Tope on overdrive in Wicklow this week – more than 20 in 2 hours on Tuesday aboard Lisin, well done to you all. Plus another 38lb Sunday for Brendy Adams while Ricky pulled a fine 16.5lb Hound out of the bag. And there’s more 🐟🐟🐟🐟
That’s 50 specimens and counting for Nicky McEvoy…….
There was a big day on Saturday for the boat, Nicky McEvoy had his 50th Specimen Fish with a Tope, that’s Specimen Tope 2 days in a row! Tom Lynch also had his 50th specimen recently with his Smooth Hound and Robbie done the business with his 2 specimen Hounds and a Tope of 38lb. Eamonn Power landed a cool 9lb and 10lb smooth hound just for the record.
Craig Murphy with a fine bull huss
On Friday there were tope for everyone, including a 42lber for Gary Blake and a little bonus for the skipper on a Spur rig. Lots of fine Huss, including a 14lb for Liam Markey and a Tope – Huss double for Ronan Doherty. All in all a great week, Month even with record numbers and sizes of fish. Still focusing on the Bream and Shark shortly.
Gary Blake and his big topeSkipper Kit can catch them too
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.
The Irish Kayak Angling Club had a great weekend at the Culdaff leg of the All Ireland Championship despite having tougher fishing than expected. Twenty four anglers took part and twenty species were caught and released. Congratulations to Tim O’Herlihy on winning the round completing the challenge (dogfish, any wrasse, any gurnard, pollock) about 5 minutes ahead of Alec McCall.
Afloat off Culdaff
Worth mentioning – most species winner on the day was runner up Graham Smith (11) with Andrew McGarvey & Andrew McIlhone also completing the challenge. It’s not too late to join in the Championship to be in with a chance of winning a Bixpy Jet or Railblaza goodies supplied by SMG!
They all count in a species hunt….
Contact the club at https://www.facebook.com/irishkayakangling/ if you’d like to get involved.
Waterford & District Coarse Angling club held a competition on the lake on Sunday July 14th and some phenomenal catches were recorded. The match was fished on 2 sections with 6 anglers on the Western (smaller) lake and the remainder between the wall and the point to the left of the island near the containers. Both sections fished extremely well and top of the pile with a quite jaw dropping weight of 97lb 6oz was Donatas Petreikis from the corner peg on the wall.
Full keepnets at Ballyshunnock
Rudd fell to whip tactics with the fish coming thick and fast. A close call for runner up was shaded by Attila Paldeak whose whip & pole caught net of 67lb 4oz just edged it over Grazvydas Karalius by just 2oz, less than 1 fish! Most anglers caught well on the whip between 3-7 metres but a few had to fish further out to contact the fish in shallow water. Overall 11 anglers caught 496lb 3oz of mostly rudd with a few tench to 3lb and hybrids to 1lb.
Despite the low water conditions prevailing for most of last week reading 0.58m – 0.7m on the gauge, regular Erriff visitor Andrew Beattie finished up his week with 13 grilse landed between 2.5lbs. and 5.25lbs. This was a fantastic catch, well done Andrew!
You can watch highlights of Andrew’s week below – a real insight into summer salmon fishing in the west of Ireland in low water conditions.
Go Fishing
The Erriff is a spate river draining beautiful mountain scenery and entering the sea at Killary Harbour, near Leenane. The river is split into 9 beats, and is flyfishing only for the most part. The river provides quality fishing for salmon and sea trout in spectacular surroundings. There is also lake fishing available on Tawnyard Lough, on one of the tributaries, providing sea trout fishing from July to September.
If you wish to book fishing please call the fishery office on (095) 42382 or email us at [email protected]
As it is usually the case with the pursuit of Atlantic Salmon, the weather is probably the most important factor, especially in the case of smaller spate or semi spate systems. In June we were lucky, due to the fact that the lakes were well filled in the first ten days of the month and this basically kept us going till the end of the month. By the time we got to July there was no reserve to call on so by the 1st of July the river was running at 9 and since then has decreased to -6. We got 17mms of rain on Wednesday and this put the river back up to 13 and with a little mist on the hills it has held there since. It does however make fishing difficult and you really need to be stalking fish when it gets this low.
