Castlebar - County Mayo - NW Angling News

River Moy

The Moy system accounted for a reported catch of 259 salmon for the week. Water levels still fluctuated during the week but didn’t impact on the fishing as much as in previous weeks. As a consequence, there was good fishing throughout the whole system.

On the Moy Fishery, Paul Maloney, Portlaoise, had one salmon at 7.47 lbs. from the Ridge Pool. Also on the Ridge Pool, James Moffatt from the Isle of Man caught a 5.5 lbs. salmon. Both fish were taken on worm.

Paul Maloney, Portlaoise, 7.5 lbs salmon, Ridge Pool.

On Mount Falcon, Mark Kane, Dublin, caught & released a salmon at 13 lbs. on spinner, while 15-year old Ben Price had one (7 lbs.) on worm. Duncan Monk, UK, was successful on the Coolcronan Fishery where he had 2 fish at 8 lbs (spinner) & 11 lbs. (worm). On Armstrong’s, Tom Murray, Offaly, landed a 12 lbs. salmon also on worm. There were also good reports from the Foxford Salmon Anglers water (Rinnaney), where Jim Martin, Northern Ireland, had a fine 14 lbs. salmon on worm and Gerhard Egelsbock, Austria, caught a 9 lbs. fish also on worm. Upstream from Foxford, K. Blum, H. Blum and F. Eibauer, all from Germany, had a salmon each.

Harald Neumüller with his best Cloongee salmon (13.5lbs).

Further up river, the Cloongee Fishery also enjoyed good fishing for the week. Amongst the successful anglers were, Brendan Doyle, Monaghan, with fish at 9 lbs. (worm) & 10 lbs. (spinner), Paul Wymes, Dublin, with 2 salmon averaging 7.5 lbs. on fly (both released) and a third at 9.5 lbs. (worm). Harald Neumüller, Germany, landed a fine 13.5 lbs. salmon.

The East Mayo Anglers Association water also fished well during the week: Peter & Michael Nab, both from Switzerland, had 3 salmon averaging 11 lbs., all on spinner. Brian Goashan, Scotland, had a nice 12 pounder on worm, while German fly angler, Andreas Grossmann, had a 7 lbs. salmon. Also on fly, Jerrard Portes, France, had 2 salmon at 6 lbs. & 9 lbs.

Carrowmore Lake & Owenmore River

Carrowmore Lake enjoyed very good salmon fishing for the week with a total of 11 fish reported. Mary Harkin, Dublin, had a nice 8.5 lbs. salmon, while Wayne Oldfield & B. Clinton, Australia, caught salmon at 7 lbs. & 8 lbs. Michael Naughton was very successful with 3 salmon between 4 lbs. & 8 lbs. Other successful anglers included: Declan & Pat Foley who had a fish each (6 lbs.), Rory Murray (7 lbs.), Dick Kiernan (6.5 lbs.) and Dennis Summers (6 lbs.).

On the Bangor Angling Club stretch of the Owenmore River a total of 3 salmon was caught for the week. Franz Kaiser caught one at 8 lbs. and Oisin O’Sullivan also landed an 8 pounder.

Lough Beltra & Newport River

Lough Beltra enjoyed another good week with anglers catching fine spring salmon. On the Glenisland Co-Op side of Lough Beltra, Matt Higgins, Castlebar, had a salmon at 7 lbs., David Nevin, Newport, caught one at 8 lbs., while Michael Dolan and Tommy Walsh, both Dublin, had fish at 7 lbs. & 9 lbs. On Lough Beltra West, Sean Dolan, Dublin, landed a 9 lbs. salmon.

On the Newport River, salmon fishing also picked up during the week. Successful anglers included: Adrian Noonan, Westport, with 2 salmon at 7 lbs. & 9 lbs., Tony Murtagh, Louisburg, with a salmon at 8.5 lbs. and Eaton Kennedy, Newport with a 5 lbs. fish. The best fish of the week, a fine 10.5 lbs. salmon, however, was caught by Jimmy Lawlor from Westport.

Ballin Lough

The Lake fished very well for the week with a total of 20 rods catching 69 rainbow trout (41 released). Eugene McGratton and Willie Scully who were fishing with Tony McGratton & Brian Sheen had an excellent week’s fishing with 41 rainbows (26 returned), best at 4 lbs., while David Jackson & Tony Wright caught 10 fish (4 returned), best at 2.5 lbs. Most successful flies were: Daddy Longlegs, Muddlers and nymph patterns.

