Galway Fishery

Water levels fell again this week, with just one gate open for most of the week, although this has now gone back up to two gates open again. The spring fishing is slowly coming to an end, with grilse just starting to arrive, although the main grilse run has not yet hit Galway, so there were just 11 fish landed for the week, including some great springers.
Dave O'Reilly from Dublin, a regular visitor, landed a cracking 16lbs silver fish on fly, after a spirited fight that lasted nearly 50 minutes. Local man Dave Lenihan landed an 8.5lbs salmon, and another Galway resident, Maurice Gill, took a 5.5lbs grilse, both taken on fly. Adrian Murphy from Galway had a 10.5lbs fish on shrimp, and Cork angler James McEvoy took fish of 8.5lbs and 6lbs on fly. Simon White from the UK landed grilse of 5lbs and 6.5lbs on shrimp, and Mullingar man Gary Kilroy had a 4.5lbs grilse on shrimp. Local expert Declan Tuffy landed a 4lbs grilse and a superb 14lbs springer, both on fly.
There are plenty of fish showing in the river on today's tide, both spring salmon and grilse, and with such a good run of fish I expect fishing to pick up further here in the coming weeks.

Western Lakes

Ronan Cusack reports that Lough Mask seemed a lot quieter this week with many anglers gone back home after their annual mayfly pilgrimage. Wind direction was variable all week and never seemed to stay in the one direction for more than 24 hours. The weekend saw some reasonable hatches of olives and sedges with the mayfly well and truly over. Ballinrobe & District Anglers chairman Tommy Foley fished Mask on Tuesday last and boated 6 good trout for his day (best fish 2.5lbs). Tommy fished again on Wednesday evening with Ballinrobe angler Sean Maloney, and landed 2 fish, one of which was 3.5lbs. Sean fished on Saturday with Cork angler Neil Foley and they had 4 trout for their day (best fish 2lbs). Sean fished again on Sunday with Belfast angler Ray Kelly and they had 6 fish for their day, many of which were returned. John Munroe, Partry fished the Lively bay/Aughinish area of Mask for a day in the early part of last week and reported a super bag of 11 trout. John's best fish was 2lbs with numerous small fish on the day.
Ronan Cusack, Ballinrobe and Mark Rogan, Waterford fished together over the bank holiday weekend and reported some excellent sport, the best day being Sunday with 7 good trout up to 2lbs all returned.
Hall's Angling Centre had a busy week with some good bags being reported. Bill Scorer from Co. Meath fished from Hall's for 6 consecutive days last week and averaged 5-6 fish each day. Bill's best fish of the week was 3.75lbs. Hugh Jamison and a group of friends from Northern Ireland, also staying at Hall's, fished on Saturday last and reported 12 trout, best fish 2.25lbs. Kevin Sheridan from Ballinrobe fished out of Cushlough most days last week and had a total of 11 trout on dries for his week. Finally last weekend Kevin and Trish Purcell from the UK spent a day trolling on Mask with their son Max, and young Max landed a cracking trout of 6.5lbs on the day.
To book fishing and accommodation at Hall's Angling Centre, call David Hall on +353 (0)94 9541389, or email info@lakeshoreholidays.com
To book fishing with Ronan Cusack, call him on 087 2869487 or email cusackronan@gmail.com

Reports were sparse on Lough Corrib this week with fewer anglers out, given the end of the mayfly. Tom Kelly reports that some mayfly were still hatching last week, but it is probably coming to an end after an excellent season for hatches this year. Some anglers were still taking fish on mayfly, with Joe Davies landing 2 for 7lbs on the dap, while the Creighton party of 4 rods from Scotland fished for 4 days and landed 25 trout on dap and wetfly, best fish 3lbs. A Japanese angler staying at Currarevagh House had a 6lbs trout while trolling, and German visitor Daniel Reithmayer landed 5 fish for 6.5lbs on the dap.

Connemara

The rain of the last week has kept water levels up, and fresh fish have been running most of the rivers in Connemara. Jim Stafford, manager of the Erriff Fishery, reports that water levels were are perfect at the moment following rain, and plenty of fish are running the river, both springers and early grilse, as well as good numbers of sea trout. The first grilse was landed today, a nice fish of 5lbs 2oz, taken in the Garden Pool on Beat 9 by Dublin angler David Gaffney, and more fish have been met by anglers. There are very few rods on the river at the moment, and catches would be significantly higher if more rods were fishing. There is plenty of availability during the coming weeks on the fishery. To book fishing on the Erriff or accommodation at Aasleagh Lodge, contact Jim at +353 (0)95 42252, or email erriff.fish@iol.ie

David Gaffney with a fine grilse caught on the Erriff

Colin Folan reports on some good fishing from Lough Inagh, where the only thing restricting catches is the low numbers of anglers. Brian Regan landed a nice grilse of 7lbs at the Derryclare Butts on a size 10 Silver Rat. Water levels are perfect at the moment, with plenty of fish running.
To book fishing or accommodation, contact Lough Inagh Lodge Hotel at +353 (0)95 34706, or check www.loughinaghlodgehotel.ie

David McEvoy reports from Delphi that May was the best ever there, with 122 salmon in total. Obviously sea survival for this year's 2-sea-winter return is very high. One can only wonder at the reasons. The angling was helped by the fact that we had rain 30 days in May with a total of 372.4mm or 14.66inches.
There were so many notable catches it's impossible to include everything but it's worth mentioning the following first evers;
Stephen Brennan, Fred Whitelaw, Jean Boffelli, Darren Evans, Chris Spencer, Sarah Walmsley, Michelle Roth and last but by no means least Tony Barrett Jolley who not only managed his first but had two more in the space of 1.5 hours.
Barbara Kelly had her first off the river, Niall Higgins and Gary Lloyd had fish after a prolonged barren spell at Delphi, Stephen Jones followed a fish under the bridge in the Meadow Pool and landed it and Paul Shalvey had the fish of the month of 15.5lbs.
Fishing guide Tom Callanan also landed the second biggest fish of the year so far, a cracking fish of 15lbs 14oz, taken on Doolough.
To book fishing or accommodation at Delphi, contact Delphi Lodge at +353 (0)95 42222, or check www.delphi-salmon.com for details.

Sea Angling

John Brittain, skipper of the Bluewater in Cleggan, reports that May has been almost a washout in terms of weather, but "a couple of middling fine days" last week enabled Marco van Noort's group to have some nice fishing, as did Kevin Glennon's over last weekend. Mackerel are still around, as well as plenty of pollack, some nice thornbacks and lots of cod to 10lbs, but unusually for Cleggan the weather has put a stop to things this week. Hopefully we might get some summer weather soon, and John will have more good fishing to sport for his clients.
To check regular updates from Bluewater, check the Bluewater Charter Fishing page on Facebook. To book fishing with John, or accommodation at John and Sue's B&B near Clifden, contact them at +353 (0)95 21073, or check www.seafishingireland.net