The Frei party reported 12 grilse caught on fly, worm & spinner
Monday 22nd to Sunday 28th May 2017.
Once again, water levels were low all week on the Drowes this week. Allied to bright sunny weather for the main part, conditions were challenging. Despite this, there were good numbers of salmon recorded for the week, mainly grilse.
The Frei party reported 12 grilse caught on fly, worm & spinner
On Monday, Bruno Woodland recorded a 4lb grilse caught on worm from the Eel Weir.
On Tuesday, Brian McGerr reported a 4lb grilse caught on a fly from Corry.
On Wednesday, Paul Rippingale registered a 3lb grilse caught on prawn from Red Roof. Urs Frei recorded a 5lb grilse caught on fly from Corry. Andrew Quinn caught 2 grilse weighing 3lb each caught on a fly from the Blackwater and the Eel Weir with one of these being released again and Owen White accounted for a 5lb grilse caught on worm from Two Islands.
On Saturday, Paul Rippingale reported a further grilse weighing 4lb caught on prawn from the Blackwater. The Beziet party recorded 6 grilse caught for their week on fly weighing from 3 to 7lb. The Frei party reported 12 grilse caught on fly, worm & spinner weighing from 3 to 7lb. The Baeder party logged 4 grilse caught on spinner & worm. There were a number of other grilse caught of which we await full details.
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River Drowes
The Drowes Fishery is one of Ireland’s premier spring salmon and grilse fisheries. The river is some 5 miles in length, with over 70 named pools, flowing from Lough Melvin at Lareen Bay and entering the sea at Tullaghan, just outside Bundoran. The Drowes has a wide variety of water suitable for all fishing methods, including several miles of good fly water and deeper slower moving pools suitable for spinning and bait fishing.
For information and bookings on the Drowes Fishery & Lough Melvin see http://www.drowessalmonfishery.com Tel: 071 9841055 (8am to 12 noon). Mob: +353 (0) 87 8050806
Eileen Carroll in the Macroom office reports that 5 salmon landed in club and open waters on the Lee. The best was a 13½lbs salmon landed at the Kingsley Weir by a local angler on a prawn.
RIVER LEE ESB FISHERY INNISCARRA
Last Wednesday a salmon weighing 16lbs was reported, landed by a local angler.
Go fishing…
The River Lee drains a catchment of 484 square miles of which much is taken up by two large reservoirs. Salmon Angling is confined to an 8 mile stretch from Inniscarra dam to Cork city.
Inniscarra Fishery
This salmon fishery is located between Cork City and the dam at Inniscarra (9 miles). The fishery is run by the ESB (Electricity Supply Board) and an ESB permit is required. There is a fair run of fish with a very good grilse run dependent on water. Permits can be purchased on site from Dan O’Riordan, ESB Inniscarra; 087-9983879.
Lee Salmon Anglers Club
The Lee Salmon Anglers club was established in 1967. It was formed by a group of anglers interested in protecting and promoting the sport of salmon and trout angling on the river Lee. Day tickets available: http://www.leesalmonanglers.ie/
Paddy Halpin, IFI Limerick, reports on the salmon fishing on the Feale…
After a very long dry spell with water levels very low and no anglers out due to the conditions we had a small rise in the Feale last weekend and it brought out a few anglers and we had 7 Salmon reported for the weekend.
Shane and Mark
Lucky anglers were Mark Loughnane and his son Shane had a fish each on Sunday morning spinning and on the fly, the fish weighed in at 16lbs for Mark and 10lbs for Shane on the fly in the North Kerry Angler waters around Listowel town.
James Allman
James Allman had a nice fish of 8lbs caught on a single handed fly rod in the Finuge stretch of the Feale and also in the Finuge stretch Brendan Joy had a lovely fish of 8.5 lbs.
Brendan Joy
On Monday Michael Loughnane had a nice fish of 7.5lbs also caught in the Listowel area. Since then things have gone quiet as water levels have dropped back and we are badly in need of a good flood to clear the river and move a few more fish up.
