Farmers advised of to be mindful of protecting water quality during the slurry spreading season
February 1 marked the opening of the slurry spreading season and there are many legal conditions and restrictions about the manner in which this highly polluting but valuable fertiliser should be handled and utilised by the agricultural sector. These restrictions are enforceable by the Local Authorities and are stipulated in the EU (Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters) Regulations 2014, more commonly known as the GAP Regulations… Leitrim Observer, 04/04/17. Read the full article ‘Farmers advised of to be mindful of protecting water quality during the slurry spreading season‘.
Farmers advised of to be mindful of protecting water quality during the slurry spreading season
Cork town lands big haul with world angling contest
The World Youth Coarse Fishing Championships are to be held in Cork this year and will prove a major boost to the local economy as 5,000-plus bed nights are being booked for teams and supporters attending the event. More than 50 teams of young anglers will take part in the championships which will be held in August at Inniscarra Reservoir, Coachford… Irish Examiner, 04/04/17. Read the full article ‘Cork town lands big haul with world angling contest‘.
Cork town lands big haul with world angling contest
I can never get over the difference of the speed of time. I find it hard to fathom how quickly this year’s close season has gone by. Last year if you remember I was complaining on how time seemed to have stood still and the open season couldn’t come quick enough. There are probably some simple answers to this, but for me, I cannot get my head around it… Leitrim Observer, 03/04/17. Read the full article ‘Inland Fisheries launch sponsorship scheme‘.
All April Fools Day jokes aside, now we can move on to real time… new member Pa O’Connell caught his first ever salmon on Sunday and what a way to open the account in style! He holds the bragging rights after landing his 11lbs sea liced bar of silver on the fly. Well done Pa!!
Pa O’Connell’s salmon weighed in at 11lb
Current water level at Bandon Bridge is 0.222m
Go Fishing…
For the new year, Bandon Angling Association have set up a new website which you can view here. A new guiding service has been launched in conjunction with Jason Nash, Peter Aspinwall and Phil Dewey. Details of the guiding service are provided on the website and they are looking forward to making memories and enhancing people’s fishing experiences on the river Bandon. Web: https://bandonangling.com/
Vincent Appleby reports from Lough Currane where the warm weather of the weekend revitalised the fishing…
30/3/17 Lough Currane was on the quiet side today after yesterday’s cracker of a day and for good reason. It was fairly wild out there today with a strong SW wind blowing. There were six boats out and by all accounts it was hard, especially in the fly department, reason being its damn hard to hold a boat for long in those rough conditions. So today all anglers are exonerated for not procuring a wild Atlantic Salmon. Wind as already stated, overcast with heavy showers. Amount of rainfall yesterday 6.7mm.
31/3/17 There were just 3 boats out manipulating and sadly there was no stimulation in their flies or their lures on this day on Lough Currane. In other words My Noble Anglers failed miserably in their duties in all departments. Wind SW and overcast with heavy showers at times. Amount of rainfall yesterday 5.0mm. Maximum air temperature 12.9c.
1/4/17 As we all know today was April Fools day and my Noble Anglers take the Lough Currane Wild Atlantic Salmon April Fools plaque with honours! Need I say more! Wind North and gusty with reasonable cloud cover. Rainfall 5.2mm, maximum air temperature 12.6c. Just for the record there were 9 boats manipulating.
2/4/17 Straight to the Action and the trolling department. First thing this morning Mr. Peter Murphy, caught a fine 9 lbs. Salmon, while fishing with is Gillie. Now we head for the afternoon session. German Angler, and no stranger to the Waterville Fishery, Mr. Peter Rall caught a fine 9lbs. Salmon on the troll with his Gillie Mr. Bob Priestley.
Wind SW with good cloud cover, rainfall 0.1mm. Maximum air temperature 11.6c.
3/4/17 Lough Currane was at a standstill with a strong SW wind, but I say that with a stutter because one boat did venture out and I presume headed for the Mouth of the Commeragh for a bit of fly action. All I can report there was plenty of casts but no takers. In the words of the Gillie in question, Mr. Dominic McGillicuddy of www.fishingwithdom.com “No good and a bit rough and I was the only boat out” and that sums up today’s action. Wind as already stated and overcast with heavy rain at times and made a flood. Amount of rainfall 0.1mm. Maximum air temperature 11.7c. Just to let you know there is good news on sponsorship department, Inland Fisheries Ireland announces sponsorship for Kerry angling initiatives.
4/4/17 Wild yesterday and calm today and I will put it in a nutshell, my Noble Anglers failed miserably in their duties in all departments. Wind NE light to fresh with reasonable cloud cover. Amount of rainfall yesterday 21mm.
