Bill Cassidy reports on the Sensas Connacht knock up on EMLAGH last Sunday…
Emlagh on the Suck
Although the water was very cold due to recent snow water entering the river the fishing was great with Shane Dunne from Claremorris taking the honours with 4.5kilo of small roach all caught at 13 meters Shane had 140 roach while other anglers had between 2 and 4 kilo of roach each they were kept busy for the 4 hour match.
Roach
The river suck is fishing very well for this time of the year and with the new stretch at EMLAGH it’s proving to be a popular match stretch.
More roach
Suck Valley Angling Hub in Association with Sensas Connacht are holding a 3 day festival during the May Bank holiday weekend.
Well its that time of year again, spring is in the air, the weather is mild and the fishing is mighty.
Its fishing festival time in Ireland and where better to spend a few days but on the banks of the beautiful River Suck .
Last year we at the Suck Valley Angling Hub held our festival at Easter and although it was very sucessfull with Young James Carthy pocketing the first prize of 1000 Euro we have decided to pull it back to the May bank holiday weekend.
So all welcome.
Suck Valley Angling Hub in Association with Sensas Connacht Match Group are holding a 3 day festival on Saturday April 29 .Sunday 30 and Monday May 1st.
Entry for the 3 days 50 euro.
Full payout plus sponsorship.
Come on you bream
Sensas Connacht has been running for approximately 3 years, what started off as a few lads fishing a competition between themselves every few weeks has now turned into a very strong match group with international presence.
NCFFI
Sensas Connacht and River Suck Angling Hubare affiliated to the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland and are members of the Angling Council the National Governing Body for coarse and predator angling. www.ncffi.ie
Perch save the day for pike anglers out with Mick Flanagan on Ennell…
The weather has been unbelievable in the last 10-12 days (apart from that shot cold snap. Bank Holiday Monday January 2nd was also cold and we broke ice at Hopes Point to get out on the Lough Ennell. That day was one of the coldest I was out on the waters in some time.
Jim Walsh and a perch
I had some pals from the Wicklow who are regular visitors to Mullingar but he pike were very reluctant to play ball. After quite a few hours trolling and spinning we had to go in search of perch to get some action. The Perch were a bit more playful and we had some cracking sport jigging in deep water.
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.
Joe McDermott topped the day with a super pike of 21lbs 7oz
Mick flanagan reports on the recent Camlin Anglers competition at Lough Forbes…
Camlin anglers hosted their club Christmas pike competition Sunday, January 8th. The boats headed out on Lough Forbes, and along the River Shannon, and some cracking pike were caught in calm, mild and at times misty conditions.
Joe McDermott topped the day with a super pike of 21lbs 7oz
Local knowledge proved to work well on the day. Longford piker Joe McDermott won the competition with a super fish of 21lbs 7oz. In 2nd place was competition Mick Galvin with 20lbs, and Pat Healy was 3rd with another fine pike of 15lbs 7oz. Mayvore angler Mick Dalton finished 4th with 15lbs 5oz.
The Camlin Anglers
Paddy Donnelly of Lagan near Ballinacarrigy caught a few pike as did Athlone angler Eamon Craven. Eamon and his angling pal P.J. Cunningham also of Athlone Town really enjoy their days out on the waterways and we captured the lads on camera enjoying their Cup of tea. This was my first club to join this season, and Camlin have quite a few competitions penciled in for this coming season.
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.
Mick Flanagan on the recent rumors of a Derravaragh 30lber -whether true or not he had one approaching the magical mark himself…
Some of Ireland’s top predator anglers are checking out Lough Derravaragh, as some huge pike pictured are being highlighted on social media. Reports of pike pushing the magical 30lbs have pike anglers in a frenzy, and I met some of these lads recently on Derravaragh. They told me its hard going and you might only get a few takes but the size and the condition of the pike is breathtaking.
A high 20 for Mick – well worth waiting for!
I had one run last Saturday and the fish was just few pounds short of 30lb. The pic, kindly taken by James Norton can be viewed on www.facebook.com/midlandangling. Trolling, at times with super sized lures, or simply drifting with dead baits are working best.
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.