Lough Conn

Both lakes were busy with lots of anglers reporting good trout fishing, although a high proportion of the trout were small. The mixed weather with temperatures never above 14 degrees Celsius resulted in very sporadic mayfly hatches.

All anglers fishing out of Pontoon Bridge Hotel reported good fishing, with lots of small fish released. Ciaran O’Toole from Westport had 8 trout to the Sooty Olive and Black Pennel, while Don J. Smith, UK, caught 2 fish for 3 lbs. Wendy Lyons, Scotland, had 2 trout over a few days and Stuart Lyons boated 4 trout all over 2 lbs. Stuart also caught an 8 lbs. salmon on the Bibio. Christopher Wathen, UK, had 11 trout for his week to Dabblers and the Green Peter, best at 2 lbs. Eddie Rowe, Dublin, was also successful and caught 3 trout on Royal Wullfs, best at 2.5 lbs.

Good numbers of trout were also reported by anglers fishing out of Kelly’s Boat Hire, Cloghans. John Jack, Scotland, and Larry Kelly, Dublin, caught and returned 50 keepers, best at 4 lbs. David Thompson and Raymond Kelly had 6 trout for 10 lbs., while Aidan Heffernan, Dublin, & Andrew Howell, UK, boated 20 trout over a few days, best at 3 lbs.

Fishing out of Brackwansha, Stephen Browne & Brendan Breslin had 4 trout for an evening’s fishing, while Padraig Traynor and John Burke landed 5 fish to mayfly patterns for their evening. Michael McNeely & Harry McCafferty had 4 trout, best at 2 lbs.

In Crossmolina, John Warren and Ian Wise had 6 trout for 8 lbs. over two evenings and Alex Corcoran and Joe Moffatt both had 4 trout, averaging 1 lbs. to mayflies.

A couple of competitions were fished out of Murphy’s Boat Hire, Massbrook:

On Saturday, 23 May the Wicklow Anglers Association held a competition on Lough Conn. Thirty anglers participated and the event was won by Billy Hannon with 2 trout for 0.93 kg, runner up was Kevin Rooney with 2 fish for 0.76 kg and third place went to Mark Garassa with 2 trout for 0.655 kg.

The Lakelands Anglers also held a competition on Lough Conn. This was a 3 day event and was fished from Friday, 22 May to Sunday, 24 May. Results were as follows: 1st: Stephen Brown, Cloghans with 4 trout for 4.48 lbs.: 2nd: Andy Boyle with 2 trout for 3.18 lbs: 3rd: Robbie Lynch, Dundalk, with one trout for 3.10 lbs.

The Bilberry & Lough Lannagh Angling Club hosted their annual competition on Lough Conn on Saturday, 23 May. The competition was based on the heaviest fish and a 13 inch size limit. Carol Neal won the event with a trout weighing in at 1.41 lbs., second place went to Peter Bryne and Damian Walsh finished in 3rd place. Competitors caught and released large numbers of smaller fish as well.
Ballysadare River

The Ballysadare Fishery accounted for 73 salmon, (42 returned) for the week. Most fish were in the 8 lbs. range with some smaller 5 pounders also caught. P. McMahon, Eamon Ruddy and Seamus Brogan all had an 8 lbs. salmon each.

River Bonet

The Bonet River continued to produce some fine double figure salmon with Brian McMahon landing a 14 lbs. fish at Cloonlougher, while Tony McGorty had a 2 lbs. brown trout on the same stretch.

Lough Gill

A trout competition was held on Lough Gill during the week. Local angler, Pete Marshall, won the event with 3 fish; Ken Henry was second with two trout, while Noel Reddy won the prize for the heaviest fish.

Lough Doon

Doon continued to produce good numbers of trout to the fly with anglers catching most fish on the Green Peter.

Lough Arrow

There was still some good mayfly fishing on Lough Arrow during the week. Anglers also reported very good spent and buzzer fishing during the evenings.

Gerry Martin had 12 trout between 2 lbs. and 5 lbs. (2 at 5 lbs.) on dry mayflies. Kenneth Murray caught 10 fish for 22.5 lbs. on the spent and the dap, while Michael Gunning boated 8 trout between 2 lbs. and 4 lbs. on buzzers and dry flies. A fine 6.2 lbs. brown was caught by Peter Dunne on a buzzer and Jonathan Frazer had 6 fish averaging 2 lbs. on the dap.