River Moy

Angling remains good on the River Moy, particularly in the middle and upper reaches. Water levels on the upper sections of the Moy, above it’s confluence with the Lake River, which flows out of Lough Cullin, fell substantially over the week. Below this, levels remained unseasonably high.

The Moy Fishery had a quiet week due to high water levels with 24 salmon caught. On the Ridge Pool, Ronnie Kerr, Northern Ireland, had one salmon on the worm and Nigel Hamilton, also from Northern Ireland, caught a nice 6.1 lbs. grilse on a spinner. On the Freshwater Beat, Patrick and Luke Byrne, from Dublin, had two salmon each fishing the spinner.

The Ballina Salmon Anglers’ water produced extremely good catches for the week. Many fish were caught as they moved through the fishery on their way up river. The Mount Falcon Fishery saw a hat-trick of salmon for lady anglers when three ladies each caught their first salmon. Mandy Williams (pictured), Dublin, banked a fantastic 4 salmon in one day, two of which she released. Her best fish was a fine fresh salmon of 9.5 lbs. Maureen Justice had a nice 9.25 lbs. fish while Rob Platais, UK, caught 3 salmon on his first ever day salmon fishing.

Dickie Harte, Northern Ireland, landed 2 salmon on the worm at the Coolcronan Fishery, while Tom Scott, England, had 1 salmon on a spinner. Further up the river on the Cloongee Fishery, Pat Sherry, Wicklow, landed a fine 11 lbs. salmon while Pat Carr, also from Wicklow had a. grilse. There was also good fishing on the East Mayo Anglers’ water during the week. John Buckley, Athlone, banked an 8 lbs. fish on a spinner, Henry Cooke, Dublin, had a 5 lbs. salmon on the fly while visiting Welsh angler, Mark Duncalf had a grilse to the fly.

Loughs Conn & Cullin

Water levels in Loughs Conn and Cullin are unusually high for this time of year and this resulted in fewer anglers than normal fishing the lake last week.

P. Van Houten and his party of 4 Dutch anglers caught 16 trout for 2 days fishing, the best fish, a 2.5 lb. trout fell to Rob Nelis. Edward and Martha Harrison from Limerick, had 5 fish for 6 lbs. with their best a 1.75 lbs. trout. Twelve year old, Thomas Costello, Leitrim, caught his first trout on Lough Conn, a fish of 1 lb. that took a size 8, Olive Bumble. Dermot Dunne, Offaly, and boat partner caught 5 trout for 7 lbs. with their best fish weighing in at 2 lbs.

Easkey River

Water levels were ideal for angling again on the Easkey River’s, Fortland Fishery and twenty two salmon were reported for the week.

Owenmore River

The Owenmore River fished very will over the course of the week. High water levels in the early part of the week dropped away after mid week and angling improved. Thirteen salmon were reported and a good number of these fish were released.

Among the successful anglers were Larry Mitchell, with 3 salmon caught and released at approximately 5, 6 and 7 lbs. Rory Murray also had 3 fish two of which were in the 6 to 7 lbs range and one fine salmon of 10 lbs. Rocky Moran, Castlebar also banked two salmon for 7 and 8 lbs.

Newport River

There was some excellent angling on the Newport River over the week. Catch and release was the order of the day with most anglers returning their fish. Oliver Corcoran caught 4 grilse at 4, 5, 6 and 7 lbs. and returned three. Barry Kenny caught and released 4 grilse while Jim Ruane had 3 salmon, his best a fine 9 lbs. fish.

Lough Furnace

Angling was fair for the week. David Nevin, Newport took a 6 lbs. grilse while Matt Fahy, Castlebar, boated 2 grilse at 3.5 and 4.5 lbs.

Ballisodare River

High water levels resulted in only 17 salmon for the week including a fine grilse of 7 lbs. which was caught and released by Vincent Henry while fishing the fly.

Ballin Lough

Fourteen anglers fished Ballin Lough during the week and caught 16 rainbow trout. Pat Murphy, Castlebar had 4 rainbows, his best a 3.5 lbs. fish. John Cowan also boated 4 trout with his best weighing in at 3.5 lbs. Joe Gibbons and Seamus O’Malley had 2 trout, their best a nice fish of 3.5 lbs.

The most popular fly patterns for the week were a Damsel Nymph and Tadpole.