Brendan Sharkey of PredatorFishingIreland was out guiding again at the end of March and had some great catches with his clients.
Great results
Brendan reports that “Monday and Tuesday I had the pleasure of guiding 2 anglers, Kamile and Dobromil from Poland. Thankfully, the fishing turned out to be just crazy. In two days, fishing with the two lads, in two locations we recorded a total of 83 pike. 13 of the fish were over 1m in length and at least 40 were good doubles. The boys caught 34 fish the first day, 3 of which were over 1 metre. The best fish measured 103cm.
Brendan and his new boat provide a top class guiding service
Change of location
Then on the second day we changed location hoping for bigger fish. Again, the fishing was absolutely insane. In this second location, 49 pike were caught. Ten of the fish were 1 metre in length and more than 30 of the pike were nice double figured fish. The 3 best fish of the day were 103cm, 107cm and 110cm. All the fish were caught casting”.
Previous outing
In the previous weeks Brendan had some great fish for his clients including this great fish below.
Another cracking fish for this happy angler with PredatorFishingIreland
Go fishing
Brendan operates in the north west 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.
Vincent Appleby reports from Lough Currane where the change in weather seems to have improved the fishing…
Lough Currane, 28 March 2022
28/3/2022 The Currane anglers were all quiet on this bright and sunny and calm day, the same goes for the evening shift as you can see by the sunset along the north shore.
29/3/2022 All quiet on the Wild Atlantic Front. Wind light to calm and variable from NE to NNW, bright sunshine all day.
30/3/2022 The Currane Anglers Salmon lines were slack and silent this day. Wind light to calm and variable NNE and veered NW with reasonable cloud cover.
Lough Currane, 31 March 2022
31/3/2022 There were five boats out manipulating their lures on this last day of March. Spygate reports there were no takers of the Wild Atlantic Salmon, his quote of day was, I’m not surprised because the lake is on the low side which isn’t surprising considering the lack of rain and followed by Easterly winds and there is no argument to that on that quote. Wind NE light and bright sunshine all day.
1/4/2022 Two Brown Tag Anglers fishing together this day reported their day was a success when catching a fine 7 lbs on the troll and for the rest of the Currane anglers it was all quiet on the SW front. Wind NNE light, bright and sunny all day.
2/4/2022 There were a few boats out this day and for all their efforts all was quiet in all departments. Wind NE and veered North followed by April showers and cold.
3/4/2022 As we all know today is the day of the census, well there was only one 10 lbs salmon to report on today’s Currane Salmon and Sea Trout census, caught by two Brown tag anglers while trolling. Wind NE early this morning and veered NNW light and variable followed by the odd April shower.
4/4/2022 Just three boats out manipulating their skills this day, in the words of one Brown tag angler and I quote, as you would say Appleby, my Noble Salmon were all quiet in all departments. Wind NW light to fresh and overcast.
5/4/2022 There were a good few boats out this day and at least one Brown tag manipulator procured a fine Wild Atlantic Salmon. For the rest of the Currane Anglers it was all quiet. Wind W veered SW fresh followed with strong gusts up to 39 mph, especially in the afternoon.
6/4/2022 All the action was along the North shore and for good reason, our Chairmen of the Angling association Mr. Michael Roden, while trolling the North Shore caught a cracker of a 11 lbs Salmon, Michael’s quote of the day, Caught a beautiful fresh 11lbs Salmon and it was very rough out there. Wind Fresh to strong with reasonable cloud cover.
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
Fly anglers are reporting that they are meeting quite a few smolts, good news for the future. But do take care if you catch these silvery fish. Every salmon is valuable, especially these juvenile ones heading out to sea. Smolts are undergoing rapid and significant change as they prepare to leave freshwater for a the salty sea. If you hook a smolt, try to release it without removing it from the water. They will swim off none the worse for wear and hopefully we’ll see them back in the river in a year or two as an adult fish.
Try not to remove smolts from the water as you unhook them
After you’ve released the smolt, crush the barbs on your flies if the hooks are not already barbless. If you catch a another of smolt, again release them in the water by turning the hook out of them without touching the fish at all. At this stage, consider the likelihood that the smolts are running and rest on the bank for a while to let shoal pass through unharmed or fish a different bit of water.
Dan O’Neill, fishery manager at Mount Juliet, reports that conditions are coming right for some good fishing on the Nore:
The temperatures dropped last week and the water levels also dipped a bit but I did manage to get out for a few casts at the weekend. Fishing wet flies I slowly made my way down George’s Wall. I did meet some trout along my way which were very welcome, but being in the river and casting was enough for me so the trout were an added bonus.
