UPPER SHANNON

LOUGH SHEELIN

There were very few anglers about last week. Some anglers, mainly locals had limited success. Francie Harten, Kilnaleck had he best reported fish of the week at 8.5lbs. Ned Clinton, Kilnahard had a fish of 5.5lbs. Eamon Connors from Ardee Co Lough had a 4 pounder on sedge. Colin Finny angling guest of Innyside B&B Finea had a 3 fish for 7lbs, best 3.5lbs on Cock Robin and Green Peter. 9 other pleasure anglers caught and released 14 trout averaging approx 2lbs.

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

LOUGH O'FLYNN & UPPER RIVER SUCK

For updates contact Mr John Ryan, Assistant Fisheries Inspector Mobile: 087 6560038 Tel: 094 96 40103 or our Mullingar Office 044 48769

MID SHANNON AREA

LOUGH ENNELL

Fish are generally slow to come to the fly. There are good hatches of buzzer but trout are showing little interest. THere are only sporadic good hatches of Peter with only a handful of anglers getting fish on the Peter during late evening. Paddy Whitelaw Mullingar had 3 fish, 2 fish of 4.25lbs and 4.75lbs. He released a smaller fish. Mick Devaney had a 3lb fish, all these fish were caught on the Peter. Billy Gallagher Daingain had a 6 pounder and the brother Martin had a 4 pounder. Jack Bell had 2 fish - 4lbs and 2lbs. Sean Weir Clara had a fish of close to 5lbs.

For updates contact Pat Mc Donnell, Fishery Officer Shannon Regional Fisheries Board Mullingar Office Tel: 044 48769

LOUGH OWEL

Fishing has been mixed, some evening were good while others were patchy mainly due to changeable weather. The Peter season has kicked off with recent catches all returned on the Green Peter. On the 26th July Brendan Murray Mullingar had a trout of 1.5lbs. Andy Boyle had a fish of 1.75lbs. Aiden Heffernan Dublin had 3 fish 4.5lbs. The Patti Doolan Memorial Shield was fished mid week (see Mick Flanagan's column below). On the 30th July Tony Tyrell Kildare had 2 fish for 3lbs. Ollie Maledy Mullingar had 3 fish, best 4lbs. Tom Coyne Mullingar had a fish of 1.75lbs. John O'Neill and Fran Nugent Dublin had 8 fish between them averaging 1.5lbs. The Dargle Anglers Dublin held a competition on Owel. 28 anglers returned 28 fish averaging 1.5lbs. Pat O'Neill Mullingar had a fish of 1.5lbs. Bobby Cordial Dublin has 6 fish for 10.5lbs. On August 1st Joe Owen Dublin had 2 fish for 3lbs. D Toohey Dublin had 4 for 6lbs. Joe Kenna Dublin had a trout of 1.5lbs.

For updates contact Pat Mc Donnell, Fishery Officer Shannon Regional Fisheries Board Mullingar Office Tel: 044 48769

PALLAS LAKE CO OFFALY

Contact Dinny Coyne Chairperson of the Pallas Lake Angling Club Tel: 087 2974306 for updates on the recent fishing competition.

For general updates contact Brendan Mundy, Assistant Fisheries Inspector Shannon Regional Fisheries Board Birr Office Tel: 087 9974521

Mick Flanagan, Angling Correspondent for the Westmeath Topic and Sunday World Newspaper Tel: 087 2797270: mick@midlandangling.com reports on Midland Lakes & Rivers

PATTI DOOLAN MEMORIAL SHIELD....

This very popular Peter fishing competition fished on Lough Owel and hosted by Lough Owel Trout Preservation Association proved very successful. The competition was fished on Wednesday night 27th July with a 7pm start and 11pm finish. On the night over 30 trout were weighed-in with anglers returning plenty of undersize fish to fight another day. The club have a 13inch size limit in place during all trout competitions on lough Owel and when pleasure fishing you are asked to return all native fish to the water, this is in the interest of conserving Lough Owel's native stock of Brown trout. The lake has being recently stocked and this should give fishing on the lake a good boost for the coming few weeks. Now to get back to the Patti Doolan Shield, some of the top fly anglers in Ireland were competing in this event and it was Peter McGuire who took top rod on the night. Peter had a super trout weighing 1.07kg,in second place was Mullingar Dry-Fly expert Gerry Cleary with another cracking trout of .995kg and in third place was one of Mullingar best known Fly-Tyres Michael Kelly with a trout weighing .900kg.There was twelve prizes presented on the night, 4th Chris McKeown,5th Con Hope, 6th Sean Matthews,7th Andy Boyle, 8th Mick savage, 9thDenis Vaughan,10th Denis Goulding,11th Brendan Murray and 12th was Tony Grahan. On the night Lough Owel Chairman Brendan Murray thanked all who competed and especially all who sponsored prizes for the Patti Doolan Shield. All funds from the competition are to go towards stocking Lough Owel with quality trout. Also on the night Ted Callaghan paid tribute to the late Patti Doolan and presented Jack Doolan with a wonderful bouquet of flowers. The main sponsors of the Patti Doolan Perpetual Shield Marty Smyth and Dave Hinkles from England presented the winner with his just reward, also on hand was Willie Penrose who presented Michael Kelly with his prize. The night was also sponsored by Lough Owel Trout Preservation Association. McCauley Oil, Tommy Nally, Joe Murray, Tommy Cowp, Brendan Murray.

LOUGH GLORE....

