#Angling - The Irish Specimen Fish Committee's (ISFC) report on 2013's notable angling catches, which was published on Friday 31 January, includes two new records.

The report reveals that it was a very good year for anglers, with large numbers of specimen-sized fish caught.

High water temperatures during the summer were very good news for many sea anglers, with some of Ireland's more exotic species like gilthead bream and golden grey mullet prominent in the overall specimen fish listings. Specimen smooth-hound and spurdog were also plentiful.



The two new records are for a 3.376kg roach/bream hybrid, which as caught in Monalty Lake in Co Monaghan by Jason Dingle on 3 May, and a 3.505kg gilthead bream, which was caught by Jeremy Coleman on 17 August.



A total of 595 specimens were ratified in 2013. The Lee Reservoirs in Cork feature heavily in the freshwater fish listings with bream, rudd and various hybrids taken there over the year.

Species such as thick-lipped mullet and flounder from many different parts of the country were prominent in catches of specimen sea fish.

The report is available online as a PDF to read and download HERE, but hard copies will also be available free of charge from Inland Fisheries Ireland offices in Swords from next week.

Anglers both at home and abroad will surely be reading it carefully to plan their angling trips to catch the big fish in Ireland in 2014.



In other important developments on the specimen fish front, tope, spurdog and smooth-hound can be claimed as length-based specimens from 2014 onwards. And Dutch anglers continue to dominate the specimen fish listings for overseas anglers.



In addition, the ISFC Awards Day will be held in Dublin on 15 February. Invitations will be issued to anglers from Ireland next week. If any angler plans to attend please email [email protected] as soon as possible. Overseas anglers are also very welcome to attend.

Certificates, etc will be posted to anglers who cannot attend and it is hoped to present anglers in the Netherlands with their awards at the VISMA 2014 angling show in Rotterdam.

#Angling - Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) is inviting expressions of interest from suitably qualified individuals to become or continue to be members of Fishery District Committees in the following Fishery Districts where commercial fisheries exist:

• Waterford; Lismore; Cork; Kerry; Limerick;
• Galway; Ballinakill; Bangor; Ballina; Sligo;
• Ballyshannon and Letterkenny.

The individuals should be representative of one of the following groups/sectors:

• Commercial salmon fishermen (draft net or snap net where appropriate)
• Rated occupiers of fisheries
• Salmon rod representatives

Any suitably qualifying individual wishing to be considered for representation on these committees should write to Inland Fisheries Ireland at the address below stating the Fishery District in which they wish to be considered for inclusion on the committee and the group/sector to which they belong.

The primary purpose of the Fishery District Committees is to recommend the allocation of the available salmon surplus as identified by the National Standing Scientific Committee between the commercial and recreational sectors for those fisheries which have a surplus. Typically there will be one meeting per year (April). Expenses will not be paid.

Applicants will be assessed and may or may not be selected to serve on the committee. It is anticipated that this call for expressions of interest will be for the five-year period from 2014 to end of 2018.

Written applications (there is no official form) should be sent on or before 5pm on 28 February 2014 by email to [email protected] or by post to the following:

Inland Fisheries Ireland,
Fishery District Committees,
Teach Breac, Earl’s Island,
Galway

For more information on qualifying criteria or relevant ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ please see the IFI website HERE; for queries in relation to the above please call 091 563 118.

#Angling - There's been another successful prosecution for Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), this time against two people for coarse fishing offences on Whitewood Lake in Co Meath.

Grigorij Charlamov and Liudmila Baseva were convicted at Navan District Court on 10 January, respectively given community service and the Probation Act, while IFI was awarded €3,840 in expenses for bringing these cases.

In August 2013, Charlamov and Baseva were seen acting suspiciously at Whitewood Lake in Kilmainham Wood and were later apprehended by fisheries officers Dermot Wynne and Brendan Cusack.

The duo were found to have a boat, nets and 99 coarse fish in their possession which consisted of bream, roach, rudd and perch. This was in breach of the coarse fish byelaw which allows an angler to have four coarse fish under 25cm in their possession.


Charlamov, with an address in Bray, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty to two charges. Judge Grainne Malone convicted him under Section 285A of the 1959 Fisheries Act, for using a boat as an aid to the commission of an offence and breaching the coarse fish byelaw of 2006.

Judge Malone noted that Charlamov had been well prepared, travelled from Bray and the consequences for him were therefore more significant. She gave him community service and he was ordered to pay costs of €1,920 to IFI within four months.