Plenty of smolts splashed at my fly as it swung across and a couple connected which were carefully handled with wet hands and returned for their journey to the sea and the beginning of their new life.
The river is slowly revealing those seams and curves that I enjoy fishing. Greenwells and spiders were doing the trick with fish taking within a rod length of the bank usually.
Other anglers out last week gave reports of plenty of trout caught on wets and nymphs. George’s Wall fished well and behind the White Bridge was also fishing quite well.
Water Level and Temperature 04 April Water Level .52 cm
Water Temp @12noon -> 9.2°C
Dan O’Neill Mount Juliet
Go fishing
Guiding
Taking bookings now for guiding over Easter. Improve catch rates, water craft, leader set ups, try new techniques. Contact me for more information.
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.
The 45th annual Fermanagh Classic Fishing Festival is taking place from Monday 9th May to Friday 13th May. Taking place across the shores of Lough Erne this coarse fishing competition brings anglers from across the UK, ROI and Europe with over 200 competing each year for a top prize of £5,000.
Pilot Fly Fishing Training Programme – Now open for Applications
The ILFA committee will host a Casting Course of 6 sessions x 2 hours over a period of weeks.
If interested please email irishladiesflyfishinginfo@gmail.com with your name, email address and phone number to express your interest as soon as possible so programmes can be arranged and tailored to participants.
Irish Ladies Flyfishing Association
The Irish Ladies Flyfishing Association was founded in 1990.The aim of the Association is to encourage lady anglers to participate in fishing events, to join the various ladies clubs and in general promote ladies angling.
The Association organises fishing and social events throughout the year all over the country. Each year the Association helps to fund a team to compete in the Ladies International, against teams from England, Scotland and Wales. A series of four trials are used to select the team to represent Ireland at the Ladies International Flyfishing Championship. We also aim to hold a series of ‘open days’ for the complete beginner and ‘training days’ for those wishing to improve their skills. Contact ILFA for further information.
Damien Culliney of Anglers Paradise sent in the below report of 3 x PB’s broken on a recent trip:
Had good friends Natasha and Bobby out for a days fishing. Both Natasha and Bobby had never caught a pike before. We started trolling during some flat calm conditions and soon had a few fish on board, including a first-ever pike for both Natasha & Bobby. Then gave Bobby a light set-up for casting for trout as his PB was 32cm and I knew there was a good chance of breaking that. In fact, he smashed it, with a new PB of 72.5 cm wild brown trout caught on a Castaic lure. Smashing his PB by a whole 40.5 cm. What a fish mate well done.
Damien at #Castaiclures www.anglersparadise.ie
First-ever pike for Natasha72.5 cm trout on light spinning gear
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.
Gary McKiernan’s ‘North Star’ a 64cm Sheelin classic was the biggest trout on Sheelin this week
This was a consistently cold week on Lough Sheelin. As temperatures dropped to lows of minus three, so too did the spirits of many an angler who ventured out. Boats dwindled to two or three per day with the predictable rise at the weekend by those released from the constraints of work. Trout catches seemed like mini miracles rather than just rewards from a hard day’s flogging these temperamental waters. During the week, the winds, when they happened, blew from an easterly direction changing to northerly at the weekend. Despite bright sunshine, there was an underlying bitter chill courtesy of a blast of biting polar air drifting down from Scandinavia. Scattered showers of hail mixed with harsh sunshine did nothing to improve the status quo of the fishing during the week where reports ranged from ‘total blanks’ to ‘the odd one’ to ‘a surprise hook up in the flat calm’.
Saturday was the pick of the week with good trout of up to 6lbs being taken on lures. Despite nightly frosts, plummeting evening temperatures and lingering morning fogs the water temperature increased to 9 degrees for the surface with the bottom being marginally cooler at 8.8.
Holding Gold – Lough Sheelin, Saturday April 2nd
Huge hatches of buzzers and duck fly occurred outside Chambers Bay and in other more sheltered coves and bays of Tonagh, Bog Bay and Crover but no fish answered the call.
It’s time for some blue-sky thinking here for anglers who love fly fishing but who are becoming frustrated at their inability to break their duck egg for this new season and catch a trout.
It is time for some practical change, and that involves moving to the dark side i.e. lures and large attractor patterns, at least for the next few weeks. There are good buzzer hatches but the trout are just not interested in feeding on either the pupa or emerger stages because there is simply too much easier food to be had on the bottom of the lake, the larder is full there so why use up energy searching elsewhere. The trout are still feeding predominantly on hog louse, freshwater shrimp and snails. A few fish were got on teams of wets and there were a few rises in the heat of the day, fishing around the shallows of Stony Island, at the back of Church Island, Merry Pt, Inchacup, Chambers Bay and from Kilnahard down to Crover but in general, it was poor and laborious – many hours of fishing with not much encouragement from our piscatorial friends.