Sunset in Killary
Despite the conditions we have landed sixteen fish since my last update. As per usual in week 27 Giovanni Mazzoleni was the main man with four fish landed. There were good numbers of fish running in early part of the week. Giovanni’s fish were all from the river, Holly, Rock, Meadow and Road Pools and weighed in at 2lbs14ozs, 5lbs7ozs, approx. 4.5 and 6lbs, all on a Collie Dog except the fourth which was taken on a Silver Stoat. On the 4th Kemal Scarpello managed to land his first ever salmon, a fish of 2lbs3ozs from the Stream on Finlough on a Sunray Shadow. Other fish were met and lost during the week and on Saturday the 6th Mark Kamine from New York landed his first ever salmon, a fish of 4lbs10ozs from the Quarry Pool on a Foxford Shrimp.
A Delphi Rancher
The early part of week 28, belonged to Dennis Bonnet from France who is an expert in the art of nymphing and he managed to land six fish in three days. He had four in the Turn Pool, one in the Road Pool and one in the New Island. The fish varied in size from 2lbs11ozs to 5lbs15ozs and were all taken on nymphs, with the exception of the fish from the New Island which took a Shrimp Fly pattern. Donna Morrison had a fish from the stream on Finlough of 3lbs12ozs on a Tosh.
One of the finest backdrops to fish before
When the slight rise in water came Klaus Büning had a fish from Deadman’s of approx. 3.8lbs on a Willie Gun. Maria Fasching had one from the stream on Finlough of 4lbs12ozs and David Patton had one this morning from the Kings Pool of 2lbs9ozs. The river is now at 13 and will probably drop off, but it looks like there may be some substantial rain from the middle of next week on, (at least I certainly hope there is). If it does come, I would expect some excellent fishing as there is a good head of fish in the Killary waiting to run. Here’s hoping!! D. McEvoy
It’s hard not to smile when the fish are running at Delphi
At Delphi Lodge, with many years of experience with the timing of the best runs of fish, we have in place a price system that offers both great value fishing and lets our anglers know when they have the best chance to catch a fresh run spring salmon or a summer grilse or Delphi sea trout.
MOUNT DALTON. This hidden gem situated near Rathconrath opened for trout fishing on May 1st, and I had my first evening fishing on the lake last week. On board was my old fishing pal Owen McEnteggart who is 80 years old now, and still doing the business on the trout scene. The evening we fished there were a few sedge on the water surface, and a nice few fish feeding. Saying this we fished wet flies, and small lures and these really did the business. Mount Dalton is fly only, and no engines are allowed on the lake. There are 2 boats for hire, and you must ring in advance. The contact number is 044-9355241, and best time to ring is late evening or early morning. Boat hire is 20 Euro, and you must also have an I.F.I. Midland Fisheries Permit.
Owen McEnteggart with a nice Mt Dalton trout
MICHAEL HEALY MEMORIAL CUP. Here in the Midlands we fished our first evening Peter & Murrough trout fly-fishing competition. On Friday last July 12th Lough Lene Anglers hosted the Michael Healy Memorial Cup. The late Michael was Hon-Secretary of Lene for many years and he competition was well supported on the night. CLF Transport of Ashbourne were sponsors, and they really pushed the boat out for this event sponsoring prizes down to 6th place. The fishing was tough and as darkness fell little or no fly life was active on the surface, so not many fish were feeding. I personally only saw about a half dozen Peters and one big Murrough as darkness fell. Still the Lene anglers dug deep, and I even managed to get into the winning enclosure myself. I was on Connell’s Point, and one fish broke the surface in the moon light, I covered it will my dry Peter and as they say the rest is history. Full results are as follows. 1st John Reid of Dublin 1.32kg, 2nd Tosh Grimes Ginnell Terrace here in Mullingar 1.30kg, 3rd Tom Conlon of Athboy1.24kg, 4th Dermott Leonard of Trim, 5th Mick Flanagan, and 6th Tony Butler. Presentation took place on Fagan’s Point with Arlene Healy daughter of the late Michael presenting John Reid with her Dads Memorial Cup. Pat Browne was competition captain and as usual done a splendid job, and Chairman Tom Fagan thanked CLF Transport for sponsorship and all the anglers who supported the competition. Lene anglers are back in action on Friday night August 9th with the Larry Mulligan Memorial Cup top prize. Fishing 7pm-11pm.
