Inland Fisheries Ireland is teaming up with Leave No Trace Ireland to launch a new checklist, highlighting the ten things that every angler should consider when planning a fishing trip.
According to a recent survey, around 327,000 people in Ireland love to fish; anglers are our important stewards over lakes, rivers and coastlines, helping to safeguard our precious fisheries resource for future generations to enjoy.
The key message from Leave No Trace Ireland and Inland Fisheries Ireland this year is “The Outdoors Is Yours – Protect It.”
The new checklist includes advice for both novice and advanced anglers, such as don’t forget to wear a personal floatation device, move carefully around sensitive habitats to avoid disturbing wildlife and clean equipment and clothing after a trip to stop the spread of invasive species.
Earlier this year, Inland Fisheries Ireland and Leave No Trace Ireland launched a comprehensive guide for responsible outdoor recreation for anglers to advise them on how they can minimise the impact their fishing trip can have on the environment.
It includes the 7 principles of Leave No Trace Ireland. The guide is available here and on the Leave No Trace Ireland website here.
Frank Maunsell reports from the Owenmore Fishery in Kerry where conditions were perfect this week for the lucky anglers who fished:
We had some terrific fishing over the last few days. Sunday we had 6 grisle and a salmon on the bank and everybody met seatrout. Monday we had 4 grisle landed and some very good seatrout. One man had three more fish on Wednesday. Everybody that was on the river for the last few days had fish. There is rain due again on Thursday which should keep the river in good order.
Make a booking
There are approximately five miles of fly fishing along the main part of the Owenmore River in Kerry, with 33 named pools and an additional 180 acres of lake fishing in this Kerry beauty spot. The salmon, grilse and sea trout begin to run in April. The runs continue through spring and summer into early October.
Brian Bohan reports from Lough Rynn where the four day festival goes from strength to strength:
What a great bunch of men and women who competed at the 5th anniversary of the Lough Rynn Angling Club’s August bank holiday weekend festival. There was great club spirit shown in making sure everybody – young and old – got all their gear to the pegs while maintaining Covid 19 protocols.
On day one the weights were outstanding from the off, with seven anglers tipping the scales to over 20kg and another ten weights over 10kg, giving a lot of anglers a great start to the 4 day event.
Day 2 would tell the tale of how the rotation could benefit anglers and so it proved with the fancied pegs throwing up some good weights again.
Day 3 saw things getting tight at the top and peg average weights starting to drop back slightly.
The pressure was on 5 anglers to keep fish coming to the net on day 4 as things were very tight at the top.
Full results of how the weekend panned out below
The club would like to thank all who helped out over the weekend, including:
Lough Rynn house and gardens for allowing Lough Rynn Angling Club the use of their private grounds
Homeland stores, Mohill, for providing prebait
Tractor drivers Gerry Bohan and Darren Duignan
Martin Allington for helping to get tackle to pegs and clearing the way
Landowners for the use of their lands
Roisin Bohan & Lorraine Murphy for doing the results
Sprit Bar (Mohill) for presentation and the massive spread of sandwiches, sausages and chips.
Top 6 were:
Tony Green 68.430kg
Charlie Richards 67.160kg
Tony Hopkins 64.270kg
James O’Doherty 60.370kg
Colin Moss 52.550kg
Julian Kendrick 47.150kg
Just over 1000 kg of fish were caught weighed and released over the 4 days
Inland Fisheries Ireland, the state agency responsible for the protection and conservation of freshwater fish and habitats, has confirmed the presence of pike in Aughrusbeg Lough, Co. Galway. The confirmation was made during a fish stock survey by Inland Fisheries Ireland research staff earlier this week and is the first official record of pike being present in the lake.
Inland Fisheries Ireland is investigating if the pike was ‘introduced’ to the lake through human activity, by the illegal movement of fish between watercourses.
The introduction of pike to small low-complexity lakes, such as Aughrusbeg Lough, could be devastating to resident fish populations. New introductions are also potentially a carrier of fish disease and parasites, the state agency has said.
