Water levels have recovered somewhat from the half-gate, almost-drought conditions of last week. With one gate open, conditions are perfect for fly angling, and a few early grilse have provided anglers with sport this week, as well as a few springers. Colman Counihan landed a 9.5lbs fish on fly, while Salthill man Dave Lenihan had a 7.5lbs salmon on shrimp. Gerry Kelly landed fish of 10.5 and 4.5lbs on shrimp, while Deam Armstrong took a 4.5lbs grilse on fly. D. Mulligan landed grilse of 5 and 5.5lbs on shrimp, J. O’Brien had a 5lbs grilse on fly, and Dave Lenihan had another 4.5lbs grilse, this time on fly. Gordon Sweetman landed a lovely 11lbs springer on shrimp, while annual French visitor Remy Gateau landed a fine 7lbs springer on shrimp. Remy’s friend Pascal Schmitt also had a small grilse on shrimp, while regular angler Michael Leonard had a lovely 10lbs fish on the fly.
With grilse starting to come in, even on the small tides this week, and a few spring fish also providing sport, prospects in Galway look good for the coming weeks.
Gerry Moran with a lovely 4lbs trout from Lough Mask
Ronan Cusack has mixed reports from Mask this week, as the mayfly make their first real appearance of 2017. Decent hatches of fly have been reported around the Saints Island / Ballykyne end of the lake and trout are beginning to respond.
Weather conditions varied from strong easterly winds and bright sunshine to flat calm over the week, which made for difficult fishing.
The calm conditions suited the buzzer anglers with some good bags reported, whereas the windy days provided some good fishing on wets in the shallows.
Westport Anglers fished for the Broddy Gibbons Cup on Sunday last in Tourmakeady, a competition supported by 26 club members. In first place was Toby Gibbons with 4 fish for 6.04lbs. Second place went to Ronan Gibbons with 3 fish for 5.07lbs and in third place was Tommy Carroll who also had 3 fish for 5.02lbs. David Lennon had the heaviest fish which weighed 3.06lbs.
Gerry Moran from Ballinrobe had a cracking 4lbs trout on Saturday last in challenging conditions. Local guide Michael Vahey was out most days last week and averaged 3 fish each day, mainly on wet flies. A group of 12 anglers staying at Hall’s Angling Centre (www.lakeshoreholidays.com) had roughly 50 trout for 3 days last week. Ray Broughton reported good fishing on wet and dry mayflies in the southern end of the lake over the weekend (best fish 2.9lbs). Oliver Wickham from Partry had 3 nice fish on wets on Sunday (best fish 1.75lbs).
Anglers who are out regularly have reported releasing large numbers of undersize fish on a daily basis. All anglers are asked to handle these fish carefully (wet hands) and return them to the water as soon as possible.
Water levels on Mask are also extremely low at the moment, so extra care should be taken when moving about. Some rocks are closer to the surface now and anglers may get caught out, so take care!
Gerry Moran with a lovely 4lbs trout from Lough Mask
Willie Roche with his best fish of the day, a beautiful Lough Corrib trout
Most of our regular contributors are busy fishing or guiding this week, and reports are hard to come by today. What is known, however, is that mayfly fishing has been extremely patchy on Corrib over the last week. While the weather did “improve” from the hot sunny days of last week, with more southwesterly winds and showers, it has still remained very bright, and mayfly hatches have been patchy to say the least. Some good fishing was reported at times, particularly in the southern part of the lake, with some anglers enjoying good sport around the Lime Island area. Lonan O’Farrell from Galway fished with his dad Pat, and they had a purple patch on Sunday afternoon, with 12 fish to the boat in 3 hours, averaging 1-2.5lbs, but on the last drift Lonan had his Pearly Green Dabbler taken by a more sizable fish which gave a great fight, eventually coming to the net to reward Lonan with a 6lbs beauty.
Lonan O’Farrell with a fine 6lbs trout off Corrib. The fish took a Pearly Green Dabbler
Also enjoying Corrib was Willie Roche, fishing with longtime friend Conor Ledwith. Conor sent in a great photo of Willie with his best trout, which Conor reckons took a dodgy looking wet fly. We infer that Conor was fishing dry fly and enjoyed less success!
Willie Roche with his best fish of the day, a beautiful Lough Corrib trout
Ted Wherry (087-4305957) from Mayfly Lodge, Ballynalty Bay has also enjoyed some good sport with guests over the last week, particularly to the buzzer in the calm weather before last weekend.