That is your ration from the last week on Lough Currane, from your Gillie and the Waterville Fishery, no spin no fly’s just facts. Vincent Appleby
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
Conditions early on in the month continued to be challenging with the Joe Stenning blanking in Wexford on March 9th. 5 members launched at Roches Point on Saturday 25th March fishing a rising tide in the sunshine and 14°C. Dry weather in the previous and consistent Northerly winds had removed a lot of the fresh water in the harbour and improved the water clarity.
Coalfish and Whiting on Sabikis
Anchoring at the Harbour Rock yielded small coalfish and dogfish on sabikis. The wind picked up to a consistent Easterly 14 knots with much stronger gusts so with kayaks broadside to the current anchoring was abandoned as the current increased. Drifting around the rock resulted in pollock, coalfish, mackerel and whiting.
Here comes the Navy
The tide was too fast for anchors to hold at the edge of the shipping channel at White Bay so the next stop, the rough ground around Buoy No. 3, resulted in small codling, mackerel, dogfish, herring and a single small dab while watching the USS Donald Cook leaving the harbour.
Hauling out
Sunday with the wind blowing a consistent 20-22 knots 2 anglers hugged the east shore to the shelter below the cliffs in White Bay. Mackerel, dogfish, flounder and sand eel brought the species count to 10 for the weekend. All small fish but a much improved result compared to February at the same venue.
Go fishing…
To find out more about Kayak Angling visit www.irishkayakangling.com and register on the forum. Membership is free and the forum is a great resource to learn about safety, venues and techniques. Experienced members will answer any questions you have and everyone is welcome to come to a meet to learn more before taking the plunge.
Please note that forecasts have led to a number of meets being postponed and/or relocated in the past for safety reasons. Details will be updated on the Forum, Facebook and Twitter as the year progresses.
Articles on beginning kayak angling are available at http://www.topfisher.eu/ and much of the advice on small boat angling is also transferrable to a kayak.
Christopher Defillon, Navan – making early season fishing look easy
‘There is no WiFi out here but we promise that you will not find a better connection’
Sheelin Angler
Sheelin’s irrepressible Andrius Bikelis
‘You either love Sheelin or you hate it, there is no in between’, these were the words spoken to me by an angler this week causing me momentarily to stop in my tracks. Admittedly Lough Sheelin produces a hefty mix of emotions for its anglers, above any other lake in Ireland this is the one that can produce limitless highs and plummeting lows but hate is an emotion that I personally don’t see for here. Undoubtedly this is a tough, challenging, inspiring and addictive stretch of limestone water so perhaps my angler is mixing up hate with frustration.
A big trout of 65cm is measured before release
This week spring moved on a notch, the time changed giving that extra stretch of evening light and day time temperatures rose into the double figures.
Christopher Defillon, Navan – making early season fishing look easy
There were some great trout caught on Sheelin for the week gone by, fish in indisputably beautiful condition, carrying weight and size, thick from head to tail. Looking at the wonderful photographs an angler would think that the trout were literally jumping into the boats here but don’t let this fool you, Lough Sheelin is a difficult and challenging lake to fish and although the lures are working well at the moment even the lure advocates work hard and long to get their catches.
Small is beautiful’ Ben Mackay, Scotland
Lough Sheelin is not an early lake, some trout lakes are but this one is not and fish in March and indeed April are hard to come by.
Romain, France guided by Christopher Defillon, March 27th
The Hatches
‘Tea time’
Essentially the angler fishing Lough Sheelin must find out where the fish are feeding and for the past week the majority appears to be still lying deep. This lake contains an abundance of food – plankton/asellus/gammarus/snails, fry and all sorts of invertebrates so the trout here have the luxury of not having to hunt for food – it’s all around them and with their sluggishness and inherent conservation of energy they don’t have to work too hard, they are what could be classified now as sedentary feeders. Lifting up a clump of weed from the lake bed close to the R. Inny, proved this point as in that clump there were at least 20 food items for our trout.
Christopher Defillon (+33
All this makes it difficult for the March angler as he will be working on and depending on aggression and curiosity tactics combined with getting down deep. The lures are what are catching at the moment – bright lures for windy discoloured water days and cloudier lures for the bright sunny ones. Streamers, humungous, Sweeney Todd, Snakes, Zonkers, Minkies all had degrees of success.
Andrius Bikelius, Lithuania
As the week progressed so did the rise in temperatures and these produced hatches of duck fly albeit only in the very sheltered areas like Kilnahard but nonetheless it was good to see this main chironomid hatch finally making its appearance here. As the weather warms the trout will soon be switching from bottom feeding to the much easier and freely available zone feeding on chironomid pupae.
