Ilen river – 14 salmon, best 11lbs by a club angler.
Go fishing…
The River Ilen is a medium size spate river that fishes best on a dropping flood for both salmon and sea trout. Spinning, worm and fly fishing are the methods used and allowed on club water.
The river is beautiful and a joy to fish, pools along club waters are easily accessible with seats, steps and stiles put in place for the anglers comfort. With selective tree pruning done along the river in recent years fly fishing has become a more available option especially on the lower river with numerous pools opened up to suit fly fishermen, night time fly fishing for sea trout is a pleasure with great stocks of trout entering the river from April.
There were very few anglers on the river. The grilse run has started to hit the West of Ireland rivers and some of the Kerry rivers so their arrival into the Bandon is expected this week.
Unfortunately, the river water level dropped right back last week and coupled with bright weather weren’t good conditions for salmon fishing.
There is some rain due also at the weekend so we live in hope.
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/
Kilcoleman Fishery, Enniskeane, is renowned for its hospitality. The owners David and Patricia Lamb make a particular effort to make their guests feel at home. Past visitors have described the atmosphere as ‘laid back’ and the accommodations as ‘cosy’. Kilcoleman is “fly only” throughout the entire season. However, in certain water conditions, spinning is permitted for salmon. Trout angling is “fly only” at all times. web:http://flyfishing-ireland.com
A few salmon moving beyond the Kingsley Weir with some fresh fish being caught below it. There were approximately 9 salmon reported for the last week. The best of these was a 6 lbs fish caught on shrimp.
Water levels on the River Lee below summer low.
Go fishing…
The River Lee drains a catchment of 484 square miles of which much is taken up by two large reservoirs. Salmon Angling is confined to an 8 mile stretch from Inniscarra dam to Cork city.
Lee Salmon Anglers Club
The Lee Salmon Anglers club was established in 1967. It was formed by a group of anglers interested in protecting and promoting the sport of salmon and trout angling on the river Lee. Day tickets available: http://www.leesalmonanglers.ie/
Inniscarra Fishery
This salmon fishery is located between Cork City and the dam at Inniscarra (9 miles). The fishery is run by the ESB (Electricity Supply Board) and an ESB permit is required. There is a fair run of fish with a very good grilse run dependent on water. Permits can be purchased on site from Dan O’Riordan, ESB Inniscarra; 087-9983879.
23/6/21 Four boats out and their lines were slack. On the weather front there was bright sunshine for most of the day, wind WNW light to fresh.
Sea trout on Currane with sea lice
24/6/21 Straight to the department of come on you Currane anglers and all game anglers of Ireland, England, and all Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers from all over the World. When you fish and catch the poor Sea Trout smothered with Lice let the photo do the talking. As you can see by this photo sent to me, it tells of the sad position Currane is in. Now we head for today’s catches, in total there were 5 Grilse caught on the troll and for one promising fly angler while on the drift caught 6 Sea Trout and I believe the biggest was in the 3 lbs class. The Lice infested Sea Trout was about two lbs. Wind West light and overcast all day.
25/6/21 Today was Ladies Day on Lough Currane, Young Currane Angler Miss Molly O’Dwyer broke up from School at 12 pm as their summer holidays began in style by booking her Dad Michael Local Currane Angler for an afternoon’s fishing, come 2.30 pm Molly caught her first Salmon on the troll and the party began as you can see by the picture as Molly holds up her fine Salmon in celebration with her sister Amy. So, congratulations to Molly on her first Salmon and may it be the first of many and its double congratulations because Molly’s Salmon is fish of the month. Wind light North and variable with reasonable cloud cover at times.
26/6/21 Few Boats out this day with a few nice Sea Trout caught on the drift and by all accounts the Wild Atlantic Salmon were all quiet on all methods of trying to get a rod bender. Wind NE light, bright and sunny all day. Just for the record there were a few nice Grilse caught in the beginning of the week.
27/6/21 Another Ladies day on Lough Currane as the young O’Dwyer Sisters and Currane Anglers were in good form again in the trolling department and today’s Star is Miss Amy O’Dwyer who caught a fine 3 ½ lbs, Grilse, while fishing with her Dad and her sister Molly and as you can see by the photo there are two Gillie’s in the making and that’s no harm because we older Game fishing Anglers should remember anglers like Amy and Molly are tomorrow’s anglers. Wind NE fresh, bright and sunny all day.
28/6/21 All quiet on all fronts on the day shift, come evening it was brought to my notice that there was at least one boat heading out for an evening session and as of yet the text department is all quiet, so watch this space. Wind NNE light and variable and very warm with the sun blazing down all day.
29/6/21 Lough was like blazing saddles, but fair play a few anglers did go out this hot and calm day, on the evening shift all quiet. Going back to yesterday on the evening shift, their text said all quiet. Today’s weather as all ready stated. Wind N light but on the cold side this evening.
