Galway Weir
Despite the heatwave and dry spell last week, water levels remained high in Galway, only being reduced to 2 gates open at the weekend. Once the water levels dropped anglers enjoyed some sport, with 10 fish recorded. Among those to land salmon were Jim Barry from Dublin, who landed 2 grilse on the fly, Killian Garvey from Dublin with a nice 5lbs grilse on fly, and Limerick angler Martin Kiely, who had a grilse on fly. Local angler Simon Lenihan had a grilse on fly, while Galway angler Des Bluett took a nice 7lbs fish on spinner, and Dublin angler Frank Poland took a fine 10lbs salmon on shrimp. Owen Jackman from Tipperary landed 2 grilse on the fly also.

Heavy overnight rain may mean another increase in water levels, but with every cloud comes a silver lining - the wet summer has meant exceptional fishing for local anglers on Lough Corrib's tributary rivers, particularly the Clare River. There are still fresh fish running the river at the moment, and fishing prospects remain good if water levels do not rise too much.

Erriff
Fishery manager Jim Stafford reports on fishing in touch conditions last week. Summer weather arrived at last in the Erriff valley, and with the Erriff being a spate river, water levels dropped off from 1.0m at the beginning of the week to 0.68m on Saturday 11th. Overnight rain on the 11th increased levels to 0.98 meters on the morning of Sunday 12th. Overall angling conditions were poor in comparison to previous weeks.

Ken Mills, UK, caught 3 grilse in one day in the Gauge Pool on Beat 9. Seamus Harrold, Limerick, caught one of 5 lbs on a Black Cascade in the Garden Pool. Kevin Glynn, Dalkey, Co. Dublin landed 2 fish. The Coronation Pool produced a 5.5-pounder for Richard Daly from Dublin. Michael Tallon, Wicklow, released a 5 ½ pounder taken on an Ally's Shrimp in the Falls Pool. Local angler Michael Wade, fishing a Collie Dog, landed the only salmon in the Erriff & District Anglers Competition held on Sunday.

Tawnyard Lough produced 6 sea trout and over 200 brown trout to 3/4lbs for Kevin Crowley and Chris McCully in 2 days fishing in far from ideal conditions.

Fish of the week goes to Tobias Stern, Austria, on his annual fishing trip to the Erriff, who landed a salmon of 17lbs caught on an Ally's Shrimp in the Falls Pool - Tobias also caught one of 5.75 lbs.

Total catch for the week was 12 salmon and 9 sea trout.

To book fishing on the Erriff or accommodation in Aasleagh Lodge, contact fishery manager Jim Stafford on 095 42252, or visit www.aasleaghlodge.ie for details. The lodge and fishery also have a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/AasleaghLodge.

Kylemore
Fishery manager Nigel Rush reports that as with most fisheries in Connemara, last week was quiet due to the sweltering conditions. Lowering water levels and hot bright days somewhat hampered our progress. There were a couple of firsts for father and son team Norman and Jules Goldberg from Germany. Twelve year old Jules landed his first grilse at 3lbs from the Middle River, followed two days later with Norman landing his first ever Dawros grilse at 4.5lbs. Seamus O'Neill returned a stale fish of 12lbs, and Neil Spellacy landed a 3lbs grilse from the Upper River. In total there were 7 fish reported for the week for 25 rod-days. The season total now stands at 108.

To book fishing at Kylemore Abbey, contact Nigel on 095 41178, or mobile 087 9580702, and for latest news check the website at www.kylemorefishery.ie

Lough Mask
Margaret Gorman from Isham Self-Catering and Boat Hire reported on very good fishing for their guests recently. John Wilson and his son Dai from Malawi had some very enjoyable days on Lough Mask fishing from Dringeen Bay at the end of July, with many good trout recorded.

Pappie Cotter and a friend fished for a day last week and they had 3 trout - all good sizes and also came across a number of small fish.

For boat hire and angling information available on site see www.congselfcatering.com, phone 087 7908107 or email isham@eircom.net

Lough Corrib
Tom Kelly reports that fishing in the Oughterard area has continued to produce very good sport, but very few anglers have been out to enjoy it. Joe Healy and Danny Curran had several good fish during the week, with many more released. They commented that they found the fishing to be better than ever! The Goldberg party had 7 fish on the dap over 2 days, best fish 3lbs. Darren Curran from Carlow had the best fish of the week, a fine trout of over 7lbs caught on wet fly. James and Aidan Kelly had 4 trout for a day to wet fly patterns, while Jimmy Nugent and friend from Northern Ireland fished for 3 days and landed 14 trout for approx. 22lbs fishing wet fly and dapping.

August and September are usually very good months on Corrib, and since fishing has remained so good over the usually quiet summer months, fishing prospects for the next few weeks look very good.

Tomi Kurman from the Corrib Predator Team reports that an Irish "summer" at least has one benefit - excellent summer pike angling. Over recent weeks Tomi and fellow guide Jack Gorny have enjoyed great sport with their clients. Throughout July and the first week of August they enjoyed some excellent pike fishing with many great fish caught- in July alone they caught over 30 pike exceeding 20lbs and over the magic metre mark.

Tomi says "We had the pleasure to guide Spanish guest Manuel Lopez over 3 great days. On the first day Manuel landed 4 fish over 20lbs in the space of a couple of hours, and lost one of similar size. He also missed 2 just at the surface close to the boat. In total we managed to catch 5 fish over 20lbs with the best just over 25lbs, two high doubles and a good few smaller pike. Most fish were caught in shallow water on jerkbaits and fly. Manuel smashed his previous PB the first day with a great pike of 113cm! He remarked that Irish pike fight as hard as catfish- and he knows what he's talking about. He's from Spain - the home of big catfish!

To book fishing with one of the Predator Team guides, contact them on 085 7318541 (Tomi) or 085 7741578 (Jack), check Jack's website at www.fishingireland.pl or find Tomi on Facebook at www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001817618251

Sea Angling
Conor Mountaine from the Galway Buccaneers SAC sent in a report on their latest boat competition, held last Sunday aboard skipper Kevin MacGabhann's boat, the Mighdean Mara, from Spiddal.

Congratulations to Steve Turner on winning the 5th leg of our Boat Master Angler series, sponsored by Galway Bay Fishing. With the weather forecast giving light South Easterlies and persistent rain we were prepared for a tough day at the office, thankfully the rain never materialised bar one solitary shower lasting all of 5 minutes s and we were basking in sunshine and light South Westerlies for most of the day.

Fishing was good from the start with plenty of different species coming to the boat, with competitors trying to outdo each other with higher scoring species. Steve was quietly picking off species after species and building a nice lead which he managed to maintain despite the best efforts of the chasing pack. We were joined on this trip by visiting anglers Al Marsden and his son Jordan Colwell from Belfast who had won a voucher which was kindly sponsored by Galway Bay Fishing earlier in the year at our RNLI fundraiser. Jordan managed to catch his first ever haddock and cuckoo wrasse so well done Jordan.

Once again many thanks to our skipper Kevin MacGabhann and his crew for looking after us. The total species count finished at 13 and included pollack, coalfish, pouting, ling, red and grey gurnards, dogfish, poor cod, cuckoo wrasse, ballan wrasse, haddock, mackerel and bull huss.

The 5th leg of the Grauvell West Coast Shore League takes place this Sunday, the 19th, on Keel beach in Achill. This leg is hosted by Corraun SAC, with check-in from 9.30am and fishing from 11-3. Good luck to all the competitors!