Baseva, also with an address in Bray, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty to the breach of the coarse fish byelaw. Judge Malone convicted her under the bylaw, gave her the Probation Act and ordered her to pay costs of €1,920 to IFI within six months.

Whitewood Lake is a notable coarse fishery in Co Meath containing stocks of roach, bream, hybrids and pike. Many of the bream caught in this lake in 2013 were over 5 lbs in weight with an average age of 8-10 years, and very valuable from an angling perspective.

#Angling - Christmas Day will see an early start to the new salmon angling season on a select number of fisheries.

As Derek Evans writes in The Irish Times, the early fisheries include the Lower Liffey - from Islandbridge to Leixlip Dam - for catch-and-release angling for the second year running.

Elsewhere, it's been announced that Inniscarra Lake in Co Cork will host the World Feeder Fishing Championships next July.

And a new book on Ireland's sea trout fisheries had recently been published.

Nomads of the Tides by Chris McCully and Ken Whelan details 50 different fishing locations with grid references and information on permits and local accommodation which will surely make it a must for angling tourists.

The Irish Times has more on the new book HERE.

#Angling - An angler has narrowly avoided jail for assaulting two fisheries officers and fishing without a permit on the River Moy near Foxford in Co Mayo.

Nick McKeown of Foxford was prosecuted by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) at a sitting of Ballina District Court on 9 December 2013. McKeown failed to attend the hearing but was represented by his solicitor, Charlie Gilmartin.

Judge Kevin Kilrane proceeded in McKeown’s absence and, after hearing the evidence from fisheries officers Geoffrey Thornton, Eddie Doherty and assistant inspector Pat Armstrong, convicted him of fishing without a permit on four separate dates and assault on two fishery officers in 2011.

Gilmartin explained his client’s actions by indicating that there had been some confusion as to the ownership of fishing rights on Cloongee Fishery on the River Moy, where the incidents took place.

Solicitor Henry Hewson, acting for IFI, presented an Order from Castlebar Circuit Court confirming that IFI held title to the fishing rights on that section of the River Moy since its purchase by the former North Western Regional Fisheries Board in 2004.

The judge heard evidence that McKeown was also found fishing at Clongee without a permit on a number of dates after the Circuit Court ruling in 2012.

Judge Kilrane reportedly took a dim view of the defendant’s actions and felt that a fine might not be appropriate in this case.

A warrant was issued for McKeown’s arrest so that he could be brought before the court for sentencing. However, McKeown arrived at the court late and the judge agreed to sit again in order to deal with the matter.

Judge Kilrane indicated that he would not impose a prison sentence if McKeown gave a written undertaking to the court that he would not fish illegally in future.

The judge adjourned sentencing to 8 December 2014 with liberty for IFI to re-enter if there is a breach of the undertaking signed.

#Angling - Fergus O'Dowd TD, Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, has given statutory notice of his proposal to revise the Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Tagging Scheme Regulations to apply from 1 January 2014.

The minister proposes to revoke the existing tagging scheme regulations and to make revised regulations to provide for commercial fishing and angling total allowable catches on an individual river basis.

The draft regulations are available HERE and open for public inspection. Any person may submit objections to the draft regulations at any time till 7 December 2013 either by email to [email protected] or in writing addressed to:

Inland Fisheries Division

Department of Communications Energy and Natural Resources


Elm House, Earlsvale Road,

Cavan

#Angling - The tender process for State fisheries under the auspices of Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) for 2014 is now open.

A list of all available fisheries on Ireland's inland waterways is available to download as a PDF file HERE.

Anyone wishing to tender for one or more fisheries should fill out the tender application form (available HERE) and send by post, in an envelope marked TENDER APPLICATION, to:

Justine Barrett,
Business Development,
Inland Fisheries Ireland,
Swords Business Campus,
Swords, Co Dublin

If your angling club is interested in a longer-term licence, please fill out the relevant section on your form and IFi will get in touch. However, please tender the ‘per year’ rate.

Queries relating to State fisheries or the 2014 tender process should be directed to Justine Barrett at [email protected] or 01 884 2600.

Tenders will only be accepted up until 30 November 2013.

In addition, all clubs who held a licence on a State fishery or fisheries during the 2013 season will need to fill out an End of Year Report Form and return it to IFI Swords at the above address by the same date (it may be posted together with a tender application).

End of Year Report Forms have all been sent out to clubs, but a digital version if required is available HERE.

