Angling News
NW Angling News for week 10 June 2007
By Markus Muller
13, Jun 2007 - 17:59

River Moy

The extremely dry and sunny weather conditions impacted on the fishing over the past week, with only 79 salmon reported for the Moy system.

On the Moy Fishery, fourteen year old James Hewson, Ballina, had a fine 8.56 lbs. salmon on the fly on the Weir Pool. Also on the Weir Pool, German visitor, Rene Gehringer landed a salmon at 4.75 lbs.

On Mount Falcon, Geoff Hogman, US, took a fish of 9 lbs. on a spinner and Jim Irons, UK, had two at 4 lbs. & 6.25 lbs. on the prawn. On Coolcronan, Keith Tolley had 2 fish (8 lbs. & 9 lbs.) and Mick Hodges, UK, a long time visitor to the fishery, took a salmon weighing 8 lbs. Gannon’s also reported some good fishing with Pirmin Bucher, Switzerland, catching two fine salmon (10 lbs. each) on the prawn. On Rinanney, Horst & Juergen Babal, Germany, caught one salmon each (9 lbs. & 10.5 lbs.) on the prawn and Paul Verner, Northern Ireland, had one at 10.5 lbs. on the worm.

14-year-old James Hewson plays his fish at the Ridge Pool on the River Moy.

In the net! A happy James Hewson.

Further up river, the Cloongee Fishery produced 8 fish for the week including a 6 lbs. salmon for Torwalt Berger from Germany. On the East Mayo anglers Association water, Marc Tromme, Belgium, had one fish at 7 lbs. on the worm, his countryman, Claude Grosteau also got one (4 lbs.) on the worm and Austrian angler, Christian Menahaer, landed a small 3 lbs. salmon on the fly.

At present the Moy estuary is full of white bait followed by shoals of small mackerel and consequently there was a good show of sea trout during the week.

Gavin Fitzpatrick and 2 friends, Dublin, fishing with Judd Ruane had 7 good trout on mackerel strip. Several other good sea trout were reported by anglers for the past week and with a good stock of sea trout building up in the estuary prospects for the coming weeks are looking good.

A total of 21 rods fished the Lake during the week with 15 trout caught, 8 of which were released.

Amongst the successful anglers were P. Blaney & friend with 4 rainbow trout (3 released), best at 3 lbs., Neill Taylor & friend with 2 rainbows, best at 2 lbs. and Martin Walsh & friend who caught 2 rainbows and one brown trout, best at 2.5 lbs. The most successful flies for the week were Octopus, Silver Butcher and Muddler patterns.

Despite the very sunny and calm conditions anglers who ventured out reported some good catches during the week with an estimated 60 trout caught by approximately 80 anglers in 170 rod days.

Dr. Richfield, UK, a guest of Pontoon Bridge Hotel, took 3 trout for 4 lbs., best at 1.5 lbs. Andrew Dell, also UK, had 2 trout for 3 lbs. on dry mayflies and his countryman, Mark Arnold, caught one trout just over 1 lbs. on a Royal Wulffe. The Vilunaff party of 4 Dutch anglers who were staying at Healy’s Hotel had two trout each, all around the 1 lbs. mark.

At Cloghans, William Gates, UK, and his party of four anglers had one trout each (all around 1 lbs.) while Rory Jones, Wales, had 5 fish for 7 lbs. (best at 1.5 lbs.) over 2 days. Mike Ryan and his friend, both from Clare, had 3 trout for 4 lbs. on a Sooty Olive and the Green Peter and Mary Hardy, Kilkenny took 2 for 2.5 lbs. on a Grey Wulffe. Elsewhere, Gareth Edwards, Wales, and two friends caught 8 trout over 2 evenings on dry fly patterns.

An international gathering of lady anglers from England, Wales, Scotland and the US took place on Lough Conn during the week. Twenty ladies competed in the event and Beth Morrison from the US came 1^st with 4 trout for 5 lbs.

The Ballisodare fishery reported a total of 24 salmon for the week, 22 of which were released. J. Wilson, Northern Ireland, had the best fish of the week with a fine 10 lbs. salmon taken on a Prawn. Whereas local angler, Albert Shaw, had a salmon at 5 lbs. on a shrimp fly.

Again, there was very little angling activity on Lough Arrow over the week due to the sunny conditions. However, local angler, David Gray, had 2 fine brown trout at 3 lbs. & 2.5 lbs. He was fishing well into darkness and took his fish on a dry Murrough close to midnight. Elsewhere, John Kelly, Athlone, landed a fish at 2 lbs. on a wet fly.

Anglers have also reported some good fishing on Lough Doon where a party of four French anglers led by Thomas Patrice enjoyed a good days sport. J. Wilson who already was successful on the "Butt" at Ballisodare also reported two trout from Lough Doon. Similar to last week, any of the regular black pattern flies are proving successful on this small wild fishery.

The Riverstown Junior Anglers had an outing on Lough Bo on Saturday, 9 June. A total of 47 young boys and girls took part in the event with some of the youngsters were catching good numbers of trout: Jason Scott had 2 rainbow trout at 1.2 lbs & 2.3 lbs., Joseph Burns also landed two rainbows both weighing 1 lbs. Christopher McGann caught a brown trout at 0.7 lbs. and a rainbow trout weighing 2.4 lbs and Connor Baker & Aine Burns had a brown trout each (1.2 lbs. & 0.9 lbs.)