Angling News
Courtesty of Central & Regional Fisheries Boards

Coarse Angling
10th Sept 2008
Northern Region
Alice Murtagh reports:E-mail: northfisheries@eircom.net
Arva 2008 Festival
Herewith are the results from annual Arva 2008 festival where 120 anglers mainly from the UK took part.  Water levels were high but all the venues fished very well and good weights of Hybrids, Roach and Bream were recorded.  The venues were Section A between Rockfield Lake and Glasshouse Lake near Killeshandra, Section B at Leonards shore on Lough Gowna, Section C at Church lake and Rosduff areas of Lough Gowna and Section D was split between Gulladoo Lake near Carrigallen and Corfree lake on Lough Gowna.   The best three results in points were counted out of 4 fishing days and weight was a deciding factor to count for a tie in points.  The winners were:
1st Peter Reilly, UK                              5 Points   48.320 kg
2nd Graham Firth, UK                          5 Points   43.340 kg
3rd Kevin Johnston, UK                        6 Points   54.570 kg
4th Alistair Ogilvie, UK                         6 Points   53.380 kg
5th Francis McGoldrick, Ballyconnell,     6 Points   44.980 kg
One English visitor pleasure fishing at Killykeen caught 111 lbs. and 101 lbs. on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

Recent Catch of the Week winner, Zoltan Bodnar, (originally from Hungary) but now lives and works in Dublin continued his fine Bream fishing this past week at Lough Oughter at Killykeen.  He sent me the following mail: "I am sending you a few bream photos   I had a fantastic night session with Bream to 10 lbs. 4 oz. (4.65 kg., my personal best), 8 lbs. 7 oz., 8 lbs., and nice roach bream hybrids 5-6 lb.(biggest 2.65 kg. great fighter). Ireland have lot of great water with big bream, but you need to night fishing for the bigger fish and a lot of groundbait. I caught the fish in the same spots as before.  All the fish were released' .Thank you.Zoltan.

August 2008
Northern Region: Web: http://www.nrfb.ie    e: info@nrfb.ie
Alice Murtagh reports:
Some English anglers staying in the Killeshandra area fished the Derries and report plenty of small fish and some nice Bream from Inishmuck using maggot caster and corn. Some other anglers report Bream up to 3½ lbs. from “the Foxholes” and good Hybrids and Tench up to 4 lbs. at Killykeen.  Night fishing and early morning is producing good bags of fish in the Lough Oughter area particularly at Rann Castle.  Eight English anglers staying in the Gowna area fished Killykeen match stretch and bagged good bags of fish.  Bream up to 9½ lbs. were reported at Bakers Bridge recently. In other areas, St. Johns and Kiltybarden Lakes near Ballinamore, Brackley Lough in Bawnboy and Drumlona Lake near Cootehill are all fishing well with good Tench reported on Drumlona. 

Game Angling
July 23rd, 2008
LOUGH SHEELIN
Lough Sheelin has produced some quality wild trout over the week to small dry sedges. Sedge hatches were prolific and angling conditions were ideal with some good results. Peter O'Reilly fished with Michael Kelly Balbriggan over two trips catching and releasing 18 trout in total, best 4.75 lbs., all fish were caught on dry sedges. Michael Kelly had other good fish recently on the lake. John Murphy caught and released two fish. Gene Brady L.S.T.P.A. had two fish on Wednesday.  Pat Bannon released 3 fish on Sunday and Monday. Thomas Harten had 2 fish.  Cahill Rush from Northern Ireland had quite good fishing. Prospects are very promising for the coming week with warmer evenings forecast for the next few days.  Catch up on the latest news from the LSTPA http://www.loughsheelinanglers.ie/  For local updates contact Sean Gurhy, Fisheries Inspector Lough Sheelin Tel: +353 (0)49 433 6144

Coarse Angling
2nd July 2008
Alice Murtagh reports from the Northern Regional Fisheries Board 
Tel:- +353 (0)49 – 4337174 E-mail:- northfisheries@eircom.net  Web: www.nrfb.ie

Angling in the Arva/Gowna/Carrigallen area remains good with anglers who stayed in the Breffni Arms, Arva reporting good catches on all lakes.  John Roper, Nottingham bagged 126 lbs in one day with 14 Bream and plenty of Skimmers and Roach; Simon Bradley, Yorkshire bagged 128 lbs, and 86 lbs of Bream, Roach and Hybrids; Carol Thompson 67 lbs, 92 lbs and 48 lbs of Bream, Roach and Hybrids.  K Rushby fished Killykeen and bagged 86 lbs.  Catches of Bream, Roach and Hybrids weighing up to 82 lbs., 78 lbs., 68 lbs. and 55 lbs. are reported on Rhododendron stretch of Lough Gowna.