The mild weather of the last couple of weeks looks set to snap so the weekend might not be as productive as it has been. And it has been plenty productive. Coarse, pike and sea anglers are all enjoying good fishing at a variety of venues around the country. Only the salmon anglers are letting the side down – despite good conditions on the Drowes and other open rivers the first salmon of the season has still to be caught…
The NADA club in Naas had a great couple of days on the Barrow recently. The last 2 rounds of their Winter League had some fine bags of fish from Bagenalstown and Graignamanagh. Both venues produced great winter fishing and weights to 12kg were needed to win some of the sections. Amongst the catches were some really fine perch – always popular amongst anglers – to an estimated 2lbs.
Pike anglers are getting some good fish at the moment but what really has their attention is the announcement of the €10,000 prize fund for the Lough Ree International Pike Classic. The competition will be fished on June 24th and 25th. Places are limited so don’t delay in booking at http://loughree.ie/
Still no word from the Drowes on the first salmon of the year. Fishery Manager Shane Gallagher says that this is disappointing given that there have been good numbers of rods out in good weather and water conditions.
Ling to to the high teens were also caught. This 18lb fish wins Catch of the Week
On the subject of first fish of the year – mackerel were being taken at Ardmore as early as the 2nd of January. Given that they were being caught from the shore there on December 30th that is probably not much of a surprise to local anglers. Still, it seems to suggest the mild winter might have some interesting effects on fish movement and behaviour for a while yet. Charter boat fishing at Courtmacsherry also had something a bit out of the ordinary to report. Blue shark and tope at a nearby wreck – not caught by anglers, but it’s given Mark Gannon a new target for winter fishing. The wrecks produced some lovely ling, pollack and coalfish at the weekend but Mark hopes to add tope, a fish he’s not seen on his boat for over 10 years, to the list on the next trip. Shore anglers in Donegal are enjoying a great winter. Late winter flounders, turbot and flashy sea trout (don’t forget your licence) are providing great sport at competition and on regular trips too.
There are cold weather warnings in place as we go to press and the weekend looks set to be cold and frosty, so any anglers likely to be travelling in the coming days are advised to check the weather updates and road conditions before getting in the car. Anglers will probably get away without needing to put on the longjohns over the weekend and milder conditions will return from Monday.
Stefan Martin from Killybegs Mariners SAC reports on the fishing around Donegal Bay… 07 January: A light drizzle on Tra Ban beach for the longest flattie competition last night just a bit of a fun comp and a nice beach caster for the winning fish. As usual with this beach it was mostly dabs that made up the catch with a few flounders. Good flatties were landed
Some 27cm flounders early on set the mark but soon after some lovely dabs broke through the 30cm mark and a lovely dab of 35cm for Kieran McGowan was the winning longest flattie for the rod, well done to all. Turbot 08 January: Lovely turbot on our local beach now they love a bit of surf to patrol munching on sandeel, a hard fighting flattie and great to watch swim off again with a few tail flicks and a glide. Sea trout in the surf 10 January: Another great beach session ahead of some incoming weather on Donegal Bay. Lovely to see the darting silver seatrout shooting about the surf feeding in the wash. Late season flounder
A few fine conditioned fish were caught and released along with late season flounder to 37cm and turbot to 28cm. Nothing like a day on the bay with some quality fish to boot. Sea trout fishing – get a licence
Don’t forget to get the salmon/seatrout licence if intending on targeting them in the river or the sea, we got ours recently for the year ahead, €56 for district and €100 for nationwide. Stefan Martin Killybegs mariners SAC Facebook: www.facebook.com/mariner.sac Catch and release
The new Lough Ree International Pike Classic in Lanesborough is set for June 24th & 25th, 2017
After the huge success of last October’s World Predator Boat Championship, The World’s Top Anglers are on their way back to Lanesborough and Ballyleague this June to compete for a staggering prize and benefits fund of over €10,000 in this world class fishery.
Please note – the competition is restricted to just 60 boats.
To book your accommodation early call Debbie at 003534333 21734 or e mail: [email protected]. The first 30 boats are RESERVED for overseas entries so you will have to be fast !!