Mick with his 5th place winning trout
WHAT LURKS DEEP IN OUR LAKES. Last week we mentioned that anglers were surprised to catch Snub nose pike, and on Ennell very fluorescent coloured pike. Well I dug deep in the Angling Focus files and have a few colourful pictures taken some years back. I actually have not deleted a picture since 2002 when I started the angling slot, and taking pictures of local character’s. The fluorescent pike pictured was caught by Mullingar angler Mick McCormack on Ennell back in July 2010, and it was a nice double. That day we were trolling from the Goose Island towards the Point Of Rinn In heavy rain when Mick caught this beautiful coloured fish. The incredible looking Snub Nose pike was caught on Lene in June 2006 by a visiting angler, and it’s a weird looking pike.
Unusual Pike
TROUT COMPETITION ON LINE. The Jimmy Nea Cup penciled in for next Friday evening 19th July on Ennell is canceled, members will be notified by text when the new date is set. This Friday 19th Lough Bane Anglers are in action with an evening trout competition. Fishing from 7pm-11am. Owel Anglers are not in action till August 7th when the Dan Mullally evening competition will be fished. More on this in the coming weeks.
Midlands Angling provide a top class Guiding service covering many of the top coarse and game waters across the Midlands. Visiting fly anglers have landed some fine trout while out with Midland Angling Guides, pike anglers also recorded some net bursting catches including many pike over 20lbs. Top waters include Lough Ree, Ennell, Owel, Lene, Mount Dalton, and Glore Lake just to mention a few.
Michael Flanagan Midland Angling
Pike and Trout angling guide.
The Thomastown Anglers Association were the proud hosts of the National Fly Fishing Competition on the Nore at the weekend where 42 anglers, fishing in teams of two, caught (and released) a staggering 1062 fish between them over two days. Conditions were difficult with low water, warm temperatures and bright sunshine but the anglers made light work of it with nymphing techniques catching the majority of fish.
Top anglers display their prizes
The Untouchables were the winning team after day two; they caught 91 trout between them putting them ahead of Clonanav Fly Fish Team (88) and the Nore Bandits (80). John Willis was the angler who caught the most fish (60) while Kevin Oates got the longest fish of the competition, a beauty of 48cm.
Difficult conditions
The competition was run on a catch, measure, release basis so all of the fish caught returned to fight again another day. Congratulations to all who took part and special mention goes to the Thomastown Anglers Association for their organisational efforts.
A fine Nore trout goes back
Biosecurity measures are crucial at events like this
Jim Wallace sent us in this report – he had a great days fishing off the rocks near Castletownbere on 13th July. He had lots of small pollack and attached is one large fish he caught being proudly held by his great friend and ghillie (for this one) Emmett Daly. The fish put up great fight and was safely returned..
Jim Wallace’s fine pollack being proudly displayed by ‘ghillie’ Emmett Daly!!
Well known fly tyer and expert angler Jimmy Tyrrell was in touch to let us know that he has been out and about again recently on the River Nore and its tributaries. According to Jimmy there was a massive hatch of cinnamon sedge last night that lasted for about fourty minutes and its “the best hatch of fly I have seen in a long time”. I caught plenty of fish around 30cm and there were bigger fish rising everywhere.
I was out with Darra Collins from Limerick on Saturday teaching river craft had a great day a few mayfly showing fished small nymphs during the day caught plenty of fish. There were good hatches of blue winged olives in the evening about ten o’clock again fishing showing everywhere. Darra got some good fish to small dry bwo imitations with a number of fish over 30cm. Conditions are really good for the dry fly at the moment so I will be getting as many outings as I can over the coming weeks.
Go Fishing
If you are interested in a days’ guided fly fishing on the River Nore with Jimmy Tyrell you can get in contact with him through his contact details below. Jimmy guides on many stretches of the River Nore and its tributaries. In addition to guiding services Jimmy also can provide fishing tuition and is internationally well known as a fly tier. He can produce and supply all standard fly patterns for salmon and brown trout (river and lake) and can assist anglers in developing bespoke flies to meet their requirements.
