Pat Mostyn’s huge specimen Albacore Tuna.
Considering a specimen is 26lbs! 62lb is a fair brute. Congrats Pat!
Jim Clohessy had an incredible trip out to the deep sea in search of Albacore Tuna…
Every now and then you get the chance to do something different in angling.
Ocean Ranger is a Safehaven Marine Wildcat. Twin Volvo Pentas. A superb craft.
I’m just back from a blast of a couple of days fishing “the shelf”. Mixed results. The highlight was an unbelievable Albacore for Pat Mostyn. 62lb! A few pounds off the Irish record! We sailed from Kinsale aboard Mike Walsh’s Ocean Ranger. We stopped at Baltimore to top off the tanks and blasted our way to make the evening fishing on the edge of the continental shelf. It’s 2000 to 3000ft deep here.
We were soon into albacore.
Jim’s first Albacore! I had one bigger but never took a pic as Pat had caught his monster and we were busy… 😀 Super colours on the fish. These soon fade.Pat Mostyn’s huge specimen Albacore Tuna. Considering a specimen is 26lbs! 62lb is a fair brute. Congrats Pat!
During the night Ian set up for the night shift – night dropping for swordfish. No sword on this occasion, just a solitary blue shark.
We fished the dawn shift before beginning the long steam home.
I was very much novice amongst these deep-water veterans. This sort of trip shows how this style of fishing is very much a team effort. Super stuff – Mike, Ian, Pat, Frank and Victor.
Saltwater fly fishing guide Richie Ryan reports from Cork Harbour…
Trying to get youngsters interested in outdoor activities is a chore for parents in these techie days. In fairness to Inland Fisheries Ireland, they have a number of schemes to get children “hooked” on fishing. I myself offer a free guided fly fishing session every year to try and encourage an interest in the sport. An uncle rang me recently in frustration to bring his nephew out fishing and get him away from his PlayStation. A booking has been organised.
The Canadian Ryans arrived this month for a long postponed holiday. Seán, our grandson in Airdrie, is fishing mad. Conger fishing with his dad John and uncle Cian proved difficult. Seán of course saved the day with a whopper of a Bass as can be seen below, the only fish caught that day as it happened. Not quite a specimen but pretty close.
Sean Ryan with a super Bass that nearly made the specimen weight
An itch for saltwater fly fishing had to be scratched too. Just myself and Seán, a special time for me, headed outside the harbour in Sea Hawk for a Pollack session. An immediate bend on the fly rod started and this super angler had two small fish landed before his guide got a pluck! Frenetic activity ensued with some beautiful Pollack in the 4 to 8 lb range hooked and released, except as stipulated by Seán, a nice fat fish for his grandad Andy Newman.
Grace King was also out fishing with Richie and she had some beautiful fish including this pollack
A suggestion that we cut our trip short by a half an hour in order to go alongside The Quays Bar in Cobh to grab some gorgeous scallops was spurned. Sorry Noel Owens! I explained the word dilemma to Seán and I think he’ll always associate it with scallops. To say I’m proud of my grandson and his fishing prowess is no exaggeration. What a superb angler. It’s in the DNA from both sides for sure!
Callum Troy with lovely pollack
Another youngster who amazes me with his love of fishing is Callum Troy. His Godfather Adam Troy kindly treats him to a session every year aboard Sea Hawk. His dad Seán Troy couldn’t make it this year unfortunately. He’d have been seriously proud of his son as he landed and released some huge Pollack. Another brilliant outing and a very happy guide. Callum has never blanked in five years, here’s hoping next year is as successful as every other one.
David Norman helped to break a young angler’s duck on the bass fishing front over the weekend. After nearly two years of effort, Zac still hadn’t managed to land a bass. He still wouldn’t give up though, and David continues the story below:
Young Zak told me he had only one chance left this morning to land his elusive first bass before a return to school and the possibility of another long winter of bass fishing discontent. I told Zak, “it’s not over ’til it’s over”, arranged to meet him at his chosen location to try and help move things a little in his favour and isn’t that just what happened.
A lovely first fish caught on a topwater lure no less! Congratulations Zak and well done for sticking with it!
First bass for Zak
Now that Zak has caught his first Irish bass we expect him to follow it up with many more.
Lough Ree produced a nice trout on the troll for angler James Cleary last Sunday. James was fishing at the Nuns Island area of Lough Ree, trawling a small minnow when he hooked into this lovely 5lbs 13 trout. The fish was released to fight another day.
