The Shannon Fisheries Board will be attending the
National Country Fair in Birr Castle Demesne over the holiday weekend.
We look forward to meeting those of you who will be in attendance and
are planning lots of exhibits.
Where possible we will be including the reporter who
contributes directly to our updates. To assist anglers we will have a
link to the fishery or centre which the report refers, so anglers can
get detailed fishing guide info for the area in question directly from
our site. Hope this helps !
Mr Dermot Killeen Angling Contact Tel 0905 74112
Email:
jimmyjkilleen@yahoo.com
reports for
Shannonbridge
.
River levels have risen to mini flood levels
making much of our popular bank swims including the Hot Water out of
reach. This is disappointing, as the Hot Water outlet temperature is
at the magic 21 C this week.
Luckily we have few anglers this week and that the
canals and bog lakes are a standby. Few of our visitors who have used
lake boats to reach Clonfert and Cappaleitra, report lots of fish in
these spawning grounds.
Last weeks log was a week for the youth, 14 year old
Vincent Jordan from Ballinasloe had a specimen pike of 9.100kg,
just over 20lbs from the Hot Water stretch using mounted dead bait.
Details have been sent to the Irish Specimen Fish Committee, we wish
to congratulate Vincent on his achievement and hope to get his photo
soon.
Angling generally was mixed, some had good catches but
the downside was rising water levels commencing on May 19th with
visiting anglers reporting a 12 inch rise in levels at that stage.
Dave Elliott and Peter Holmes from Basingstoke fished the area up to
the 23rd May. They had 100lbs and 123lbs of bream at Clonfert
backwater on May 18th/19th. Peter had another good bag of 80lbs. They
moved to different venues over the following days but unfortunately
increasing water levels dampened fishing thereafter. George Stokes
from Walsall fished the Canal at Ferbane on Tuesday May 21st and had
an enjoyable day with 30lbs mixed bag using feeder, caster and worm.
On Friday in very poor weather conditions George managed 60lbs of
bream on the Shannon at Meelick, his comment in the log was too much
water. On Saturday he recorded 42lbs of mainly skimmer bream at the
Brosna mouth Shannon Harbour.
Mark Egan Athlone Bait Stockist, Angler and Accommodation Provider Email:
info@shannonsidehouse.com Website
www.shannonsidehouse.com Tel: 0902 94773 Mob 087 8517299 reports for the
River Shannon and Inny
Athlone area.
Photo: Regular to Athlone Kevin Clarke from
Norfolk with a nice bream from Barrymore point Lough Ree today
Tuesday May 28th
" Fishing in the Athlone area has been very quiet
this week with the weather playing a major factor, high winds and
rain causing extreme difficulty for visiting anglers. This week
there has been no respite and the forecast is only given to improve
at the weekend. At the moment the river is nearly at winter levels
and this is making access very difficult with the meadows flooded.
The R. Inny I believe is giving up some nice catches though but I
have no concrete reports at the time of writing."
John Dyson, Angling Advisor and Accommodation
Provider, Ballyshrule Lodge, Portumna Tel: 0509 41528 reports
this week for
Portumna
.
" Weather played havoc with fishing in the Portumna area.
For four days anglers couldn't get out on the lake due to strong
winds. However on the more suitable days very respectable catches were
reported. Ivan Jennings from Suffolk had two days with over 100lb
bags and had good catches on river venues, all earlier in the week.
Jim Baker from Walsall had one day 100lbs + Ossie Devine, Jeff Parry
and Mal Rigby St Helens had between them over 5,000lbs of fish
over six days. Jeff had a best bag of over 200lbs. Water levels are
rising but winds are presently much slacker which suits lake fishing
Unfortunately with rising river levels, catches are down but still
respectable at 40lb bags for some. Prospects don't look good for the river
with levels continuing to rise as we write.
Raymond Duthie, Old Forge Banagher, Angling Advisor, Bait
Stockist and Accommodation provider Tel: 0509 51504.
Email:
kmduthie2@eircom.net
reports on the BANAGHER FISHING FESTIVAL and fishing generally for the Banagher area this week.
Poor weather has resulted in very difficult angling conditions at the time
of writing and anglers are disappointed with very few options
for anglers to choose from.
Westmeath Topic ANGLING FOCUS recent article featured by Mick
Flanagan Angling Guide Mullingar Tel: 087 2797270: Email
mick@midlandangling.com The Shannon
Regional Fisheries Board highlights the coarse and pike
fishing extracts from the story entitled 'THE MIDLAND MONSTERS SHOW
THEMSELVES' ....
Photo: Mick Flanagan Mullingar pictured here with a 17lb
Inny pike which he caught on a rubber fish lure on the River Inny
last weekend. The Irish Specimen weight for he river is 20lbs.
" What a weekend it turned out to be with outsized pike on the move
everywhere, it seemed, on the local rivers and lakes ! Despite
landing a few monster fish, I felt unlucky not to crack the lake and
river specimen weight in the space of just a few days., as the
photos show.
INNY: On the River Inny I was trying out a few new lures,
which I can only call rubber fish and worms, of various colours and
sizes. These lures have the advantage of enabling you to fish
through very weedy waters, because of the anti-algae'/weed device
covering the hooks. As I fished along the Inny, my mind went back to
the older generations of pike anglers. What would they think if they
saw if they saw you fishing with rubber fish and worms tied to your
line, when all they had was some homemade spoons or Copper and
Silver ?. I was brought back to earth very fast when a monster pike
ploughed through the weeds and snapped the lure. As can be seen, a
17lb monster from the Inny was just three pounds short of the
specimen weight of a river pike.
I can confirm that a group of four anglers, including myself hadup
to 25 pike on these strange but very successful baits !.
SWISS CONNECTIONS: Fabio Soldati is from Savosa, Switzerland
and was thrilled to find hinself with a catch of a 22lbs pike on
Friday last. He told me that they have a lot of snow in his home
country, but he has never seen anything like the rain he encountered
in the Westmeath area on Friday last. Still, he was happy enough to
endure the rain, when despite it, he still managed to catch such big
fish. And it was while lake fishing with Fabio that I topped off the
weekend with a 27lbs 10oz 'monster' and I have the pictures to prove
it, so there's plenty of fabulous pike around, as all those big ones
are still there, and still hungry.
LOUGH PATRICK: Another local lake which has larger pike than
you might expect is one renowned for other species of coarse fish,
Lough Patrick on the road between Multyfarnham and Crookedwood. Last
week it produced a large pike for fishing buddies John J Brennan and
Damien Grifferty from Ballinagall."
Galmoylestown fished well all week. Stewart Bart
Lincs had 6 carp best 4 lb. Also Jim Winter Bottom & Brian Murray
from Cardiff Wales had 5 fish best 5 lb.
The Shannon Regional Fisheries Board reports for The River Suck
Valley
Six French Anglers fished the area on Sunday. They totalled 26 pike to
13lbs. Andrew Mc Knight fished the local Lakes also on Sunday he had
three pike of 12lbs, 14lbs and 18lbs. With atrocious weather water
levels have risen to flood levels on th River Suck, this is limiting
fishable waters, forcing anglers to retreat to the lake venues.
Intending Anglers wishing to visit the area can contact our Assistant
Inspector in the Ballinlough Office Tel: 0907 40103 or Mob: 087
6560038 for day to day updates
If you have fished any of our fisheries over the
past week and wish to send us in your fishing report to feature on next
week's update, please click
here and complete our online form or simply send us an email with your
contact particulars and catch details and attach a photo if you have one to
info@shannon-fishery-board.ie