Killykeen, match section beside chalets and Tullyguide are reported to be giving good bags of fish, also at Rann on Lough Oughter opposite the castle with plenty of big Perch and lots of Bream. 
One angler who fished Quivvy Point bagged 76 Bream in one day.
Drumlona and Bairds shore in the Cootehill, Ballybay area are both giving good Tench some up to 5½ lb while Annamakerrig is producing plenty of Bream up to 7 lbs.  There are also plenty of Roach and Skimmers. 
Brackley Lake at Bawnboy is producing plenty of Bream and Roach, along with smaller fish.  St John's and Kiltybarden near Ballinamore is producing Roach, Perch and Bream in small numbers.

Game Angling
June 18th 2008
LOUGH SHEELIN
The Mayfly continues to hatch in abundance on Sheelin and the spent fishing is expected to go on for another week or more.  When conditions favoured anglers reported seeing trout rise and take the spent. As fish are now gorged with fly they tend only to rise once or twice and then go down, making hem difficult to catch. Hatches of sedge and buzzer were also evident. Eugene Mc Guinness from Co Louth had 12 trout over the week, best 5 lbs, most fish were released. Mr Paddy Lyons L.S.T.P.A. had 8 fish for the week, best over 5 lbs, most fish were released. Thomas Lynch L.S.T.P.A. had 10 fish to 4 lbs, all released. Michael Kelly from Balbriggan had 5 fish to 2.75 lbs, all released. All catches above were on the spent gnat. Other anglers reported releasing over 200 fish for the week ranging from 0.5 lbs. to 3 lbs.
Catch up on the latest news from the LSTPA at http://www.loughsheelinanglers.ie/
For local updates contact Mr Sean Gurhy, Assistant Fisheries Inspector Lough Sheelin Tel: +353 (0) 49 433 6144

Brackley has been giving good bags of Roach and Bream, Bunerky is producing good Hybrids and Roach.  Drumlonan is giving plenty of Tench and Bream while the canal  at Ballinamore is producing small Bream, Roach and Hybrids.  Very nice Hybrids are being caught on Keenheen and some small fish on St. Johns.  Plenty of good mixed bags of Bream and Roach are being caught on Garadice D Section.

Game Angling
March 14th, 2007
LOUGH SHEELIN
The first trout of the season was recorded by Thomas Lynch at 2 lbs and 1.5 lbs.  Caught on a Minkie at Church Island on Sunday last March 11th. The Kilroy Cup will be fished on bank holiday Monday March 19th, 2007, Booking is through the L.S.T.P.A. secretary Eamonn Ross Tel: +44 28 9526602 or Mob: +353 (0)87 943 6655
For updates contact Mr Sean Gurhy, Fisheries Inspector Lough Sheelin
Tel: +353 (0)49 433 6144

Guides Day Out
Report posted on Friday 2nd March 2007
By: Pat Mc Loughlin
Last week I spent a couple of days pike fishing in the Cavan area. Water temperatures were up 3 degrees from the previous week and the weather had settled after the stormy conditions I encountered on my last trip. Day one, the fish were in a finnickey mood from the start and only half the hits were converted to fish boated. Most of the pike were in the 6 to 10lb range with one of 15lb coming to hand. All 8 fish were lip hooked and were instantly released without removing them from the water..

Coarse Angling
5th October 2006
The annual Cootehill Festival took place last week over five days.  110 anglers fished Lake venues at Drumlona, Corraneary (Church Lake), Barnagrove and Bairds Shore.  Fishing was good over the five days.  The winners are as follows:
1st  Dick Weir  57.900kg
2nd Alan Faulkner 57.290kg
3rd  John Barr  52.890kg
4th  Dave Forde 50.580kg
5th  Dave Worsnop 48.940kg.
Pike fishing is reported to be good this week with plenty of Pike anglers in Cootehill. 