30/6/21 All quiet on the day shift which is not surprising with a light breeze from the SW and bright sunshine all day and that sums up the day shift on the night shift watch this space.
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
Our members were back on the bank again last weekend for a 30hr session. We split the competition into two, on Sat we fished from 12 noon to 12 midnight for the Milltown cup. On Sunday we fished from 12 midnight to 4pm. Fishing was tough with water levels down but still in total we had had 96 fish caught and released. As usual, we had some great craic and banter. At midnight score cards and photos were sent in and tallys were added for day one.
Most lads went to sleep for a few hours and were back up first light, as weather forecast was for a hot day so the early bird catches the worm and all that lol. I would like to thank all the members who made the trip and who are there every month to support our club it’s great to see. To show our appreciation this month the committee decided to pay out 2 extra cash prizes each competition for 2nd and 3rd heaviest fish.
A huge thank you to Stephen O Driscoll of Ever ready group building and asbestos roofing for sponsoring a blind pairs competition over the 2 days with some fantastic prizes. Two members sign-in numbers are pulled at a time and they were a team. Then both members weights are combined and added. The top 3 heaviest team weights would be the winners over the weekend. Results will be below for that so full results are as follows
Day 1 Milltown cup
1st Dave Murphy 5.13 hf 32.08 bag
2nd Eugene Mc Cabe 4.5 hf 25.10 bag
3rd Ray Collopy 4.3 hf 24.12 bag
4th Dan O Reilly 5.3 2nd heaviest fish
5th Gary Moore 5.3 3rd heaviest fish
Day 2 saw us fish for the Gingerstown cup / pat Driscoll cup and full results are as follows
1st David Quinlavin 8.10hf 20.04 bag
2nd Ray Collopy 3.8 hf 14.3 bag
3rd Kevin Foley 3.3 hf 10.04 bag
4th Dave Murphy 7.1 2nd heaviest fish
5th Eugene Mc Cabe 6.7 3rd heaviest fish
Raffle voucher winners over the weekend are as follows
Alan mc Evoy
Paul Gosson
Darren Dunne
David Delaney
Joe Beacom
Blind pair winners are as follows
1st place Dave Murphy and Terry Mc Sweeny
Total weights over the weekend 45.09
2nd Ray Collopy and Brendan Jervis
Total weights over the weekend 38.15
3rd Eugene Mc Cabe and Ian Murphy
Total bag weights over the weekend 34.12
The weekend saw an end to our 3rd quarter of mini leauge and it was very close again by ounces
1st Dan O Reilly 19.09
2nd Carl O Reilly 19.05
3rd Eugene Mc Cabe 19.05
Carl and Eugene will spilt the pot for joint 2nd
Again thanks to all the members who made the trip and for your continuing support
South Shore SAC report on the recent Jimmy Smith Open Competition held at Morriscastle beach:
Entries were good leading up to the Jimmy Smith competition, but as always we had some non-runners and this was to be expected. However, more than eighty anglers thronged Morriscastle beach on a blustery but dry evening. South Shore would like to thank all those who attended for their support in these trying times.
Expectations were high given the conditions with plenty of coloured water close inshore. The talk in the car park was about Dogs (LSDs) and were they going to show.
Traces that were baited and flung skywards at kick-off in search of dogs were greeted with Arachnocrustacean (Spider Crabs), while the clever anglers opted to cast into the gully for the flats lads (Flounder). This seemed to be the option for a lot of anglers as the Spider Crabs seldom venture across the bank for fear of been trapped. The flat lads (Flounder) love moving up and down the gully picking off bits of food washed off the bank. Most anglers who opted for distance on their first cast had their snoods bitten off by our crawly friends the Spider Crabs. In recent years we seem to be getting an invasion of these aliens, maybe it’s global warming, but who knows?
We had four Zones pegged from the gap at Morriscastle right up to Ballinoulart and it was an impressive sight to see so many anglers along the beach. Some Zones fished better than others with good bags in most Zones. The gap at Morriscastle lived up to its reputation as a hot spot with anglers getting good bags of flounders. Those brave enough to stay outside the bank at distance were rewarded with dogs and Smoothounds, although the snoods on their traces suffered from the pesky spiders.
Praise must go To Paul Whelan for his outstanding performance on winning the Jimmy Smith. Paul had 17 fish with a good few dogs (LSDs) and a cracking Smoothound of 91cm.
Well done to Cathal O’Reilly on winning the Maurice Dalton Trophy, Cathal was in impressive form catching 9 fish to beat off his competitors.
We had some women anglers fishing and congratulations to Liz Mc Mahon on winning the ladies trophy.