Michael Loughnane
Go fishing…
The River Feale is among the outstanding salmon and sea trout rivers of Ireland. The River rises in the mountain district of North Co Cork and flows westerly for 75 km (46 miles) through the county towns of Abbeyfeale and Listowel and enters the sea south of Ballybunion. For the final 10 kms (6 miles) of its course, it is known as the Cashen River. Throughout its meandering journey to the sea it flows through a picturesque landscape of heather bog land, fertile valleys and rolling hills. Its main tributaries, flowing from both North and South, combine to add in excess of 160 kms (100 miles) of fishable waters.
About 50% of the main River Feale and the Smearlagh River is controlled by 5 angling clubs. These clubs are some of the best angling waters and each club offers day tickets for visiting anglers.
North Kerry Anglers Association issues daily & weekly permits for fishing on 9 miles of the Feale & Smearlagh rivers. Web: www.northkerryanglers.com
Killocrim/Finuge Angling Club
Killocrim/Finuge Angling Club control approximately 6.5 kms (4 miles) of water downstream of Listowel. Web:killocrimfinugefishingclub.com
Brosna / Mountcollins Angling Club
Brosna / Mountcollins Angling Club control about 13 kms (8 miles) of double bank fishing from below the Owveg River confluence, up past Mountcollins, to within a short distance of Ahuan Bridge. Tel: +353 68 44251
For any angling query please contact the Limerick office at [email protected] or by phone 061-300238.
Brown tags
Brown tag fishery: Under the salmon tagging regulations, this year the River Feale is designated as a brown tag fishery.The brown tags for the River Feale bear the code F3. Anglers must affix a brown tag along with a blue tag to any salmon which is retained. This means that salmon retained on the River Feale will have two tags attached. All brown tags (including 1st tag) will be issued from IFI officers ONLY . Please ring 087-7639236 to arrange to receive your first brown tag prior to commencing fishing
Additional brown tags will only be issued by IFI staff, they may be contacted at 087-7639236 and they will arrange to meet and issue an additional tag upon verification that the previous brown tag has been used, i.e. a fish has been caught and recorded in the logbook.
1 brown tag will be issued at a time to each angler.
If you acquired a 1 day or 21 day licence which has expired, or you have finished fishing for the season, and you have not used the brown tag then this must be surrendered to an IFI officer prior to departure by phoning 087-7639236. IFI would like to thank you for your co-operation with this.
If an angler has used his brown tag or doesn’t have a brown tag in his possession to use then he must fish catch and release methods, i.e.single barbless hook and no worms.
Brown tags will continue to be issued until the angling quota is reached.
To report a suspected pollution or poaching activity please contact the 24 hour hotline on 0818 34 74 24
Good Tench fishing on Town Lake Killeshandra at outflow and on Dereskit. Meanwhile good Roach, Perch and Bream are reported on Town Lake at Chalets and the deeps. Good mixed bags (30/40lb) of fish are being caught at Killykeen.
Some anglers fishing the Cootehill area report good Bream and Roach on the Dromore River with good bags of fish being caught on Sillan.
Good mixed bags of fish are being bagged in the Arva/Gowna area, some up to 60lb with plenty of nice Bream. One angler fished for three days feeding same peg and reported good bags of Skimmers and Hybrids.
Brian Reidy (left) presents Aidan OHalloran with the Connacht Open Gold Medal for 2017. Congratulations Aidan!
Brian Reidy was in touch with the results of the Connacht Open Gold Medal competition, and second leg of the West Coast Shore League, held on Whitestrand beach, near Louisburgh last weekend. Lisdoonvarna Fanore club man Aidan O’Halloran was top rod again, taking his second win from two in the competition, with a nice mixed catch of 15 flounder and turbot for 341 points. Galway Bay SAC’s John Cunningham was second, with 8 fish for 241 points, Joe Chambers from Corrane SAC was third with 7 fish for 181 points. Ed Kilroy (Currane SAC) was 4th, while Cian Egan (Lisdoonvarna Fanore) was 5th.
