Angling News
Angling News - Mayo/Galway - 23 Mar 2011
By Kevin Crowley
23, Mar 2011 - 21:49

Western Lakes
Water temperatures are still quite low on the Western lakes, and consequently fly hatches and fish life are rather quiet. We are enjoying lovely spring weather this week, however, with temperatures up to 15C, so hopefully the water will warm up soon and get things moving. On Corrib, sporadic and sparse hatches of duckfly have been seen, signaling that the main hatch is on the way soon. In the Cornamona-Greenfields area, 18 anglers reported 26 trout in 31 rod-days. Sean Dixon from Ennis landed 2 trout for his day out, including a nice fish of 3.5lbs. Darren Walsh from Ballycurrin landed 3 trout on one day for approx. 4.5lbs. Frank Reilly had 5 trout over 2 days for approx. 8lbs, and Peter Curran from Cornamona had 3 trout over 2 days for 5.5lbs, including a 3lbs fish.

Mask was described as a bit moody this week despite almost idyllic conditions.
Local Tourmakeady angler Liam Conroy fished on Saturday and returned 2 nice fish. Liam's best fish was just over 2lbs. Declan McAllorum from Dublin also reported a nice fish of 1.75lbs over the weekend. John Hopkins and his son Gary fished on Sunday afternoon and landed 1 trout of 2lbs. Local anglers Sean Maloney and Tim Hannon fished during the week and returned a few small fish. Sean reported meeting good numbers of trout in the shallows, but many of them coming short, making successful hook-ups difficult. Good hatches of small chironomids were common during the warm days of the past week, yet almost all of the fish caught were bottom feeding and stuffed with hog louse.


Cong Canal
The Cong Canal opened on March 17th, with a large number of anglers forsaking the parades and pubs to try their luck. Early reports are coming in of good numbers of big trout caught, with fish to over 10lbs reported. As usual, spinner and worm are most successful in the early season high water, but as water levels drop the canal can provide fantastic fly sport.

Andy Newman holding his impressive 9.65 lbs trout taken on the Cong Canal. With thanks to Liam Kane for the photo.

Liam Kane reported landing a number of kelts in addition to one trout. Some salmon do get past the screen at the lower end of the canal and spawn in tributaries of Lough Mask, so kelts may be caught at this time and should be carefully returned to the water. Andy Newman caught and released a 9.65lbs trout, and son Brian had one of 7.5lbs. Two local 14 year old lads also landed specimens - Caolan McDonnell had a 10lbs 3oz fish and Mark Gibbons landed one of 6lbs 8oz. A Polish angler had one of 9lbs+ and an even bigger trout was apparently lost at the outflow from Mask.


Sea Angling
The first leg of the West Coast Shore League was held at Renvyle on the 12th of March. 35 competitors entered, which meant the competition had to be held on two different beaches, with zone placings counting towards the league.
Fishing was vastly different on the two beaches, with large numbers of fish taken on one, while the other venue was very scratchy. Former World champion Timmy O'Sullivan from Galway Bay SAC took top honours, winning the overall competition with 25 fish for 1,056 points, including thornback ray, dogfish and coalfish. Sean Ivory (Western Vikings SAC) took Zone 1, with 17 fish for 775 points, and Kevin Barber (also Western Vikings) was 2nd with 15 fish (668 points). Mick Sweeney (Galway Bay) was 3rd, with 15 fish for 594 points.
Zone 2 was much less prolific, and Marcin Tomaszek from Galway Bay taking the zone win with 7 fish for 205 points. Pete Atkins (Galway Bay) was 2nd, with 6 fish for 186 points, and Frank Rixon (Newport SAC) was third with 5 fish for 141 points.

The West Coast Shore League is in its second year, after a highly successful beginning in 2010, and is already attracting many of the top shore anglers from around the country. The next leg takes place on April 30th at Trawee beach in Sligo. Anyone interested in entering should contact Peter Atkins at ptratkins@hotmail.com or check www.galwaybaysac.com for details.


Delphi
Spring salmon fishing is currently very good at Delphi according to fishery manager David McEvoy, who reports on the month to date:
Regular visitor Werner Zirngibl, who landed the big fish last month, started the month where he finished off, well almost! He had a sea-liced fish from the Deadmans Pool on the 3rd on a Collie Dog. However there was an 11lbs difference in the weight with his latest being 5lbs 9oz.
The water at this stage was getting low and we didn't have any rain until the 11th.
The beginning of this week was therefore slow with low water and fishing pressure was relatively light with Messrs. Dunlop, Mills and Jackson concentrating more on social activities. Bob Hadden did however try hard all week to no avail. However his fishing partner for Friday Steve Jones lost one and landed an 8lbs sea-liced fish in his first 5 minutes of the season on a Collie Dog.
This was then followed by a very good week with both long standing anglers and newcomers doing well.
It was great to see both Keith Pilkington and Peter Morrison landing fish of 7lbs 3oz and 7lbs 15oz respectively off the river.
We also had 3 newcomers from Sweden and Denmark. Of these Lars Berg had 3, which were 7.5lbs, 15lbs and 7lbs 9oz. The first two were taken on the river on Delphi Collies, the third on Finlough on a Willie Gunn.
A number of day anglers were also successful, Mark Ryan landed a fine 14lbs fish, David Lennon had a 10lbs 2oz fish and Joe Hosey had a 6lbs 7oz fish.

That brought the season total so far to 5 wild and 11 ranched fish. Average size also seems to be well up with 6 being over 10lbs weight.
Finlough is slow so far with only 2 landed but this will increase as the temperature rises.

Delphi currently have availability on fly fishing courses for the season, with beginner's courses taking place on 12-15 May, 16-19 June, and 1-4 September. There are also 3 Salmon & Trout courses, which run on 19-22 May, 23- 26 June and 15-18 September. Full details and booking details are available on the website at www.delphilodge.ie , or contact the lodge at +353 (0)95 42222.