Fishing guide Ted Wherry with a fine Corrib trout caught in flat calm conditions
The Kilbeg Anglers “Murphy” Cup competition was fished on Sunday, with a good number of fish caught, and fish to over 2.5kgs recorded. The winner was Alan Henney, with 2 fish for 3.01kg. In second place was Emmet Greaney with 3 fish for 2.891kg, and Pat Murphy was third with 3 fish for 2.511kg.
Recovering trout – Catch and Release
Before the weather broke, Dave Egan from Clare enjoyed some cracking fishing on dry fly and buzzer, with 14 fish over the limit landed and released, including 12 on dry fly (small olive patterns and adult buzzer), and two on buzzer nymphs. 10 of the fish were in the 1.5-1.75lbs range, but the other 4 all weighed between 4.5-6lbs
A beautiful specimen of a trout, caught by Clare angler Dave Egan
The forecast over the next few days is for unsettled, broken weather, cool at times, but staying showery, which anglers are hoping will bring on mayfly hatches and improve the fishing. I hope to have more reports next week of better hatches and angling!
Trout anglers fishing out of boats from Fisherman’s Paradise in Scarriff are reporting mixed fishing on Lough Derg. One boat had consistently good fishing on Wednesday and Thursday during good hatches of fly. All came to the spent – even those caught mid morning and through the afternoon.
Middle of the day, but fell for a spent
Friday saw blizzards of spent coming out early before the sudden change in conditions. Unfortunately the fish did not really respond to the massive fall of gnats. On Saturday fishing was very tough. The popular Tommie Giblin Memorial saw over 60 boats fishing, but only 9 fish weighed in. Although one boat had 7 fish all about 1.5lb, most struggled to meet trout. The trout seemed to have forsaken the spent and were moving to greenfly again.
Go fishing…
Fishermen’s Paradise
As the name suggests Fishermen’s Paradise provide “Fishing Services“; that include boat hire, landing nets (for those big fish), life jackets and helpful advice on the best places to help you catch the best fish, and why not your trophy fish! Self catering holidays homes also available.
A series of public meetings will be held over the coming weeks to discuss water bodies in County Tipperary in the context of the draft River Basin Management Plan (2018-2021). Are you are interested in water quality, biodiversity, heritage, water based recreation and tourism? Are there issues affecting your local water body, be it a stream, river or lake? Then this is an opportunity for you to have your say.
Venue
Date
Time
Abbey Court Hotel, Nenagh
Thursday – 1st June
7.30 pm
Anner Hotel, Thurles
Tuesday – 6th June
7.30 pm
Excel Centre, Tipperary
Tuesday – 13th June
7.30 pm
Clonmel Park Hotel, Clonmel
Wednesday – 14th June
7.30 pm
Tirry Centre, Barrack Street, Fethard
Tuesday – 27th June
7.30 pm
All Welcome – Tea / Coffee provided
The public meetings will outline what is included in the draft Plan along with details on how you can input into the final plan. The Waters & Communities Office aims to get local communities more actively involved in protecting and enhancing local water bodies. The meetings listed below will provide an opportunity for you to influence policy and local programme measures and projects.
Ruairí Ó Conchúir, Community Waters Officer, and Dr. Fran Igoe, Regional Co-ordinator, will present information on the draft Plan and facilitate a discussion on issues emerging including funding opportunities for local community projects. The meetings will be an important networking opportunity. For more info contact 0761 06 5262 or info@lawco.ie For information on water quality in your area or to find out what local communities are doing around Ireland, check out www.catchments.ieand sign up for the free Catchments Newsletter. www.watersandcommunities.ie Waters and Communities Office
Black sole - caught and released on Donegal Bay and Catch of the Week
Stefan Martin from Killybegs Mariners SAC reports on the fishing around Donegal Bay which is continuing to provide…
Black sole
11 May: It just gets better for our species hunter Christopher catching a lovely black sole today from the shore on Donegal Bay. A great capture and release for the happy angler great stuff.
Ray
13 May: An amazing few hours fishing Donegal Bay sand banks for Mariners members out with Killybegs Fishing Trips catching all sorts of species and some fantastic big Turbot doubling over the light tackle during the enjoyable trip.
Turbot
A rare whirlpool on our starboard side was occurring and then exploded with splashes as the mackerel attacked whatever was making the whirlpool like a sink emptying out, we steamed over and cast in some feathers and caught fresh mackerel and noticed a pink cloud in the spinning water, it was a cloud of Krill that the mackerel were balling up. Big Basking Shark fins lazed around the surface further out. Slow drifts over the banks landed some nice thornabck rays and spotted rays and dabs and dogs and big turbot non stop action and even picking up wrasse and pollack and ling over the edges, just another great adventure on the bay a really enjoyable trip watching all bursting into life again.
