Connemara

Hurricanes may cause a lot of havoc, but they also bring a lot of rain with them, and massive floods over the last few days are dropping off now, with rivers in perfect condition for salmon angling. Catches have reflected this, with good salmon fishing on the Erriff, and at Inagh and Kylemore. Fresh fish are still running the Erriff, and with September last year being so good, expectations are high for the last couple of weeks of the season this year.

Erriff

Thomas Gillen from Dublin with a nice fresh grilse taken on the Erriff.

Fishery manager Jim Stafford reports from the River Erriff on fishing up to Saturday last:
It was a week of very mixed weather conditions with heavy rains and gale force winds at times. With the heavy rains the river rose very quickly on the night of the 5th. Levels remained high but very clean for the week.

Peter Huggard, U.K. caught 7 salmon and 1 sea trout for the week. Anthony Luke and Mary Henry, Nunnington N. Yorks. caught 3 fish on Quarry Pool on Beat 2 on a Willie Gunn and a further 3 on the Coronation Pool on Beat 8 - best fish estimated at 13lbs, all fish were sportingly released. Mr. John Martin Smith, Irl. caught 2 in Humps & Hollows and in the Colonel's Run on Beat 6 on a Silver Stoat. Louis Brody, U.K. caught his first Irish salmon in Yellow Banks on Beat 5. Jim Wilson, Foxford released a fish estimated at 9lbs taken on a Coolrow Killer on Beat 7. Lal Flahery & Alan McGurdy caught 3.

Wolfgang Sesselmann, Germany and his son Martin caught 6 for the week and the other member of the Party Ingolf Russ caught his first ever two salmon - best fish 7.5lbs taken on a Cascade in the Yellow Banks on Beat 5. Kirsty Anna Macleod, Inverness shire, Scotland fishing the Erriff for the first time caught 3 fish in the Falls and Garden Pool. Urgan Mantle, Clonbur released a 5.5 lbs. fish caught in the Straight on Beat 5. Friday the 9th was a brilliant day for Stuart Price and Martin Davison who caught 5 fish and released 4 of them - all fish were taken on Beat 6. Jack Prendergast, Dublin released a fish taken in the Horseshoe Pool at the top of Beat 3. Liam Maloney from Dublin released one taken on a Cascade in Humps & Hollows.

At the time of writing the river has dropped after a 2.5 meter spate on Sunday, and is now in perfect condition for the fly.

Total catch for the week was 42 salmon (27 Released) and 8 sea trout.

To book fishing or accommodation, contact Jim at Aasleagh Lodge on 095 42252, or email erriff.fish@iol.ie

Inagh
Fishery manager Colin Folan reports from Lough Inagh that new records are being set every day. The previous best catch for a season was 85, and this season they have already recorded over 100 salmon, the 100th coming on Monday, when Dr. John Casey from Clifden caught and released 3 salmon from 5-6.5lbs from Corloo beat in a howling gale. William Hamilton, a well-known flytier from Dublin, had previously set new bests for the fishery when landing nos. 97 and 98, including a fine fish of approx. 15lbs that was released.
To book fishing or accommodation, call Lough Inagh Lodge Hotel at 095 34706 or check their website at www.loughinaghlodgehotel.ie

Delphi
Fishery manager David McEvoy reports that fishing at Delphi has been tough over the last couple of weeks, with 12 salmon landed. Maxi Schiedt landed a fine 8.5lbs fish off Finlough on a Bruiser Bumble, while Peter Eaton followed up in the afternoon with his first Delphi salmon, a 6lbs 11.5oz fish taken from the stream on Fin on a Currie Shrimp. Leander Schilling from Germany had his first ever, a 2lbs fish off Fin on a Willie Gunn, and David Rainford landed his 20th Delphi salmon, a 6lbs fish off the Turn pool on a Delphi Collie.

The husband and wife duo of Martin and Barbara Cellier were on the catch sheet again, with a salmon each on Friday afternoon off Finlough. Martin's was taken on a Red Assed Muddler tied by Berbara and weighed in at 4lbs 14.5oz. Barbara's fish was taken on a Tosh and weighed in at 4lbs 13.5oz. Needless to say they were happy campers.
Ian Carroll from Cork landed a 4lbs fish from the Turn Pool on a Monkey Dog and lost another. Mike Shortt landed a fish at the Mouth of the Glenumnera of 3lbs 4oz on a Sunray Shadow. Martyn Gregory also had a fish off the Turn Pool on a Willie Gunn Waddington weighing in at 4lbs1oz, and David himself landed a fine fish from the Middle River on a Cascade, weighing in at 11lbs 5oz.

To book accommodation or fishing at Delphi, contact the lodge at 095 42222, or check the website at www.delphi-salmon.com

Kylemore Abbey
Nigel Rush reports from Kylemore that although rod numbers are well down on last year, the catch for the season is almost the same as 2010, which was a good season on Kylemore with a very good grilse run. Nigel himself landed 2 fish yesterday, including a nice grilse of 5.5lbs, released again. Another angler landed 3 fish from the Upper River, all returned, while Denis McMurray landed a nice fish in the Rock Pool, also returned.

