Unsettled weather for the week ending 23 June continued to make angling difficult over the past week. Despite this over 300 salmon were reported caught.
While a number of fish were caught in the Ballina area, mid river fisheries are experiencing very poor fishing with most of the fish running straight through and being caught just downstream of Foxford and on fisheries upstream of Foxford and L. Conn.
Colm O’Sullivan in action on the Ridge Pool.
On the Moy Fishery Colm O’Sullivan Meath 6 lbs. approx. on fly – Ridge Pool [Photo], Tristan Bayard France 5 lbs. on fly – Ridge Pool, Raymond McBirney NI. 4.5 lbs. on spinner – Ridge Pool, Eugine Farrell Dublin 4 lbs. on worm – Ridge Pool, Garry Mongey Dublin 3.5 lbs. on worm – Ridge Pool. Gerry Byrne Dublin 3 lbs. on spinner – Cathedral Beat.
Colm prepares to release his salmon
Upstream Keith Tolley, John Waters, Kevin Farrer, David Kirkpatrick, Paul O’Mally and Martin Capp were just a few of the anglers who had fish on the Foxford Fishery. Further upstream Michael Ashley UK. 12 lbs. on Bubble & fly, Michael James UK. 11 lbs. on worm and Mark Follis NI. 5.5 lbs. on worm – Cloongee Fishery. Tyuse Risseenn Switzerland 13 lbs. on fly, Fred Poignant France 2 lbs. on spinner & 12 lbs. on worm and Bob Thomas UK. 3 lbs. on fly – East Mayo Anglers water.
With water levels dropping and more settled weather forecast condition should improve over the coming week.
Dcelan Gibbons reports that fishing was most productive during the early morning Caenis hatches, which are increasing as the weather improves with warmer temps.
Guide Larry McCarthy of Corrib View Lodge http://www.corribangling.com reported a reasonable week of angling on Lough Corrib. On Monday Andrew Flitcroft of Trout & Salmon Magazine boated a superb 5lbs trout on the lower lake on dry sedge.
Andrew Flitcroft with a stunning 5lbs Corrib bar of gold. #CPRSavesFish
Tom Chamberlain, visiting from Wales, had 3 Caenis mornings with Larry and boated 18 fish in total, 4 of which were over 3lbs. Davie Kidd had 5 trout for his early start on Thursday and Ann McWilliams from Cork had a great morning boated by Larry on Saturday when she caught and returned 7 nice trout on Caenis.
A Corrib cracker for a client of Corrib view Lodge
Larry is looking forward to a rise in temperatures forecast for the next week which will help hatches which have been patchy to date.
In the Cornamona area Tom Doc Sullivan http://www.tomdoc.com had two days guiding / fishing with Ferdinand Rodriguez and caught 6 fish over the two days with the best fish being 3.75lbs on an Olive Stimulator. Tom also reports that there are still some mayfly hatching.
Ferdinand Rodriguez with a fine trout taken while guided by Tom Doc Sullivan
A well-fed Corrib Trout courtesy of Tom Doc Sullivan
The fishery is Catch & Release once again in 2019. There were nice water levels around the 4th April but then we suffered with low water levels for weeks thereafter.
The drought did not break until the 30th May, 7 weeks later! This gave nice water levels for the last two days of May.
The first week in June also brought decent rain and good water levels but then it was back to low summer water levels which have persisted to now with only a minor fresh on the 17th June. The fishery was quiet overall, hardly surprising given the low water conditions for the greater part.
The 1st salmon of the season was caught on the 28th May. This was a 10lb salmon caught & released on fly by Alan Watson on beat 8. The following day Alan caught & released a further salmon weighing 8lb on fly from beat 8. On the 30th May, Davey Sullivan caught & released a 10lb salmon on fly from beat 8. On the 31st May, Sam McMenamin caught & released a 9lb salmon on fly from beat 5.
On the 1st June, Davey Sullivan caught & released an 11lb salmon on a spinner from beat 8. Sam McMenamin caught & released a 6lb salmon on fly from beat 4 and Mark Barbour caught & released a 12lb salmon on fly from beat 7. On the 4th June, Brian Smith caught & released a 4lb grilse on fly from beat 9 and Uel Stewart caught & released a fine 15lb salmon on fly from beat 8.
On the 17th June, during the minor fresh, Alan Watson caught & released an 8lb salmon on fly from 8 and Davey Sullivan caught & released a 4lb sea trout on fly from beat 9. On the 20th, Alan Watson caught & released a 9lb salmon on fly from beat 8.
The forecast for the coming week is for the weather to turn very warm and thunder storms. Hopefully this will equate to some good water levels in the river. It may be very humid given the forecast and the biting midges around here are looking excited. ‘Nets and Jungle Formula’ guys!