Well done to Zone winners, Aidan O’Haloran, Paul Whelan, Jake Melly and Thomas Mahon, great fishing lads.
A lot of hard work went into running this competition by the South Shore committee, endless hours of phone calls printing and securing sponsorship. We had some controversy over size limits and the like, but in the end, it really didn’t matter. What mattered was that we were meeting old friends and doing what we enjoy doing best and that’s fishing.
I would like to thank our sponsor Swords Angling, Ruairi Coleman for his generosity for donating so many prizes, much appreciated. It is up to us anglers to support our sponsor. Swords Angling has a comprehensive amount of tackle for the match angler and does some great bait. Also, check out his website for good deals.
It was reported on Facebook that the beach was walked the following morning and not a bit of rubbish was found, credit to all anglers, well done.
Special thanks must go to Peter Flahive who not only conducted the check-in but also got the results out very fast, well done peter.
Kit Dunne of Wicklow Boat Charters reports that specimen sized fish are still being caught on the east coast. Unusually, it’s actually specimen Tope that are more common at the moment with the large Hounds being scarcer than usual for this time of year. But that didn’t seem to put off this group of regular specimen hunters who managed to bag a few good Hounds during the week.
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.
With the summer well in, the evening rise is starting to come on strong. Dry fly is now my method of choice and fishing is til dark, resulting in frowns when I arrive home at 12am. The fishing on the Nore this season has been fun and trout have been quite abundant. The water heights stayed above normal further into the season much fo the delight of the salmon anglers.
A brown trout ready for the net
I like to stalk along by the trees watching for feeding fish in the shallow flat water. There is something special about watching a fish, then making that perfect cast. The cherry on the cake is watching the fish come up to sip your offering, then you tighten the leader and all hell breaks loose. Even though the process takes a couple of seconds as anglers we see it in slow motion and that stays with us and causes the addiction.
A nice trout goes back to the river
A CDC Olive proved to be successful most evenings along with an Iron Blue Dunn. Dry dropping was also quite successful, nymph patterns varied from Olives and Iron blues to Olive with a light Cahill collar.
Once I catch a few trout on a pattern I tend to keep going with different creations then try to link conditions with a particular pattern and bead colour. I want see is a pattern is starting to show. When you look into some of the factors it goes way beyond your wildest thoughts.
Not a huge trout but still a plump ball of butter
Trout are now quite fat and showing great condition. The water levels are low so temperatures are higher. Sedges are beginning to show a lot more, often in their little groups.
Let’s hope the last week of fishing on the Nore is only a taste of what’s to come…
Enjoy your fishing everyone!
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.
Benny Weltz with a nice fresh grilse.
Catch Photo Release
#CPRSavesFish
Donavin Brinklow reporrts on recent fishing from the Erriff, where low water has been the main factor in recent weeks.
Low Water
Its been a tough month so far with very little rain and sunny weather, but saying that there has been quite a lot of fish caught.
Levi Caffrey with a nice grilse. Catch Photo Release #CPRSavesFish
On the 16 June John Ryan landed an 8lbs wild salmon in the Middle Garden Pool on a golden double fly. James O’Neill also landed a 4.5lbs wild grilse in the Lower Garden Pool using a Cascade. On the 18 June Patrick Molloy landed 2 wild salmon, one in the Lower Garden Pool weighing 7lbs and another in the Middle Garden Pool weighing 4lbs, fishing a Cascade.
John Phelan landed a ranched salmon of 12.5lbs on the 21 June in the Falls Pool on a Stoats Tail, and two small sea trout. Albert Caffrey also landed 3 sea trout in the Garden Pool on Beat 9 on the 21 June. John Phelan landed 2 sea trout and a salmon of 10lbs on the 22 June on Beat 9 using a Cascade. On the 22 June Albert Caffrey landed 4 sea trout of 0.5-0.75lbs in the Garden Pool on Beat 9 ,and on the 23 June landed a 5lbs wild salmon on Beat 6 using a Willie Gunn.
Albert Caffrey releasing his fish on Beat 6 Catch Photo Release #CPRSavesFish
His son Levi Caffrey landed 3 sea trout from 0.75-1lb, and a 4.5lbs wild salmon on Beat 9 using a Cascade fly. On the 24 June Levi also landed 2 salmon on Beat 6 weighing 6lbs and 7lbs.
Levi Caffrey with one of his fish off Beat 6. Catch Photo Release #CPRSavesFish
Neill Boyle landed a 12lbs wild salmon off the Falls on Beat 9 using a Stoats Tail on the 25 June. Also on the 25th Lucy Leigh Livingstone landed a 6lbs wild fish in the Lower Garden Pool using a Black Shrimp fly, and Ken Livingstone landed a 6lbs wild salmon in the Falls Pool on a Cascade. George Dawson landed 2 wild salmon on Beat 5 weighing 5lbs and 5.5lbs. James Barton landed a small sea trout on Beat 6.
