River Moy

The Moy had a reported catch of 40 salmon for the week and fish were caught throughout the system.

On the Ridge Pool, Lothar Deeg, Germany, had a salmon (released) at 6 lbs. and Paul McGrory, Louth, landed one at 7.7 lbs. Both fish were caught on fly. Four salmon were reported from the Ballina Salmon Anglers stretch. This fishery opened on Tuesday, 1 May and Gary Keaveney, Ballina, caught the first fish weighing 5.5 lbs on worm. Billy Brett, Athlone, also had a salmon at 5.5 lbs. The Mount Falcon Fishery also reported the first salmon of the season: Meath angler, Padraig Corrigan, caught the fish weighing 8.5 lbs.

Happy Ballina Salmon Angler, Gary Keaveney, with the first fish of the season.

Ten year old Lisa Massey from Northern Ireland who was fishing Coolcronan?s together with her parents caught a fine 9 lbs. salmon on the worm. This was the first fish of the season for the Scott-Knox-Gore Coolcronan Fishery!

Ten year old Lisa Massey with her fine 9 lbs Coolcronan salmon.

Armstrong?s produced 4 salmon and 2 fish were reported from Gannon?s including a fine 12 lbs. salmon caught by Dublin angler, Doreen Connolly. On the Foxford Fishery, Eugine Ryan and Jack McDonnell, Carlow, had fish at 9 and 10 lbs. An Austrian party enjoyed very good sport on the Clongee Fishery including a 12 lbs. fish (fly) for Harald Heuerweller, an 11 lbs. (fly) salmon for Thomas Steininger and one at 10 lbs. (spinner) for Martin Guttman. 

Moy Estuary

The fluctuating winds affected fishing conditions this week on the Moy Estuary.  However, the same Austrian party, fishing with Judd Ruane who can be contacted on www.fishingireland.ie, had 15 sea trout averaging 1.25 lbs. on mackerel strip.
 

Carrowmore Lake

Angling on Carrowmore Lake was slow this week with only one salmon caught: Declan Daly was the lucky angler and his fish weighed 8 lbs. The lake was discoloured for most of the week due to the windy conditions but fishing should improve again in the event of winds settling over the next few days. 

Lough Beltra

Lough Beltra produced 2 fish for the week: Alistair Angus, England, a guest of Newport House, caught a salmon at 10 lbs. on a Silver Doctor and Rory Murray, Offaly, who was fishing from the Glenisland Co-Op side, had a fish weighing 7 lbs. on a Shrimp Fly.

Ballinlough

The season on Ballinlough started off with excellent results! The Board managed fishery opened on Tuesday, 1 May and 13 anglers had a total of 40 trout, 14 of which were released. The total catch for the week was 108 trout (34 released). Undoubtedly, the fish of the week was caught by Frank Gilsenan, Offaly, who landed a 7 lbs. rainbow trout. Frank?s fish came to a Zulu. Other notable catches include 17 rainbow trout (11 released) for B. Jameson and friend (Westmeath), 11 fish (3 released) for Ronan Creane, Offaly, with best at 3.5 lbs. and 9 rainbows for Paul Caslin & Colin Peyton with best at 2.5 lbs. Most successful flies were: Zulu, Clarte Bumble, Sedge Hog, Clan Chief, Sooty Olive, Octopus, Dabblers and Buzzers.

Lough Conn & Lough Cullin

All anglers reported good fishing on both lakes for the week with more than 200 trout caught by 70 anglers over 180 rod days.

The prestigious Healy Cup Fly Fishing competition was fished on Lough Conn and Lough Cullin on Saturday, 6 May. An international array of fishermen took part in the competition, conditions were perfect and anglers saw good hatches of mayflies. The annual event is sponsored by Healy?s Restaurant and Country House. Jim Ruane from Ireland won the Healy Cup with a fish at 1.39 lbs. Runner up was Phillip Whitehead, UK and James Jennings, Castlebar came third.

The Lough Conn & Cullin Anglers competed against the Dublin Anglers on Saturday, 5 May. Forty anglers took part in the competition and the results were as follows: 1st Michael Monaghan with 5 trout for 5.29 lbs., 2nd John Walsh with 3 trout, 3rd David Dinsmore with 2 fish. On Sunday, 6 May, the Conn & Cullin Anglers fished for the ?Pratt Cup? with John Griffin (2 fish for 2.47 lbs.) winning the event, John Walsh (2 fish for 2.19 lbs.) in 2nd place and Adrian Murphy (2 fish for 1.75 lbs.) coming 3rd.

Elsewhere, Joe Quinn, Ballina caught 2 fish for 2.5 lbs., Simon Karlfield, UK, took 6 trout on Lough Cullin with an average weight of 1 lbs. and Seamus Kelly, Cloghans, had 16 trout over 3 days, best at 2.75 lbs.

Best flies for the week were: Bibio, Gosling, Octopus, Sooty Olive and Green Hackle.

Ballisodare River

Ballisodare had a good start to the season with 20 salmon recorded of which 7 were released. Vinney Henry had a fish at 10 lbs. and Michael Smith caught a fine fish weighing 15 lbs. Both fish were taken on worms.

Lough Arrow 

Last weekend saw the first prolific hatches of mayflies on the Lough and subsequently a number of fine trout were caught. Anglers reported 23 trout for the week mostly taken on the dab. Noel Clinton fishing with his father Carl had 6 trout for 14 lbs. and juvenile angler, Walter Frazer, caught two fish at 3.2 lbs. and 2.6 lbs. Angling journalist, David Gray, enjoyed good sport on the dry fly and landed 3 nice trout averaging 3.5 lbs. Prospects for Lough Arrow are looking good for the coming weeks with more mayfly action ahead.