The Derries (Sean Reilly’s shore) outside Killeshandra is giving good mixed mostly Hybrids.  Meanwhile Sandy Point and Eonish near Killeshandra are also reported to be giving good mixed bags of fish this week. 
 
Some Bream are being caught on Rosduff while Corfree, Dernaferst and Church Lake at Lough Gowna are producing good mixed bags with the odd Bream on Church lake.  Gartylough at Arvagh and Gulladoo between Arvagh and Carrigallan are reported to be fishing well also.

Game Angling
4th October 2006
LOUGH SHEELIN, Mountnugent
Once again a good number of trout were caught on dry sedges on Lough Sheelin. Pat Brennan LSTPA had the best reported trout of the week at 6 lbs., on a dry sedge in the Goreport area of the lake. Tommy Harten LSTPA fishing with Stuart Mc Entyre caught 5 fish between them averaging 2.5 lbs. on sedges, all were released.

The L.S.P.T.A. hosted a trout fishing competition on Lough Sheelin on October 1st. Fishing was from 11am to 6pm.  200 anglers fishing from 94 boats took to the lake on a calm day with sunny spells which was not the most ideal conditions for fishing. 38 trout were recorded averaging 1.75 lbs. Also a good number of trout were caught and released. The winners were
• 1st Place: Joe Creane, Co Galway with a fish of 4.86 lbs.
• 2nd Place: John Murray, Co Sligo with a fish of 2.62 lbs
• 3rd Place: Terry Keegan, Butlersbridge Co Cavan with a fish of 2.52 lbs.
• 4th Place: Eddie Harte, Co Sligo with a fish of 2.48 lbs
• 5th Place: Greg White Co Antrim with a fish of 2.08 lbs
• 6th Place: Raymond Magee, Enniskillen
The LSTPA Club members prize for the Mc Donald Cup was Terry Keegan, Butlersbridge with a fish of 2.52 lbs.

13th September 2006
LOUGH SHEELIN
Sedges have been hatching all over Lough Sheelin and anglers are reporting good numbers of trout rising. Anglers fishing small sedges have been successful. Two anglers from Co Cork, Mark and Alan fishing with John Murphy on August 24th had 18 trout averaging 1.5 lbs on dry sedges, all were released.  On August 25th 3 anglers from Kildare had 6 trout on dry sedges, all fish were released. On August 27th 3 French anglers guests of John Murphy LSTPA caught and released 18 trout on Brown Sedges and rose at least 30 others. He recorded 100 trout over the month of August, all on a dry size 14 sedge. Thomas Lynch LSTPA, caught and released 15 trout in August.  More recently Kevin Mc Kieran from Ballinagh, Co Cavan had a trout of 3 lbs on a grasshopper.  A. Matthews Co Louth had a fish of 2.75 lbs on wet fly.

A youth competition hosted by John Murphy LSTPA was held in which 26 anglers took part. The winner was Declan Harten, Kilnaleck, S King, Mountnugent 2nd, Ms Alva Gibney Mountnugent was third, all fish were released.

Trout Fishing Competition - Lough Sheelin
The L.S.P.T.A. will host a trout fishing competition on Lough Sheelin on October 1st. Fishing from 11am to 6pm.  €6000 in prizes. 1st Prize is a 19ft Sheelin boat. Entry fee €75.00. All proceeds are in aid of in-stream rehabilitation work. Closing date for entries is September 21st. Contact Mr Eamonn Ross 087-9436655 or Thomas Lynch 087-9132033 for entry forms and details.

For updates contact Mr Sean Gurhy, Assistant Fisheries Inspector Lough Sheelin
Tel: 049 4336144

Coarse Angling
3 August 2006
In the Ballinamore, Ballyconnell area, Brackley Lake has been fishing very well for the past week with plenty of bream being caught.  Bellaboy Lake is producing plenty of roach and hybrids, while Kiltybarden Lake and the Shannon-Erne waterway are reported to be giving good mixed bags of mainly roach and hybrids. 

In the Cootehill Ballybay area, Annamakerrig Lake was fished yesterday by two English anglers and they each bagged 50 lbs. of fish including skimmer bream, hybrids and roach.  White Lake and Drumlona are fishing fairly well with good mixed bags.