For info/bookings etc. on the Owenea Fishery –
Tel: 074 9551141. (9am to 1pm April to May & 7am to 1pm June to Sept).
There are good numbers of salmon now in the lough but they remained dour this week and I have only heard of one grilse caught and another hooked and lost.
Lough Melvin has been fishing very well for trout with nice little hatches of mayfly occurring. Angling for Gillaroo on wet flies has been good and there have also been good catches of Sonaghan out over the deep water drifts.
Water levels were fair this week on the Drowes. On Monday the gauge read 0.55m and the river fell gradually over the week. By the end of play on Sunday the gauge read 0.50m. The river fished very well again this week and there were 40 plus salmon caught. These were mostly grilse but there were a few decent fish to double figures in the catch also.
Thank you to all who came to the Young Person’s Day on Saturday to help and also to all the young people for attending. We had fun and the day started off with Liam (11 years old) catching a lovely fresh salmon on the fly at the hut pool for all to witness. We talked about the lifecycle of the salmon, the salmon of knowledge story, St Patrick and the Salmon story. We kick sampled to see what lives in the river and the trees and bushes around. We dissected a salmon learning about the internal and external anatomy and had a wonderful BBQ after fishing. Thanks also to Inland Fisheries Ireland who helped with the day and to Billy who donated the BBQ food, to Sean and Eoin Foran who supplied the butterfly nets and to Southside Angling and Tadhg Collins who supplied flies and snacks.
Since then the River has seen a good bit of action and on Monday and Tuesday some great double figure fish were caught and released.
Pete Turner about to release his salmon on Monday
Glenda Powell
Ballyduff Bridge Salmon Fishery
Saturday kicked off quickly this morning at 9am with a fine grilse on fly off Cable Island on the lower river. This was followed by another of ~5lb on fly at lunchtime from Ballincurrig on the upper river. The total fish caught for June is now 16 of which 10 fell to fly.
Nine have been caught on the upper river & seven on the lower beats.
Cable Island beat on the Blackwater
Hans Schlect fished the upper beats on Monday 24 June and caught and released an extremely fresh fish of approximately 20lb on fly on Ballincurrig. He then moved to our very top beat Ballygarrett (just below Mallow) where he caught & released a rather coloured fish of ~12lb again on fly.
There were also reports of a couple of fish of 10 & 16lb caught just above Lismore & another double-figure fish also on the lower river.
It’s very interesting that the fish caught today were double-figure fish. Evidently the small rise has brought in late May fish that were probably lingering in the tidal reaches.
Let’s hope that there will be more of these fish caught in the coming days & that the grilse run will also become more prolific.
Jason Corcoran
Fortwilliam Fishery
We had with plenty of fish caught and released last week but also a lot of fish lost. Robert Celement party from Germany had 4 fish off the Castle beat all on fly and all released so fair play to these guys as first time on the fishery. Pat Boland had a nice grilse of 5lbs. Fergus Crawford had 3 grilse. Shay Lynham had 2 grilse for his couple of days with us. Stephen Liggins from the U.K had a nice grilse.
Following Sunday’s rain we had 2 cracking fish landed were landed on Monday. Mike Brazendale from the UK with his 10lb fish released off the Glenmore beat. While Robert Celement from Germany had a 16lb fish off the Ellis beat.
Paul Whelan
Go Fishing…
Blackwater Salmon Fishery
Blackwater Salmon Fishery has 3 beats downstream of the weir and 2 upstream of the weir. Blackwater Salmon Fishery offers fishing on approximately 5 miles of the river Blackwater. The fishing is spread throughout the middle section of the river to offer good sport throughout the fishing season. Due to the location of the beats, fishing can still usually be offered in low or high water. Contact Glenda Powell: Lismore, Co Waterford, Email:[email protected] Mobile: +353 (0) 872351260 Telephone: +353 (0) 5853929 Web: www.blackwatersalmonfishery.com
Ballyduff Bridge Salmon Fishery
Ballyduff Bridge fisheries control a number of beats of the Munster Blackwater. The Ballyduff Bridge beat is almost a mile long offering a huge variety of water and is particularly suited to fly fishing. Upstream near the village of Ballyhooley (a few miles outside the town of Fermoy, Cork) we have two beats. The Ballincurrig Beat is one of the most beautiful locations along the river and has an excellent piece of fly water flowing into a deep pool. Just downstream on the opposite bank we have a short but productive beat, called Magners. This beat fishes also well in high water.
Fortwilliam Fishery offers two miles of double bank salmon and trout fishing over five beats on the river Blackwater.
Our salmon include – Springers, May Salmon, Grilse, Back End Salmon, and in Summer sea trout.
Our beats provide a wide variety of water, suitable for both beginners and the more experienced fishermen.