This is fishing…
16 May: An array of species the last few days including a huge Conger for Gavin well over 30lbs estimated before it was released and some nice turbot and black sole and rocklings and dabs and corkwing wrasse and ballan wrasse and gobys mixing it all up like the current weather a bit of everything keeps it all interesting. We even slipped in a trip to the stunning north coast for an evenings fishing great to get out.
Big shore caught conger. Unhooked and ready for release.
Go fishing…
Join the club
Killybegs Mariners sea angling club, Co Donegal runs a shore league, boat competitions and angling trips around Ireland doing the sport we love.
On Sat 13th May a party of anglers from Co. Cavan set out from Killala Harbour for a day’s fishing. The morning was dull morning with light southerly winds but conditions changed in the afternoon to fresh southerly winds and thunderstorms. Fishing was slow at first with only few small pollack and coalfish being caught and returned. Even moving to another spot didn’t improve things as if the fish had moved away out to deeper water. However, as the day progressed things changed drastically as if someone had turned on a switch. For about two hours good numbers of ling, cod, Pollack and coalfish were landed with some into double figures. The catch of the day, however, was an unusually big common squid which took a small silver pirk.
Unusually big common squid taken on a pirk
To book a day’s fishing in Killala Bay contact Donal Kennedy on +353 (0)086 8174509 or visit www.dkennedyangling.ie.
Braving the rain: Kenny Hutchinson, Northern Ireland, with a fine 4 lbs. Lough Arrow brown
Anglers on Lough Arrow enjoyed some good fishing over the past week and ventured out in good numbers particularly over the weekend. The early part of the week saw some bright sunshine with better conditions. However, towards the weekend rain and stronger southerly winds affected angling somewhat. Mayfly were hatching all week with falls of spent in suitable conditions.
Amongst the successful anglers were Simon Steel with a nice 3 lbs. 5 oz. trout on a spent mayfly pattern and Damien Cogan who had 4 fish averaging 2 lbs. Martin McDaid caught and released 16 fish over 3 days ranging from 0.75 lbs to 3.0 lbs. Kenny Hutchinson from Coleraine braved the wet conditions and was rewarded with a fine four pounder which he released. Kenny took the beautiful fish on a dry mayfly tied by himself.
Braving the rain: Kenny Hutchinson, Northern Ireland, with a fine 4 lbs. Lough Arrow brown
On Sunday, Lough Arrow Fish Preservation Association & District Angling Club held its annual Mayfly Competition. Fifty-two senior anglers and 6 juveniles took part in the event. A total of 15 trout were recorded and results were as follows:
1st Alan Gallagher 3.306lb; 2nd Keith Smith 3.280lb; 3rd Luke O’Connell 2.942lb
Jonathan Smith, Cavan, with his fine 10 lbs. Ridge Pool salmon
Salmon fishing on the River Moy continued to be slow during the past week. However, slightly wetter conditions resulted in rising water levels for a time and improved angling somewhat.
The Moy Fishery produced a total of 7 fish for the week including a fine 10 pounder for Jonathan Smith, Cavan, on the Ridge Pool. Also on the Ridge Pool, John Maloney, Galway, had 7.5 lbs. salmon. Both fish were caught on fly. Swedish visitor, Per Eriksson, caught the first salmon of the season on the Cathedral Beat. Per’s 4.5 lbs. fish took a fly and was carefully released.
Jonathan Smith, Cavan, with his fine 10 lbs. Ridge Pool salmonA happy John Maloney, Galway, together with Moy Fishery Ghillie, John Howley
On Gannon’s, Dorian Clemenceau from Switzerland scored with a double figure fish weighing 11 lbs. on prawn. There were also a few fish reported from the Foxford Fishery and Rinanney. On Cloongee, a party of French anglers guided by Thierry Coulm enjoyed good fishing using bubble & fly. Amongst the successful anglers were Beuz Pesked with a 6 lbs. fish and Jean Jacques Daurat who landed a ten pounder.
Kit Dunne of Wicklow Boat Charters tells us they had a few firsts last week. His anglers got their First Hound for 2017, a cracking 19… ..inch fish. Not a specimen but a start.
A 15 inch fish to get the hound season started
The full list of firsts was first hound, tub gurnard, grey gurnard, dab and dog for his English guests Ian and Andrew.
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.
