Kevin Lyons of Melview Lodge in Longford reports on the coarse fishing in the Longford area…
Stephen with a good catch of Bream and Hybrids.
UK anglers Stephen and Dennis were again over in Ireland for their annual fishing trip, and once again decided to stayed with Kevin and Jane at Melview Fishing Lodge in Longford. The guys are no strangers to Melview Fishing Lodge and by now know the waters and how to fish them. On arrival it was bags in rooms and straight out the door to fish one of the waters I had selected for them to start the week.
Nice Tench for Dennis
fishing the place cold by the end of the session it looked promising for the next day. It was out with the bath and in with the Prebait, this was repeated on just a couple of venues which see all the hard work and preparation pay off for them. They caught some cracking Bream and Tench along with some Good Roach and Hybrids.
Good mixed catch of Bream, Hybrids and Roach for Dennis
The best method was the feeder using a number of various hook baits, joint weights at the end of the sessions were well over the 100lb and well deserved it was for all their efforts. Well done guys and thanks for the company, see you next year.
Kevin has over 30 years experience of fishing in Ireland and is happy to offer a guided tour on your arrival, and to advise where the on-form waters in the area are. We can arrange your bait order so it’s here when you arrive. Melview offers free use of 17ft lake boats with engines to our guests (pay fuel only) and Kevin is happy to assist with any pre-baiting requests. Maps and other information regarding fishing are also available.
5/9/18 All the Sea Trout head lines are as follows, UK Anglers Mr. David Burton and Mr. Bill Shackleton, while fly fishing with their Gillie Mr. Tom O’Shea and at www.flyfishingatloughcurrane.com caught and released 5 juniors on the drift. Now we head for the South side and the hired out boat department of www.lakelandhouse.com Anglers Mr. David Delap and Mr. John Delap, caught 3 fine Sea Trout on the fly all in the 1 ¾ lbs. class and they also caught a few small ones. Wind Light variable and overcast with misty rain at times. Yesterday’s weather, maximum air temperature 16.4 .
C&R By David – To Fight another day!
6/9/18 All Sea Trout headlines come from the North Shore and the Bungalow, UK Anglers Mr. David Burton and Mr. Bill Shackleton, while fly fishing with their Gillie Mr. Tom O’Shea and at www.flyfishingatloughcurrane.com caught and released 5 juniors again today on the drift and for the rest of the Currane Anglers it was all quiet on the SW front. Wind NW and overcast. Yesterday’s weather, maximum air temperature 15 c.
7/9/18 Lough Currane was more on the quiet side today, but at least UK Anglers Mr. David Burton and Mr. Bill Shackleton, while fishing with their Gillie Mr. Tom O’Shea and at www.flyfishingatloughcurrane.com finished their weeks Salmon and Sea Trout fly fishing holiday at lunch time today and Bill finished off his trip by catching a fine Junior just before leaving at lunchtime, their total catch for the week was 3 Grilse on the World famous Butler Pool and at www.watervillegolflinks.ie and 21 Sea Trout On Lough Currane, their fly line of the week was a Midge Tip, and fly of the week was a Dunkeld. Now for the rest of today’s manipulations it was all quiet on the SW front. Wind SW light to fresh. Yesterday’s weather, maximum air temperature 15.0 c.
8/9/18 Lough Curran was on the wild side with a strong SW wind blowing down the lake, wind or no wind a few boats did venture out and hoping to get on a crest of a wave by catching a Wild Atlantic Salmon, well that’s exactly What Tralee Angler Mr. Eugene Ferris did while trolling with his Gillie Mr. Neil O’Shea of www.oshealoughcurrane.com caught a fine 4 lbs. Grilse, for the rest of the Currane Anglers it was all quiet on the SW front. Wind as already stated and overcast and raining for the best part of the day. Yesterday’s weather, maximum air temperature 16.4c.
9/9/18 UK Anglers the Hampshire Hogs are back to the Waterville Fishery and were in good form as usual today and for good reason, Mr. Pete Ruffle and expert skittles player as proven today as he skittled his fellow anglers in the Salmon and Sea Trout fly department, by catching a fine 5 lbs. Salmon and finished with 6 Sea Trout ranging from Junior class up to 2 lbs. While fishing with his Gillie Mr. Dominick McGillicuddy of www.fishingwithdom.com and out [email protected] and www.cliffordbandb.com Staying with Waterville Boats and at [email protected] and the Hampshire Hogs, Mr. Nigel Henshaw, while fly fishing with Gillie and at [email protected] caught two Sea Trout ranging from 1 ½ up to 2 ½ lbs. I will finish today’s notes by saying going by my phone this evening that that Hampshire Hogs scuttled the rest of the Currane anglers. Just for the record, yesterday Cork Angler Mr. Martin Coveny, fishing out of www.bayviewhotelwaterville.com caught a fine Salmon on the Commeragh River. Wind West light to fresh with reasonable cloud cover. Yesterday’s weather, maximum air temperature 16.4 c. and made a good flood.
