Damien Culliney of www.anglersparadise.ie was out on a practice day on Lough Derg with Javier Leonor ahead of the upcoming Predator Battle. The weather wasn’t great and conditions were very tough early in the day. They had already caught a few jack pike and some trout when they decided to change tactics, which paid off with this beauty coming to the boat.
At just shy of 25 lbs and measuring in at 107 cm, that’s a proper Lough Derg pike – a lovely way to end the day after a tough start. #castaic #bulldawgrods #BigpikeloughDerg
A plump Derg pike
Go fishing…
Anglers Paradise Ireland
Trout and Pike Guide
Anglers Paradise Ireland is owned and managed by Damien Culliney, a well known angler and chef in the Clare region and a man passionate about the inland waterways and natural history of County Clare. At Angler’s Paradise, we love the thrill of Game fishing and Pike fishing in equal measure and can take our clients to some of Europe’s most unspoilt rivers and lakes in search of trophy predators and the realisation of their angling dreams.
The recent blustery weather has made it challenging going for those anglers hoping to hook into a ‘fish of a lifetime’ Bluefin Tuna. The fleet was limited in the days they were able to go to sea, and the conditions were somewhat lumpy for many of the anglers that did manage to get out. But the tuna didn’t seem deterred as catches were steady despite the rough conditions.
Adrian Molloy of Tuna.ie notched up a remarkable 100th BFT of the season and he has some great footage of the strike on his Facebook page. Meanwhile, Wildatlanticway angling made it to 51 tuna for the month of August as a family travelled from Germany to experience the top class fishing of the Donegal coast. They had 7 fish in total over the two days of fishing with female angler Sophie coming out on top with three fish to her rod. Meanwhile the reels were also screaming on the Kiwi Girl as anglers managed to bring two fish in the 400lb class to the side of the boat.
Anglers wishing to engage in this fishery must only do so on a sea angling vessel specifically authorised to participate in the pilot programme. Any person engaging in this fishery on any vessel which is not appropriately authorised will be in breach of the Sea-Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction (Bluefin Tuna) Regulations.
A full list of authorised skippers can be found below:
We had to move to the River Shannon at O’Briensbridge because of high water levels on all the East Clare Lakes. It was always going to be a tough match, and in this respect, the Bridge lived up to its moody reputation.
Day One
Split into two sections; day one proved to be an absolute grueler with very few roach or dace showing. It was those who put a few Perch together were the only ones to put any weight on the score sheet, with the notable exception of Martin Sutterby on end peg 16 who had a magnificent 11lb 4oz
Section 1 Day 1
1st Ian Kelsey 7lb 13oz
2nd Clive Slater 5lb 4oz
Section 2 Day 1
1st Martin Sutterby 11lb 4oz
2nd Kevin Leahy 5lb 9oz
Day Two
There were a few no shows on the second day, and after the previous day’s results it was probably understandable, however, the Roach and Dace that had been missing the day before decided to show up for a time in most of the pegs for the first half of the match with section 2 being the most consistent except for Dick Holmes on what was now end peg 4 on Section 1 who netted 8lb 10oz
At the other end, It was Ray Linton who took overall honours on the day with 9lb 14oz
Section1 Day Two
1st Dick Holmes 8lb 10oz
Joint second
Martin Sutterby
Kevin Leahy 4lb 15oz
Section 2 Day Two
Ray Linton 9lb 14oz
Joint second
Richard Bedford
Noel Stapleton 6lb 14oz
Final top four for the two days
1st Martin Sutterby 16lb 3oz
2nd Ian Kelsey 13lb 4oz
3rd Clive Slatter 11lb 5oz
4th Kevin Leahy 10lb 8oz
Special thanks to Paul McCall and Ian Kelsey who did a brilliant job on swim clearance on Friday to make the section accessible and to Florian at Fishing Tackle Ireland for the sponsorship.
The one thing that marred an otherwise enjoyable two days was the removal and disappearance of an anglers keepnet and fish after the all-out and before weigh-in by others not connected to the match. This was an unforgivable reprehensible act, and a reminder to all don’t leave your peg or tackle unattended.
“All COVID restriction and government guidelines were adhered to in the staging of this event”
As we continue to return safely to our sport, with the backing of the local community club’s are starting to hold smaller ‘festival style’ competitions, minus the social part and in accordance with Covid19 guidelines.
The River Erne 100, a new event organised by the Erne Anglers saw contenders from across the provinces fish alongside a handful of competitors from England. Twenty four anglers fished four developed sections of the PAE mostly town Enniskillen town sections by rotation, with a random draw on the final day. Variable weather conditions, affecting water levels and pace of the river, made for some challenging but enjoyable fishing.