In the Arva/Gowna area, Upper Gulladoo Lake has been fishing quite well with good mixed bags including some bream.  Lisney is also giving good mixed bags of fish up to 60 lbs.  There has also been some nice bream fished from Corlespratten.  Church Lake, Gowna is also picking up in recent weeks. 

In the Cavan/Belturbet area, the Belturbet festival is being held this week with over 60 anglers fishing.  More details next week.  Some anglers practicing for the Six Nations Team report good weights on Eonish.  Bob Parker and his friends bagged 50/70 lbs. of fish including hybrids, roach and perch.  Quivvy Lake is also fishing very well with reports of 50/60 lbs. of fish mostly mixed bags. 

LOUGH SHEELIN
Report week-ending 2 August 2006
Green Peter hatches are sparse on Sheelin presently but other smaller sedges are hatching and a few anglers did have some nice evening sport fishing small dry sedge patterns. Gene Brady LSTPA had a trout of 2.5 lbs. on dry sedge. On Monday July 31st John Murphy LSTPA and friend Dave Mortell from the UK caught 5 trout between them, all on a dry size 12 sedge, best 3 lbs., and all were released. On Tuesday Aug 1st John had two further fish averaging 2 lbs.  Angling guests of Innyside House Finea, Mr Moroney from Ennis and friend had 4 fish dry fly fishing, all in the Bog Bay Goreport areas of the lake. Michael Kelly LSTPA from Balbriggan reported 4 fish, all were released.  Anglers could do well this week evening fishing with a range of smaller sedge fly patterns.
For updates contact Mr Sean Gurhy, Assistant Fisheries Inspector Lough Sheelin
t: +353 (0)49 433 6144

Cootehill Area
Report week-ending 26 July 2006
The Cootehill area is fishing well at present with reports of bags up of 40/50 lb.  One angler night-fished Corravoo Lake and caught 14 Tench 3½ - 4lb weight.   White Lake, Bairds Shore is giving up to 30 lbs of fish mostly Roach and Perch.  Church Lake is also fishing well for Roach, Perch and the odd Bream. 

KILLESHANDRA AREA
Report week-ending 19 July
Chris Edwards from Nelson in Lancashire in the UK sent me a mail on a recent trip to the Killeshandra area with a group of pals.
“June saw 6 of us off on our annual camping trip across to Ireland. This year we decided to try a new area and ended up at Killeshandra, a small town about 10 miles South of the border near to Cavan. Prior to going I had made several telephone calls to a local contact who was extremely helpful. We arrived a bit later than intended and met our host and had a very welcome cup of tea!

He pointed us in the direction of a local lake which is situated on his land. It was perfect for what we wanted, very secluded with the chance of a few fish. We soon set up camp and got ready for the first evenings fishing. We started very slowly for the first couple of days, with just roach and hybrids. We did have a few tench, the biggest being a 5 ¾ lb specimen caught by my 14 year old son Luke
We had a few more tench during the week but Luke’s was the biggest.  As the week progressed, the weather got better and better, as did the fishing. We were fishing until 1 or 2am and this was when we caught the decent bream. These were very dark coloured fish, probably quite old. We had quite a few over the week, the biggest caught by Steven, topping out at 6 1/4lb.  As we got more bait in the fish just kept coming with some decent bags of roach and some lovely hybrids. The younger lads had a go for pike in the river at the back of the lake with Luke getting his first ever.

All in all we had a great week, the location was fantastic for our needs, exactly what we wanted, the fishing was good and getting better, the weather was superb with only a bit of rain and the pubs and people of Killeshandra were extremely friendly. The only dark spot of the week was England’s defeat at the hands of the cheating Portuguese!!!
Thanks again to our host, (you know who you are!!) for his hospitality and for allowing us on your land. Hope the flattened grass has grown back!'

