Members of Killybegs Mariners SAC enjoyed the last of the settled weather before the winds picked up again. Please see their report below…
Making the best of the settled weather the crew hit the local shore marks and got rewarded with a nice mix of species including coleys, conger eels, three bearded rocklings and pollack for John and Gavin enjoying the day out.
Three bearded rockling for Gavin
Elsewhere, the big tides were proving hard to fish with a strong lateral run but the pyramid leads were holding and thankfully plenty of small flounders were on the feed keeping things going with some sea trout also patrolling the surf seeking out food sources. When it got dark and as the tide topped and the lateral run switched direction it brought with it large sea rods and weed which made the decision to pack up an easy one. Great to get out though!
Sea trout for Stefan before sunset
The crew also enjoyed a very early season run with Adrian Molloy of tuna.ie charters. Crisp calm spring weather made for a beautiful day out the bay and they had great fun getting a nice mix of species with coleys, ling, pollack, pouts, herring etc.
Adrian Molloy’s Deep Blue coming to the slip for the crew
Nice ling for Gavin on Deep Blue
Mariners sea angling club Killybegs Co Donegal. The club runs a shore league and boat competitions and angling trips around Ireland doing the sport we love. Get in touch at www.facebook.com/mariner.sac
Go fishing
Deep Blue
Skipper: Adrian Molloy Base: Killybegs Operational area: Up to a 30 mile radius from the point of departure.
Authorised bluefin tuna boat
Notes:We can also offer you some of the finest Sea Angling in Ireland, inshore and offshore on the best boats and with the best skippers.
Whatever your angling interests from ultra light tackle and fly fishing for big reef pollack to trolling and stand-up tackle for fast fighting Tuna – we aim to please ! Dolphin and whale watching, scenic tours and wildlife trips available along some of the most spectacular scenery in Ireland. Shark fishing! Skate fishing! Tuna fishing! Donegal has it all.
Fly anglers on Corrib are eagerly awaiting the first big hatch of the year, the duckfly. This large buzzer starts to hatch in mid-March, with hatches peaking in the last week of the month most years. A few small buzzers were spotted over the weekend, but it looks like next week at least before the main hatch gets underway.
In the meantime, anglers trolling and lure fishing have enjoyed good sport in between the spells of inclement weather. Angling guide Damien Culliney, who guides on Lough Derg and Co. Clare, took a trip to Corrib with his friend John for a short session. They had 3 fish to the boat, all on lure.
Damien Culliney with one of the trout caught on luresJohn with a lovely trout taken on lure
Tomi Kurman (Tomi Guided Fishing) has had a few guests out this week and he has been putting them on some great ferox trout as usual.
A nice ferox troutA fine ferox for obne of Tomi’s guests
Jasper Mathews from Wild Atlantic Angling Experiences was also on the lake with a camera-shy lady friend, and she landed 2 fine trout, both just under 3lbs, taken on the troll in touch conditions. Jasper currently has availability for guided fishing in March, April and May and is taking bookings now.
Jasper holding Steph’s nice trout
The duckfly hatch should be making an appearance very soon, more fly anglers will be dusting off their rods and firing up the outboard, and we look forward to more reports soon.
Beautiful conditions met anglers starting their season on the Munster Blackwater a month ago, but since then the river has been high and at times unfishable.
There were a couple of days when angling was possible for those who stuck at it though and the 1st Salmon of the season was caught on the Careysville Fishery on February 24th. This Salmon weighed in at 10.5 lbs.
There were no further reports of salmon until 5 March, when John O’Brien landed the first springer of the new season on the Blackwater Trout and Salmon Fishery. The salmon was caught on the Woodstream beat and estimated at 12lbs.
