Written By: Kevin Crowley
On Date: 26/7/2017
Lough Corrib Declan Gibbons tells us that trout angling activity on Lough Corrib was relatively quiet last week with few anglers on the lake. The very warm weather early this week certainly sent many anglers to the beach/garden/bog, choose your poison! Mayfly are hatching in good numbers, and with the summer hatch usually peaking around the 4th week of July, there could be good sport to come. Some anglers have been having good sport on dry mayfly, while dapped grasshoppers have also worked for many. But despite those positive reports, it is a story of a quiet lake this week with few anglers about to enjoy the sport.
On a sad note, this week saw the passing of well-known Corrib angler Denis O’Keeffe. Denis was a Cavan man who had been visiting Corrib regularly for many years and was well-known among the angling community. His regular visits to Ballindiff, where he was a member of the local angling club, saw him make many friends locally, and he also boated visitors to the lake on many occasions. The esteem in which he was held saw quite a number of anglers from the west travelling to Cavan for his funeral this week, and Ballindiff Bay will be a quieter place for his passing.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.
Galway Fishery
Salmon fishing has been much quieter over the last two weeks, as the main run of grilse slowed somewhat after 6 weeks of excellent fishing. There are still a lot of fish in the river, although the high temperatures and bright sunshine earlier in the week has meant very few fish caught.
For the 6th to 12th July, there were 64 fish landed, including 4 for long-time visitor from the UK Laurence Flood to 4.5lbs on fly and shrimp. Loughrea man Willie Cullinane landed 3 to 5lbs on fly, while Athenry angler Declan Tuffy had 2 fish to 4lbs on fly, and son Adam made a welcome return to the weir, landing a nice grilse of 4.5lbs on fly. Phil O’Donoghue had a 5.5lbs fish on fly, and Galway man James Dunne landed 2 fish to 7lbs on shrimp. Moycullen angler John Anderson caught and released 3 grilse to 5.5lbs on fly.
The following week up to today has seen 35 fish landed. Noel Power landed 2 grilse on fly, as did UK angler David Christie, and Cork angler Tom Beecher. Wicklow man Killian Garvey landed 3 fish to 4lbs on fly and shrimp, and UK visitor Michael Righton had a nice grilse on fly. Eamon Power landed 2 to 5.25lbs, releasing one, while Tipperary angler Denise Curran had 2 grilse on fly also. Kevin Mitchell landed a nice 7lbs fish on fly, and the best fish of the week, a nice 8.75lbs salmon was taken by Henry Cosgrove on fly.
The coming days will see cooler, fresher conditions with rain at times, which should improve conditions for angling. With a great head of fish in the river, the weir is still well worth a visit.
Erriff Fishery
Fishery manager Osgur Grieve reports that over the past week the good run of fish continued with a total of 18 salmon landed for the period. Regular visitor Andrew Beattie finished up his holiday catching a total of 14 salmon, his best weighing 8lbs, 10 of these were wild and were released. David Gaffney fished with us on Friday 14th and despite low water conditions of 0.64m managed 2 wild grilse of 2.5lbs and 4lbs which he released from the Hill on Beat 5 using a red Ally's shrimp. Charles Finch released a fine summer salmon of 8lbs from the Falls using a small Icelandic fly. The 15th saw the return of regular visitors Enda and Rosemary O'Connell; Enda was into action straight away releasing a wild grilse of 3lbs from the Middle Garden, a while later Rosemary lost a fish also in the Upper Garden. Visiting angler Roy Sanderson released 2 wild grilse of 3lbs and 4.5lbs from the Upper Garden with the help of his daughter Katie. Gary McFarlane persevered and that afternoon caught a 4.96lbs ranched grilse from the Upper Garden using a red Ally's shrimp.
Sunday 16th Rosemary O'Connell was into action in the morning catching a ranched grilse of 5lbs from the uUpper Garden on a Cascade, and Enda also had a 3.5lbs wild grilse from the Middle Garden. That evening Ryan Richardson also caught a ranched grilse of 4.67lbs on a Jock nymph in the Middle Garden.
Despite low water and bright sunshine on Monday 17th visiting angler Gerard Coye (NI) caught a ranched grilse of 4.23lbs from the Upper Garden and lost 2 more using a Garry dog. Tuesday 18th was a quiet day with the fish proving hard to tempt, a rise in water levels should wake them up once more. At the moment the river is low reading 0.62m on the gauge but there is rain forecast for the next few days so hopefully this should improve water levels and the fishing once more.
Flies that worked well this week included Red Ally's Shrimp, Cascade, Curry's Red Shrimp, Garry Dog and various black and silver flies.
If you wish to book fishing please call the fishery office on (095) 42382 or email us at erriff.fishery@fisheriesireland.ie
Sea Angling
Skipper John Fleming was in touch following a fantastic weekend shark fishing “probably all in all the best weekends sharking we have have ever had, not the highest number of sharks but, 4 porbeagles in 3 days.... this hasn't been done in Galway in a long long time and to top it off 6 blues”.
We had 2 baby beagles which was great to see (around 40-50lb), and 2 around the 100lbs mark - what a powerful fish they are with long deep powerful runs and long fights. We also landed 6 blues ranging between 70-100lbs. Not a bad start to the shark season!
All the sharks were tagged and released. CPR - Catch Photo Release saves Lives!
There is still some availability at the weekends and plenty of midweek days to do battle with these fantastic predators. To book fishing with John give him a call on 087 7571320 or check out Blue Shark Angling Galway on Facebook.
Report Supplied By:
Kevin Crowley
http://www.wrfb.ie
wrfb@iol.ie
Western Angling Report Sth Ireland