Brian Reidy (left) presents Aidan OHalloran with the Connacht Open Gold Medal for 2017. Congratulations Aidan!
A nice pollack aboard the Brazen Hussy II skippered by John Fleming
Skipper John Fleming reports good fishing on the reefs lately in Galway Bay, with decent pollack coming aboard on every trip, and mackerel starting to show in better numbers. Pollack have been averaging 6-7lbs, with plenty of coalfish as well up to 5lbs+. John is encouraging his clients to enjoy fishing with lighter tackle, and small shads and leadheads on very light gear accounted for most of the fish – a very fun way to fish, and all gear provided on request.
A nice pollack aboard the Brazen Hussy II skippered by John Fleming
Small boat anglers have started landing tope, with one very big fish reported over the weekend, and John says he has availability over the bank holiday weekend and next week, with targeting ray and tope on the agenda. To book a day afloat, call John on 087 7571320.
A fine pollack with a nice cod, caught aboard the Brazen Hussy II
Osgur Grieve reports that following a rise in water levels on the 24th, regular visitor Will Wright (UK) caught his first salmon of the year on his second cast of the day! His fish came from the Upper Garden Pool and was caught on a Cascade. Will played his fish very carefully and was rewarded in the end with a fresh ranched springer of 7lbs 8oz.
Things were quieter for the rest of the week with the water levels dropping back to 0.66m as of Wednesday, before the rain forecast last night. We would expect to see the first of our grilse appearing over the next few weeks and hopefully any fresh rainfall we get will draw them into the system.
For fishing bookings you can call the fishery office on (095) 42382 or you can email [email protected] to avail of Will Wright with his 7.5lbs Erriff salmon
our reduced angling rates for 2017.
A brief note from Connemara, where fishery manager Terry Gallagher reports that low water levels have really hampered fishing at Costello so far this year, but despite the drought, Micheal Dillon, a member of Carraroe Angling Club caught the first salmon of the season, an 8lbs bar of silver on River Beat 1 last Friday, and lost another fish as well.
With some more broken and showery weather forecast, Costello may fish well in the coming weeks, as it traditionally gets a run of sea trout in June as well as a good number of salmon.
To book a rod, contact Terry at 087 2399988, or email [email protected]
Grilse have provided excellent sport this week, with 72 fish landed, and more as I looked out on the fishery half an hour ago and saw 3 anglers playing fish at the same time!
Among the lucky anglers this week were John Anderson, with 3 grilse to 6lbs on fly, Tipperary’s Jim Ryan with 2 grilse to 7lbs on fly, and Navan man Paul O’Malley, with 2 grilse on shrimp. John Murphy from Clare had 3 fish to 5.5lbs on fly, while local angler Bertie Lynch landed 2 grilse to 5.5lbs on shrimp. Northern Ireland man Davy McMurtry enjoyed his visit, landing 4 fish over 2 sessions to 7.5lbs on shrimp, Andrew Sheridan had 2 fish to 6lbs on fly, and UK visitor David Christie had 2 grilse to 7lbs on fly.
Local angler Sean O’Toole had 2 fish to 6.5lbs on the fly, Northern angler Christy Lynam also had 2 grilse on fly, and local musician and banjo maestro Enda Scahill had his first salmon of 2017, a nice 6lbs fresh grilse on fly. Limerick man Martin Kiely caught 3 grilse to 5lbs on fly and shrimp, Tuam angler Louis Brennan had 2 grilse on shrimp, and Westmeath man Liam Gilsenan had 3 grilse to 5lbs on fly.
Moycullen angler Neil Spellacy had a great day on Saturday, landing 5 grilse, losing another and meeting quite a few more fish as well. The best fish of the week was the 11lbs salmon taken by local angler John McCarthy.
There appears to be a good run of grilse coming in on every tide now, and with one gate open, conditions are perfect for fishing, especially for fly anglers.