Kit Dunne from Wicklow Boat Charters reports that the sea fishing was pretty good last week for a bunch of anglers more accustomed to fishing in the freshwater. Ditching their wagglers, swimfeeders, maggots, bivvy’s etc. for boat rods with crab and mackerel baits, the lads were quick to get in on the action with 10 Tope boated for the day along with some Huss and heaps of Hounds.
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Earlier in the week, Kit was on the inshore wrecks where his punters had a nice mix of pollock & pouting topped off with a ling for the skipper.
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Go Fishing
Angling Charters are offered on a full-day, half-day and evening trip basis and can be tailored to suit your needs. Two boats available – Lisin and Castle Maiden. All levels of anglers are catered for. Anglers will benefit from your skipper’s angling experience and local knowledge with advice and guidance on-hand at all times.
SPECIALIST ANGLING CHARTERS
Specialist Angling Charters are offered for those who wish to target specific species, specimen fish or try new methods of angling.
ANGLING COACHING
Whether you’re a Club, Individual, School or Junior you can have an angling coaching session or programme tailored to suit your needs.
Dan O’Neill, fishery manager at Mount Juliet, reports from the River Nore…
With the dreaded last day of September in sight I find myself scurrying around trying to tie up my fly fishing loose ends. Lakes and rivers I didn’t get to, areas on the Nore I promised myself I would try and the winter’s experimental patterns that have yet to see water, where does a season go?
The renowned Thomastown Anglers competition was held on the Nore a couple of weeks back. We had 4 beats in Mount Juliet used. It was a delight to watch the competitors fish, watching the level of obsessiveness they hold, their approach to beats and team communication.
I found fishing the past couple of weeks to be slow. The fish are there but not playing the game. I did have a couple of nice fish, mainly on wet flies. Spider patterns seemed to work well such as partridge and orange, snipe and purple.
Beautiful trout from the Nore
I also fished dry fly along by the Sally’s with some success. Great hatches of sedges cloud the surface most lunchtimes and evenings, watching them has led to many a missed fish.
All in all a nice couple of weeks, a little slow on the fishing side but very happy to be able to try.
Introduction to fly fishing course
There are 3 spaces left for the introduction to fly fishing course left, if interested or looking for more information contact me on the details below .
For information on day tickets or memberships please call me on 0857652751 or email Doneill@mountjuliet.ie
Mount Juliet House is set on a large estate, which offers private fishing on 2.5 miles of the middle to lower reaches of the River Nore. Mount Juliet Estate offers fishing of the highest quality, just a short stroll away from the Manor House. There is a fishing room on site in the Manor House for your convenience i.e. for storage and drying of fishing equipment. Mount Juliet Estate can also provide the necessary equipment on site if needed.
Night falls on Lough Currane Lough Currane 2021-08-22
Vincent Appleby reports from Lough Currane…
16/8/21 The Inny Anglers were all quiet this day which isn’t surprising considering the Inny was rock bottom, so you do not need to have a degree to know that the Inny Anglers are looking forward to the next flood. Now we head for Lough Currane, going by the post and telegraph, Currane was all quiet on all fronts. Wind NW light to fresh with good cloud cover, followed by the odd shower.
17/8/21 We start in the backdate department due to a breakdown in the post and telegraphs, in yesterday’s notes I failed to report that there was at least one Salmon caught on the Inny and going back further in the past week there was one Salmon caught on the World famous Butler Pool and at www.watervillegolflinks.ie Now back to the River Inny, the tides are working in favour of the Inny Anglers and for good reason, there were a few Salmon caught this day. Now to the Currane Anglers, they were all quiet on all fronts. Wind NW light to fresh with reasonable cloud cover and very humid.
18/8/21 The C&R Inny Anglers caught two Salmon. There were twelve boats out on Lough Currane and lines were slack. Wind WNW then veered WSW and veered again SSW Light with good cloud cover and very humid followed by showers. The Inny Anglers will be smiling just click the Irish metrological service because their forecasting rain for Friday so get your flies and your lours ready.
19/8/21 The Currane drifters caught a few Trout on the drift this day. Where the Salmon department is concerned it was all quiet on the Waterville Fishery but as from Friday 1am to 4pm we are on a yellow rain warning. So, you can take it as red the Inny Anglers will be walking the banks as they put their skills to the test in the C&R department tomorrow and this weekend. Wind SW and veered SSW light and good cloud cover with misty rain at times.