Jorgen Fuchsbauyer (Austria) landed his first ever fish from the Rock Pool, a 4lbs grilse, while Valentine Flynn landed two for his three days, and Alex Findlater landed 2 fish of 4lbs and 2.75lbs from Lavelles and the Flat Pool respectively, returning the latter.

To book fishing at Kylemore Abbey, contact Nigel at 095 41178 (fishery office) or 095 41161 (home).


Sea Angling

The remnants of Hurricane Katia struck the coast this week, with mountainous seas leaving behind a huge swell, and boat fishing has been impossible for the last number of days. Hopefully the improvement in the weather will allow boats to head out again soon, and fishing should be good for the next few weeks, with plenty of species available at this time of year due to the high water temperatures.

The sixth leg of the West Coast Shore League took place in atrocious weather conditions on Sunday on Streedagh beach, Co. Sligo, hoested by the Mullaghmore club. Fishing was tough on the day in spite of a good surf, with only small numbers of flounder and turbot coming in, and quite a few blanks recorded, including yours truly. At least I was in good company, with some very good anglers not landing fish either!

The winner on the day was Andrew McDermott from Oranmore, representing the Galway Bay club. Andrew has done very well this year in his first season competing, and the win was well-deserved. He landed 3 fish for 78 points.
The winner of Zone A was Kevin Barber from Western Vikings SAC, with 3 fish for 70 points. Second was Peter Atkins (GBSAC), with 2 fish for 50 points, and third was John Callaghan (Defence Forces SAC). The winner of Zone B was Michael McGettigan from Mariners SAC, with 3 fish for 78 points, second was Ed Kilroy (Newport SAC) with 2 fish for 46 points, and third was Sean Ivory (Western Vikings) with 2 fish for 37 points.

With 2 legs left in the league, it's still very tight at the top, with Mike Curtin leading on 582 points. Peter Atkins is hard on his heels with 574 points, with Frank Rixon and Ed Kilroy fighting it out for third place at the moment. With competitors allowed to drop their two lowest scores at the end, however, that could bring a host of other contenders into the reckoning, and nothing will be settled until the final leg in late November.

Western Lakes

Ronan Cusack reports that Lough Mask was back on top form again this week, with the deep water producing some fantastic sport. Unfortunately the inclement weather conditions we have been experiencing have hampered many anglers getting out.

Clonbur was a hive of activity on Tuesday and Wednesday last week for the annual licensed vintner's competition. The first leg of the event had to be cancelled on Tuesday due to storm conditions, but competitors woke up to excellent conditions on Wednesday with a fresh south westerly and plenty of cloud cover. There were a total of 120 angler's competing on the day with a return of 81 trout for 107.9lbs, with an average weight of 1.3lbs.

The winner on the day was John Rochford from Cork with 4 fish for 6.6lbs. In second place was Patsy Tracy Fermanagh, with 4 fish for 5.6lbs. Third place went to Kevin Willis, again from Cork with 4 fish for 5.1lbs.
Ballinrobe Anglers were forced to cancel their annual club competition on Sunday last due to the storm. This event will be re-scheduled for later on in the month.

Ronan fished on Friday last with Vincent Kelly from Cavan and they had 6 fish for their day (best fish 2lbs, all released). Jackie Mahon from Sligo also fished on Friday with his father and they had 8 fish for their day (best fish 2.25lbs, all released). Andrew Boyd and Richie McCormack from Headford had 6 good fish earlier in the week on a combination of wets and dries. Good hatches of sedge could be found scattered across the deep by the high winds and trout were eagerly taking advantage.

Lough Carra has also been producing the goods with some cracking trout reported on dries. Local angler Richie Yang who fishes Carra on a regular basis reported numerous trout of 3lbs + over the past week. Greg O'Donoghue and Tommy Foley Ballinrobe also reported plenty of action on dries late into the evening.

Over on Lough Corrib, fishing has been reasonably good. A competition was fished out of Greenfields to raise funds for Tanzania, organised by Frank Reilly who has run fly-tying clinics in the country to encourage entrepreneurial activity. 25 anglers fished on the day, landing 11 fish over the size limit, however as this was a catch-and-release competition the fish were measured and released again. Noel O'Donoghue took top honours, with 2 trout for 76cm, just pipping Brian McInerney who had 2 fish for 75cm. The best fish was recorded by Michael Kelly from Ennis, a fine trout of 56cm.

Elsewhere, Jack King and Mary Quigley from Monaghan landed 5 trout for 11.5lbs over 2 days wetfly fishing, with the best trout 4.5lbs, and all sportingly released. William -John Primrose from Tipperary landed 6 trout over 2 days on wetfly, all released again.

I hope to get out on Mask myself this week and experience the good fishing that September has to offer, and if conditions remaing good the last 2 weeks of the season should provide good sport.