In most parts of Ireland it has been a pretty dry month so far, and the last week has seen many rivers drop even lower. There have been showers in the last couple of days but not enough to freshen things up. In many places the rivers are on their bones. Salmon anglers have been worst affected as, to be fair, trout, coarse and pike anglers have had some good fishing. The fine, settled weather has really suited sea anglers though and there are some great charter and small boat fishing reports in this week’s Irish Angling Update…
Another one goes back….
Salmon anglers in most places are doing their best to cope with low water. And in many places water temperatures are rising towards 20C, so Catch and Release anglers need to be aware that the chances of successfully releasing a fish are less as we get into this warm water zone. Anglers on the Drowes did pretty well last week all things considered and to be fair the fish played their part too as fresh grilse pushed their way up the river. Once they reach the lake though the take seems to be gone out of them. Elsewhere in Donegal the rivers, nearly all spate systems, saw little action though there were a few fish landed on the Owenea. At the other end of the country the Bandon had a few salmon reported following a bit of rain there, but most other rivers in the south west were unimproved by whatever bit of drizzle, showers or mist fell. The Munster Blackwater is seeing a few grilse caught, but again the river needs more rain.
Jon Perry UK with a Corrib fish of 4lbs plus
Lough Corrib is in a lull at the moment with just some Caenis fishing activity to report. At this time of year the trout are zoned in on coarse fish fry and reluctant to take a fly. Watch this space, however, as the second mayfly hatch will get under way in the next couple of weeks. It’s a similar story from other lakes across the midlands and northwest. Any of the rivers that have water are providing some decent fishing on the evening rise, and the Nore is still seeing some good daytime fishing too when the conditions are not too bright. Stocked lakes like Lene, Carrigavantry and Knockaderry are producing some good fishing. A couple of quality rainbows can make up for a lot of blank days on a wild fishery.
Not too much to report from the coarse angling side of things this week. The conditions are very suitable for evening sessions after tench and bream, and deeper swims should still be fishing well enough during the daytime too.
Pike anglers often take a break during the summer months, but this can be an exciting time to target this rewarding quarry. Explosive top water action can be breath taking, but don’t forget to play them to the net quickly and make sure you allow your prize to recover fully before releasing carefully. Pike are very sensitive to oxygen levels in the water during these warmer months. Good fishing is being reported from venues in Cavan, Longford, across the midlands to Roscommon and into Galway. Once again many find the early morning and evenings most productive.
Amy and her skate
We will go straight to the Catch of the Week here. Well done to Amy Kennedy. Amy is already a seasoned angler with a huge breath of experience under her belt. Enough to put many senior anglers to shame. She is no stranger to the Irish Angling Update and with her capture of a huge common skate she is back in our reports again. Anyone who has not seen the video of her catch is in for a treat. Fearless and fabulous, she is one of our most deserving Catch of the Week winners…
In other sea angling news we have reports of specimen spurdogs off Waterford, loads more action off the Cork coast, and great reports from Clare, Galway, Mayo, Donegal and Wicklow.
Finally all anglers are being asked to stay vigilant for salmon that are not salmon, salmon that are not well and crayfish that are dead or dying. If you are moving between river systems please ensure you Check, Clean and Dry to reduce the risk of spreading invasive species or the viruses and bacteria that cause fish diseases.
And now the weather…
Saturday will be dry with bright or sunny spells. Highest temperatures of 17 to 23C with mostly light northerly breezes, coolest in the north and warmest in the south. Saturday night will be dry with clear spells. Lowest temperatures of 9 to 11C. Sunday will be warm and dry with sunny spells. Highest temperatures of 20 to 25C and mainly easterly breezes. Monday is much the same, but evening showers or longer spells of rain will move up from the south. The good news for those worn out from the rain-dancing is that Tuesday will be a very showery day. Some of the showers will be heavy with a risk of thunder and spot flooding. Well done to all who put in the effort! It will be cooler also with highest temperatures of 17 to 20C and mostly light east to southeast breezes. Wednesday will bring a mix of sunshine and showers also with highest temperatures of 18 to 21C. Current indications suggest that Thursday and Friday next will be warm, but unsettled with rain or showers at times and temperatures in the low twenties. That’s a bit more like it.