Go fishing…
Blackwater Salmon Fishery
Blackwater Salmon Fishery has 3 beats downstream of the weir and 2 upstream of the weir. Blackwater Salmon Fishery offers fishing on approximately 5 miles of the river Blackwater. The fishing is spread throughout the middle section of the river to offer good sport throughout the fishing season. Due to the location of the beats, fishing can still usually be offered in low or high water. Contact Glenda Powell: Lismore, Co Waterford, Email:info@blackwatersalmonfishery.com Mobile: +353 (0) 872351260 Telephone: +353 (0) 5853929 Web: www.blackwatersalmonfishery.com
Fortwilliam Fishery & Self-Catering Cottages
Fortwilliam Fishery offers two miles of double bank salmon and trout fishing over five beats on the river Blackwater.
Our salmon include – Springers, May Salmon, Grilse, Back End Salmon, and in Summer sea trout.
Our beats provide a wide variety of water, suitable for both beginners and the more experienced fishermen.
Fortwilliam Fishery, Glencairn, Lismore, Co. Waterford, Ireland Web: www.fortwilliamfishing.ieEmail: fishing@fortwilliamireland.com Tel: (00353) 87 8292077 or 058 75299
Blackwater Salmon and Trout Fishery
Blackwater Salmon and Trout Fishery control a number of beats of the Munster Blackwater. The Ballyduff Bridge beat is almost a mile long offering a huge variety of water and is particularly suited to fly fishing. Upstream near the village of Ballyhooley (a few miles outside the town of Fermoy, Cork) we have two beats. The Ballincurrig Beat is one of the most beautiful locations along the river and has an excellent piece of fly water flowing into a deep pool. Just downstream on the opposite bank we have a short but productive beat, called Magners. This beat fishes also well in high water.
Careysville Fishery offers some of the best salmon fly fishing in Ireland and includes 26 named pools. It is considered by many to be one of premier beats for salmon fishing in Ireland. Wading is excellent and among the numerous streams, pools and glides there is a great variety of fly fishing to suit both complete novice and challenge the most competent of fly casters.
At Lismore Castle & Golf Course Fishery, we offer nearly two miles of two inter-linked beats, the Castle Beat & the Golf Course Beat.
The legendary Castle Beat consistently ranks as one of the top Salmon beats on the River Blackwater, for the number of Atlantic Salmon caught per rod. The Golf Course Beat offers about 1.5 miles of fishable water through meandering majestic countryside. The Golf Course beat offers a number of bewildering pools suitable for unmatched spinning and bait fishing.
We provide Day Tickets for some prime Salmon fishing in Mallow Co. Cork. We have excellent fly water, shrimping worming and spinning also. We also have very competitive Day rates and we have very recently upgraded our fishing.
Tickets available from “The Bridge House” and “Vincent Downes Menswear” Mallow.
Located on the Munster Blackwater in the south of Ireland. Situated mid river between the towns of Fermoy and Mallow. A productive left bank beat in stunning surroundings.
For bookings contact Conor Arnold: +353 87 755 4682
For details on availability and conditions of fishing for salmon and trout on the Longueville House waters please contact them at Contact : Longueville House Hotel, William O’Callaghan Address : Mallow, Co. Cork. Telephone : 00 353 22 47156 Email:info@longuevillehouse.ie Website: www.longuevillehouse.ie
Salmon fishing opened on the Bandon on February 15th and to date there has been no Springer reported. Water levels are rising at the time of writing and the chances of hooking a salmon will improve as the latest flood fines off.
Our neighbouring river the Lee has had a few fish during the past few weeks, so we live in hope. The past spawning season on the Bandon was the best we’ve seen on the river in recent years and bodes well for the future.
Go Fishing…
Bandon Angling Association have set up a guiding service in conjunction with Jason Nash, Peter Aspinwall and Phil Dewey. Details of the guiding service are provided on the website and they are looking forward to making memories and enhancing people’s fishing experiences on the river Bandon. Day tickets and club membership are also available. Web: https://bandonangling.com/
3/3/2022 Just one boat out this day and no boat to be seen on today’s video but without any fear of contradiction he was the Brown tag invisible Currane Angler, you could say Angling clients seek him here, they seek him there and they seek him everywhere and the same goes for the Wild Atlantic Salmon.
