#Angling - The Irish Specimen Fish Committee has just ratified two new Irish record fish.
Dublin angler Tom Lynch has broken the Irish twaite shad record with a 1.64kg specimen from the River Barrow at St Mullins, caught on 15 May last, while the new smooth hound record was broken by Gareth Murphy with an 8.62kg whopper from Wicklow Bay on 24 May.
Full details are in the Irish Specimen Fish Committee report for 2015 which just been released and is available on the ISFC website or from the Inland Fisheries Ireland website.
As well as the new record fish, detailed information on almost 450 specimen fish (ie large fish) taken by anglers from venues throughout Ireland in 2015 are presented.
Hard copies of the report will be available from 18 January from Inland Fisheries Ireland offices nationally.
The new report has details of 45 different species of specimen fish taken by anglers in 2015.
Thirty-two different species (including blue shark, pollock, several species of ray, gilthead bream, etc) were taken by sea anglers while freshwater anglers accounted for the remaining species.
Particularly large numbers of specimen thick lipped mullet (16% of total ratified) and smooth hound (14%) were caught, weighed and released, and in freshwater, carp (10%) dominated specimen returns. Large numbers of the exotic mullet species, golden greys and thin-lipped, were also ratified.
The ISFC Awards Day, when anglers will be presented with their awards and certificates, will be held on Saturday 20 February in Dublin in conjunction with the Irish Angling Show weekend.
Meanwhile, anglers both at home and abroad will be reading the report carefully to plan their angling trips to catch the big fish in Ireland in 2016.
Download a PDF copy of the Irish Specimen Fish 2015 report HERE.