Local angler Bas Smith from Irvinestown was the eventual winner with 35.950kg to pick up the £1000 prize. Just a few grams separated County Cavan based anglers Tony Hopkins 34.180kg and Francis McGoldrick 34.000kg who finished second and third respectively.
International Friendly Carp Competition Oakland Lakes, New Ross 2nd Edition.
None of this could have happened if the involvement of each and every one of us have not worked together. Fishing was extremely hard for the majority of us but there is a reason is called FISHING
Great Turn out of 6 Countries each one of them having 8 Anglers.
Match Draw was done online according to the Coarse Angling Ireland NCFFI
rules and regulation on Saturday the 5th Sep.2020
8 sectors of 6 anglers one of each country.
8 sector Win of €75 voucher Barracuda fishing tackle shop
Biggest Bag Trophy – Poland – Come out from PEG 17 Best on the day with just over 44kg – Piotr Horbinski
Winners of this Year Competition
Team Ireland – 1st Place – 20 Points
Team Poland – 2nd Place – 24 Points
Team Bulgaria -3rd Place – 24 points (Less Kg)
Team Romania – 4th Place – 34 Points
Team Lithuania – 5th Place – 34 Points (Less Kg)
Team Hungary- 6th Place – 40 points
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SEE YOU ALL NEXT YEAR 2021
You want to be part of this please get in contact with us and we can get your country next year.
Sidney Kennedy reports on a great day sharking with his daughter Amy and nephews Kenneth & Kristofor:
Every year my nephews Kenneth and Kristofor join me on a fishing trip and this year they wanted to get in on the action with Amy’s video clips. As the weather was going to be fair, we decided to head out shark fishing, and luckily for us, it turned out to be the right choice. With the offal from the fishmongers out of the freezer, all we needed was some fresh mackerel for hook baits. We launched the boat at 7 am, had our bait caught by 8 am, so we steamed out until we hit a depth of 250ft and got ready for some action.
With all the rods out and the chum working its magic, it didn’t take long before Amy’s rod was bent into a 40lb shark which she had no problem fighting and bringing to the boat. After another hour Kris was into his first shark of the day. It fought hard, and as we got it to the side of the boat we estimated it to be around 80lb, but sadly it slipped the hook. With his rod back out, we had a small shark trying to take our bait, but we couldn’t manage to hook it.
Amy & Kristofor with Amy’s first shark of the day
As I looked at the floats I could see my one slowly moving off to the side so I grabbed the rod and started to wind. When it tightened to the float the reel screamed and it felt like a big fish. At first, it fought close to the surface, but when it realized it was not winning the fight it set off on an angry dive towards the deeps, what a run… After a while I got the shark to the boat we could see it was over the 100lb mark. We got it into the boat, quickly unhooked it, and kept putting buckets of water over it as we do with every shark. It measured 1.865m, just over specimen length.
A specimen for Sid
After a safe return, we put all the rods back out and freshened up the chum bags. It took another 40 minutes before Kenneth’s rod screamed off and with the rod bent into the shark it headed towards the deeps on a strong run just like mine and didn’t want to come up. With Kenneth’s arms getting tired he was just able to keep the pressure on until I could grab the leader, and we could all see it was another monster over 100lb.
Kenneth & Kristofor
With the fish back safely in the water, Kenneth sat down and said ‘if my rod goes again someone else can fight it’ 😆😆😆. Amy was back into the action soon after with a fish of the same size, and as she was fighting the shark she said to herself out loud ‘why do ye have to catch the big ones’?
Another one for Amy
Just as we were landing that fish, Kris’s rod took off with another good run. With Amy’s fish returned, we could help Kris with his one. It was another hard fighting fish, and like his last shark, it came to the side of the boat and slipped the hook. All he could say was as long as it is OK, I am happy. Hopefully next time Kris will get his monster…
Ben with his Lough Gowna pike as brother Oisin looks on
Ciaran Kirwan and his sons, Ben (8) and Oisin (6), went fishing last week on Lough Gowna in County Cavan. The Kirwans, from Rathfarnham in Dublin, had a cracking day out; Ben not only caught a lovely pike, but he followed it up by catching and releasing a smashing trout as well. Both Ben and Oisin are mad about fishing so no doubts we will be seeing more of them on our web pages in the future – well done lads, super fishing!
Bass is Ireland’s only marine fish species which is managed for recreational angling and this has been the case since the signing of the BASS (CONSERVATION OF STOCKS) ORDER, 1990, by the then Minister for the Marine, John P.Wilson following a major sustained decline in bass stocks in Irish waters. Inland Fisheries Ireland gathers data on bass which provides scientific advice to support the correct management and conservation approach for the species. To help collect this data, to determine the status of bass stocks and also to improve understanding of their ecology and biology, Inland Fisheries Ireland runs the National Bass Programme (NBP).