4/2/2022 Just one Brown tag Angler manipulating the waters of Lough Currane on this calm and bright sunny day and sadly My Noble Gentlemen the Salmon ignored the lonesome Brown tag angler. Wind light and variable from the NE to the SW in the early afternoon and veered again into the NW early this evening.
5/3/2022 All quiet on the SW front this day. On the weather front it was bright and sunny and not a cloud in site followed by a light to calm East Northeast wind.
A mild morning on Lough Currane
6/3/2021 The amount of Currane anglers that were manipulating their skills this day is as follows, 3 Brown tag elite anglers and one lonesome Barbless angler and going by spygate I can say for all their efforts their lines were slack. Now its Party time and yes you have it and I’m sure because Local Gillie Mr. Dominic McGillicuddy was celebrating his birthday today so on behalf of the Currane anglers and the good people of Waterville and Caherdaniel. Many Happy Returns of the Day.
7/3/2022 Just one Brown Tag boat out on this rough and overcast day with a strong SE wind blowing across the lake and in the words of Local Gillie Mr. Dominic McGillicuddy of www.fishingwithdom.com just me out and very rough and only Kelts.
Peter Huggard
8/3/2022 We start today’s notes on the very sad news that Hotelier Mr. Peter Huggard RIP of the Butler Arms Hotel, Waterville, sadly passed away yesterday. As we all know the Huggard Family have well over 100 years history in the Hotel business of that 100 years, Chef Mr. Peter Huggard RIP served 50 years of which he showed his cookery and management skills at the Butler Arms Hotel which I might add were first class and Peter will be sadly missed. So, on behalf of all the Currane anglers and Waterville golfers and all the good people of Waterville and Kerry and the good people of Co Mayo we send our Sincere Sympathies to His Wife Mary and all His Children and Grandchildren.
9/3/2022 Just for the record there was no boats out yesterday. Now back to the present, there were two Brown tag boats out and going by the slack action on ones phone you can take it that their lines were down. Wind North light with good cloud cover.
A wild day on Lough Currane
10/3/2022 The Picture tells the story as the Barbless and Brown tags stations were in checkmate with a strong Southerly wind blowing, followed by rain.
The third and final draw brown tags on Lough Currane will take place on March 28th to allocate the remaining 20 brown tags.
Applications for this draw may be made from 14/03/22 to 25/03/22.
Any anglers that are interested in entering the January draw are being asked to email their request to Inland Fisheries Ireland at watervillebrowntag2022@fisheriesireland.ie providing their contact details and quoting their 2022 Salmon Licence number.
Anglers must provide intheir email entry:
Name
Contact Address
Telephone Number
2022 Salmon Licence number – including licence letter prefix
This is the only method to apply for a brown tag. Anglers may only fish one brown tag over the full season. Multiple applications will disqualify. Salmon Licences are available to buy online at: https://store.fishinginireland.info
The brown tag regulations came into force on the Waterville catchment from January 17th and will remain in place until midnight on May 12th 2022.
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
The Menapia Sea Angling Club were back on the beaches last week, fishing a match at The Cut in Carne, Wexford. Sea conditions were perfect but there was a cold wind blowing from the east which is never great for fishing. Despite that, all anglers managed to catch something, and Plaice, Pollack, Flounder, Coalies, Dogfish and Turbot all featured.
Longest fish:
Joey Brady 35 cm Plaice
Kieran Dempsey 35cm Flounder
Top three on the night:
Joe Carley 14 fish 479 pts
Kieran Dempsey 7 fish 288 pts
Rob Denby 7 fish 232 pts
Triple shotA solitary turbot popped up on the night
The Irish Federation of Pike Anglers held another qualifier last weekend, this time on the Annalee River in Co. Cavan. Fishing was slow in cold conditions and a total of 48 fish were caught by the 26 competing anglers.
David Norman of West Cork Bass shares some insights from a recent fishing trip targeting mullet with the fly rod and bread fly:
People may tell you that catching thick lipped mullet on a bread fly is easy, I would say it’s one of the easiest of the mullet fly options by far, along with the maggot fly if you can find somewhere to make it work, but it’s still not EASY! Especially early in the year when conditions rarely settle for long.
