Alan Thomson was back in Mullingar last week and stayed in the Mullingar Park Hotel with angling pal David Beggs. Alan is married to an Offaly woman, and drops down from time to time visiting relations. This trip was angling only, and we had some fantastic sport on Lene. David is a Farrier and recently was on the 4 man Irish team winners at the HMS Scottish Branch handmade shoes competition. We really have some interesting anglers visiting Westmeath, and David gave me a few lucky horseshoes, and I might nail one to the boat.
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.
These big flounders, doormats they call them. One at the start of the comp and one at the end bringing the drama…. Mariners summer league outing number 2 took place last night and another fine evening as the anglers lined the beach among the sunset walkers. Doormat number one came early on for Declan with a lovely 40cm flounder setting the longest fish bar high.
The fishing was hard going with small numbers of fish but what was caught was quality over quantity flounders mid to late 30’s. John and Pat Cunningham found the flounders with John winning 1st place prize money and Pat winning 2nd place prize on the night and on the last cast of the night lines up Christopher Noctor reeled in a 41cm flounder for longest fish cash prize. Enjoyable night out again and well done to all who fished.
Christopher with a 41cm flounder
Go fishing…
Mariners sea angling club Killybegs Co Donegal. The club runs a shore league and boat comps and angling trips around Ireland doing the sport we love. Get in touch at www.facebook.com/mariner.sac
Reporting from Union Hall, Tom Collins, Skipper of Loch an Iasc, is back on the water…
24 May: After a delayed start to our season we got offshore today and straight back into the big fish.
Our first specimen skate of the year came in at 196lb and we also had a smaller male at 114lb which measured in at 179cm, just shy of specimen length.
We clocked up a few nice other species today including megrim, ling, bull huss, pollack, coalfish, dab, pouting, poor cod, ballan wrasse to 47cm, cuckoo wrasse, mackerel, launce, whiting, and Lsd.
Megrim
Our next available dates are June 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th.
The Loch an Iasc is a fast worker 36 built in Valentia and refurbished in 2005 under department of marine supervision specifically for angling charters and whale watching. She is licenced and insured for 12 passengers and carries a P5 licence which allows her to operate within 30 miles of designated ports. For customer comfort there is inside seating for 12 passengers and it has a toilet as well. The Loch an Iasc is powered by two Caterpillar 3126 engines giving a total of 700 horsepower which means that our customers can get to fishing grounds faster or when the whales and dolphins are offshore you will get more time with them. In 2014 Tom Collins invested in new electronics and fitted new led lighting for night shark fishing trips. Tom has found in the past that lots of light at night attracts baitfish which in turn brings in the big predators. For information on trip from the Reen Pier in Union Hall, County Cork, contact Tom Collins at +353 (0)87 – 279 2983.
25 May: Lovely colours on this cuckoo wrasse today good variety of species landed again today with Dungarvan Offshore Charters. Meanwhile on Dungarvan Bay Charter Boats a group of Dutch anglers had great fishing for ling and also boated plenty of pollack and cod too.
28 May: The smoothhound fishing is full on at the moment and there are lovely specimens being caught, with plenty of smaller ones to keep the anglers busy. We are also getting a few Codling, and had good Thornback Rays yesterday. There are plenty of Pack Tope about and we had our first Homelyn last week also.
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.
Results didn’t meet expectations for day two of the festival; a chill in the air with bright skies made for completely different fishing from Monday. DELCAT’s Kevin Dyer, Preston Innovations fished the feeder at 35 turns for 9.800kg at Lough Scur, Rocks. Second today was travelling partner Brian Nesbit NuFish with 7.440kg also at Lough Scur and the ‘pump-house’ section. Brian fished the 14m pole and caught hand sized skimmers. Another Kent angler Barry Chapman Maver UK moves to the top of the leaderboard with his 6.050kg.
Ballinamore Angling Festival – Day Three
Harry poses with his dad’s catch
Something different for today as we share the mid-week results. Proudly displaying the winning catch of today is Harry with Dad Paul Boothby’s 15.080kg from Connolly’s Shore. Second today is Tony Hopkins with 10.800kg also from this popular shore on Lough Garadice.