Chris, Luke, Steve, Adam, Dave & Chris

Game Angling
LOUGH SHEELIN
Report week-ending 10 July 2006
There were huge hatches of sedges on Lough Sheelin with some fish reported moving to a range of sedges. Generally the fishery is quiet though with little angling activity evident. Last week we received a report of one good trout of 8 lbs caught by Eddie Clinton LSTPA. Michael Kelly caught and released 5 trout, best 1.75 lbs.
For updates contact Mr Sean Gurhy, Assistant Fisheries Inspector Lough Sheelin
t:: +353 (0)49 4336144

Coarse Angling
Alice Murtagh reports on Arva, Killeshandra, Gowna, Ballyconnell area
28th June 2006
There have been reports of some very good catches of good sized Bream up to 150 lbs. from Killybandrick Lake near Redhills on Gannons Cross section.  The Trinity section of Lough Oughter, outside Killeshandra is fishing consistently with good mixed bags including some Bream, and also at Rann Point is producing some good catches of Bream. 

Rockfield Lake is producing good bags of small fish while there were reports of good mixed bags at Foxholes.

Church Lake and Gulladoo at Arvagh and Lough Gowna  have been fished by English anglers staying in the Breffni Arms, Arva and returns of 80/90/100lb are reported with plenty of Bream.  Gartylough Lake at swimming pool fishing well with up to 48 lb mostly Roach.

Brackley Lake and Prospect Point together with Bolganard and Corgar are reported to be fishing very well.  Awaddy and Connolly’s Shore have also been giving good bags during the past week with anglers at Derrycassan bagging plenty of good Bream and Skimmers.  The Shannon Erne canal at Ballinamore by the golf course is also producing plenty of Bream and Roach.  St John’s and Kiltybarden are giving plenty of small fish.  The new stand on the canal at Keshcarrigan is currently fishing extremely well. 

June 14th, 2006
LOUGH SHEELIN
Report Week-ending 11/06/06:
There has been a blanket of spent gnat on the lake most evenings. Fly hatches: mayfly buzzer, murrough. Anglers reported very few trout rising.  20 under sized trout were caught and released over the week and a few large wild fish were encountered as they gorged on the spent gnat. An English visitor had the best reported trout of the week at 8 lbs on spent. A trout of 5.5 lbs caught by John Brady, Ballinagh Co Cavan on spent gnat was packed to the gills with mayfly nymph. M Murphy of county Dublin had a trout of 4.75 lbs on spent. Eamon Connors Co Meath had 2 fish of 4.75 lbs and 3.5 lbs. Neddie Clinton had 3 trout for 7.75 lbs, best fish 2.75 lbs. Owen Mc Fadden, Kells Co. Meath, had a fish of  4.75 lbs on the murrough sedge.  

LOUGH SHEELIN
Report Week-ending 28/5/06:
There were very good hatches of Mayfly and buzzers and also Murroughs on Sheelin. Unfortunately poor weather and low temperatures spoiled the mayfly fishing on occasion, especially the gnat fishing. Anglers reported catching and releasing a good number of under sized fish.  Large wild Sheelin trout surfaced to feed on mayfly and were caught mainly on the gnat. Frank Kelly L.S.T.P.A, had 4 Trout for a total of 16.5 lbs, best two fish 6 lbs and 4 lbs. He released 3 of the fish, all caught on a spent gnat.  Pa Tormey from Kells had 2 trout, 5 lbs and 4 lbs on spent. Father and son duo from New Jersey USA caught a 1.5 lb fish on spent.  They were introduced by Michael and Mark Peters with Peter O'Reilly. Eamon Connors had a fish of 4.75 lbs on a spent. An angler fishing from Ross Shore had a fish of 5 lbs. Francie Harten, Ballyheelan had 3 trout in the past two weeks for weights of 7.25 lbs, 5 lbs and 3.75 lbs. 4 anglers staying at Inny Side House Finea had 4 trout for 11.5 lbs, best 4 lbs on spent gnat.
For updates contact Mr Sean Gurhy, Assistant Fisheries Inspector Lough Sheelin
t: +353 (0)49 4336144

Alice Murtagh reports on Arva, Killeshandra, Gowna area
Report week-ending 28/5/06:
There have been a good number of anglers fishing Rockfield in the past week catching good mixed bags up to 60/70kg.  Sean Reilly’s shore on Derries is also producing mixed bags of 60/70kg. Trinity is giving some nice Bream, Skimmers and Hybrids.  Bags up to 51 lbs. have been fished on steps at Gulladoo, while 79 lbs. is reported at top.  Hollybank is fishing fairly well although water levels remain very high and Dernaferst  is reported to be giving good mixed bags.