During the four-hour session that produced this fine fish I got precisely one half chance – Which I missed and one other chance that came more as a gift from the mullet gods rather than anything I had much control over, but the mullet gods sometimes choose to reward a tryer…
I’d had real problems with the wind direction swinging back and forth through as much as 180 degrees and varying in strength from a gentle breeze from behind to a much stronger wind in my face, the stroke of luck came with a brief window of side wind which perfectly held my floating line arrow straight and in place just long enough for this fish, estimated at around 5lbs, to come up out of the depths and suck down my bread fly more like a carp would do, rather than the usual nibbling – which our thick lipped mullet are frustratingly good at doing! So one decent fish landed photographed quickly, released strong and in perfect condition and honour was restored. It’s amazing how one decent fish in tough conditions can make us happy for a good few days after.
On a final note these much under rated, slow growing fish (about the same growth rate as bass so 20 years to get to 10lbs which they almost never do these days) I’m told only spawn biannually and not for the first 3 or 4 years. None of our three inshore mullet species (thick lipped, thin lipped & golden grey) are protected by law in any way and are extremely vulnerable from a host of threats. With some good news last week about the introduction of protection for basking sharks one can only hope that our humble mullet might one day enjoy similar protection, they certainly are an underrated sport fish in my opinion and are available to us early in the year when not much else is possible fishing wise at the coast.
Lough Sheelin Angling Report March 1st – March 6th 2022
‘Just ‘cause things are different, don’t mean anything has changed
And I know the world’s on fire, but there’s beauty in the flame’
Picture This
Lough Sheelin opened its waters to a brand new fishing season on Tuesday, March 1st, sharing this date with the start of meteorological spring. It feels good to be shaking off the shackles of a winter that seems to have clung on for far too long, its dreariness exacerbated by the tenacious and unstoppable Covid variant, Omicron.
I remember reading somewhere that there are three things that can ground a person mentally, make them strong as such – religion, their past and nature. Whatever about the first two, nature is always available to us and from November to February the Sheelin trout were mentally uplifting as they spawned impressively in almost all the rivers feeding into this wild lake, producing over 1,500 recorded spawning redds (and most likely many more not recorded). For the uninitiated, redds are mounds of gravel covering trout eggs, and Lough Sheelin’s piscatorial future.
Three successive storms, like the three witches that gave prophecies to MacBeth – Eunice, Dudley and Franklin churned Sheelin’s waters in the weeks preceding our kick off date. Franklin had the biggest impact causing water levels to rise and substantial waves to crash along the Crover shoreline.
Shipwreck – the wrath of Franklin
IFI installed a data buoy in 2021, which sits like a regal ‘yellow man’ in the deepest part of the lake (13 – 14 metres). This buoy will constantly monitor water temperature throughout the Sheelin water column and will allow IFI scientists to examine how the lake responds during climatic events such as heatwaves, droughts, storms and floods and the effects these have on fish thermal habitat. Interestingly, to date, it is showing us that there is very little temperature difference between the surface layers and the bottom layer, registering for February at 6.17°C at the top and 6.14°C at the bottom (12.5 metres). This lack of stratification would probably be down to the fact that Sheelin is a shallow lake and winds are obviously stirring the waters up a great deal.
Lough Sheelin’s Data Buoy
Conditions on the first day of the season started off cold, at a chilly 3°C, progressing on to blue skies and bright sunshine with temperatures climbing to 10°C triggering off a scattering of buzzer and duck fly hatches in some sheltered bays – Chambers, Crover and Rusheen. Early season trout fishing can be rigorous when the weather doesn’t cooperate and for this first week with nightly dips of -2°C and bright cold days, Sheelin took no prisoners and fishing was extremely challenging.
At this early stage, I share angling author, Tom Rosenbauer’s distrust of fishermen who mouth the platitude “I don’t care if I catch any fish or not, it’s just nice to get out there”, sure if it’s a balmy day but this is early March and it is cold, so anglers who flog Sheelin’s mercurial waters for hours on end in freezing conditions are out to catch trout. These are the anglers who were attracted to Sheelin over the past days – doggedly determined individuals, in search of trout, not fresh air.
