Reports were received recently on sea angling in the Dublin and Wicklow areas during Dec 2020.
Boat and shore angling
Dublin Bay boat anglers caught good numbers of spurdogs averaging 0.5kg. Similarly, shore anglers caught spurdog pups on the North Wicklow beaches. This is heartening as these fish had virtually disappeared for years.
North Wicklow and Dublin
Fishing on the North Wicklow beaches, shore anglers caught beach flounders and some whiting. However, despite the difficult conditions, Arklow beach produced good numbers of species. These included dabs, some bearded rockling and an occasional flounder. At the same time, strap congers were being taken by anglers fishing along the piers in Dublin.
Fly-tier and angling guide George McGrath’s super Youtube channel Gundog and Fly pays host to a series of interviews with well know anglers. The series was cut short unfortunately by the lockdown, but George carried on creating content…
Episode 5 (ish). Very best nymphs for river trout
George’s notes: Check out my nymph box. I reveal my five very best nymph patterns for river trout. How to catch trout on nymphs.
George has a whole host of fly tying how to’s at his channel and he also ties flies to order. You can find out more or get in touch with George at his facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/george.mcgrath.5243
Chris O’Sullivan, The Inshore Angler, is back with top tips and handy hints. This time with he tells all about gaper clams. Don’t forget to subscribe to Chris’s channel and like the videos…
Chris’s notes: Hey everyone this is the latest video about gaper clams and how to bait up with them. As always this is the method I use and find it very successful when chasing bass and cod specially when crab is hard to come by in the winter months.
The Inshore Angler…
Find out more about Chris and the services he offers at The Inshore Angler
The salmon fishing season opened on a catch and release basis on the lower Liffey in January. For many years in the past, anglers on the Liffey produced the first salmon of the year. Even in years when it did not, the River Liffey at Islandbridge would have been the focus of anglers attention after the winter layoff. Throughout the years, the Liffey and Islandbridge have been a great meeting up point for anglers to honour the annual tradition of trying for the first salmon of the year.
All is quiet on New Years Day
However, this year was very different. Unfortunately there was no gathering of anglers for the New Year’s Day opening of the season. This was due to the reintroduction of level 5 restrictions in the fight against Covid 19.
Salmon fishing on the River Liffey Jan 2021
Suitable water conditions
As water levels began to drop in early January a couple of anglers were out trying their luck for the first salmon at Islandbridge. No fish had been caught and released at the time of writing. However, we look forward to bringing you further news on the River Liffey.
Times Past. On the River Liffey at Islandbridge on New Year’s Day 2014, were Dublin and District Salmon Anglers’ chairman Eugene McGrattan (left) and club member Paddy Murray
Back before Christmas and the lockdowns Marcin Kantor was out fishing some of his favourite venues, testing new lure and discovering the the excitement of catching pike pike on the fly…
Marcin’s notes: Fly fishing for pike is my latest fascination, hence naturally I had to try Float Tube pike fishing. I acquired a Savage Gear High Rider 170 Float Tube, taken my pike lure tackle and fly fishing gear and set off to try out the belly boat fishing and also try to catch my first big pike on the fly.
The day has started amazingly well with a fish over 1 meter hitting my Miuras Mouse lure on the second ever cast from the float tube. The colour of the Miuras Mouse that did the trick was once again the Spotted Bullhead.
From then on, with a bit more confidence I started using my fly tackle and managed to catch many pike with another near 1m pike and one more over the 100cm – All while fly fishing. It was a super cool session as pike fishing in Ireland can be really good at this time of year.
Kit Dunne of WICKLOW BOAT CHARTERS reviews 2020, anf reports that for angling it was better than expected…
Well it was a strange year to say the least, hindered by Covid we all tried to make the most of our days out, and that we did, max 6 onboard everyone fished hard when they got a break.
Our biggest result was a new Specimen on the boat with our first really big Pollack. With the introduction of Wreck fishing out of Wicklow we claimed 3 Specimen Pollock.
Tope fishing was excellent with more than 250 recorded, and about 15 Specimen fish caught.
Smooth-Hounds were very prolific with nearly 1000 caught, and 67+ Specimens recorded, plus numerous un-recorded.
Spurdog Specimen numbers increased again this year with 41 recorded and the best winter Months weren’t even fished. Numbers of smaller fish increased massively.
Shark Fishing improved again, we landed an average of 3 sharks per trip, with 2 Specimen weight Blue Sharks caught, 100lb+, and 2 length-based claims made at 1.9+ Metre long.