Fog bound Lough Currane 2021-08-20
20/8/21 The big flood gave some good Salmon fishing on the Inny, with a few caught and released. On that note we head for the Big Lake where there were four boats out, the Currane drifters caught a few nice Sea Trout. In the Salmon department there was one caught, Fly/troll? Wind SW light and foggy this morning as you can see by the photo, come lunch time it had lifted and stayed overcast all day.
21/8/21 There was some good fishing on the Waterville Fishery today, we start on the Commeragh River with at least four Salmon caught. Now we head downstream to Lough Currane, in total there were six boats out, the only anglers to record catches were the Currane drifters with a few Juniors. Now we cut across the Valley to the River Inny anglers, again they kept the Inny C&R flag flying high by catching few nice Salmon on the fly. West light and variable with reasonable cloud cover.
Night falls on Lough Currane Lough Currane 2021-08-22
22/8/21 We start on the early morning shift on the Commeragh River and by all accounts their lines were slack. Now we head downstream to the Big Lake, there were five boats out manipulation their flies and lures and again their lines were slack in all departments. Just for the record one Currane angler was telling me that the water is still very warm and that is after the flood, you draw your own conclusions. Now we head to C&R Inny Anglers and all is quiet on the Inny front this day. Wind SSW light to calm and variable and overcast.
23/8/21 The Currane Fishery was all quiet on all fronts. Wind SSE and veered SW light to calm.
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
While we had a bit of showery rain over the weekend, amounts were generally small. Here in the west some of the spate rivers got water, and we await reports from there. My local river only came up a few inches and is back down to summer level again – oh well! Conditions have been overcast for the most part, and breezy enough too – enough to keep small boats in port for most of the week.
The rain gave a lift to small spate systems in most places, and Costello and Fermoyle benefited from the first bit of water after a long dry spell, with good catches of salmon and sea trout as fish entered the system in numbers. Rain at the start of last week brought a good rise in the Moy, where 577 salmon were caught. The Inny River and Lough Currane also saw good sport at times, while we had a lovely report from Dan O’Neill at Mount Juliet of a father showing his two enthralled sons what salmon fishing is all about.
Brothers David and Rares look quite proud of Dad Marcel’s sparkling fresh grilse. Catch Photo Release #CPRSavesFish
The Thomastown Fly Fishing Competition is one of the most hotly contested, and prestigious events on the river trout competition scene. The Tungsten Warriors team of Ciaran Reilly and Sean Dempsey were the overall winners of the two day competition, with a great total of 49 trout. Elsewhere it was a red-letter day for Robbie Thomson, who landed his personal best trout from Lough Corrib, a lovely fish of 5lbs 6.5oz. And trout fishing picked up on Loughs Conn and Cullin, with good wetfly fishing reported.
Robbie Thomson with his PB trout of 5lbs 6.5oz
The coarse fishing festival scene swings into action again over the next few weeks, and the Leinster League anglers warmed up with a match at Garadice, the winning bag of 14lbs 12oz caught by Sean Ward. Superb bream fishing was reported from Carafin Lodge on Lough Oughter, where Jim Baker had some great bags of fish for his week, with many in the 7-9lbs range.
Pike angling is also warming up again, as water temperatures cool after the recent heatwave, and pike start to feed again. Good fishing was reported from Lough Derg, and we’re sure we’ll see more pike reports over the next few weeks as anglers start to target them again.
Shark anglers have noticed a resurgence of porbeagle shark this year, often outnumbering blue shark in many areas, and it is great to see these vulnerable fish making a comeback. Anglers in Clare had good fishing for ‘porgies’ or ‘beagles’ even though they were targeting the much larger sixgill shark, which failed to show. The bluefin tuna numbers continue to build, partifularly in Donegal Bay, where the Kiwi Girl out of Mullaghmore had a spectacular weekend, bringing 10 of these speed merchants to the boat for tagging.
The smile says it all!
Catch of the Week
This week, however, we leave the best ’til last, and it is a fabulous sea trout caught by shore angler Johnny Byrne from Killybegs while lure fishing for bass. A beautiful fish of 70cm, estimated at 7-8lbs, which was sportingly released again and makes our Catch of the Week.
Other News
Yesterday was World Photography Day. To celebrate, we shared some photos our staff have taken on their travels around Ireland. One of the perks of working with IFI is seeing some beautiful places, and we’re sure you’ll agree some of these are stunning. Check them out here.
Today is the closing date to make a submission to the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications on the draft Designated Salmonid Waters Bye-Law. The deadline is 5.30pm today (Friday) so there’s still time to make a submission. Find out how here.
This week is Heritage Week, and Sunday is Water Heritage Day. Keep an eye on our social media (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) to see some content we are sharing to mark the day.