Early season magic
Four to six boats were out each day during the week with an increase into the double figures at the weekend. Anglers reported that, in general, fish were hard to locate and it was even harder to find anything that worked. Di7 replaced the favoured Di3 and 5. Traditionally early season is a time to fish close to the shore where trout will be feeding on their preferred meals of shrimps and hog louse and where the sheltered coves might bring on a hatch of buzzer or duck fly but for this week at least things appeared a bit different from the norm in that the trout seemed to prefer the deep and although anglers did report trout surfacing, this happened much further out in the lake than is usual for March. No area favoured another for catches and returns reported were literally ‘here and there’ all over the lake.
Early season successes always favour the large lures – minkies, humungous, woolly buggers, snakes etc. and this week was no exception with the biggest trout being caught on the biggest and more colourful lures and generally fished in the deep.
Trout were notoriously hard to locate but with the absence of surface fly life there was little to attract them up. Our ‘absent’ trout are presumably glued to the bottom of the lake for their food and Sheelin has a full larder for them there in the form of freshwater shrimp and louse and bottom-feeding organisms such as chironomid (buzzer) larvae, snails and caddis. As one angler put it to me ‘sure it’s an anchor fly you have to use at this time of the year’.
I would like to be able to talk about successes on teams of wet flies and the occasion dry fly, old familiar and comfort blanket names like the Sooty Olive, Black Pennell and Connemara Black but this wasn’t a week for the purist fly angler and although a few smaller fish were caught by anglers using di3 and di5 lines and sticking to the shallows, rocky shores and around the lake’s bay results were poor. Traditionally shallow water and along shorelines and in around the islands are the areas that are most attractive to the trout in search of food, typically freshwater shrimp and louse. The best place to target fish is to work the edges of the shallows just at that point where it drops to the deep, also anywhere with stones as this is where the most trout prey hang out but as yet this really hasn’t happened but it will. This location advice will come into play soon but for the first week of this season these weren’t the places to go.
Things will get better and as the weeks move on the traditional fly angler will have plenty of chances. To quote the first two lines from Dermot Kennedy’s song Better Days – ‘Better days are coming, if no one told you’.
1 of 9
Stormy waters
Measuring up before release
Lying in wait
Dabblers
Piscatorial magic
Storm Eunice, Lough Sheelin
Storm Dudley, Tonagh Lough Sheelin
Connemara Black
The Humungus is an excellent lure to use on this lake in early season. This one is a beefed up version of the Lough Leven classic, the Black & Silver; the colour combination has caught a lot of fish, and add in the long marabou tail and the chain bead eyes as well as body hackle and you have a very versatile and mobile pattern. A slow figure of eight retrieve will bring results if the fish are in the vicinity.
The Humungus
The lures that worked this week were the Humungus (in black with a thread of silver, gold and rainbow with a bit of red mixed through the black marabou tail), Minkie’s in grey, silver, black and white, black and green Snakes, Boobys and Zonkers.
A few trout and that is literally a few as in two fish were caught on teams of wets, the most popular set- ups included Black Pennell’s, Connemara Black (size 8), Sooty Olives, Claret Bibios, Golden Olive Bumble, Silver Butcher, March Brown and the Glister Ollie.
Making it look easy – Christopher Defillon
Competitions
The Kilroy Cup will be fished on Saturday 18th of March from Kilnahard pier from 11am to 5.00pm. Prizes will be for the heaviest fish and entry is €20. This competition has been set at a 16 inch size limit with a 2 fish bag limit. There will be no permits available for sale on the pier on the morning so please buy your permit online beforehand or from the IFI office at Kilnahard on the morning.
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.
The stormy conditions of late have given away to a lot more settled weather this week with afternoon temperatures occasionally rising to the low teens and fair amounts of sunshine in places. However, this hasn’t really been reflected in increased angling activity which is probably no wonder as many waters still need time to settle after the recent run of storms and heavy rain.