#Angling - Inland Fisheries Ireland has secured victory in recent prosecutions against illegal fishing in Co Louth and Co Meath.

In Dundalk, Pat Smith of Annagassan, Co Louth was fined €100 for illegal salmon fishing and ordered to pay total costs of €460 to IFI in Drogheda District Court on 27 September. 

His co-accused, Jimmy Mulroy, also of Annagassan, Co Louth was fined €100 for illegal salmon fishing and ordered to pay total costs of €777 to IFI in Drogheda District Court on 22 October.

On 13 June this year, Smith and Mulroy were found to be illegally fishing for salmon at Annagassan, which is the meeting point of the Rivers Dee and Glyde.

Fisheries officers Dermot Wynne, Thomas Duffy and Seamus Kelledy apprehended the two men, who pleaded guilty to the charges brought against them. 

Judge Flann Brennan convicted both individuals under Section 95 of the 1959 Fisheries Act for having a net in their possession which was capable of capturing salmon.

Numbers of salmon in the entire Dundalk Bay area dropped from a 1970s peak of many thousands of commercially caught fish to an all-time low in 2006 when just 225 specimens were caught.

This led to the closure of all salmon fisheries in the region, with fishing restricted to catch and release only for salmon on the Dee and Glyde.

Elsewhere, IFI had success with recent court cases at Whitewood Lake in Kilmainham Wood, Co Meath resulting in fines of €500 issued and expenses of €2,024 awarded.

Jonas Kavaliauskas of Clondalkin, Dublin 22 was apprehended by fisheries officer Ronan O'Brien while fishing suspiciously at Whitewood Lake in May this year.

Kavaliauskas was found to have 57 coarse fish in his possession. This is in breach of the coarse fish byelaw which allows an angler to have four coarse fish under 25cm.

This case was heard on 20 September at Kells District Court and Kavaliauskas pleaded guilty. Judge Denis McLaughlin convicted him for breaches of the coarse fish Byelaw 806 of 2006. The defendant was fined €100 with six months to pay and IFI was awarded €714 in expenses.

A second case was heard on 9 October at Navan District Court, which heard that in August this year Petre Tuica of Nephin Road, Dublin 7 and Iosif Ciocan of Fernleigh, Dublin 15 were fishing at Whitewood Lake and found to be in possession of 60 fish. 

Both individuals were apprehended by Assistant Inspector Ronan O’Brien as they had more than four coarse fish in their possession.

Ciocan did not appear in court and Tucia pleaded guilty. After hearing the evidence, Judge Patrick Clyne found both defendants guilty and convicted them for breaches of the coarse fish Byelaw 806 of 2006. 

Ciocan was fined €200 with 14 days to pay with five days imprisonment in default and to pay €655 in costs. Tucia was fined €100 with one month to pay with five days imprisonment in default and to pay €655 in costs to IFI.

Whitewood Lake is a notable coarse fishery in the Kilmainham Wood area of Co Meath containing stocks of roach, bream, hybrids and pike.

#Angling - The Irish Times' Derek Evans rounds up the hive of activity on Ireland's inland waterways as the game angling season drew to a close for 2013.

Records were broken in Cavan and Kerry, the latter's premier trout fishery of Lough Currane producing a near 15-pounder hen sea trout caught and released by Corkman Paul Lawton, while the former's section of Lough Sheelin saw the heaviest fish of the season, a 12lb "beauty", landed by Galway's Toby Bradshaw.

The Irish Times has much more on recent angling action HERE.

#Angling - Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) says it stands over the findings of a recent socio-economic study of recreational angling in Ireland, following what it described as "erroneous reports in certain elements of the media" suggesting that angling's contribution to the economy was overstated.

IFI says the principal results of the study, which was published in July 2013, estimate that recreational angling in Ireland contributes some €755 million to the Irish economy and supports more than 10,000 jobs in peripheral and rural areas.

"The results in this report are based on sound economic principles," said the fisheries body in a statement. "The report was compiled by industry experts Tourism Development International (TDI) who are a renowned and widely respected professional consultancy company."

The work team included Dr Stephen Hynes of the Socio-Economic Marine Research Unit of NUI Galway, while Prof Brendan Whelan, former director of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), provided direction and assistance in the design of the survey and review of the report and findings.

"Regrettably it appears that inaccurate extrapolations from the study data prepared and published by a Scottish aquaculture blog has underpinned a complete misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the findings of the study, which was used by a lobby group in a recent communication to the media," IFI added.

The full study is available to download from the IFI website HERE.