10/9/18 The Hampshire Hogs brought Waterville Fishery alive in all departments today, so lets go straight to the North Shore and Waterville Boats and at [email protected] First to the Salmon department, Hampshire Hog Mr. Pete Ruffle the Skittle Man was in great form again today, while trolling with his Gillie and at [email protected] and fishing out of www.cliffordbandb.com caught a cracker of a 10 lbs. Salmon. Now we stay with the Hampshire Hogs and for good reason, Hampshire Hog Mr. Nigel Henshaw, fishing out of [email protected] and www.cliffordbandb.com was in cracking form in the Sea Trout fly department, while fly-fishing with his Gillie Mr. Dominic McGillicuddy and at www.fishingwithdom.com caught 6 Juniors. Now we head up stream to the Word Famous Butler Pool and at www.watervillegolflinks.ie Hampshire Hog Mr. Trevor Dewberry and fishing out of www.cliffordbandb.com while fly-fishing caught a fine 4 lbs. Salmon Grilse and finished his day off with 3 Sea Trout and in the words of Trevor’s Gillie and Commander-in-chief Mr. Michael O’Sullivan and at www.watervillegolflinks.ie The Hampshire Hogs had a cracker of a day and considering the wild conditions on the Lake we certainly deserve a liquid libation after today’s performance and there’s no argument to that. Wind SW and strong and overcast, some of the boats left the Lake at lunchtime. Yesterday’s weather, maximum air temperature 16.5 c.
11/9/18 The Hampshire Hogs again take all the Game Fishing headlines, all I can say they were Skittled in the Salmon department, but it was a different story in the Sea Trout fly department, So lets get down to today’s facts and we will start on the Upper Lakes and Copal Lake, Hampshire Hog Angler, Mr. Trevor Dewberry and fishing out of www.cliffordbandb.com caught and released 7 Sea Trout, ranging from Junior Class up to 2 lbs. while fishing with his Gillie Mr. Dominic McGillicuddy and of www.fishingwithdom.com Now we head downstream to Lough Currane and Waterville Boats and at [email protected] Hampshire Hog Angler, Mr. Peter Skittles, fishing out of www.cliffordbandb.com and fishing with his Gillie at [email protected] caught two Sea Trout on the fly. Staying in the Sea Trout fly department, Hampshire Hog Angler, Mr. Nigel Henshaw and fishing out of www.cliffordbandb.com caught and released 1 Sea Trout, while fishing with his Gillie Mr. Michael O’Sullivan and at [email protected] Wind WSW light to fresh and variable with good cloud cover. Yesterdays weather, maximum air temperature 16.6 c.
We are delighted to report that Professor Ken Whelan has started his survey work on the small streams, which discharge into Lough Currane, as the first part of our Small Streams Conservation Project. The project is designed to assess those streams, which are most favoured by sea trout, for suitable spawning gravels and to highlight areas where additional gravel would be advantageous to the spawning effort. Professor Whelan’s report will inform the proposed second phase of the project where local volunteers will be transporting gravels to the identified locations before the onset of the sea trout spawning season in November.
Ken Whelan instream
It is of course impossible to cover all the streams in this 135 square kilometer catchment at this point in time, but the current project will act as a pilot scheme to inform future and ongoing work to these critical spawning streams in the Cummeragh Catchment. The stock survey work carried out by IFI in 2014 identified the distribution and density of sea trout fry in the various streams and we are using the data from this document, together with our own red count survey carried out in November / December 2017, to target those streams which appear to have been the most productive before the recent crash in our sea trout stocks.
It is clear to us that these, often surprisingly small, streams act as ‘spawning channels’, where sea trout run up them on a flood, spawn and then promptly drop back into the lake before returning to sea. In this catchment the fry produced in these streams very quickly vacate them and drop back into the lakes, which then become their ‘nursery areas’, feeding on phytoplankton until they grow big enough to assimilate invertebrates. There are very few areas actually in these small streams, which are used as ‘nurseries’. The IFI survey showed this fact in detail, where the numbers of 1+ fry in the streams was extremely low compared with 0+ fry.
We are looking forward to the conclusion of the report and to the help and advice we will be having from the Wild Trout Trust in the second part of the project.
The Waterville Lakes & Rivers Trust, formed by concerned volunteers in 2016, is one of the new Rivers Trusts to be set up in Ireland and is currently aspiring to Charitable Status. Its remit is to protect the fresh and coastal waters of the Iveragh Peninsula.
The rivers and lakes of Waterville drain a large catchment and are regarded by many as the foremost Salmon and Sea-Trout fishery in the country. The lake system is well developed with access to boats and guides being readily available to the tourist angler. The Sea-Trout caught here are renowned for their size and quantity. For more details see
Temperatures have slackened in the Southern Eastern RBD at present and air temperatures have returned to a more normal range for the time of year. Day time temperatures are currently ranging between 15 and 21 degrees Celsius. Some rain has fallen in the area but water levels in the rivers of the South Eastern River Basin District have not significantly increased yet.