This has been the case for Lough Conn where trout anglers, after a fairly promising opening day, have been struggling over the past few weeks. The situation on Lough Corrib is similar with fly hatches not yet underway, and trolling or lure fishing still the methods of choice for most anglers. Nonetheless, Tomi Kurman of Tomi Guided Fishing had a guest out on Corrib for only his third day trying for ferox so far, and what a day they had with 5 takes and 4 trout landed, all between 64 and 78cm. This surely deserves our Catch of the Week!
A stunning ferox trout for Tomi’s guest
Many midland anglers, like Mick Flanagan, put the pike rods back in the shed for a while this week as trout fishing began on the midland loughs. Mick reported good fishing from Lough Lene where rainbows and over-wintered browns were the target.
Mick Flanagan with a nice Lough Lene rainbow
Salmon fishing has also been on the slow side with only a few fisheries producing fish since the start of the season. On the Moy, anglers are still waiting for the first salmon of the new season, while boats on Lough Currane also drew a blank for the week. Further north on the River Drowes, however, dropping water levels after the recent floods resulted in much better angling conditions, and anglers were rewarded with some good catches, some of them into double-figures.
12 lbs. spring salmon from the Drowes ready for release
Not only salmon anglers will be delighted to hear that Inland Fisheries Ireland has published a new book on historic salmon flies. This new book featuring the ‘1902 Cork Collection of Salmon Flies’ will bring a “long-lost treasure” of Irish angling to new generations around the world. The wonderfully illustrated publication is available online in different formats.
The manager of the project Shane O’Reilly of Inland Fisheries Ireland with the “1902 Cork Collection of Salmon Flies”
It is hoped to put the collection on display once more and members of the public are being encouraged to contact IFI with any suggestions they may have.
One of over 380 patterns from the “1902 Cork Collection of Salmon Flies”
Over to pike fishing, which has also been affected by high water levels. We received a number of competition reports from around the country. O’Casey’s Pike Club held their 2nd heat of the 2022 league last weekend on a lake in Co. Monaghan, while Limerick County Pike Anglers were out and about last weekend as they continued their winter competitions. Leinster Pike Anglers also held their first competition of 2022 last week on three lakes in Cavan.
Waist deep wading produced results for the hardy Leinster Pike Anglers
Coarse anglers have also been engaged in various matches during the past week including the Leinster Coarse Anglers who were back on the banks for round four of their winter league. Elsewhere, C/M Lakelands held a feeder only club match at the weekend which was won by Brenton Sweeney with a nice bag of skimmers.
Decent bags for anglers at the C/M Lakelands feeder only club match
Finally over to sea angling, where reports have been scarce for quite some time due to the three storms which pounded the country in short succession. However, members of Killybegs Mariners SAC were out again and managed to catch some more mini-species and a few decent pollack and coalies from a number of rock marks in Donegal.
Mini-species fishing is becoming more and more popular. Here: a rock goby.
In Other News
The Irish Specimen Fish Committee would like to update anglers on progress with the 2021 Annual Report and Awards Day. The report is being finalised now with a view to being published in April. The usual Awards Day event held in February every year was postponed due to the COVID-19 situation, but it is planned to have an event at some stage in 2022. There are also some new Specimen fish rules for 2022. Further information is available here.
Inland Fisheries Ireland in conjunction with Blackrock Education Centre would like to invite primary school students around the country to design a poster that encourages greater conservation of Ireland’s native fish. This national poster competition is part of the ‘Something Fishy’ educational programme and officially kicks off this month. Free resources with further details about the competition are available from www.somethingfishy.ie
“Something Fishy” poster competition for primary schools
And now the weather
It will remain generally dry and clear tonight with widespread frost and icy patches forming as temperatures fall back to between minus 3 and zero degrees. The weekend will stay mostly dry and sunny with afternoon temperatures ranging between 7 and 10 degrees in light to moderate northeasterly winds. The start of the week, however, will see cloud building up with patches of rain or drizzle, chiefly affecting southern and western counties. Current indications suggest Wednesday and Thursday will turn increasingly windy with outbreaks of rain likely.
