River Moy
The River Moy had its best week of the season with a reported catch of 131 salmon for the week, bringing the total to 616 fish for the year. Despite the easterly winds the angling improved on the pervious weeks.

Oliver Pilz from Austria with his 7.32 lbs salmon caught while fly fishing on the Cathedral Beat on the Moy River in Ballina

The Moy Fishery had some excellent angling over the week with the first Grilse of the year making an appearance. The Ridge and the Weir Pool had 18 salmon where Northern Irish angler, Jimmy French filled his quota for the day with 3 fish, the best a lovely Salmon of 12.57 lbs. Paul McCrory from Louth had a 12.25 lbs salmon while visiting German angler Lothar Deeg took two salmon of 6.4 lbs and 10.91 lbs.

Oliver Pilz from Austria Caught his first salmon while fly fishing on the Cathedral Beat, a nice fish of 7.32 lbs while Phil Briscoe from the UK also landed a fine fish while fly fishing of 9.49 lbs.

Further up river, Armstrong’s Fishery produced a 7 lbs salmon for Michel Braun from Germany to a spinner, while the Foxford Fishery accounted for a fine 11 lbs fish for Gerry Arnold. Rinanney had some very good fishing during the week with UK angler Barry Fouless catching a 10 lbs fish on worm and Isle of Man angler Stephen Sowrey banking a nice 12 lbs salmon on prawn.

Foxford Salmon Anglers’ water produced a good 12 lbs salmon for French angler Jean-Ives Rouland. Marcel Jacques from Belgium, fishing on East Mayo Anglers Water, had some excellent fishing catching 4 salmon, 3 on worm and the best on a fly, a lovely 11 lbs fish, while also on the same water fellow Belgian angler, Claude Grosjean banked a fine 12 lbs salmon fly fishing and a 7 lbs fish on the worm.

Moy Estuary
Angling on the Moy Estuary was superb over the week. The dry weather and low water levels have meant a large stock of Sea Trout holding in the Estuary. Moy angling guide, Judd Ruane, reported that his clients have had some fantastic angling, with 15 fish between 1.5 and 2.5 lbs, most of these fish were returned alive. Brothers Tom and Pat Murrey enjoyed an exceptional day on the fly", with a catch of 25 sea trout all released.

Carrowmore Lake
The lake had a mixed week in terms of angling. The week started bright, with a number of anglers venturing out on to the lake. These anglers were rewarded with some good salmon fishing. Declan Dooley from Dublin took two fish of 6.5 and 7 lbs, Matt Higgins from Castlebar and Grenville Nesbit from Sligo both had fine fish of 10 lbs with Edward McCarty from the UK boating a 6 lbs salmon.

Towards the end of the week strong North East winds stirred up the lake making it un-fishable. However, with more settled conditions forecast for the coming weeks, fishing on this prolific lake should improve again.

Lough Beltra
Lough Beltra had an extremely good week despite the less than ideal weather conditions. A change in weather conditions mid week coaxed more anglers on to the lake, which accounted for 11 salmon for the week. Steve Jones from Dublin had the best of the angling; filling his quota for Thursday with 3 fish of 5, 8.5 and 9 lbs. Eamon Kennedy had a fine 11 lbs salmon, while UK anglers Ian Conn and Danny McAlister both caught salmon of 9 lbs each, Danny was using an Ally's Shrimp pattern.

Ballin Lough
Ballin Lough continued to produce some outstanding fishing with anglers leaving very positive comments about the size of the fish and the angling in general on the lake.

Willie Sculley and Tony McGrattan from Dublin boated 12 trout to 2.5 lbs and returned 6 of these. Buzzers and Nymph’s proved successful, along with Dabblers and Hoppers.

To book fishing on Ballin Lough, anglers should contact Mrs. Gill on 098-26128.
 
Loughs Conn & Cullin
Angling over the week for Lough Conn was exceptional with some of the best catches for years reported. Kelly’s Boat Hire, Cloghans, reported that some anglers had catches of 60, 47 and 40 trout for the week. Strong North East winds continued during the week but did not affect the fishing. An estimated 350 trout (over 12 ") were caught by 220 anglers in 380 rod days.

Dry fly fishing was the most popular method used during the week, with Yellow and Grey Wolf patterns working well.

Aiden Heffernan and Andrew Murry from Dublin had some fantastic angling, boating 47 trout for the week, the best a lovely 4.5 lbs brownie and returning all of them. The fantastic fishing continued for Welsh angler Daniel Edwards and boat partner. They caught 60 trout for 4 days, demonstrating a highly commendable concern for conservation by putting all the fish back.

Will Finn from Cork, landed his first salmon of 8 lbs and 4 trout, the best a 2.25 lbs. Oliver Turrell from the UK, and a party of 4 had 103 trout for the week, most being over 12". Walter and Susan Byrne boated 16 fish for 2 days fishing with the best a 3.25lbs trout.

The Frank Quinn Memorial Cup was fish for on Sunday the 25th. Twenty-six anglers took part and 29 fish were recorded.

• 1st Liam Couray, 4 fish for 6 lbs.
  2nd Pat Monaghan 3 fish for 4lbs.

The first leg of the annual trout competition, between the North Western and Western Regional Fisheries Boards, was fished on Lough Conn during the week. Despite tough angling conditions of a strong East wind, some anglers enjoyed very good fishing with two boats having catches of eight trout each. The Competition was fished on a strictly catch and release basis, with fish length being converted to points. The Western Board finished with the slenderest of leads on 2970 points and the North Western Board on 2200 points. The competition was won by Paul Reynolds (WRFB) with 5 fish (890 points) while John Mc Neely (NWRFB) was 2nd with 6 fish (870 points).
 

Ballisodare River
Good size of fish are still being caught on the fishery with a number of 10 lbs fish over the last week. Twenty-six salmon were caught for the week with only 6 of these being kept and the rest released. The fly proved the most productive method for the week. David Lee caught a 10lb fish on Friday while Seanie Maye also had a 10lb salmon on Thursday. Both fell to a shrimp fly.
 

Lough Gill & Glencar Lake
Noel McCaffery caught a 10lb Salmon off L Gill while trolling last weekend.
Matt Lyons, a local angler, had two Salmon off Glencar Lake.

Lough Arrow
Lough Arrow accounted for some good angling this week. Good hatches of May Fly were to be found and good Spent Gnat fishing was had.

Dapping proved useful during the week with fish also taken on Dry and Spent May patterns.

David Wall took 4 fish while dapping, the best a 2.75 lbs trout, while Ken Murry also had 4 fish, one of which was a lovely 4.5 lbs trout.

The Lough Arrow and District Anglers fished a competition on the lake. The competition was decided on a boat basis. It was won by Hillary Mitchell & Boat partner with 3 fish for 4.5 lbs. Second was Ivan Frazer with 1 fish for 1.7 lbs. while John Murry and boat partner were 3rd. with 1 fish for 1 lb.

As well as scooping the boat prize, Hillary Mitchell, also had the heaviest fish, a 2 lbs trout.

Lough ná Leibe
The Ballymote & District Angling Club’s trout fishery, Lough ná Leiba also fished very well during the week with May Fly and Spent Gnat patterns proving productive. A fine rainbow of 4.5 lbs was caught by Dermot Mc Dermot.

Coarse Angling
The Bream have started to show well in Ballinascarrow Lake, Ballymote. Keith Coleman of Ballymote & District Angling Club reported that club members have been bagging up during the week, with 25 lbs catches on the waggler for only two hour sessions! Some fine Tench fishing has also been reported with a number of fish over 4 lbs landed at Fin Lough.