Trout numbers up on Lough Corrib
ANGLING does not seem as important this week, when spring was overshadowed by the recent news of the death on Lough Corrib of angler Michael Ruane from Salthill in Galway. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dÃÂlis. Duckfly hatches are going well on Corrib at the moment and most anglers are reporting trout every day they are out. Frank Reilly reports good hatches in the Greenfields area, with some early olives and even some premature mayfly fluttering about too. 14 anglers reported 20 trout for a low fishing effort, with retired fisheries inspector Pat Day landing three trout in one evening on fly. Sean Dixon took two fish on a Sooty Olive, while Pappy Cotter and a friend landed six trout for a day on wetfly patterns. Frank himself was out for three short sessions over a week and landed seven trout on wetfly. Good levels in Weir Water levels remained good all week, with just four sluice gates open on the weir. A second fish of the season was landed on Tuesday by Brian O'Rourke from Tuam, a nice spring salmon of 8.5lbs. Continuing settled weather and nice water should see more fish coming into the river, and there should be more salmon to report from Galway soon. Lough Mask fishing well Mask produced very good fishing again last week, with the majority of fish being caught in shallow water on wetfly patterns. Duckfly hatches are still sparse and only small numbers of trout have been taken on buzzer so far. Ballinrobe angler Frank O'Hara had two fish one day recently (best fish 1.75lbs). Frank returned numerous small fish throughout the day. Sean O'Loughlin, Galway, fished with Tony O'Donnell and they had two fish for the day (best fish 1.75lbs). Ballinrobe anglers Conor O'Mahony and Mick Byrne had eight fish over two days (best fish 1.75lbs). Sean Maloney from Ballinrobe fished with Noel Farrer from Dublin and they had ten fish for the day (best fish 2.25lbs). Sean fished again the following day and he had a further five fish (best trout 1.75lbs). Adrian Armitage and Johnny O'Malley from Mullingar had five fish for their day (best fish 1.75lbs). Joe Fitzharris and friend, from Ballyhaunis, reported boating 21 fish, including seven good-sized trout, which were also returned. Their best fish on the day was approximately 2lbs. Pat Winning from Cork had six fish over two days (best fish 1.75lbs).