On the 27 June Jake Delany landed a 6lbs wild salmon in the Falls Pool on Beat 9 using a Stoats Tail. Benny Weltz landed 2 salmon between 3 and 5lbs in the Falls Pool on the same day on a Stoats Tail.
Benny Weltz with a nice fresh grilse. Catch Photo Release #CPRSavesFish
Go Fishing
The Erriff System is comprised of the Erriff River and the two small loughs of Tawnyard and Derrintin. The River Erriff is one of the premier salmon fishing rivers in Ireland. A spate river, it is characterised by lively streams and deep fish-holding pools. It has 8 miles of prime angling water, divided into 9 beats. Beats are un-crowded with only two rods on most and a maximum of 3 sometimes. Angling is rotated on a daily basis.
As is often the case in ‘summer’ in Ireland, this week it has been cool and breezy on one side of the country, yet warm and mild on the other. There is much debate about when the summer actually starts here; Gaelic summer traditionally starts on May 1st and meteorological summer begins on June 1st. If you still feel like the summer hasn’t come yet in whichever corner of the country you live in, don’t worry, summer in the northern hemisphere officially began on June 21st with the solstice, so there’s still time. Thankfully the weather Gods were already aware of this and the weather for the week ahead actually looks ‘summery’ all over the country, with dry and sunny weather everywhere.
The first proper rainfall for quite a while fell on the east coast on Thursday to mark this ‘third’ start of summer; not a moment too soon as St John’s Eve, on June 23rd, is traditionally when the grilse run multiplies into our rivers from the north Atlantic. Once they arrive in the north and west in numbers, they arrive everywhere else soon after. The Galway fishery is a good bellwhether for how things are progressing on the grilse front and from June 15th-22nd the number of fish caught was double that of the previous week, with 91 fish landed. Further west, the Costello and Fermoyle fishery has, like a number of other fisheries, seen a steady inflow of both salmon and sea trout since the start of June. In Mayo, the Moy saw over 300 fish caught, compared with 180 the previous week, with good numbers of sea trout reported in both the Moy estuary and on Carrowmore lake in Bangor Erris.
Keep them wet. The most important thing for successful catch-and-release is to keep the fish in the water
In the south west, the beautiful Owenmore fishery on the Dingle peninsula reported the first salmon of the year and sea trout numbers entering the river are on the rise, but over in Waterville, things are still slow on Currane. The Cork rivers are doing ok though, with good numbers of fish reported from the Ilen and the Blackwater, but with the spring run tapering off on the Bandon, the grilse are yet to arrive there.
This is the time of year that our trout anglers tend to ease off on the loughs, the mayfly hatch has all but ended and the fish are focusing on the big shoals of jelly babies (AKA perch fry) that dominate their menus. On Lough Conn there were still some small hatches of mayfly this week to tempt the trout up to the surface and dry fly fishing with mayfly and olive patterns caught some decent fish there.
It’s been fairly quiet on the pike fishing front, but the Leinster Pike Anglers did get out on the riverbank for their club competition; Mark Kiernan’s persistence paid off with 20 fish landed to win that one.
To the tide and we are finally starting to see some good bass fishing around the coast after a very slow start to the year. Conor Fitzmaurice of Galway had a trip to remember in Cork with uncle David Norman of West Cork Bass; Conor wins our Catch of the Week for any one of the fish he landed during his trip – great going Conor!
Orlaith Timmons from Tipperary and Aoibhé Kieran from Carlow have scooped the top prizes in this year’s ‘Something Fishing’ national poetry competition, which is organised by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) in conjunction with the Blackrock Education Centre, congratulations to them!
The World Recreational Fishing Conference takes place next Wednesday 28th and Friday 30th of June. This free event will be held online and will be of interest to angling clubs and federations, professional guides and angling service providers and, of course, any angler with an interest in the issues affecting recreational fishing in the 21st century.
And now the weather…
Scattered showers in the east and south early tonight but dry elsewhere, lows of 6°C to 10 °C. Saturday will be mainly dry with a mix of cloud and sunshine, some isolated afternoon showers in the east and south. Highs of 14°C to 18°C, northeasterly breezes. Dry overnight, lows of 7°C to 10°C, northerly breezes.
Largely dry on Sunday with cloud building up during the morning mixed with some sunshine, showers will likely develop later. Highs of 16°C to 21°C, cooler in the north with northerly breezes. Mainly dry overnight. Lows of 7°C to 11°C, northerly breezes.
Good sunny spells on Monday, some heavy showers in the southeast during the day. Highest temperatures of 17°C to 22 °C. A dry and sunny Tuesday, highest temperatures of 20°C to 24°C.
