Angling News
Northwest Angling News - week to 29 June 2008
By Rory Sheehan
5, Jul 2008 - 09:06

River Moy

The Moy River fished extremely well this week. Heavy rain at the start of the week raised water levels and fish moved up through the system and all fisheries reported good catches. As well as anglers enjoying good catches the quality of the fish was very good with many weighing in above 8 lbs. The reported salmon catch for the week was 582 bringing the total for the year so far to 1870.

Ten year old Tom Lynch with his first salmon.

The Moy Fishery produced some good angling despite the rise in water levels. For part of the week spinner and worm were permitted. On the Ridge Pool, French angler, Henri Tromelin, caught 2 salmon for 9.52 & 7.98 lbs while fellow French angler, Gerald Groult, also had two salmon for 3.42 & 9.32 lbs. Peter Mapledoram from England, banked a 5.46 lbs fish while Chrispin Rodwell, Dublin, had a nice 8.48 lbs fish. On the Cathedral Beat, Welsh angler, Bruce Dikinson, took an 8.5 lbs salmon while Liam Young from Tipperary landed a nice 9 lbs fish. On the Freshwater Beat, John Hanley, England caught 2 fish.

Upstream of the weir, the Ballina Salmon Anglers’ water fished well and many anglers reported good catches. The middle sections of the river also produced good numbers of fish throughout the week.  The Mount Falcon Fishery has launched a novel initiative whereby it will donate €5 to the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation (NASCO) for every salmon caught and released this year on its water. The angling at Mount Falcon over the week was good with James Gilchrist, England landing a 6.5 lbs salmon while on his Honeymoon! Jimmy Conlon banked a fantastic 13.5 lbs fish while Michael Wilson caught a fine 10.75 lbs salmon.

On the Knockmore Fishery, Alan Childs, UK, caught 3 salmon while the Attymass Fishery produced a fantastic 14 lbs fish for UK angler, Reg Goodwin. German angler, Harold Retsch, banked a fine 13 lbs salmon on the Coolcronan Fishery and UK angler, Mathew Hewitson, caught a 5 lbs fish at Byrne’s Fishery.

Alan Cully, Northern Ireland caught a lovely 13 lbs fish on a spinner at Gannon’s Fishery while the Foxford Fishery provided some excellent salmon angling for French angler, Thiery Del-Doierron, who had 8 salmon for 4 days fishing. On the Foxford Salmon Anglers’ water, Austrian angler, Walter Schuster, banked a 6 lbs salmon while fishing worm. The Cloongee Fishery also proved successful for Austrian anglers, Walter Schuster and Thomas Kritz, who caught a 7 & 6 lbs salmon respectively. Kevin Lynch and his 10 year old son Tom (pictured above) caught 3 salmon, This was Tom’s first salmon and weighed in at 4.5 lbs. The East Mayo water produced some good fishing over the week with Louise Otto from Germany catching a 4 lbs fish while UK angler, Garry James, banked 3 fish for 4, 8 & 10 lbs.    

Lough Conn

Weather over the week was unsettled with heavy showers and strong winds. Approximately 57 anglers reported 45 trout for 71 rod days for the week.

Popular fly patterns were the Octopus, Golden Olive Bumble and the Green Peter.

Jack Mellett had 2 trout for 1.2 lbs and 1 lbs respectively. Tim Deasy, Castlebar also had 2 trout for 2.5 lbs. Seamus Kelly, Cloghans and boat partner caught 6 trout all over the 12” size limit and all were returned. Austrian anglers, Hugo Mitzel and Bederic Mirac, caught 3 trout for a day.

Ballisodare River

During the week an improvement in the numbers of salmon arriving was observed and this was particularly the case at Ballisodare where 166 salmon were caught with 117 returned. Although the majority of these were small fish coinciding with the start of the grilse run several 10 lbs. plus salmon were taken.

Benny Henry had a fine 12 lb salmon on the fly while a visiting French angler also had a 12 lb fish to the prawn. Local angler, Gerry McHugh had a 7lb fish on the fly while Jimmy Cuffe caught and released two grilse during an evening’s fishing.

Lough Furnace
Angling on Lough Furnace picked up during the week. In total 12 salmon were caught. The most productive flies were the Ally’s Cascade and the Green Peter.
Benard Wojnar, Dublin had some fantastic fishing, catching 4 salmon on the day. Fourteen year old David Healy, Derry caught his first ever salmon, a 4 lbs grilse.

Owenmore
The rain over the week kick-started angling on the Owenmore River. Eight salmon were caught with some fine fish to 10 lbs. Dublin angler, Rory Murray, and local angler, John Reynolds, both had fish of 10 lbs while John also had a grilse.

Newport River
Fishing was good on the Newport River during the week with a fantastic 16 lbs fish caught and released by Oliver Corcoran. Later in the week Oliver also landed two nice fish which weighed in at 9 and a 10 lbs. Eamon Kennedy  banked two fine fish of 10 and 11.5 lbs.

Moy Estuary
Angling on the Moy Estuary remains extremely good with anglers reporting good catches of sea trout. Northern Irish angler Raymond Boyce and friend caught 9 trout on mackerel strip. Albert Roche and family enjoyed some very good fishing, catching 12 trout on mackerel strip. 

Ballin Lough
Few anglers fished Ballin Lough this week but those that did were rewarded with good sport. Anthony Baggott and Philip McGoldrick, Castlebar caught 4 trout, best at 3.5 lbs. Ronan Greane and John O’Malley boated 7 trout, their best, a fine 4.5 lbs fish.

Lough Doon
Lough Doon fished well with anglers catching good numbers of fish. While the average size of the trout is on the small side, the quality of these hard fighting wild trout is excellent.