Angling on Mask looking good in run up to World Cup

Kevin Crowley reports

Western Lakes
Liam Gavin reports from Cushlough that angling on Lough Mask is looking good for the week ahead and the World Cup, with many fish being observed and showing interest in feeding on the surface.

Trout most active on Lough Mask in the first drifts of the morning and after mid-afternoon. Picture MayoToday

Trout are hitting the flies quite frequently, but the takes are quite tame and often shake off after a few stirring seconds. Trout seem most active in the first drifts of the morning and after mid-afternoon.

Ballinrobe and District Anglers held their local competition on Sunday, with 17 fish reported for 28 anglers, winner of the competition was Ronan Cusack with 4 fish weighing 5.24lbs.

Ronan also released 4 good trout. In 2nd place was Gerry O’Brien with 2 fish for 3.02lbs and 3rd was Noel Lowry with 2 fish for 2.38lbs. Heaviest fish prize went to John Wilson from Drogheda with a nice trout of 2.13lbs.

Elsewhere on the lake Declan Gibbons from Cong had 2 good fish to a Welshman’s button, Declan also reported many big fish slowly breaking the surface, however there are still reports of some anglers coming ashore without fish for their day’s effort, or only landing undersize trout.

Paul Silke from East Galway landed 4 trout just slightly below the 13inch limit. Conditions are looking fair for the long weekend of industrious angling, with rain showers and slight to moderate wind patterns, the sunshine is keeping away until Sunday at least.

I hope that the ‘intelligence’ from this report assists the enjoyment of fishing Lough Mask for the next week and we would like to wish good luck & tight lines to all participants during the World Cup

Lough Carra meanwhile is much quieter, although catches and hatches are reasonably abundant. Derry Crawford and Sean Casserly from Roscommon had 10 trout for a day’s fishing on Friday, their catch was estimated at 16lbs. Best fish was just over 3lbs.

Liam Burke from Clifden caught and released 3 good trout on Sunday where conditions were idyllic for the shallow drifts, most fish coming to dry Murroughs and Green Peters.

Trout fishing on Lough Corrib is picking up again, although many local anglers have been away practicing on Lough Mask for the World Cup. A lot of smaller fish are still showing, coming to the hatches of sedge that are very common at this time of year.

Mayfly patterns are still doing well, as mayfly trickle off in small numbers all summer also. Pete Curran from Cornamona reported 4 trout for 7.5lbs over 2 days, trolling flies, while

Frank Reilly from Greenfields had 1 trout of 2.25lbs on wetfly for a day’s effort. A lot of salmon have also been seen pitching, with reports of good numbers taken on the troll. A party of French anglers also reported landing a 5lbs trout while fishing for pike. The midsummer lull should soon be over on Corrib, however, and I expect fishing to pick up dramatically here over the next few weeks.

Connemara
Colin Folan from Lough Inagh reports that the consistent rain that we have had for the last 3 weeks has stopped and so too, hopefully temporarily, has the superb salmon fishing. Although it is still fairly good, I am delighted with the catch for July.

In total, 40 salmon were recorded for the month which is about 50% of our total annual catch.  There are still fresh fish entering daily, but the run has petered out a bit and the bulk of the fish are in Lough Inagh already.

Dentists Paul Browne and Brian Regan extracted 2 grilse, also from Corloo, on a Collie Dog and Sunray Shadow.

The sea trout fishing is average on the lake, this is mainly due to poor conditions (low cloud and little wind), but the days with good conditions are producing good sport.

For the week we had 8 salmon to 9lbs, 43 sea trout to 3.5lbs, and 34 brown trout to 1.5lbs. Vincent Foley fished Corloo for a day and caught 2 grilse of 6 and 6.5lbs on a size 14 Stoats Tail.

Dentists Paul Browne and Brian Regan extracted 2 grilse, also from Corloo, on a Collie Dog and Sunray Shadow. Patrick Molloy caught a nice fresh 5.5lbs grilse from the Derryclare Butts on a size 12 Black and Silver.

Colin Folan caught and released 3 salmon for the week, the best fish weighed 9lbs and took a Sunray Shadow on Pine Island Beat.

David Mehigen fished Lough Inagh for a morning and recorded 4 sea trout to 2.75lbs on a Silver Invicta Muddler. David Magill had 4 sea trout between 1 and 1.5lbs for an evening on Inagh, also on a Silver Invicta.

Robert Kelly, Richard Kelly and Greg Forde boated 11 brown trout and 3 sea trout to 1.5lbs on Green Peter, Claret Bumble and Bibio.

Galway Weir
The run of grilse at the Galway Fishery is slowly petering out, with numbers of fresh fish lower this week than previously. Thankfully, water levels have also reduced, with 2 gates now open on the weir. There were 41 salmon landed for the week, mostly to the fly, but also some to the shrimp and the spinner, particularly when there were 4 gates open.

John Hartrup from the UK had a 4.5lbs grilse on fly, and Danish visitor Per Balle landed 3 nice grilse, also on fly. Thomas Twomey from Waterford had 2 grilse on fly, and both Thomas Beecher from Cork and Dave Gibson from Craughwell had 4.5lbs grilse on fly.

Christian kelly from Galway had 2 grilse on shrimp, and Bernard Doyle from Monaghan had a 6lbs fish on spinner. Jimmy Scotson also a 6lbs fish on fly, while Dublin man Paul McNamee had 3 grilse to 5.5lbs on fly and shrimp.

Eugene McGuinness from Galway had a 4lbs fish on fly, while Clare man Pappy Cotter had 2 grilse to 5.5lbs on fly. Local man Bert

Lynch had grilse of 5.5lbs and 6lbs on shrimp, while Tom Power and Ronan Clarke both had 4.5lbs fish.

Numbers of fish may be lower, but there are still a lot of fish in the river, and with lower water levels more suitable for flyfishing, prospects are still good for the coming week.

Vincent Foley fished Corloo for a day and caught 2 grilse of 6 and 6.5lbs on a size 14 Stoats Tail.

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