Fortwilliam Fishery, Glencairn, Lismore, Co. Waterford, Ireland Web: www.fortwilliamfishing.ieEmail: [email protected] Tel: (00353) 87 8292077 or 058 75299
24 June: The 24th of June and not a drop of rain. Yesterday looked like we were going to get a tropical rain storm. The sky was dark all day. The sea looked a purple black. We could see the rain north east of us and south east of us and all we got were strong south easterly winds. The rest of the week is not looking great either with temperatures forecast to go to 27 degrees.
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.
Jimmy Tyrrell from Irish Fly Craft has been out and about again on the River Nore and its tributaries over the last week trying a bit of dry fly and nymph fishing. According to Jimmy fly hatches have been sparse enough with some olives, including blue winged olives appearing on the rivers.
There are also sedges and gnats about and these are producing an odd fish as well. Surprisingly, on one of his evenings out on the Nore there seemed to more mayfly around than anything else. Even after recent rain the rivers are running low and the lack of prolonged periods of warm settled weather have not helped matters.
Most of Jimmy’s success was to his own nymph patterns which have produced nice trout to around 1.25lb for him on a few of his outings. Jimmy has fished on the main River Nore and on some of its tributaries. According to Jimmy, the water in the Goul River in particular was very low and together with the gin clear and advanced weed growth it has made fishing very tough there but he still managed to get a few nice trout!
Jimmy says that he is now looking forward to fishing in July when warmer evenings and more settle weather are sure to improve things. The trusty bwo will come into its own and there should be some great sherry spinner fishing over the next few 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.
Inland Fisheries Ireland appeals for vigilance for presence of non-native species in Irish waters
Potential presence of Pacific pink salmon
Inland Fisheries Ireland has appealed to anglers and the general public to be vigilant and report the presence of any Pacific pink salmon encountered in Irish river systems over the coming months. In 2017, this non-native fish species unexpectedly appeared in unprecedented numbers in multiple river systems in the south-west, west and north-west of the country.
As pink salmon predominantly have a two-year lifecycle, there is potential for the species to reappear in Irish rivers again this year and every second so called ‘odd’ year thereafter. However, they can also turn up in ‘even’ years and a single specimen was recorded in the River Suir in 2018.
A Pacific pink salmon. Photo by Ola Ugeda.
Also known as humpback salmon, pink salmon are a migratory species of salmon, native to river systems in the northern Pacific Ocean and nearby regions of the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean. The species also has established populations in rivers in northernmost Norway and in the far northwest of Russia, originating from stocking programmes undertaken in this part of Russia since the 1950s until 2001.
Although a single specimen was first recorded in Ireland in 1973, they were very rare in Irish waters until 2017. In the past week, pink salmon have been reported returning to rivers further south in Norway than anticipated which increases the likelihood of their reappearance in Irish rivers this year.
Mature male pink salmon with characteristic humpback and spotted tail pib by Eva Thorstad NINA.
Dr Cathal Gallagher, Head of Research and Development at Inland Fisheries Ireland said: “The potential presence of pink salmon in Irish rivers again is of ongoing concern to Inland Fisheries Ireland as its presence in large numbers may negatively impact some of Ireland’s native species such as Atlantic salmon and sea trout as well as estuarine and coastal marine fish species and their associated ecosystems. Despite only very limited information being currently available to assess such threats, the climatic and environmental conditions in Ireland are considered quite amenable to facilitate the establishment of Pacific pink salmon populations in Irish river systems.”
Inland Fisheries Ireland has developed an identification guide to help anglers and the general public identify pink salmon. Anglers are asked to report catches of pink salmon to Inland Fisheries Ireland’s 24 hour confidential hotline number – 0818 34 74 24 or 0818 FISH 24. As these fish die after spawning, some dead specimens could also be encountered along Irish rivers. Anyone who catches a pink salmon is asked to:
Keep the fish and do not release it back into the water (even in rivers only open for catch and release angling)
Record the date & location of capture, and the length and weight of the fish
Tag the fish and present it to Inland Fisheries Ireland and a new tag will be issued to replace the tag used
Take a photograph of the fish.Inland Fisheries Ireland will then arrange collection of the fish for further examination. This will help establish the abundance and extent of distribution of the species in Irish water
About Pink SalmonPink salmon are blue-green to steel blue on the back, with silver sides and a white underbelly. Pink salmon can be distinguished by a number of unique characteristics which are different to Atlantic salmon, notably:
Large black oval spots on the tail
11-19 rays on the anal fin
Very small scales– much smaller than a similarly-sized Atlantic Salmon
No dark spots on the gill cover
Upper jaw typically extending beyond the eye
Males develop a pronounced humpback on entering freshwater
