Ronan Cusack reports that Mask remained in top form again this week with some excellent bags reported, auguring for a great fishing season ahead on the Mayo lake. Water levels and weather conditions were very unsettled mid-week, with huge downpours at night and high winds during daylight hours.  Local Tourmakeady anglers Liam Conroy and Peter Gossan fished on Wednesday last and they had 3 fish for their day (best fish 1.5lbs).

For the second time in three years, Ballina native Martin Conroy has hooked and landed the first fresh run salmon of the season on the Moy system. This is the earliest date the ‘first fish’ has been reported for a long number of years. The fish was caught today at approximately 9.30am just upstream of the newly refurbished Salmon Weirs, in the Ballina Salmon Anglers water.

A number of popular Mayo angling rivers and waters are affected by new regulations and bye-laws for management of the wild salmon fishery in 2012, announced by Fergus O’Dowd T.D, Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. Srahmore River, near Burrishoole in the Bangor fishery district, is one of 5 Irish rivers, which were closed in 2011, that will open for angling on a "catch and release" basis in 2012.

The Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport Mr Michael Ring TD has addressed the annual conference of the Irish Coast Guard which is taking place in Westport, this weekend and officially presented the Director of the Irish Coast Guard, Mr Chris Reynolds, with the keys of a new Mobile Incident Command Vehicle to be based in Sligo.

Belmullet Sea Angling Club held their annual Team Shore Angling Competition on Sunday, 16th October. Five teams weathered the extremely poor conditions, with strong south westerly winds and heavy rain showers at regular intervals. Despite the poor conditions many participants enjoyed excellent sport throughout the day, with the winning team of Michael Dunleavy and Tony Lally, landing a total of seven varieties.

Catch reports for the last week of the angling season were down somewhat from previous weeks catches. However, the Moy still yielded a very respectable 258 salmon for the closing week, bringing the annual catch total to approximately 9,000 salmon, Inland Fisheries Ireland reports. 

As the season draws quickly to a close, the River Moy is continuing to provide great sport for many anglers, with locals and international visitor’s alike reporting success. Once again, it was the mid and upper fisheries which reported better catch returns, with the weekly total for the system at 389 salmon.

A poor week on the lower Moy fisheries around Ballina town, not surprising with virtually no angling effort combined with high water levels. The most significant catches were recorded in the mid and upper stretches of the Moy, where the weekly combined catch totalled an excellent 376 salmon.