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Western Angling Report July 24th. 2001
by Danny Goldrick

The wild brown trout fishing continues to give good results for the ones prepared to spend a few extra hours on the lough. Last week Mattie Hughes from Bushypark and his friend from Kilmalley, Ennis, Gerald Junior Healy, landed 7 trout to the dapped cricket in just a few hours, best fish of over 10 lb to Gerald Healy. They fished out from Innishmacatreer. Martin Fitzpatrick won the Garda wet fly competition fished from Greenfields last week. He caught 2 trout for just over 4 lb, and in second place was Ray Dooley with 2 for 3 lb. 12 anglers took part and they landed 12 trout for 17 lb. In the same area of Greenfields, 44 anglers accounted for 72 trout for 112 lb in 43 angling days, best over 10 lb. Alo Lawlor from Offaly took 6 for 8.75 lb for a day and Sean Lancaster also had 6 for the same weight. Anglers are surprised that fishing is so good on the lough for the time of season, each boat averaging 2 and 3 fish per outing. Dapping is taking most of the trout but wet fly is also proving to be successful, particularly on days when winds are stronger.

It has been a quiet week on the lough for anglers, most of the local ones taken up with organising boats for the World Cup Trout Wet Fly competition in a week's time. However, the 28 anglers who fished during the week past landed 32 trout for 44 lb in 34 angling days, best catch going to Daniel Sweeney from Dublin who had 6 for 8 lb over two days, and Neville Howard's boat had 4 for 8 lb for a day. In 3 days Bill Scorer and friend landed 12 for 12 lb in 3 days to wet fly.

Anglers are very pleased with the fishing at present, many of them saying it is the best for years, particularly during late evening to dry fly. Over the week 23 rods had 52 trout for 68 lb in 56 angling days, best fish weighing 2.75 lb.

With two sluice gates open over the past few days, anglers are taking much better quality salmon than in the previous three weeks. Jon Menzies from the UK had a very good fish of 11.5 lb and Jim Kenehan landed two for 9.5 lb and 6.5 lb. Local man Sean O'Toole landed 3 for a day for 11 lb, 8 lb and 6.5 lb, and Dubliner Michael Rogers took a good fish of 12 lb. Prospects look good for the coming week. Enquiries to Seamus Hartigan at 091 562388.

A good flood in recent days improved the salmon fishing in the Bunowen River. Two visiting anglers to the area had 8 salmon in 4 days, all in the 6 to 8 lb bracket, and John Bennett, a local man, landed 3 over two outings, best 12 lb and 9 lb. Two anglers fishing Carr's Pool for a day landed 3, all small grilse between 3 and 4 lb. Overall, salmon fishing is good when the river is dropping from a high flood. The Carrowniskey River has been disappointing so far with little or no fish caught there. For permits and licences contact: Gaffney's Bar, Louisburgh, telephone: 098 66150, or the Western Regional Fisheries Board's Louisburgh office: 098 66404.

While the past week brought about a lot pretty dry weather in the Erriff catchment area, heavy rain in recent days has once again lifted the water levels to the right height for good salmon fishing results. The river has produced good fishing so far this season and continues to improve with the better weather and water conditions.

This fishery produces around 500-600 salmon per year. It has very comfortable accommodation at its Aashleigh Lodge, providing a high standard of cuisine and specialising in the best quality seafood. The lodge has recently undergone extensive renovations throughout bringing a whole new dimension of comfort to the house. Owing to the timely competition of the renovation programme there is currently availability for fishing at the river with accommodation at Aashleigh Lodge in August and September. This is an ideal opportunity for enthusiastic anglers to avail of fishing on this important fishery. Interested anglers should contact the manager of the fishery, Jim Stafford, Aashleigh Lodge, Leenane, Co. Galway, telephone: 095 42252, or E-mail: Erriff.fish@iol.ie

The river is at Belclare, near Westport, and anglers can fish there by Contact Tom Bourke for permits at: 086 8331586.

The lough was again re-stocked by the Western Regional Fisheries Board and fishing is regarded as very good, particularly in the evening time when a lot of the trout come to the surface when hatches of fly are best. Vincent Rigney, B. Bernard from France, Dan O'Donnell from Portmarnock, Dave Casabon and Roland Sawer all got their bag limit of 4 trout during their visit to the lough. Permits and boat hire can be obtained from Michael McDonnell's (beside the lough), Liscarney, telephone: 098 21638.

The manager of the fishery, Colin Folan, says that fishing was good for the few anglers out last week, reports listing over 50 trout caught to fly, some to over 2 lb. Kieran Power and Noel Greaney from Moycullen and Galway had 10 for a day, and the two Stanleys had 8 for a day. The best wet flies included Claret Bumble, Thunder and Lighteneing and Black Pennell. Enquiries to Colin at: 095 34706.

A competition that had to be left over for some months because of bad weather at the end of last year was fished last Sunday at Ballyquirke Lough to honour the memory of Adrian O'Sullivan from Moycullen. The Adrian O'Sullivan Memorial Cup was won by Cathal Hughes and in second place was P. Hammond. Mike Flannery was third and Johnny Madden was fourth. Weights of roach and bream were good on the day, P. Hammond having a 7.5 lb bream among his catch.

This beautiful little lough has been re-stocked recently and boats and permits are available from Scott's Shop, Aughergower, Westport, telephone: 098 25119.

Salmon and trout fishing yielded but a few fish in the past week, all due to low water conditions. However, heavy rain in recent days has brought up the lake to a most suitable level for better results. Andy Duncan landed a salmon there on Saturday; his boat also having a few sea trout, and a second salmon was taken by another lucky angler. Enquiries to: Nancy Naughton at: 095 42252.

John and Sue Brittain, Sharamore, Clifden, 095 21073, who run a deep sea angling service every day says of last week's fishing: "The Blues are back at last! A Shark drift on shallow ground south of Slyne Head proved too tempting for the first West Coast Shark of 2001. John Fahy from Oughterard brought a nice fish of around 60lbs our Blue Water boat. We had made a couple of previous drifts during July but without success and it wasn't until last Friday, 21st July, that this welcome visitor made an appearance. The following day our boat was back on the same ground where Finbar Connolly's group from Galway had a further two Blues shark, and missed some others. They also had some hectic ground fishing on the same drift. They ended up with 300kgs of mixed Pollock Cod and Ling. It's good to know the Blue Shark have come in close enough for to fish them, even if it's late in the season.

No Report This Week

Since the lough was recently re-stocked there has been a good interest shown in the fishing, some of the having a number of trout from the shore and others using the boat that's for hire from Edward Mannion, telephone: 098 35366. The lough is close to Jigger Jays pub on the Westport/Ballinrobe road. It already has a small stock of resident trout that is now supplemented by larger farmed brown trout, all for the purpose of providing more angling for locals and tourists.

Over two weeks ago, The Western Regional Fisheries Board carried out a second restocking this summer of several hundred brown trout at the Galway City Canals. The 300 trout, which average over 1 lb with some up to 2 lb in weight, were distributed throughout the canals by staff from the Board and supervised by Assistant Inspector Sean Francis.

Fishing tackle shops and tackle suppliers in the City, including The Great Outdoors, Freeney's, Duffy's, Gowran & Bradshaw, generously sponsored the restocking.

The main purpose of the restocking is to entice as many youngsters as possible to involve them selves in angling. The Board is asking that the fishing be left for the youngsters and that hopefully adult anglers will return all their catch again to the water.

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