in Lough Sheelin. The survey will use a method developed by IFI called FLEKSI, which will help to track ecological changes through local knowledge.
FLEKSI, which stands for Fisher’s Local Ecological Knowledge Surveillance Indicators, will feature questions for anglers about their trout catch and about different aspects of the fishery now compared with when they started fishing on the lake. Anglers spend many hours outside observing nature and the fish they catch. IFI recognizes that this accumulated local ecological knowledge is valuable and has potential for citizen science that can provide important insights for fisheries management into the future.
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.
Charter boat shipper Des O’Connell reports on the first weekend back on the water for Fugeo in Cahersiveen, Co. Kerry.
Sea conditions were difficult but the fishing was good with coalies abundant. We also had some good pollack to 9lbs, mostly caught on baited lures. Ling were small but are plentiful.
No mackerel around but lots of sprat showing.
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Fuego
Ocean Tramp 37′. 370HP Cummins Skipper: Des O’Connell Licence: 562 Base: Caherciveen Operational Area: Up to 30 miles from Caherciveen, Knightstown and Portmagee.
Notes: Deep sea fishing around Dingle Bay, the Skelligs and Blasket Islands. All types of fishing catered for – conger, ling, pollack, garfish and many more species. Can take 10 anglers comfortably. Half day fishing trips and mackerel trips also available.
Water levels continued to drop on the River Boyne and Kells Blackwater over the last week. As a result, anglers have enjoyed some nice fishing even though it has been sporadic in nature. Odd fish were reported caught and then one day last week 4 fish were hooked and lost over a 90 minute period on the Boyne at Navan. One fish of circa ten pounds was landed.
A Boyne springer in brilliant condition
On Tuesday, a nice fresh fish with sea lice on board was caught on the fly. On Thursday a beautiful fresh run sea liced fish of 17lbs was caught and released by well known angler Pat O’Toole from Trim. The Kells Blackwater produced a lovely 10lb salmon on the fly. With water levels continuing to drop, anglers are hoping that more fish will enter the system. Especially as the next set of big tides is approaching.
No doubting the size of this fish even at distance
Some super fishing brings our Easter 3 Day Festival to a close, with Johnny Keith prevailing from pillar to post to win outright. Spring sunshine and an abundance of fish belied the intense rivalry on the final day, as we witnessed some significant shifts at the top of the leaderboard.
Johnny Keith’s weight of close to 17kgs on Yellow Island saw him hang onto the lead with a little to spare from a strong finishing Philip Jackson, who also topped 14kgs from Concra Wood on the day. Graham Worley had another great day with a resounding 16kg plus from White Island leaving him just short in 3rd place.
In 4th place on the podium was the strong finishing Johnny McKinley with a super weight just shy of 15kgs of mostly small hybrids.
A total number of just under 10 thousand fish were landed over the 3 days, with the winner accounting for 780 of those. We would like to thank our competitors and re-emphasise the fairness and quality of the venue where a different peg won every day in every section and rarely did an end peg prevail.
It has been a cool week since we talked to you last. Temperatures were about 1°C lower than usual but at least it remained mostly dry, until the start of this week when it was fairly wet, and then yesterday was scorcher! Not easy to plan your fishing with all that going on, and we’ve not even got into the winds and tides…
There’s always room for innovation in angling. And despite it being a sport full of traditions there is no shortage of anglers who are willing to experiment. Keith McDonnell has been developing a line of streamer flies for a while now. Having had endless success with trout, he turned his attention to salmon and hooked 4 springers in one day, landing this 18lb fish, his PB and our Catch of the Week.
Catch of the Week – a salmon on a streamer
Spring salmon fishing has been fairly productive so far with good results from the south east where the Nore, Barrow and Suir got of the blocks early this year. There have been a number of mid teens fish reported and one smashing Nore salmon of 30lbs. At the other end of the country the Moy is also producing some fine sport for springers and there was even a salmon caught on Lough conn. Further north again there was some great fishing on the Finn where the spates came at just the right times.