CM Lakelands report on their latest match fished on Lough Muckno…
Brenton Sweeney
The 2nd round of the CM Lakelands Feeder club summer league was held on Sunday on Lough Barnagove and Corraneary Lake in preparation for the 3 day feeder festival this weekend. 14 anglers fished today’s match with Brenton Sweeney coming out on top with an impressive 12.320 kg of skimmers, hybrids and roach. 2nd was Stevie whyte with 8.880kg and 3rd was Neil mazurick with 5.820kg all from Barnagove.
Darren Fairhurst had the best weight from Corraneary with 5.580kg, the other section winner was Andy Chapman with 5.480kg.
The club will be using Skeagh lake along with the 2 lakes used today for the 3 day feeder festival on June bank holiday weekend.
Join the club…
Membership open to all is €30, €15 for OAP’s/Juniors.
To join contact Brenton Sweeney on 087 2510260 or mail [email protected]
We’ve had some cracking fishing on the reefs over the last week.
Trying some lure fishing with speed jigs for pollack and jigs for wrasse and we had some great results.
Wrasse hit the jigs too
The wrasse and pollack were absolutely smashing the metal jigs. We were fishing in very shallow water and I couldn’t believe how well they worked so we will now be stocking up on some of these brilliant lures.
Another pair of pollack
Plenty of mackerel about too and the tope are defiantly here as we got bitten off a couple of time while catching mackerel but unfortunately the weather wasn’t good enough to anchor. But we will be on the hunt for our first tope of the year during the week coming.
Go fishing…
To book fishing with John aboard the Brazen Hussy II, give him a call on 087 7571320
A regular day is between 9am- 6pm from either Rossaveal, Spiddal or Galway depending on species being sought after. Fishing on the inshore reefs for pollock, cod, ling, wrasse, conger eel and mackerel can be reached in 10 minutes from departure, while our offshore reef marks are within 45 minutes of departure. Our ground fishing for tope, spurdog, ray, bullhuss, turbot, plaice and the giant common skate can all be reached within the hour which ensures the most amount of time is spent fishing.
The shark season usually starts at the end of June and runs into late October, this is the ultimate angling adrenaline rush with these hard fighting blue and porbeagle sharks all being tagged and released safely.
Package deals available
Delphi looked great in the sunshine, but rain was badly needed last week
During the past 7 days the weather has been about as normal as it can be for May. Some areas were much drier than usual and others had average rain. It’s the same with sunshine, cloud and wind. As anglers we have to keep watching the weather, and then just get on with it. Conditions are rarely perfect, but it’s often surprising to find that the fish aren’t as fussy about the weather as we sometimes expect them to be…
Catch of the Week goes to Markus Kruse from Germany who had some great catch and release sea trout fishing on Lough Currane
In general salmon and sea trout fishing has not been easy as water levels have been pretty low. Fisheries in the south and west are worst affected, but the lakes and larger rivers have fished a little better. Lough Currane is not always easy, but one angler had great sea trout fishing in recent days. Markus Kruse may be the first angler to release sea trout on the lake under the new regulations there and he did so with style, winning Catch of the Week. The Munster Blackwater and the Moy both reported good fishing at times with the Moy seeing over 100 salmon logged by the various fisheries through the system. The good news for salmon anglers is the coming rain. Hopefully there will be enough in the right places to see some decent fishing over the long weekend.
There were mixed reports from Mask this week as weather conditions were far from ideal for mayfly fishing. Fly hatches were sparse with the best of the fly along the south eastern part of the lake. Anglers on Corrib are getting trout on a mix of dry and wet Mayfly and buzzer. Fishing on Sheelin is getting better all the time now, but the current weather might put a stop to current run of luck some anglers are enjoying.
There are a few coarse festivals underway at the moment and more will be fished over the Bank Holiday. Fishing has been very good at venues all around the country recently. The Blackwater fished well for the Fermoy Festival where Cedric Baldwin of Nottingham took first place with a total weight of 33lb 2ozs. Robertas Zilaitis won the Ivan Price Cup at Lough Garadice with 9.050kg. The Ballinamore Festival is now underway and daily catches to 15.080kg weighed in so far. Brenton Sweeney caught 12.320 kg of skimmers, hybrids and roach to win a CM Lakelands Feeder club summer league on Lough Barnagrove, a good sign for the up-coming 3 day feeder festival.