Trip numbers were down due to Covid restrictions but when we got out we got fish.
Catch Summary 2020
Jan, Feb & March were all affected by Covid in many ways, trips were minimal however we managed a few Spurdog, Huss and Tope. Jan produced our best day of the year on Spurdogs, with 70 fish caught, 14 being of Irish Specimen size. A total of 33 Specimen Spur were recorded in Jan, while Feb and March brought another 20 with 5 Specimen. BullHuss were plentiful and a few Tope for good measure.
April& May we were shut down completely due to Covid so nothing to report.
June opened up angling on the 9th and we saw settled weather and many trips. Tope, Huss, Hound and Ray numbers were exceptional. Black Bream, Tope and Specimen Smooth-Hounds came in as expected. 47 Specimen Hounds were recorded in June while most groups fished crab, Black Bream, Codling, Conger and Ling came off the inshore marks. Species were steady inshore with the Bream, Pollock, Ballan, Tub, Pouting, Poor-cod, and Codling in numbers. While the majority targeted the Hounds we set out for Tope a few days, recording 75 Tope in June with 7 Specimen size fish, I’ll say it again Tope are plentiful in June but we focus on Hounds.
Smoothhound
July saw continued numbers of Tope, Smooth-Hound, BullHuss, Thornback and Homelyn Ray. We had another 18 Irish Specimen Hounds plus a few Tope while we just couldn’t nail the Specimen Black Bream, Huss, or Ray. Wind didn’t favour our planned Wreck trips so they rolled into August. Grey Gurnard were common out deep and Tub Gurnard numbers increased inshore.
Pollack and cod
August seen the Tope, Huss and Hound catches continue while our Shark season began, we boated 29 Shark and 1 Specimen Blue at 100lb in August. Our Wreck fishing began out of Wicklow with just 1 trip, we managed plenty of Pollock to 14lb and Cod to 7lb, this was more than we wished for and was topped off with a Specimen Pollock for Clubmate Jerry Dixon. This day was one of my most memorable, meeting an old friend, Gethyn Owen, from Wales in the middle of the Irish Sea while starting our new wreck ventures.
Inshore fishing was good with the usual fish plus a few Dab, Whiting, Plaice and even a Red Mullet.
Blue shark
September saw more restrictions due to Covid so trip numbers were down. Tope, Huss, and Hounds still showed at Wicklow, while the Blue & Porbeagle sharks continued off Kilmore. We had more Specimen Blue Shark and Tope while the Wicklow wrecks produced another 2 Specimen Pollock. The wreck fishing was exceptional in September with plenty of Pollock between 3lb and 14lb and a few Pouting to nearly 3lb plus the odd Cod and Coaly. No doubt these wrecks will fish well through out winter, we just need the weather and no more Covid restrictions.
No fins but very welcome aboard!
October& November brought tighter restrictions due to Covid so trips were very limited, the few dates we got out were locals only or a personal trip for Myself. The weather didn’t play ball, but we got a small number of days out which produced big numbers of Spurdog with a few BullHuss. 3 Specimen Spurdog were recorded, including 2 for myself. Inshore produced a few big Tope with 1 Specimen recorded.
All in all it wasn’t a bad year considering everything, but we still strive for more, in 2021 we hope to do much more wreck fishing, and get more Wreck specimens, the signs are good for our first Specimen Pouting and we plan to target our first Irish Sea Porbeagle.
BIG thanks to all our customers for their support during 2020. Unfortunately, I cancelled our Awards Night and we won’t meet at the Angling Show or the Specimen Fish Awards. Roll on the Spring & an end to Covid, Stay safe and we’ll meet soon.
Happy New Year to you all and let’s hope that 2021 brings better fortune than 2020, a year which most of us would prefer to forget but will likely live long in our memories… The beginning of the new year has been a cold one, both in terms of weather and the general mood of the country, as we face into the reality of the third wave of Covid-19. Indeed, it seems the daily decline in temperatures since the start of the year has been in eerie sync with the rise in numbers of positive cases and we can only hope that the latest Level 5 restrictions start to impact those numbers in the coming days.
With the above in mind, it should be no surprise that this will be a short update, as angling has been curtailed by the current restrictions. We are echoing the government advice and urging everyone to stay at home for the foreseeable future and to only venture outside for essential purposes. IFI have published Guidance for Anglers during the current Level 5 restrictions with information and links to the relevant government websites regarding essential working, travel restrictions etc.