To help assess the scale of the problem, Inland Fisheries Ireland researchers are currently analysing samples from the latest fish stock survey to establish the age and distribution of the pike population discovered in the lake.
In the mean-time, Inland Fisheries Ireland is appealing to all anglers to protect Ireland’s fisheries by not moving fish between watercourses, for any reason. To report suspicions around the illegal movement of fish between watercourses, anglers and members of the public are encouraged to call Inland Fisheries Ireland’s confidential hotline number on 0818 34 74 24, which is open 24 hours a day.
As water temperatures have sufficiently reduced in recent days, Inland Fisheries Ireland has lifted its July 2021 angling advisory around the use of keep nets.
However, fish that show any signs of stress (caused by environmental factors such as high-water temperatures or low water levels) should be released and no fish should be unnecessarily retained in keep nets.
When warmer weather returns, anglers are asked to be aware of potential water temperature issues when fishing for salmon or trout.
Anglers are also asked to be particularly careful if handling fish and not to remove the protective mucus on its body, as fish can become sick if their protective mucus layer is damaged.
For more guidance around correctly handling fish, please see below.
Inland Fisheries Ireland wishes to thank all anglers and angling clubs, associations and federations for their support of the July 2021 angling advisory.
So, as we approached the end of July, the blisteringly hot weather we had all been baking under gave way to more unsettled weather, and, as often happens after a period of warm humidity, the country was hit by a barrage of thunderstorms over the past week. It was unusual weather, as a 10-minute drive could take you from pelting rain and low visibility to bright clear skies with not a drop of rain in sight.
Something in all that turbulence must have switched things on for our saltwater species as we have been hit with a barrage of sea angling reports this week, with no fewer than fourteen reports indicating that sea angling has been exceptional in many places. And, exceptional is the only word to describe the fishing John Fleming of Blue Shark Angling had during the week as his clients enjoyed some top quality shark fishing. On one day alone, anglers fishing with John boated 12 porbeagles and two blue shark, smashing his previous best of 6 porbeagles in a day. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Galway Bay, Kevin MacGabhann on the Maighdean Mara had some fine mixed fishing with pollock, cod and spurs all featuring.
A Porbeagle is brought alongside the Brazen Hussy II
It seems Galway wasn’t the only place where shark were active in the past week, with many charter boats reporting good fishing for them. In Courtmacsherry, Dave Edwards of West Cork Charters was also knocking records as his anglers broke the season’s best with 50 blue shark (4 to specimen size) in an epic 24-hour session on the wrecks that also included 4 ling to specimen size. Meanwhile, further west along the coast in Union Hall, Tom Collins of Sea Angling Charters took a novel approach to his sharking as he embarked on a nighttime session that yielded 11 blues and a porbeagle. In Clare, Luke Aston of the Clare Dragoon was left cursing the weatherman who predicted a breeze but left his boat in a flat calm and a pool of rubby-dubby, but he still managed to rustle up a shark or two for his anglers. On the east coast, Kit Dunne of Wicklow Boat Charters noticed a marked pick up in angling as the strong spring tides abated, and his anglers enjoyed fine ground and wreck fishing, including pollock to 10lbs. Up in Killala Bay, anglers fishing with skipper Donal Kennedy enjoyed some good fishing for pollock to 8lb and painted ray to almost specimen size, while nearby in the Moy estuary, anglers enjoyed some nice sea trout fishing with fish to almost 3lb. On the small boat front, Jim Clohessy hit into some nice pollock and cod in Cork Harbour, but struggled to catch his primary target…mackerel for the family lunch! And, speaking of mackerel for lunch, Malahide Charters skipper Eamon McGrattan has posted an interesting video on how to prepare a bit of BBQ mackerel and, for the more adventurous, some mackerel sashimi.
Delighted with this one!