Lough Glore anglers were in action last Sunday 31st July, fished on the day was the AMD Design & Print Open trout competition. It proved a tough day to get trout on the feed and the top rod was Mark Donoghue with a trout weighing 1lbs 7oz. The junior winner was Amanda Smith. The next competition on Glore is the all species event sponsored by C.A.C. It will be fished August 14h more on this next week.

LOUGH ENNELL....

Some monster trout are being caught on Lough Ennell. The Gallagher brothers Martin & Willie from Daingan Co Offaly had some super trout last week with Willie hooking-up with a trout 6lbs in weight. Also having some success is Clare angler Sean Weir. Sean landed a cracker pushing 4lbs over the weekend. These big trout were caught trolling a variety of lures with Tasmanian Devils working well on Ennell. It's a sure sign that the trout are feeding on perch Fry at the moment and some very big trout were seen trashing the lake surface.

WORLD CUP....

The World Cup fished over the August weekend proved to huge success we will have a full report next week in Angling focus and some pics of local anglers who competed in this years competition.

ATHLONE ANGLERS ASSOCIATION NEWS

report courtesy of Eamon Cunningham P.R.O. Athlone Anglers Association Ph: 087 - 2340815

Photo: Martin McCaffrey Winner, Michael Ganly Sponsor and Noel Monaghan Winner of the John Moran Memorial Cup - photo courtesy of Athlone Anglers Association.

THE JOHN MORAN MEMORIAL CUP

The Bank Holiday weekend every year is set aside for the running of the John Moran Memorial Cup who tragically died on the lake seventeen years ago and this competition is run to remember him and all the others who have passed away on the lake over the years.

With practically every club who fish Lough Ree invited to take part there was a huge entry and ninety-two boats took the water in what were almost ideal conditions for fishing. However, even though there was a large turnout when it came to weigh in time there was only eleven fish weighed in and it was that well-known silver haired angler, Martin McCaffrey and his erstwhile partner Noel Monaghan who topped the winners list with a fine trout weighing 4lb 11ozs. Second place went to well-known local councillor and potential TD, Kevin Boxer Moran, who along with Shauna Golden and Barry Golden weighed in a trout at 3lb 6ozs. The competition for third and fourth place was a dead heat with Richard and Joe Fallon weighing in a trout at 2lb 6ozs exactly equalled by Eamon, Sean and Patrick Quigley and they all shared the prizes for third and fourth place. Michael McKiernan claimed the final place with his fish that weighed in at 2lb 4ozs.With the presentation out of the way the celebrations lasted long into the night with a live band followed by a disco and this was followed by a sing song with bodhran and tin whistles galore as everybody partied the night away.

As with all these events an awful lot of organisation goes into making sure everything runs smoothly on the day and to name everybody who helped out would take a full page but a sincere thank you to all those who did and especially to the Ganly, Monaghan and Doherty families without whose gargantuan efforts this fantastic event could not take place. A special thanks to Michael Ganly of Ganly’s Homevalue Hardware who leads the effort each year to ensure that everybody has a good time. We look forward to seeing you all there again next year.

FOR YOUR DIARY

The following is the schedule of competitions that it is proposed to hold over the next few weeks. Please note this list may change due to unforeseen circumstances, however the details of each competition will be published in this newspaper, on the posters and on the Athlone.ie website in the week prior to each competition.

Sunday 28^th August – Wykes Gaffey Cup – Trout – Lough Ree

LOWER SHANNON AREA

TJ O'Brien, TJ's ANGLING CENTRE KILLALOE Tel: 061 376009 Mob 087 8108225 for the Lower Shannon and Lough Derg

no report from Lough Derg

ShRFB reports for the RIVER FEALE CO KERRY

A high and badly needed flood arrived on Sunday 24^th July which got a lot of anglers out on Monday and a few fish were reported. The good fishing water lasted only a few days and it is now gone too low. Johnny Guerin Co Cork had the best fish of the week at 12lbs. Anthony McAuliffe Listowel, Tim Harty, Co. Limerick, Jim Carmody Newcastlewest, Stephen Morroney, Listowel. Paul O Sullivan Listowel each had a fish. Best method was spinning the Kilty Lure with one angler getting a fish on fly.

Up to date fishing reports contact the local Assistant Fisheries Inspector Mr Paddy Halpin Mobile: 087 7729126

ShRFB reports for Jim Robinson, Angling Guide Lower Shannon and for CASTLECONNELL SALMON FISHERY Tel Mob: 087 2339999. Web Address: http://www.iol.ie/~jimrob

For updates contact above

Richard Keays, Millbank House, Murroe, Co Limerick, Ireland http://www.millbankhouse.com Email to info@millbankhouse.com Tel 061 386115 reports for the River Mulcair system.

A spate over the weekend brought in a few fresh run salmon into the River Mulcair. The flood quickly dropped and consequently fishing slowed. A Dutch angler had 2 salmon over the weekend. A Swiss party fly fishing had an abundance of mainly small trout with occasional larger fish on the tributaries of the River Mulcair, all catch and release.

ShRFB Fishery Officer Ken O'Neill reports for the RIVER MAIGUE at Castleroberts Fishery

Trout fishing is good on the Maigue. Castleroberts fishery is producing plenty of trout ranging from half a pound to 1lb. While Salmon fishing is quiet there are recent reports of some fresh fish showing in the system but no reports of fish caught. River levels are good.

For angling updates on Castleroberts Fishery and booking a fishing permit contact Mob: 087 9810817