After what was, by many accounts, a bumper year for salmon on many of our fisheries in 2020, last week brought the opening of a new salmon season with the welcome news that 83 rivers will be open to fishing in 2021. The list of Open/Closed/C&R rivers is always hotly anticipated, and in some good news, we can be encouraged by reports in from fisheries staff around the country that salmon spawning activity has been frenetic over the Christmas period. With a bit of luck, 2020’s bumper run will have a knock-on effect over the coming years and let’s hope we see a continued improvement in 2021. Anglers looking to buy a licence for 2021 can do so here.
Over the recent lockdowns, we have been lucky enough to have a number of anglers sharing their knowledge with us via social media. It seems most of them took a well-deserved break over Christmas but we are happy to see that things are starting to move on that front again and this Saturday sees the resumption of Peter Driver’s live fly tying sessions. This week he is focusing on the Wet Fly and anybody who has an interest in fly fishing or fly tying will be sure to learn something if they tune in.
Unfortunately, that’s about it for this week’s update and with little prospect of angling news in the foreseeable, there might be a few more fallow weeks to follow. However, we’ll do our best to find some interesting bits and pieces to post here to keep you ticking over until you can get out on the banks again. So, the priority for us all in the coming weeks is to stay indoors as much as possible and stay safe.
And now the weather…
It will remain mostly dry today with winter sunshine giving way to the odd shower but it will remain cold with frost barely lifting and setting in quickly again during the evening. It will be extremely cold overnight with temperatures dropping as low as -7 in some places.
The weekend will bring similar cold but bright days, remaining mostly dry with the odd wintry shower. Temperatures will slowly rise as the weekend progresses and more persistent rain will arrive on Monday with some quite heavy rain expected in some places on Tuesday with the possibility of spot flooding in places.
Armchair anglers will no doubt to be delighted that Peter Driver is back at the tying bench this Saturday:
WERE BACK…Wet Fly Session…Live Fly Tying starts back this coming Sat Night the 9th of January @ 8.30pm right here on our page….we have a very very special guest tying one of the greatest river nymphs ever tied….don’t miss it….lots of tying, tips and good fun on the night…see you all sat night www.piscari-fly.com
The Government has moved the entire country to Covid-19 Level 5 restrictions until 31 January 2021. Travel restrictions mean anglers must stay within 5km of their home. Non-essential business is not permitted.
At Level 5, the public health risk means that you will be asked to stay at home, except for travel for work, education or other essential purposes, or to take exercise within 5km of home.
Inland Fisheries Ireland offers the following information to anglers as a guideline only. Government advice to stop the spread of coronavirus is BE RESPONSIBLE, BE SAFE.
Observe physical distancingby keeping at least 2 metres apart, if not possible wear a face covering.
Park legally and responsibly if driving to outdoor amenities.
Respect our emergency services and avoid activities that could potentially lead to emergency call outs.
Respect the environment, animals & wildlife and dispose of waste properly.
Travel separately, unless from the same household and visit outdoor areas at off peak times if possible.
Fish stocking
IFI has ceased stocking fish to all locations.
All Anglers
Follow up-to-date Government advice, however changes to Government advice may result in amendments to this information. To stay safe, anglers should follow public health guidelines:
People may meet with people from one other household in outdoor settings when taking exercise.
No indoor or outdoor exercise group activities, including those involving children, should take place.
Individual training only.
No competitions.
No indoor or outdoor gatherings.
Boat Anglers
Max 2 persons in small boats to comply with physical distancing (unless from same household). Remember to maintain physical distancing on board and at slipways and access points.
Guides & Ghillies
During level 5 restrictions, only essential workers can travel to work.
Charter Boat Owners
During level 5 restrictions, only essential workers can travel to work.
BE RESPONSIBLE – BE SAFE
The power to control this pandemic is still in our hands
Inland Fisheries Ireland offers the following information to anglers as a guideline only. Government advice to stop the spread of coronavirus is BE RESPONSIBLE, BE SAFE.
The Killybegs Mariners got out for a St Stephen’s Day session on a secluded beach in Donegal Bay and, as they have reported it, it turned out to be a wonderful time of the year for a spot of fishing!!
Sandeels were plentiful in the surf and a variety of species were to be found close inshore feasting on them. The lads had treble and double hauls of some fine sea trout, turbot, flounders and coalies with the catch of the day probably being a personal best 32cm turbot for Cormac, although Gavin and Daragh might dispute that!