Shore anglers were pretty active too this week, and the spring tides that hampered fishing on the east coast proved to be just what the bass were looking for on the south coast. Cormac Walsh of Bassfishingireland found that the big tides brought bass in close following sandeels and he had some great sport, with bass to over 6lb. Further north, Killybegs Mariners member Cormac Burke had a fine sea trout that leapt about a bit before it was landed and then quickly released, setting a new club record in the process. Things were a lot slower when West Cork & District Anglers had an outing to ‘De Wall’ in Monkstown. The anglers struggled to catch many fish from a venue that had fished quite well in the week running up to the event. But, as they reflected, that’s fishing…
A fine shore caught sea trout for Cormac.
And last but definitely not least on the sea angling front, the Irish tuna season kicked off last week with Adrian Molloy of Deep Blue landing the first bluefin of the season, a lovely fish estimated at 700lb. Other skippers in the area were quick to follow suit, with Michael O’Callaghan getting three fish the following day and Killibegs Fishing Trips getting a 630lbs fish for American angling journalist Anietra Hamper. All tuna caught were tagged and released as part of IFI’s Tuna CHART programme.
First bluefin of the year
The impressive catches registered by the sea anglers were certainly matched in quality, if not quite quantity, by a couple of our coarse fishing anglers last week. First to get a mention is junior angler Kyerin Hunters, who managed to land a whopping 8lb 1.5 oz tench which is just 13.5 ounces shy of the Irish record while fishing with his dad in Cavan. I’ve been tench fishing for years and have never managed a fish even close to that! And while Kyerin is just starting out on his angling journey, someone a bit further into his own angling journey was making ripples in the Irish angling world by catching a monster bream. Brenton Sweeney, the Irish Feeder Team manager, topped off a fine feeder session by catching an enormous bream of 11 lbs 11oz, just 8 ounces shy of the Irish record of 12 lbs 3oz. On the match scene, we have a report in from the Classic, fished in Shannon Harbour over the long weekend, where anglers from Edenderry made a clean sweep of the top three places.
Two cracking coarse fish for Kyerin & Brenton
Salmon anglers had more of a mixed bag last week, with some fisheries producing but others struggling to do so. The Moy had a good sprinkling of fish throughout the system, with East Mayo Anglers water being the most productive. The rain during the week got things going on the River Easkey as the fish responded to the influx of fresh water, and 8 fish were landed with a group of French anglers getting some good sport. Lough Currane fared more poorly with no fish reported for the week as the lake remained quite warm after the recent hot spell and could do with a lot more rain to freshen things up.
Water temperatures did drop sufficiently on the River Nore last week, and Dan O’Neill was back on the river after a couple of week’s break to find the fishing in good order. Fishing dry-dropper or Klink’n’dink, Dan was delighted to see his Klink disappear under the surface and to find himself connected to a nice plump trout which was released after a quick photo.
A Nore trout swims off after release.
So, to this week’s Catch of the Week. It’s often said that you could be waiting an hour for a Dublin Bus, and then three come along all at once… well, it’s a bit like that for this week’s COTW. There are numerous weeks during the year where we find it difficult to find a catch worthy of winning COTW, but we could have given it out to at least five of our catches this week. 12 porbeagles to the boat in a day in Galway, 50 blues in 24hrs in Cork, the first bluefin of the season in Donegal could all win COTW in any regular week. But, it’s the coarse anglers who have come to the fore this week with a couple of fish not far off Irish Record status. Now, normally when we have two remarkable fish like that, we get out our calculators to work out which one is nearest to record status. However, we decided to forgo the complex calculations this week and just celebrate the fact that Kyerin’s tench and Brenton’s bream show that coarse angling in Ireland is alive and kicking, so both are equally worthy of this week’s Catch of the Week.
Heavy, thundery showers will continue today with a risk of spot flooding in places, and this weather pattern will persist for the rest of the weekend. Monday will see an easing off of the rain as showers become more scattered, but it will remain unsettled during the week, with temperatures ranging from 16°C to 20°C.