Minister Eamon Ryan announced funding for 17 projects in 11 counties under the ‘Habitats and Conservation Scheme 2021 this week. The funding, administered by IFI, will seeconservation projects in Carlow, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Mayo, Wexford, Westmeath and Wicklow benefit to the tune of €770,000.
As I write, a yellow weather warning is in place for some western counties for heavy rainfall today. Rain becoming widespread, with some heavy and possibly thundery falls in places, leading to localised flooding. An Irish summer, eh! There is also a Small Craft Warning in place from Malin Head to Howth Head to Valentia.
More heavy showers tomorrow, but the weather is set to brighten up as the weekend goes on, with the early days of next week looking much better. Becoming mostly dry and feeling warmer with light winds as high pressure builds near Ireland. That drop of rain will give rivers a lift, and the better weather will provide good fishing conditions for nearly everyone. It could be a god week in store! If you’re heading to sea, don’t forget to check the tides.
Trout fishing is starting to pick up slowly but surely now on the lakes. Sedges are hatching in various bays with some good reports of trout, mostly smaller fish being caught. Joe Quinn, Ballina and Chris Meadows had 13 trout to the boat on the Massbrook shore to Sedges and Green Peters. They all averaged approximately ¾ lbs and were all released. Peter Roche, Cloghans and Gary Binley, Foxford had 2 trout each to a Green Peter Dabbler around Brackwansha and Cormorant Rocks shoreline. The fish averaged just over a pound, and all were returned. Ian Wise and a party of four from Dublin had a few trout all averaging just a pound in North Conn around the islands outside Bog Bay. All fish were released.
James Corcorcan, Galway, and fishing partner Brian Casserly, Galway had a few trout all returned, averaging 1.25 lbs all to the wet fly near Gortnorabbey.
Oliver Dillon and Peter Gray had some good angling in South Conn mostly along Victoria Bay and Massbrook Point.
A trout caught by Peter Roche for just over 1 lb on a red arse Green Peter near Cormorant Rocks on Lough Conn before release
Sincere sympathies to the Murphy families, Massbrook and Lahardane on the death of their father Jimmy Murphy, a giant in the angling world and father to Gerry Murphy who operates Murphy’s Boat Hire on the shores of Lough Conn at Massbrook.
Heavy rainfall and wind brought floods and high-water levels to the Moy catchment. Water levels recorded at Ballylahan Bridge on Monday morning read 1.724 m and as the week went on the water levelled back to 0.677m by Sunday night. Water temperatures returned to more normal levels for the time of year settling around 13˚Celsius. The Moy catchment is fast approaching 6000 salmon caught so far this year with 577 salmon caught this past week alone with many released.
The Moy Fishery reported that the high-water levels combined with lower angling effort resulted in no fish being taken this week.
Ballina Salmon Anglers reported 95 grilse for the week.
Mount Falcon Fishery reported 51 grilse caught.
Attymass Anglers reported 28 grilse for the week.
Knockmore Salmon Anglers produced 47 grilse from their fishery.
Coolcronan Fishery had 22 grilse mostly caught on spinners and worms.
Byrne’s Fishery reported 22 salmon for the week.
Armstrong’s Fishery reported 29 grilse.
Gannon’s Fishery produced 11 grilse for the week.
The Foxford Fishery reported 39 salmon from their waters.
Foxford Salmon Anglers had a good week with 93 grilse for the week with even a seal paying them a visit!
Foxford Town produced approximately 30 grilse for the week.
Cloongee Fishery recorded 10 grilse with 4 released.
East Mayo Anglers reported 83 grilse caught with 27 of those released.
Reports from Lough Conn indicate that 7 grilse were caught trolling.
The high-water levels suited the River Deel with at least 10 salmon reported mostly upstream of Crossmolina town.
Martin Woods with his catch of a 5lbs grilse from East Mayo Anglers beat.
Invasive Pacific Pink Salmon
IFI would like to remind anglers to continue to report any catches of Pacific pink salmon and to assist with research efforts by following these steps:
Keep the Pacific pink salmon and do not release it back into the water, even in rivers that are only open for ‘catch and release’ angling.
Record the date and location of capture, and the length and weight of the fish.
Take a photograph of the fish and keep a copy of the image.
Tag the fish and please report it to Inland Fisheries Ireland as soon as possible by telephoning 0818 34 74 24 or 096 22788. Inland Fisheries Ireland will arrange collection of Pacific pink salmon catches for further analysis and will also promptly issue replacement tags to anglers.