Gary McKiernan (loughsheelinguiding) with one of his catches
There were good hatches of buzzer, again evident in the sheltered areas – bays, coves and sheltered shorelines. Although it is still early some anglers (in desperation to leave the lures behind) moved on to buzzer fishing. Buzzers or chironomid dipterans, to give them their proper title are pretty important things to fishermen. A Buzzer is basically an imitation of the pupa of a midge, the stage between a larva and an adult, the flying insect and there are reported to be 430 species or so and they are found in their billions in every waterway in every other country, on every continent. Buzzers/midges or ‘those little black insects’ all look very similar – the larvae and pupae being small, thread like things that in some cases are no bigger than a comma and the adults are small, buzzy things. To fish the buzzer pupae, anglers head for the epoxy buzzer patterns, skinny shiny patterns designed to emulate the animals that they are imitating – small and slender, that moves and sinks freely in the water. The epoxy buzzer has to be fished incredibly slowly so unless it’s an exceptionally calm day (which would be highly unusual this early on in the season) it must be a boat anchor job. The retrieve has to be very slow as this is the way the naturals ascend to the surface helped by gas-filled cavities.
‘Thick from head to tail’ a beautifully conditioned male Sheelin trout (www.loughsheelinguidingservices.com)
Despite success rates being poor there were a few trout caught using a team of three buzzers with a heavy epoxied buzzer on the point (the sacrificial fly). Again its early days and although buzzers account for a substantial amount of the trout’s diet, they seem to be fished when there isn’t anything else more interesting to try and lures aren’t an attractive proposition. Another off putting thing about buzzer fishing is that there is such a confusing array of fly patterns out there that claim to represent some aspect of this ubiquitous insect’s lifestyle it can be a little daunting.
Lough Sheelin, March 30th – North winds made for a difficult fishing lake
The Catches
No matter what lake you are fishing on, there are basically three factors which will govern the movements of trout – the season, what the fish are feeding on and the weather and although the weather is the least important of the three, it is still a key force. With the season gradually progressing trout are becoming more mobile and areas that were fishing very well have slackened off somewhat while other areas are ‘picking up’.
Hash North winds brought cold fishing conditions on to L.Sheelin – March 30th
Strong easterly and northerly winds on some days made for some difficult fishing.
The most successful areas were out in the deep, in the middle of the lake, at the back of Church Island, into Chambers Bay & Kilnahard and around Stony Island, Curry Pt., Long Rock and Merry Pt.
Deividas Firsovas, Lithuania
The heaviest fish for this week was a trout of 6½ lbs caught by Gary McKiernan on Wednesday March 29th using wet flies
Total number of trout recorded: 57
Two for the price of one
Selection of Catches
Christopher Defillon fishing with Romain, France – 12 trout for the week, heaviest two at 5½ lbs each.
Danny Murray, Dublin fishing with Lough Sheelin Guiding Services – 2 trout heaviest at 3lbs on Friday March 31st.
Gary McKiernan – 6 trout for the week, heaviest fish at 5, 5 ½ and 6lbs, fishing wets.
Andrius Bikelis, Lithuania – 3 trout biggest at 60cm, caught using lures.
Matis Andrulis, Dublin – 4 trout, heaviest at 5lbs using lures.
Azuolas Mikenas, Wexford – 1 trout at 3lbs using a Gold Humungus.
Aleksander Kowalski, Navan – 3 trout on Humungus, Minkies and Zonkers, heaviest 4lbs.
Pat Brady, Cavan – 1 trout at 2lbs using a Fiery Brown Dabbler.
Crazy Fish Cup
Go&Catch winners at Lough Sheelin, March 26th
Last Sunday, March 26th Ireland’s Lithuanian Fishing Club ‘Go&Catch’ ran the second leg of their ‘Crazy Fish Cup’ 2017 championship on Lough Sheelin. The weather didn’t favour this enthusiastic good humoured bunch of anglers as bright sunshine and strong south easterly winds persisted throughout the day having a negative impact on the trout feeding.
A nice trout
Undeterred these passionate anglers scattered and disappeared across this expanse of water after the 9am kick off time. Despite tough and somewhat challenging fishing conditions 26 trout were caught – measured – photographed and released with Andrius Bikelis winning the ‘Crazy Fish Cup’ and also catching the longest fish at 60cm.
The ‘Crazy Fish Cup’ won by Andrius Bikelis
Top 3 winners:
1st Andrius Bikelis 3 trout 148cm
2nd Gintaras Padimanskas 3 trout 131cm
3rd Deividas Firsovas 3 trout 130cm
Go&Catch
The Flies
Duck fly Klinkhammer
The most successful flies & lures for this week were the Humungus (in gold and silver), Minkies, Snakes, Zonkers, Muddlers, Golden Olive Bumble, the Hare’s Ear, the Silver Dabbler, the Fiery Brown Dabbler, the Claret Dabbler, the Claret Bumble, Bibios, the Silver Invicta, the Connemara Black, Black Pennell and the Sooty Olive.