Under the NBP, anglers can volunteer to assist in the tagging of Irish bass with floy tags; should any of the tagged fish get caught again at a later date, the individually numbered floy tag provides a phone number for the captor to make contact and report their catch to our research team. Anglers can also take scale samples and fish measurements to feed into the data collection programme.
With this in mind, our staff received a phone call last week from an angler who had caught (and released) one of the bass previously tagged under the NBP back in 2018. This has happened on a number of occasions in the past, but never with a fish as impressive as this one. The original capture was in September of 2018 in Ballinskelligs Bay and this impressive fish was measured at 82cm. Local guide John Quinlan, whose client caught the bass, tagged the fish and set it on its way to fight another day, catch and release being common practice among bass anglers. Little did John know that this fish would be caught again just under two years later, once more Ballinskelligs Bay, but even more impressive in terms of condition and size, than the first time around.
The big bass from Ballinskelligs Bay
Nicolas Mahlke was the lucky angler who caught the bass the second time and he weighed it in on his Chinese bought scales at 13.5 jin in late August (we’ll let you readers figure out what this means in imperial or metric measurements!). This would have put the bass at 87cm based on a length to weight ratio, a really impressive bass by any standards. Nicolas released the fish once more to the tide so maybe we’ll see it again one day, who knows.
The floy tag used to contact IFI
Whether or not catch and release, or indeed fish tagging, can cause harm to fish is always a hotly debated topic, especially where large fish are involved. This recapture helps to prove that the experience of being caught, carefully handled, tagged and released will not harm the fish when it is done correctly, this bass being in super condition when Nicolas caught it in August.
It also helps to show how valuable these tagging programmes are; in this example the fish showed strong site fidelity being recaptured close to the original capture area. So what does this mean? Well, we already think that most bass will return to the same areas year after year, so stocks of bass can be very localised. To add to this, we also know that Irish bass are long lived and slow to mature (i.e. slow to reproduce), so where stocks have been overfished in these areas it can do lasting damage, taking many, many years for stocks to recover.
What else have we learned? Well, we’ve learned that bass learn! Call it food for thought (or maybe something fishy!), but from an angling perspective, according to our expert angler sources, you won’t catch a bass on the same style of lure or bait twice…
Killybegs Fishing Trips had some great outings after pollock in the past week with some big fish coming to the boat for anglers that braved the difficult conditions.
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Killybegs Fishing Charters are approved members of Failte Ireland’s Covid-19 Safety Charter operating as a tourism and hospitality business in line with current Government public health advice and have all recommended safety and cleaning protocols in place.
Dan O’Neill reports from a busy weekend of fishing with Anthony, ‘David’ and ‘Goliath’!
With the end now very much in sight on the trout and salmon season on my local river, I find myself at the lakes a little more than usual. I now have an upcoming angler, Anthony, who is very interested in an array of fish species. At the weekend we decided to set ourselves some challenges, it was a trout on the fly (rainbow to start with) then the big challenge of ‘David and Goliath’, as Anthony names the challenge, ‘David’ being a gudgeon and ‘Goliath’ being a common carp.
Starting off the morning we went to Southern County in search of a rainbow. After the basics being shown to Anthony it was time for him to take the lead; it did take a little while to get the hang of it but after 30/40 mins our first rainbow sipped in Anthony’s bubble head caddis. Battling hard, you could see that Anthony was trying to put all he had learned in place (all the evenings of me holding the fly line pretending to be a trout on the lawn and fighting for freedom), I was very impressed with the way he handled the fish and got it to the net, so our first box was ticked.
Anthony gets off the mark with a rainbow
Next stop was Mount Juliet where we went to the lake, this was the big one for him. Firstly, we threw in some offerings in order to get the carp interested. While this was happening, we tackled ‘David’ (gudgeon) in the margins. It wasn’t long before the float dipped and we were away (so we thought), but a surprise visitor took our maggot and one that, if we were trying for, we probably wouldn’t have met; a beautiful little tench. With the next few casts we had plenty of gudgeon and some small roach.
A bonus baby tenchAnthony and ‘David’ the gudgeon!
It was now time for what we saw as the most difficult catch, tackling up to heavier carp rod/line, bait runner reel and larger hook we were ready for our battle. Watching the bubbles and carp feeding was very exciting and on numerous occasions we just missed bites. A short while passed as we waited patiently, then suddenly the line shot off the reel and Anthony ran and lifted in; the rod immediately bent over pointing straight at the lake and our target species just as we looked rolled on the surface. After a nerve racking 8/10 mins our fish was ready for the net; a beautiful common was our prize completing our final challenge – “David and Goliath”.
