Angling News
Northwest Angling Reports for Week ending 13th August 2006
By Markus Muller
Aug 18, 2006, 09:25

River Moy

Very low water levels again impacted on anglers fishing the Moy system. The Moy had a reported catch of 321 salmon for the week with the tidal section of the river fishing best.

On the Weir Pool in Ballina Seamus McEleney from Donegal had 2 fish which he released, George Heuston also from Donegal had 3, best at 4.74 lbs. and Gareth Byrne from Offaly landed 4 grilse, best at 5.7 lbs. On the Ridge Pool Keven and Nial Tonge from Co.Meath had 3 salmon, best at 4.75 lbs. and Armagh anglers Des Moen and Jim Browne had a total bag of 7 fish. Visiting Belgian angler Bernard Mattiez also did well on the Ridge Pool where he caught 2 nice grilse. On the Cathedral Beat, Ken Millsopp and Alan Hannan from Co. Down had 3 fish each 2 of which were released and a decent 6.80 lbs. grilse was landed by Gerard Thomas from Armagh.

The North Western Regional Fisheries Board in association with Recreational Angling Ireland held the second Juvenile anglers event on the Moy Fishery’s Cathedral beat last Thursday, 10 August. The day, which was hosted by the Board and sponsored by RAI proved to be very productive with a total of 21 salmon caught by 56 enthusiastic young anglers both local and visiting. This event is one of many which are held throughout the region as part of the Board’s policy to promote angling for young people.

Up river angling has been fairly slow due to the low water levels. However, the Mount Falcon water was the place where Dublin angler Graham Walsh caught his first salmon. On Byrne’s Fishery local angler, John McDermott had one fish on a spinner and David Cahill and Jim Grott from England had 3 grilse from the Foxford Fishery using bubble and fly.

A total of 16 salmon were caught on Lough Furnace for the week of which 7 were wild fish and 9 were ranched. All wild fish were released. Toby Gibbons of Westport had 4 fish and Brian Hope of Newport landed two. Emmett Stagg and Joe Conroy from Ballinrobe had 4 fish together and Newport angler Martin Hughes had 2 grilse. The best flies were Green Peters, Ally’s Cascade, Black Shrimp & Daddy Longlegs.

Owenmore River

Despite the dropping water levels, 10 grilse were reported for the week on the Bangor Angling Club stretch of the Owenmore River. Visiting French fly angler, Collin Franks, from Orleans who had never fished for salmon before caught 2 nice grilse in one day. The fish weighing 4 and 2.5 lbs, both came to an Ally’s Shrimp.

Angling activity on Lough Conn is still quite slow. However, the few anglers who went out during the week did reasonably well and reported good catches of trout especially in the Cloghans area.

Hugh St. Clair from Northern Ireland fishing together with local boatman Seamus Kelly landed a total of 17 trout over two days. All trout weighed over 1.25 lbs. and were released - Silver Invicta, Sooty Olive and Daddy Longleg patterns worked best. Dublin couple Susan and Walter Byrne caught 21 trout over two days averaging 1.25 lbs. Green Peter, Golden Dabbler and Black Pennell worked best for Susan and Walter who released all their fish. Local anglers Stephen and Barbara Brown had two fish for an evening’s fishing, with best fish at 1.5 lbs.

Fishing was very quiet on Ballinlough and only a few anglers ventured out during the week. Local angler David McDaniel had one rainbow trout at 1.25 lbs and Pat Murphy also a local angler landed 4 rainbow trout with best at 2lbs.

The first leg of the Newport Junior Angling Competition was held on Ballinlough Sunday, 6 August. A total of 14 young anglers from the Newport Angling club took part in the competition. The weather conditions on the day were far from ideal with bright sunshine for most of the day. However, Gearoid Hughes caught a fine 2 lbs. rainbow trout and Jamie Chambers landed a trout of 1.5 lbs.

Angling activity was again slow on Lough Arrow this week due to the weather conditions. However, early in the week Peter Dunne from Drumshanbo landed 4 nice trout between 2 and 3.5 lbs.

Ballisodare had a good week with 139 salmon recorded of which 31 were released. John Adams from Derry had two nice fish weighing 5 and 7 lbs respectively. Undoubtedly, the fish of the week was caught by Mark Graham from Northern Ireland who landed a 14 lbs. salmon. Mark’s fantastic fish came to an Ally’s Shrimp.

Michael John Nallen, Belmullet SAC reports:

As part of the 35^th Belmullet Sea Angling Festival a Shore Angling Competition was held on the Mullet Peninsula Sunday, 13 August 2006. Sixteen Anglers took part in the competition including 5 juniors. Conditions were fair and amongst the species caught were pollack, dogfish, wrasse and conger.

Results:

1^st Greatest Variety: M.J.Nallen

2^nd Greatest Variety: David Conway

3^rd Greatest Variety: Seamus Nallen

4^th Greatest Variety: Martin Carey

Junior Section:

1^st Greatest Variety: Danny Padden

2^nd Greatest Variety: Mathew Togher

3^rd Greatest Variety: Sean Reilly

Heaviest Fish: Ian Togher

James Mangan, Belmullet SAC reports:

Last Sunday a club outing was enjoyed aboard Pierce O’Donnell’s charter boat "Eire Og". Fishing took place in Broadhaven Bay between Pig Island, the Stags and Portacloy. More than 14 species were caught and included dab, red, grey & tub gurnard, whiting, cod, haddock, ling, pollack, coalfish, ballan & cuckoo wrasse, scad and dogfish. Heaviest fish landed was a 8.5 lbs. pollack. A specimen red gurnard was taken by the eventual winner of the second leg of the master angler series, Tony Lally, Belmullet with 10 varieties. Second was James Mangan with nine varieties. Belmullet Sea Angling Club are looking forward to their upcoming 2 day international open boat competition to be fished on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th August sponsored by the Broadhaven Bay Hotel Belmullet.

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