Sport

Angling Notes: plan to introduce students to fly-fishing, local environment and biodiversity

Programme involves St James’s Street CBS Transition Year students in Dublin

Geoffrey Fitzjohn with first salmon of 2017 from Kylemore Abbey Fishery at Tullywee Bridge Pool, caught on a Black Shrimp size 8

Derek Evans
Mon Mar 20 2017 - 00:00

Eir's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team, in partnership with Inland Fisheries Ireland, are leading a new programme with James's Street CBS Transition Year (TY) students in Dublin. The 13-week programme, led by Ciarán Ward, will introduce students to fly-fishing while teaching them about their local environment and biodiversity.

The programme will help students work towards achieving a Gaisce President's Award. The award is a self-development programme that encourages young people to find their passion and make a difference in their community.

IFI’s Des Chew, said: “This is a particularly exciting and important project of educating the next generation to improve social inclusion and environmental awareness, and could be a pilot for similar schemes in other schools.”

Christopher Defillon, Navan, with his early season Sheelin trout

Ms Olive Crowe, TY co-ordinator, added: "This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to participate in an activity they might never otherwise get to try while working towards their Gaisce awards."

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Salmon taken at Kylemore Abbey

Kylemore Abbey Fishery is off the mark with a salmon caught by

Geoffrey Fitzjohn

on Wednesday, taken in Tullywee Bridge Pool. The fish weighed in at 3.7kg and fell to a Black Shrimp size 8.

Duckfly returns

Ronan Cusack reports on some excellent angling from Mask, as the duckfly makes its first appearance.

Westport

brothers Colin and

Ronan Gibbons

had a fantastic day, landing 10 trout on wets in the

Tourmakeady

area. All were more than 13 inches and returned to the water.

Sean Maloney from Ballinrobe had a good week reporting fish on every outing. Malcolm Naughton and fishing partner JJ Hannon from Loughrea had 11 on Sunday (best fish 1.1kg, all returned). Kevin Beattie and Ray Broughton were out most days and reported excellent sport pulling dark wet flies on slow intermediate lines.

Anglers have reported some trout being a bit thin or “slatty”, which is normal at this time of year, so they are asked to allow these fish time to mend and return them to the water.

Cracking trout on Corrib

On Corrib, anglers still await the onset of the duckfly season. A selection of returns from last week included a cracking trout of 1.8kg for

Kevin Cronin

on a Silver Dabbler in the

Cornamona

area, and a Swiss group enjoyed their week’s stay at Ballard boat hire and self-catering (087-287 9339) with 25 trout, all of which were sportingly released.

Ballindiff AC chairman Andrew Boyd and Dave McCormack had three fish to the boat with Andrew landing a trout of 2.5kg on the fly.

Free rod licences boost

Natural Resources

Wales

(NRW) has introduced a free rod licence for 12- to 16-year-olds to encourage more young people to give fishing a go and boost the future of the sport.

Other moves include a rolling rod licence which lasts for 365 days from the date of purchase – rather than running until the end of March regardless of when it was bought – for use during the fishing season.

And the use of three rods for specialist coarse fishing now needs just one licence, rather than two, a move welcomed by carp and specimen anglers.

Licences can be purchased quickly and easily online at “Get a Fishing Licence” on gov.uk, at the post office or phone on 0344 800 5386.

And further information, including full details of the cost of licences is available on NRW website.

NRW's Rob Evans, said: "Getting young people involved not only contributes to their physical and mental well-being through increased activity but also helps them connect with nature in all its forms."

Angling courses expand

Ken Whelan and Jason O’Riordan have expanded their angling courses for 2017 to include saltwater fishing for bass along the south coast. They are also running day- and night-time sea trout courses which will include estuarine fishing on the best beats of the

Munster

Blackwater

, and the ever-popular Match the Hatch series will move to a private lake near

Ashford

in Co

Wicklow

.

Further courses to be announced will include details of the Atlantic Salmon Trust adopt-a-stream initiative – the Small Streams Characterisation System training programme. This course is suited to club members interested in mapping, assessing and protecting their small feeder/spawning streams.

Both O'Riordan and Whelan will be in attendance at the Northwest Angling Fair in Strabane, Co Tyrone, on the April 8th and 9th. Email: ken.whelan@hotmail.com.

angling@irishtimes.com

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