On the 30th of July a party of anglers from Northern Ireland set out from Killala Harbour for a days fishing out in the bay on board LEAH. The weather was dull with North West winds moderate at first and to get fresher. Plenty of mackerel were landed and the skipper then drifted over some rocky ground with some nice pollock up to 8lbs being caught along with pouting and cuckoo wrasse.
The winds freshened and the skipper went for shelter and spent the rest of the day drifting over sand. Several drifts produced nice rays, among them were thornbacks and blondes. Plenty of lesser spotted dogs were also caught. The best of the catch was a lovely painted ray just shy of the Irish specimen weight. All the rays were returned alive to the water.
Go fishing…
Vessel: Leah – 36′ Ocean Tramp. 180 HP Turbo Ford Skipper: Donal Kennedy Licence: 1006 Base: Enniscrone Operational area: P5.
From Enniscrone and Killala within a 30 mile radius.
Notes: Reef, shark wreck and general deep sea fishing.
A cool week with temperatures only averaging out at 15°C, down almost 15°C on the previous week with some heavy thunder showers throughout the week. Water levels remained very low at 0.193 m on Monday, peaking at 0.415 m midweek and levelling out to 0.287m on Sunday at Ballylahan bridge. Not as many anglers ventured out because of low water levels and water temperatures remained slightly elevated. Some pink salmon were recorded caught this week also all over the River Moy. A total of 264 salmon were recorded from the Moy catchment for the week, with a reasonable percentage released again.
RIVER MOY
The Moy Fishery reported 30 salmon caught on the Ridge Pool for the week along with another 8 salmon caught on the Cathedral Beat. All fish were caught on the fly and overall, 7 fish were released.
Ballina Salmon Anglers reported 6 grilse caught for the week.
Mount Falcon Fishery produced 23 grilse all on bubble and fly.
Attymass Anglers reported 2 grilse for the week.
Knockmore Salmon Anglers had 7 grilse for the week.
Coolcronan Fishery produced 14 salmon for the week.
Byrne’s Fishery had 1 grilse for the week.
Armstrong’s Fishery reported 9 grilse for the week, all caught on bubble and fly.
Gannon’s Fishery produced 7 grilse for the week, all caught on bubble and fly.
Granville from Foxford Fishery reported 32 grilse, all caught on the bubble and fly.
Foxford Salmon Anglers reported 20 grilse for the week with a sizeable percentage released. It is reported that at least 4 grilse were caught on the Foxford town section.
Reports from the Cloongee Fishery reveal that 44 grilse were caught for the week all on bubble and fly with 18 released.
East Mayo Anglers produced 53 grilse for the week with 45 released. Most fish were caught on the fly.
MOY ESTUARY
Sea trout fishing has been hit and miss in the last 2 weeks. Reports reveal there are a lot of sea trout in the estuary with some good quality fish caught with the best trout reported for near 3 lbs caught on a mackerel strip. Judd Ruane offers sea trout fishing trips on the Moy Estuary, and he can be contacted on 087 6736969 or 096 22183.
Domhnall Ryan from Ballina with a 2.5 lbs trout caught on the Moy estuary
Simon Leonard, Ballina, and friends fished the estuary at the weekend with Simon having 2 good trout, the best weighing just over 2 lbs caught on sand eel and Domhnall Ryan, Ballina with a trout for 2.5 lbs, also caught on sand eel.
Reports from Lough Conn inform that 4 salmon were caught trolling spoons.
Luke Aston of Carrigaholt Sea Angling has had a productive few days fishing off the Clare coast:
Tuesday was a beautiful day on the sea!
Sunshine and almost flat calm. A very slow drift on the reefs meant the fishing was slow and steady. Lots of fish hitting the baits but harder to get a hook up. But some fine pollack, coalfish, ling and whiting about.
We moved for the second half of the day after some spurdogs and got into some great fishing. Plenty double figure fish with the best at 17lbs.