Eddie Long reports that Naas and District Anglers held the 2nd and 3rd rounds of their winter league on two wonderful stretches of the River Barrow, Bagnelstown and Graignamanagh…
2nd Round
The 2nd round of the Winter League was held on the 4th Dec and those chosen to fish their match on Graignamanagh had quite a tough day of it. I believe most were struggling badly with some even blanking up until the halfway point of the match, others were catching trout after trout which are obviously of no use in a match as they cannot be weighed in. Second half of the match saw the catch rates improve with Paul McLoughlin and Trev Campbell battling it out for the top spot and Trev winning at the end of the match. The Bagnelstown match fished quite a lot better with much better weights mostly caught on the whip! I elected to fish the pole but because I had to ship my pole parallel with the bank and keep my roller off the road I lost valuable time and just couldn’t compete with those on the whip! That’s my excuse anyway .
GRAIGNAMANAGH RESULTS
SECTION 1
1st Padraig O Riordan with 2.750kg
2nd Gravidas Karalius with 2.550kg
SECTION 2
1st Trev Campbell with 3.700kg
2nd Paul McLoughlin with 3.300kg
BAGNELSTOWN RESULTS
SECTION 1
1st Marius Matuiza with 10.550kg
2nd Lukasz Cizla with 8.125kg
SECTION 2
1st Fergal Scullier with 5.750kg
2nd Andrius Simbelis with 4.100kg.
3RD ROUND
This match was again held on the Bagnelstown and Graignamanagh stretches of the Barrow only this time the anglers switched venues, those that fished Bagnelstown would now fish Graignamanagh and vice versa.
I was on Graignamanagh and unfortunately because some boats had been vandalised in the days leading up to our match access was only permitted on foot so we couldn’t drive to our pegs to drop our gear and then park the vans up. Of course I drew one of the farthest pegs and with me being quite a lazy sod I decided I wasn’t going to hump all my gear all that way so I decided to travel light and fish only a 6m whip. I brought my very handy Behr feeder seat along with nets, groundbait buckets and a few other essentials.
The River Barrow
To be honest my heart really wasn’t in it that morning and I was still setting up a whip rig when the all in was called at 11:30am. That being said I did ball in about six balls of a very sticky mix of Gros Gardons, Secret, Black magic and some VDE roach additive and by the time I had my whip rig ready I thought surely there’d be some fish in my peg. I flicked out my rig which consisted of Stroft .12 and a 3g wire stem Perfect Gloucester float and bam, fish on! My first fish to enter the keepnet was a nice plump roach but for the first half hour the catch rate was not exactly a fish a chuck.
Some fine perch were caught
I put all my particle bait (caster) in through my groundbait and decided to up the bait going in so every put in I fired in a squeezed handful of groundbait and caster. It wasn’t long before my catch rate improved and I was getting a fish a chuck, mostly dace with the odd perch. Looking down to my left I saw our newest member Conleth Loonan netting some clonking perch which I thought had to be around the 2lb mark. Anyway, I kept my bait going in every chuck till the end of the match at 3:30pm and was very happy with how my days fishing had gone.
Good bags were landed
I don’t think I could have done better on the pole and the stamp of fish didn’t improve with more maggot on the hook so I was very happy with the way I had fished and the day that started off with me really not bothered about making an effort turned out to be a really enjoyable day on the bank.
The boys all came down to begin the weigh in on peg 10 and Lukasz K was first to be weighed in. I knew he had struggled on this peg as it was very deep but I don’t think there was much else he could have done, just don’t think the fish were there in numbers. As the weigh in progressed up the line I was next and weighed in over 6.5kg which I was very happy with but there was box of Colonel Sanders finest chicken riding on whether I’d best Neil Keanes’ weight. He beat me but just over 100 grams and unfortunately I was again buying the chicken in KFC Carlow but I didn’t really mind as I’m a savage for the Colonels secret recipe chicken.
PLenty of fish for the time of year
With each angler being weighed in up the line the nets improved every time. There were some really fine nets of fish caught on the day Graignamanagh with Peter Walsh topping the scales on peg 1 with 10.820kg. I’m confident that everyone had a really enjoyable day and there really were some super nets of fish caught.