An expensive spinning rod and reel were found on Kilnahard pier on Saturday March 18th, the owner can have these back by contacting me on 087 2141500
Romain, France
Join the Club…
For anyone interested in joining Lough Sheelin’s Angling Club – The Lough Sheelin Trout Protection Association please contact Thomas Lynch @ 087 9132033.
A catch & release policy is actively encouraged on the lake at all times
All anglers are required to have a Fishery Permit to fish Lough Sheelin which must be purchased before going out on the lake.
A Catch and Release policy is strongly encouraged at all times.
Please remember anglers to abide by BYE-LAW 790 which strictly prohibits
All trolling on the lake from March 1st to April 30th (inclusive).
From May 1st to June 15th – no trolling between 7pm –6am and no trolling under engine between 6am – 7pm and
June 16th – October 12th – no trolling under engine between 7pm – 6am.
No trout less than 14 inches should be taken from the lake
Christopher Defillon
Lifejackets
5 year old Noah Breen Johnson isn’t taking any chances on the water this season and neither should you
Water rarely gives second chances and a life jacket is just that – it saves your life.Life jackets are required by law – SI No 921 of 2005 – Pleasure Craft (Personal Flotation Devices and Operation) (Safety) Regulations 2005.
We would implore anglers and all other users to wear life jackets for their own safety as well as it being the law.
Please put on and keep on that life jacket until you are back on dry land.
Our last fish of the month was a real family affair as Marcel Dittrich landed the first fish off Finlough, with his wife Lucia and two children Anna and Markus
David McEvoy reports from Delphi where the fish have been coming in batches…
Well the year rolls on and we are now into April and two months of the fishing season have already passed. Catches picked up somewhat during March but this would be expected as historically it was always a better month than February. We finished with a total of 11 fish for the month. The fish seemed to come in batches as there would be a few successive days with fish being caught and then a lull and then we’d be off again
Our last fish of the month was a real family affair as Marcel Dittrich landed the first fish off Finlough, with his wife Lucia and two children Anna and Markus
The weather was typical for March, in other words we got our fair share of everything. Total rainfall was 276.05mms (10.87”) which is the most we’ve had for a month since September of last year. We also had highs of 18.4 degrees C and lows of -3.8 degrees C, so a bit of everything in other words. Water levels followed the weather patterns with the gauge varying from 100 to 25.
As I said earlier the fish seemed to come in batches as we had 6 fish between the 9th and the 14th and the remainder from the 21st till the end of the month. Rudi Groener had the first of the month on the 9th from the Whin of 7lbs5ozs. Werner then had two on the 10th from the Horseshoe and the Waterfall. Yvonne had a fish on the 11th from Cooleens. Michael Wymes had one from the Rock Pool on the 12th and Martin Davison had another from the Rock on the 14th.
There was a lull then till the 21st when Arne Forsgren had a fish from the Meadow followed by Lars Markgren on the 22nd also from the Meadow. Michael Fehringer from Austria on his first day’s salmon fishing landed his first ever on the 27th from the Waterfall of 10lbs12ozs on a Cascade.
Our last fish of the month was a real family affair as Marcel Dittrich landed the first fish off Finlough, with his wife Lucia and two children Anna and Markus in tow on the last day of the month. The fish weighed in at 7lbs10ozs and was taken on a Delphi Collie. There was lots of excitement in the boat as the fish was almost as big as Markus. Well done to all.
Werner got April off to a flying start with a fish on the 1st from the New Island Pool. It weighed in at 7lbs7ozs and was taken on a Delphi Collie. Hopefully our new anglers can keep the fish coming in. Water levels are now at 30 and there is some rain forecast tomorrow which should keep levels up for a few days.
At Delphi Lodge, with many years of experience with the timing of the best runs of fish, we have in place a price system that offers both great value fishing and lets our anglers know when they have the best chance to catch a fresh run spring salmon or a summer grilse or Delphi sea trout.
ON MY arrival at Courtlough Fishery in Balrothery, Co Dublin, last Sunday, manager Garrett Ruigrok was busy preparing lunch for the finalists of the winter league. The 22 contestants had earned their place in the final from a demanding set of competitions over the past six months. Weather was ideal for fly fishing, with a light breeze and overcast. “Today I would recommend a sinking line and lures for the morning session and switching to a floating line with epoxy buzzers in the afternoon,” Garrett said… The Irish Times, 03/04/17. Read the full article ‘Angling Notes: Weather ideal in Balrothery‘.
Grey Duster Guiding
