River Moy

Water levels in the River Moy remained low, but did rise a little following some heavy showers towards the end of the week. A number of salmon were caught in the Ballina section and also further up river. The Board’s live feed from the Ridge Pool is expected to come on line within the next few days and will enable anglers to view the pool and assess water levels in the River Moy by visiting the Board’s website (www.northwestfisheries.ie).

The New Ridge Pool Webcam

On the Ballina Salmon Anglers’ Fishery, Paddy Dempsey fishing the worm was among the lucky anglers when he caught a nice fresh run spring salmon of 4.1 kg. (9 lb.). On the East Mayo Anglers’ Association Fishery, Swinford angler, Paul McGrath fishing the bubble & fly landed a 3.2 kg. (7 lb.) salmon.   

Loughs Conn and Cullin

Some fine early season trout catches have been reported from Lough Conn. Fly hatches were patchy over the week with strong winds making fishing conditions difficult.  

Ian Wise and John Warren had 3 trout for 1.6 kg. (3.5 lbs.) from Bog Bay while over at Cloghans Bay, Peter Roche had 2 trout for 1.1 kg. (2.5 lbs.). John Burke, fishing off Brackwansha, also boated 2 trout for 1.4 kg. (3 lbs.).         

Lough Beltra

Lough Beltra has seen a productive start to the angling season with some good salmon caught and released and a number of other fish lost. On the 20^th of March, Fergus Bain caught a fine 4.5 kg. (10 lbs.) spring fish, while on the 21^st Dr Noel Cahill had a nice 3.6 kg. (8 lbs.) salmon. Over last weekend, Sean Dolan caught and released a very nice 6.6 kg. (14.5 lbs.) fresh run springer and Gerry Booty had a 4.3 kg. (9.5 lbs.) fish. Two other anglers enjoyed success one of whom boated and released a 3.4 kg. (7.5 lbs.) salmon. Shrimp fly patterns were the most popular flies over the period.  

Lough Beltra and the Newport River are strictly catch and release up to and including the 11^th of May. 

Ballin Lough

Angling was good on Ballin Lough during the week, though a few anglers ventured out.

On the 25^th, a party of 6 anglers from Ballina enjoyed some first class rainbow trout fishing. Michael Swartz and boat partner caught 9 trout, releasing 7 with their best, a fish of 1.8 kg. (4 lbs.). Declan Hennigan, and Mark Beatty had 19 trout between them, releasing 16 with the best, a rainbow of 2.3 kg. (5 lbs.) while Robert Cording and boat partner Liam Keenaghan, Offaly had a good day’s fishing with 22 rainbow trout, 18 of which were released with the best a fish of 1.6 kg. (3.5 lbs.).