Piscatorial pleasure
Fishing large flashy lures are what is working well at the moment – Zonkers and Minkies fished on a glass or sinker, Cats Whiskers, Humungus fished on a sinking line with a slow pull, black & gold for bright conditions, black and silver when it’s dull, Snakes, Boobys, Muddlers, Streamers and Wooly Buggers. Lures allow anglers to cover a lot of water at different depths and this is what is the most productive for early season, as trout are actively feeding to regain condition. With the right movement and presentation lures cover the depths, mimic the forage and can trigger off an aggressive territorial take. They tick all the boxes. Trout are predictably efficient. They rarely expend more energy than necessary. Looking for easy meals, they maximize their motion, for the highest calorie return. This is instinct and not a thought process. For now, with the exception of a few sub-surface takes, the trout are getting their snacks down in the deep.
Chilly calm
The flies that were used this week were the Dabblers – Silver, Pearly, Green, Sooty, Hare’s Ear and Fiery Brown. A size 6 Claret Dabbler fished as a top dropper using a di5 landed a 2 plus fish at the weekend. The Fiery Brown Dabbler is a very versatile fly representing freshwater shrimp in the early season.
Owen Pickersgill with his late March trout, caught on a lure
Duckfly fly patterns include: Black Pennell, Connemara Black, Blae & Black, Watson’s Fancy, Bibio, Mallard & Claret, Duck fly and Sooty Olive. Other flies were the Cock Olive, Peter Ross, Fiery Brown, Claret Dabbler and Golden Dabbler, Hog lice patterns, Coch-y-Bondhu, Silver Invicta, Glister Ollie, Duck fly Pupa and Emergers. Sizes 10-14.
1 of 6
Philopotamus
Resting up - Duck fly
A selection of Epoxy Buzzers
Drowned Hopper, size 8
Blood red Epoxy Buzzer (Carringdoun flies)
Olive Quill body Buzzers (Kevin Sheridan)
Successful lures were large and bright – Snakes, Humungus, Muddlers, Blue Flash Damsels, Titanic Bug Black, Cats Whisker, Boobys, Minkies and Zonkers. The ubiquitous Wooly Bugger, which always sounds like a curse word, did well and was responsible for a few nice fish of over 4lbs.
Spring 2022 began on Sunday, March 20th. This date marked the spring equinox and the astronomical first day of spring around the Northern Hemisphere. Before we even try to balance that egg of what is the spring equinox and what happens on this day, all anglers need to know is that after this date, the Northern Hemisphere begins to be tilted more towards the sun, resulting in increasing daylight hours and warming temperatures. There is hope on the horizon, we are moving in the right direction – long bright evenings, an increase in temperatures, lots of insects and a lake full of trout, what more could an angler ask for.
A Dabbler trout
1 of 4
Takes two to tango
2lb plus fish caught in the flat calm (Garnet Orange)
Ross, Lough Sheelin, April 2nd
On the board
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.
Water conditions were coming right for some time on the River Boyne and the lower Kells Blackwater. Anglers were hoping that there might some early fish around. As it turns out they were spot on. Over the last couple of weeks some good sized spring fish were reported from the Boyne and Blackwater. Unfortunately, no photos were sourced but at least we have some info on the fishing.
On the lower Blackwater 2 salmon were reported. One weighed 12lb and was caught on the shrimp, The second of the fish was 10lb was taken on the fly.
On the main channel of the Boyne at Navan between Sophies Island and the bend 2 more salmon were reported caught. One super fish of 14lb was taken on the fly and the biggest of the fish reported to date weighed in at a whopping 18lb.
We hope to have further news for you over the coming weeks. Well done to all of the successful anglers.
Brendan Sharkey from PredatorFishingIreland has been out fishing recently and recorded some great catches with his French clients.
Brendan reports “It was great to have my friend Jules and his friend Bal visiting from France again. The conditions were very difficult with very strong winds every day with the exception of one day. But despite this the boys never gave up and kept going the whole time and in the end this paid off for them.
The boys had caught a lot of pike but not a lot of big ones. That is until the last day when Jules got a new personal best a 117cm, 29lb 5oz very fat fish.
This was a new personal best for Jules and the best fish I had caught as a fishing guide. In addition, it is the best fish for the new boat, to date!!. Days like this are what makes me love guiding.
Previous outing
In the previous weeks Brendan had some great fish for his clients including this great fish below.
Another cracking fish for this happy angler with PredatorFishingIreland
Go fishing
If you want a great fishing experience with the opportunity to hook up with big pike and trout why not contact Brendan. Contact details below.