On Wednesday we had plenty of mackerel at the Loop this morning and a short wrasse drift. Then on out to the shark grounds where we had a porbeagle as we put the gear out. Then despite a forecast for a slight breeze that would freshen, we sat with our slick spreading out round us and no drift! Lots of whiting from the bottom though and with a slight breeze for the last hour we had another porbeagle and a blue shark to finish the day.
Go Fishing…
Clare Dragoon
LOCHIN 366, 650HP. Skipper: Luke Aston Licence: 1110 Base: Carrigaholt Operational Area: 30 miles from base.
Authorised blue fin tuna boat 2020
Notes: With Luke’s knowledge of the ground he can bring you to places that most skippers only dream about. Places that have never been fished with rod and line until now! Here you can catch large skate over 200 pounds in 100 meters of water! Spots of sand where a large selection of flat fish lurk, including Turbot, Brill and Large Place. Rock peaks with the chance of catching that Big Cod, Pollock or Ling to make this a fishing trip that you will always remember.
A full house for the boys yesterday well done lads first ‘beagles for ye.
Five anglers five fish, not bad going! Dropped another and lost the first fish of the day – pulled the hook after an hour of a fight.
Sunday:
Yesterday saw the boys from Ringsend have a bash at the ‘beagles, all the boys organised by David Quirke were buzzing. Got on the drift and had a double hook up after about a half hour, that was 2 down, and a couple of nice fish too. We weren’t long waiting when Dave was into his first of 2 beagles for the day. He also got a nice blue, great craic with the lads with 5 beagles and a blue to the boat – now that is a good day’s shark fishing by any standards!!
Monday:
What an insane day!
David Quirke organised a different group from the previous day, mostly regulars of mine – Tommy McGee, Conor Lowry, Joey and Robert Walpole – and somehow I’d say they were very happy to have gotten the invite!
What happened was insane. We stopped for mackerel and coalies on a mark and didn’t take long before we had enough and we were up and running for the shark grounds.
Once we were setup we weren’t waiting long before we were in a ‘beagle. To be honest I can’t remember the rotation the fish came in, what I do know is we had several double hook ups and loads of carnage and running about. The dubby bucket was in and out more bloody times and I’ve developed a bad shoulder from it!
Anyhow starting with Mr. Quirke (aka Mr. lucky red balloon): 6 beagles to the boat… such effort he put in and it paid off.
Joey Brady, 2 beagles and one blue
Conor Lowry 1 beagle
Tommy McGee 2 beagles 1 blue
Robert Walpole 1 beagle
That was a total of 12 porbeagles and 2 blues on a day I will never forget.
Our previous boat record was 6 beagles, we can certainly consider that absolutely SMASHED to pieces and that will take some bloody beating.
Lads as always thanks for a great day, the craic never stops on the Hussy even when the fishing is poor but that was some buzz.
Thanks for the help on the deck, that amount on my own wouldn’t be easy.
Back to general trips now for a few days rest!!
Go Fishing…
Brazen Hussy ll
Skipper: John Fleming Licence:1011 (11 passengers and 1 crew) Base: Rosaveal, Spiddal, Galway (Depending on species) Operational area: Rosaveal, Spiddal and Galway up to
20 miles to sea
Authorised bluefin tuna boat
Notes: A regular day is between 9am- 6pm from either
Rosaveel, Spiddal or Galway depending on species being sought after. Fishing
on the inshore reefs for pollock, cod, ling, wrasse, conger eel and mackerel
can be reached in 10 minutes from departure, while our offshore reef marks
are within 45 minutes of departure. Our ground fishing for tope, spurdog,
ray, bullhuss, turbot, plaice and the giant common skate can all be reached
within the hour which ensures the most amount of time is spent fishing.
The shark season usually starts at the end of June and runs into late
October, this is the ultimate angling addrenaline rush with these hard
fighting blue and porbeagle sharks all being tagged and release safely.
Package deals available