Trout fishing has picked up a little over the past two weeks with more Anglers returning to the rivers in the area to fish. The feedback has been mixed with most Anglers stating that this year’s fly hatch has been almost too good! One Angler who fishes the Marlfield area in Clonmel told fishery officers that there’s about a 20-minute window in the evenings where Trout are rising. Another Angler said that he has been doing well fishing the Sir Thomas’s Bridge area in Clonmel with brown sedges again in the evenings. There’s a lovely rise of trout appearing below the Swiss Cottage in the evening around 7pm. Trout are taking olives and brown sedges. Trout fishing during day time hours is quiet.
Ballyshunnock lake is continuing to fish well, the coarse fishing has been consistently good. The club’s juniors were back in action at the reservoir recently for the second competition of the year. The Rudd were once again obliging with one of the recently stocked rainbows also appearing.
Tom Power improved on the last match’s third place to put 6lb 5oz of Rudd on the scales for a commanding win.
Runner up was Philip Dunwoody with an all Rudd net of 3lb 11oz.
Caoiamh Purcell took third with a 3lb 1oz net which included a lively 1 1/2 lb rainbow trout.
Congratulations to everyone who took part.
There will be a third match at Oaklands lake, New Ross in late September or early October. All juniors who are members of the lake are welcome to join.
One of the juvenile anglers that took part in the Ballyshunnock juvenile Angling competition recently (Ballyshunnock, 2018)
Water levels were quite good but weather was very mixed with angling effort up and down during the week. A total of 243 salmon were reported caught and were spread out across the system. On the Moy Fishery Ridge Pool, Mark Follis ,NI, had a small fish on worm. On the Weir Pool, Ghillie John Howley also had a small fish on the fly, while on the Cathedral Beat Mark and Ciaran McDermott, NI, caught a fish each on spinner. Further downstream on the Spring Wells, Martin Weige from Germany landed a nice 3 lbs. sea trout on the fly. Upstream, Mark Giddis ,NI, had an 18 lbs. fish on spinner on the Coolcronan Fishery. Also on the Coolcronan Fishery, Manfred Müller, Germany, caught a 4.5 lbs. fish on prawn. On the Foxford Fishery, Richard Parry Jones released a good fish of 6 to7 lbs. which took a spinner. On the Cloongee Fishery, Matthieu Hourmant, France, caught a 6 lbs. salmon on spinner, while on East Mayo John Hanaghan, Castlebar, landed 3 fish of 4, 4.5 & 5 lbs. over three days on fly. Bernard Mannion, Roscommon, had two fish averaging 4 lbs. which he released and Thomas Pleger, Germany, caught a fine seven pounder also on fly.
German fly angler Martin Weige with a fine sea trout from the Moy Fishery’s Spring Wells Beat
Congratulations to the Garda Siochana Coarse Angling Club return home triumphant with Gold from the European Police Championships in the Netherlands. The competition saw eight European teams fish the Noordhollands Canal on Fri 7th & Sat 8th September. Team Ireland won the Gold medal for the second consecutive year with Donncha Maguire winning individual Bronze. England finished second for Silver and the Hungarians Bronze. Dave Stockton from England won the individual title. Ireland will host the championships in 2019.
Lake O’Flynn & District Angling Association recently held there confined club event McCarthy cup on Sunday, Sept 2nd. Joe Fitzharris reports…. McCarthy Cup l/r Michael McDermott, Mark Malone, Shane Stephens(winner McCarthy cup (2018) Ronan Baggott club Chairperson.
There was a smaller than usual turn out for this event with 9-boats (18) anglers competing and returning 13 Trout in excellent angling conditions. Most worryingly on the day was the presence of lots of Roach and Perch which do nothing to enhance the location as a trout fishery. Fishing was very slow on the day with the winning fish hooked and landed at 5.20 pm by very popular winner Shane Stephens, fly pattern a secret, weight of Trout 2-lb 06.2 oz.
Results as follows,
McCarthy Cup winners (2018)
Shane Stephens Fish = 2-lb 06.2 oz,
Derek Madden Fish = 2-lb 00.4 oz,
Anthony Doyle Fish = 1-lb 15.8 oz.
Michael McDermott club Treasurer, Mark Malone, Derek Madden (second place) Mccarthy cup, Ronan Baggott. Michael McDermott, Mark Malone club Secretary, Anthony Doyle (third place) McCarthy cup, Ronan Baggott.
Despite the extremely low water levels in both the little Brosna and Camcor a small stock of croneen are managing to make their way into the river systems. Small shoals of croneen can be spotted below Birr in the little Brosna and few more fish can be seen above the town in the Camcor. This low water has resulted in fish been extremely spooky and reluctant to feed freely. Because of the conditions a fine tippet such as 7x is a necessity paired with small flies fished using a dry dropper configuration. The majority of fish being caught have been taken on a size 20 olive perdigon nymph in slow water fished approximately 5 feet under a size 16 parachute olive. The average size of croneen is varied between 1.25 lb to 1.75lb, but fish have been landed up to 2.75 lbs comfortably using the above method. Fishing has been consistent the past few weeks and bags of 3 and 4 croneen a day with plenty of resident river trout up to .75lbs . All fish caught were released safely back to the water
Padraig Carroll was back in Tullamore again and tells us that as the temperature cools down the bream and tench fishing is still going well on the grand canal at there. Float fishing maggots with groundbait is catching regular 20lb bags in short sessions.