We had some good pike fishing reports this week, mostly from the midlands and further north. Chief amongst these was an exceptional catch of nearly 100lbs of pike was recorded by Jim McCabe in the Newbridge Pike Anglers competition at the weekend.
Sea angling from boat and shore has been yielding great results recently and we have good reports from all points of the compass. We have charter fishing reports in from Wicklow, Dungarvan, West Cork and Galway Bay. Specimen spurdogs feature in Wicklow, good ling, cod and more at Dungarvan. Skate to 196lb in tested the mettle of anglers in West Cork while speed jigging for pollack saw some great fish caught on Galway Bay. Shore anglers are getting good beach fishing in Wexford. West Cork makes it into the news again, this time for bass catches on plugs. Finally in Donegal big flounder made the day for a couple of anglers fishing a summer league match with the Killybegs Mariners.
Bluefin Tuna Data Collection Pilot Programme
Expressions of interest are now invited for Tuna CHART (CatcH and Release Tagging), a pilot Bluefin Tuna Data Collection Programme which will see 15 authorised angling vessels catch, tag and release Atlantic bluefin tuna for data collection purposes off the Irish coast. The new programme, which is being developed by Inland Fisheries Ireland and the Marine Institute in partnership with the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Department for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, will operate on a pilot basis in 2019. For more information see: www.fisheriesireland.ie/bluefin
By the way, if you have already applied but did not receive a confirmation email please contact [email protected]
Stay safe this bank holiday weekend
The June Bank Holiday is here and many will take the opportunity to wet a line. We expect that many fisheries will be busy as anglers make the most of their time off. Please be aware of the risks when you’re out on the water. If you are afloat, wading or fishing from the rocks please wear a life jacket. Many anglers think that if they are not at sea, they are not at risk. It is worth remembering that 62% of all drownings are inland, and on average 11 people drown in Irish waters every month. Don’t take risks, check the tides, weather and wear a life jacket.
And now the weather…
Friday will be a wet day in the west and north with spells of persistent and heavy rain. The south and east will be drier and brighter again. Later in the day the rain will move eastwards and it will become mainly dry in the west. Highest temperatures of 15 to 22 degrees, warmest in the south and east. Southwest winds will be moderate to fresh. It will stay unsettled and will gradually become cooler over the bank holiday weekend. Saturday is likely to start out mostly dry but patchy outbreaks of rain will soon push up from the south during the morning in a light southerly airflow. Top temperatures will range between 14 and 18 degrees. A more persistent spell of rain will move in from the Atlantic during Saturday night, heavy for time, especially about higher in the west. Rain will gradually give way to sunshine and showers during Sunday morning and early afternoon, but some heavy bursts are likely in Ulster and northwest Connacht. It will be less humid with top temperatures of around 14 to 18 degrees but it will feel cooler in the fresh and gusty westerly wind, strong along Atlantic coasts. Scattered showers will continue in the west and north on Sunday night, but elsewhere will become mostly dry with good clear spells. Monday will be a cool and bright day with scattered showers. Turning cooler with top temperatures around 13 to 16 degrees in moderate westerly winds easing later. Not what most people had in mind for the long weekend but you’re sure to find a right spot if you go looking…
Adrian Duffy, IFI, reports that Aaron of AM Angling has had some great catches of pike in the Mid-Shannon area.
Aaron is new to the area but you would hardly think it looking at his catches last week. Aaron had 44 pike in 2 days with 8 doubles up to 103cm and 12lb.
These numbers are typical of the fishing in the area recently with Aaron getting in around those figures almost every weekend.
Go fishing…
AM Pike Guiding caters for the seasoned pike hunter as well as the novice angler. We operate by bank and by boat. Give us a call for rates and bookings.
![Rainbow trout](/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DSC9872-480x431.jpg")
![landing a fish](/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DSC9879-480x610.jpg")
![Declan with a 40cm flounder](/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Declan-with-a-40cm-flounder-480x640.jpg")
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![Christopher with a 41cm flounder](/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Christopher-with-a-41cm-flounder-480x864.jpg")
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![megrim](/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/61152641_1353794821440800_1133739716806443008_n-480x640.jpg")
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![Festival catch](/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/61354447_2855142054512654_1847370995715801088_n-480x640.jpg")
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![Brenton Sweeney](/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/60971413_1657778104365950_5325951749905711104_n-480x640.jpg")