RESULTS
Section 1
1st Peter Walsh with 10.820kg
2nd Andrius Saulys with 10.340kg
SECTION 2
1st Ronald Durkin with 9.220kg
2nd Neil Keane with 6.670kg
BAGNELSTOWN
I can’t really comment on how Bagnelstown fished but everyone seemed to catch well with Padraig O Riordan absolutely sacking up on peg 1 with 12.350kg and his closest rival was Ollie Doyle with 8.425kg. Lovely fishing lads and Padraig, that was a super result over the two rounds! Two section wins, brilliant stuff! Delighted for you 😀
BAGNELSTOWN RESULTS
SECTION 1
1st Padraig O Riordan with 12.350kg
2nd Ollie Doyle with 8.425kg
SECTION 2
1st Trev Campbell with 7.175kg
2nd Shane Kavanagh with 5.000kg.
Well done to everyone that fished these two matches. I think you’ll all agree, they’re both cracking venues and put out some fabulous nets of fish and I hope you all enjoyed yourselves. Well done to those on the committee who organised these matches and did all the pegging and behind the scenes work, take a bow lads, you know who you are!
Anyway, that’s it from me. See you all on the bank for round 4.
Tight lines
Eddie Long.
PRO
Naas & District Anglers
The New Naas & District Anglers Club was set up on the 31 August 2012. Our Club is a Social club. The waters around Naas are Home to brown trout ,salmon,eels, pike, perch, bream, rudd, tench. Naas and District Anglers are dedicated towards getting kids involved in the sport of angling.
Club Members are responsible for restocking and ensuring that all angling byelaws are complied with.
Membership of the club is always open and we welcome new members with open arms.
Ling to to the high teens were also caught. This 18lb fish wins Catch of the Week
Mark Gannon, skipper at Courtmacsherry Angling was on to report that the New Year has produced some good days already at Courtmacsherry…
A strong looking pollack from a Courtmacsherry wreck
We organised our first trip last Saturday (07 January) and with good weather conditions and slack tides we ventured off to the offshore wrecks, fishing 5 in total. Ling, cod, pollack and coalfish were the target species and on the first wreck using orange shads and red gills we caught coalfish and pollack. As the fishing slowed we moved further offshore where we landed ling to 18lbs and pollack / coalfish to around 8lbs. We were hoping that we may come across a blue shark as a local gill netter reported catching a blue of 80 lbs in his nets 2 days before and also 2 fine tope weighing approximately 60 lbs, all of which were returned.
Ling to to the high teens were also caught. this 18lb fish wins Catch of the Week
On the shore some good bass are being caught. With the clear conditions lures are still catching too, but the preferred method is peeler crab. On our next trip we will try the deep water reefs. There should be some good ling and conger about and hopefully we run into some big tope too. We have spaces for individual anglers should you wish to join us.
Courtmacsherry Sea Angling Centre is one of Irelands Premier Angling Centres based in the picturesque village of Courtmacsherry located only 30miles from Cork International Airport on the West Cork coast between the Old head of Kinsale and the Seven Heads peninsula. Our purpose built Sea angling and selfdrive boats offer the sea angler the ultimate in safety and comfort.Sea Angling in Courtmacsherry produces good results both for the offshore charter angler, the selfdrive angler for inshore fishing or the wreck enthusiast. Web: www.courtmacsherryangling.ie
Email: [email protected] Telephone: +353 (0)23 8846427 or +353 (0)86 8250905
Stan Ryan was in touch to report that the mackerel are still in at Ardmore…
On 30th December I brought my two nephews, Leon and Keelan for their annual Christmas fishing outing to the pier in Ardmore. Local angler Ger Dunne joined us.
Usually at this time of the year we would expect to get some nice whiting , up to 2lb, and coalfish. The lads have also landed dogfish and bull huss in previous years.
One of Stan’s nephews with a dog
Off we set with 3 hook traces using size 6 hooks. Bait was frozen mackerel and lug wraps.
The first few casts landed mainly small whiting and one good coalfish. It was time to try something different and cast out a bit further and move the baits slowly back towards the pier. Leon suddenly seemed to have hooked a better fighting fish……a mackerel. Yes a mackerel at the end of December!!! Then Keelan and Ger reeled in more mackerel.
He was happier with the whiting!
Dusk was upon us and the light was disappearing rapidly. Nonetheless, in a very short space of time 30 mackerel were landed.
December the 8th, a number of years ago, was the latest previous date that any number of mackerel were caught .
Another local angler went out in his boat on 2nd January and managed to catch a box of mackerel in 40 minutes.
