River Moy

The good fishing continued on the Moy this week with all fisheries producing salmon and a total of 791 recorded for the week. The Moy has already passed the 5,000 mark for the season to date. The Moy Fishery, at Ballina, again produced the biggest haul with 120 salmon for the week. On the Ridge Pool, Virginia Webb, England, had a fine salmon of 12.59 lbs on a spinner. Ian Adamson, England had 2 salmon on the Ridge and another on the Cathedral Beat, all on fly. John Elfed Jones, Wales, had 3 on the Ridge Pool, all on fly. Sean Murphy, Kildare, also had 3 on the fly. Gerry Quinn, Newry, had a salmon on a spinner and his 11 year old son, Conor, had his first salmon, a nice fish of 6.29 lbs. also on a spinner. On the Ballina Salmon Anglers water, a juvenile angling competition, held in conjunction with Ballina Street Festiva, was won by Niall O’Boyle who had a 3lbs. salmon. Second was Chris Cunningham with a 1.25 lbs trout. Owen O’Boyle was 3^rd with a trout of 1 lb and Garreth Conlon was 4^th with a trout of .75 lbs.

The annual juvenile day on the Cathedral Beat takes place on Monday, 19 July. Enquiries to 096-21332 or 087-6792292.

On Knockmore Club water, Eddie Thomas, England, had 2 salmon on worm and Martin O’Hare, England, had 3 on worm. On Coolcronan, Albert Whitnal, Wales, had 13 salmon for his week. On Byrne’s Fishery, G. McKay had 2 salmon, at 5 lbs and 6 lbs. on prawn. On the Foxford Fishery, Peter Deegan, Wicklow, had a nice 8 lbs fish on worm and the Fred Morris party of 5 anglers had an excellent return of 45 salmon for the week. On Rinnaney, J. Fontaine, France, had 2 salmon of 7 lbs. and 6 lbs. On Cloongee, Thiery Colm, France, had 3 salmon on spinner. On East Mayo Anglers water, J. Hegarty had 3 salmon on spinner and J. McHugh and 2 weighing 11 lbs. on fly with a German visitor also having 2 for 11 lbs. on fly.

Sea Trout fishing on the Moy Estuary was good. Ballina’s most famous, adopted son, Jack Charlton and friend , Ray Bailey, had 9 trout of which 5 were released. Robert Page and son had 12 trout of which 8 were released. James Little, Scotland, had 24 trout of which 20 were released and Duncan Livingstone, Scotland, had 11 of which 10 were released. The best trout reported for the week was 3.5 lbs.

There was little fishing activity on Lough Conn during the week due to northerly and changeable winds which make angling difficult. However, some trout were recorded by those who persevered. Graham Williams, Pontoon, had trout weighing about 1 lb each and Padraic Kelly, Cloghans, had three fine trout weighing 2.5 lbs., 1.5 lbs. and 12.5 lbs. Aidan Heffernan, Dublin, had 2 which weighed in at 1.5 lbs. each. A number of salmon were taken by anglers who were trolling.

Four salmon were reported from the lake and a number of sea trout were caught and returned in accordance with the law in that area. Jackie Deffely had a grilse of 4.5 lbs., Declan Dooley had one weighing 5 lbs., Rory Murray had one of 3 lbs. and Eamonn Kennedy had one of 55 lbs. Meanwhile, Dave Tucker had a small grilse on the out flowing Newport River.

Northerly and changeable winds made angling conditions somewhat difficult but 19 rods reported 18 trout for the week. Joe Gibbons and Seamus O’ Malley had 3 fish with the best at 3.5 lbs. Pat and Denis Murphy had 2 with the best weighing 2.5 lbs. With milder conditions on the way, fishing should improve as the lake was restocked in recent weeks.

The Bangor club water reported 11 salmon/grilse for the week with a good number of small sea trout also being caught and released. The best fish was a 9.5 lbs. salmon and grilse were generally in the 3 – 4 lbs. bracket.

Ballisodare Fishery reported 222 salmon for the week with about 25 % of the catch taken on fly. Most of the fish were taken below the falls but a good number have moved upstream which should result n some reasonable angling up river in suitable conditions.

A small number of trout were reported from Lough Arrow. Josie Gray had 4 good trout weighing 12 lbs. and Paul Cullen had a fine trout of 4.5 lbs. Most fish were taken in the late evening on Murroughs.

Just seven trout were reported from Lough Bo with the best weighing 3 lbs.taken by Thomas Higgins. Lough Nasool produced 5 with the best coming in at 2 lbs.