River Lee brown tag draw
Did you apply for a River Lee brown tag? The second round draw was held on Monday and the lucky numbers are listed here. All anglers whose number was drawn are asked to acknowledge receipt of their Brown Tag by email including the tag number to 2022corkleebrowntag@fisheriesireland.ie
Fabrice with a 4kg Sheelin trout
The cool conditions and often bitter winds of last week made for tough trout fishing on the lakes. To top it off Saturday saw flat calms and anglers on Sunday were met with wild squalls which saw fishing out for many. It was far from easy on Sheelin but there were still a fair few trout caught, including a smashing fish of 4kg. Anglers used a real mix of methods, traditional wets, buzzers and lures and lines from floating to Hi-D. It was a similar tale on Conn where between times sedges were hatching well. Meanwhile on Lough Corrib there was some reasonable wet fly fishing, when conditions allowed, and there were plenty of Olives coming off. Ferox anglers also had some decent sport with one boat getting a couple of 70+cm trout earlier this week. River anglers were hit by the same tough conditions but there were still opportunities to cast a fly and some nice trout were reported from the Nore.
Sheelin Survey
IFI has launched a new survey that will tap into the knowledge of trout anglers in Lough Sheelin. The 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 smolt run
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.
Richard Bedford with 58lb from the River Shannon at Portumna
Coarse anglers found that Portumna was fishing well at the weekend. Richard Bedford won a club competition with 58lbs, great news ahead of the Spring Festival fishing which starts this weekend. There was also good competition fishing at Lough Gowna where the second round of the Feeder King competition was fished. Lough Muckno was also fishing well and Iascaire Feeder Fishing Club had a good 3rd round of their Spring League at Concra where 1st place was won with 9.75kg.
Richie Ryan was back out on Cork Harbour with guests where pollack on the fly was the quarry. The fish were reasonably plentiful on the day and great entertainment was had. The first reports of bass from the Harbour are also coming in now. South Shore SAC fished Arklow beach at the weekend. They were frozen and fishless until the tide turned at which stage they remained cold, but at least were busy with the plentiful whiting that came on the the feed. Clare charter boats Lady Gwen and Clare Dragoon are back on the water. They both found low water temperatures meant slow fishing, but as with our friends in Arklow a change of tide brought a change in fortunes. Staying in Clare, Lisdoonvarna Fanore anglers had a bass competition at the weekend. They had no bass but flounder and the odd sea trout kept them going.
Fanore, Co. clare
On Galway Bay charter skipper John Fleming was another who reported the tides influence when a dull day eventually came good with decent pollack and some really spectacular looking wrasse. Finally, Killybegs Mariners hosted Howth Sea Angling Club last weekend for an innovative inter-club competition on Streedagh beach, Co. Sligo. Some great fishing was had with flounders to 39cm, turbots to 37cm and even some flashy sea trout to 43cm.
It won’t be long now until 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.
Something Fishy poster competition
Primary school students around the country are being asked to design a poster that encourages greater conservation of Ireland’s native fish. To enter, primary school students are being asked to create a poster with the ‘catch, photo and release’ message, take a photograph of it and then submit it by email before the closing date of Friday, April 15th 2022. For more information see Primary school artists wanted for conservation campaign
And now the weather
Good Friday will start mostly cloudy with scattered outbreaks of rain and drizzle. It will brighten up and become drier through the day with a mix of sunny spells and scattered showers developing. Highest temperatures of 13°C to 17°C in a light southerly or variable breeze. Unsettled through the Easter weekend, with rain on Saturday followed by showers for Easter Sunday and Monday. Mild to start but turning cooler from later Sunday. Feeling much cooler on Monday with a mix of sunny spells and showers, some possibly heavy with hail. Highest temperatures of just 9°C to 12°C in moderate to fresh westerly winds. The further outlook is cooler and generally unsettled weather for the early part of next week with showers or spells of rain at times. That’s not an awful fishing forecast so get out there an wet a line if you can.
