#Angling - Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) has issued an appeal to bass anglers preparing for the season ahead to get involved in collecting information on bass in Irish waters for the National Bass Programme (NBP).

The programme was established by IFI to collect data on bass to provide scientific advice to support management and conservation of Ireland’s bass resource.

Bass anglers, as citizen scientists, have been collecting information for the NBP since 2013, thereby supporting bass stock assessment and increased understanding of the biology and ecology of bass in Irish waters.

To date, over 750 bass have been tagged and 3,000 adult bass scale samples have been collected. Scales are used to determine the age and growth rate of bass, while tagging provides information on migrations and habitat use.

The likelihood of additional recaptures is increasing with greater numbers of tagged fish at sea. Tagging results so far have shown that bass were recaptured generally within a few kilometres of their original capture site but some have travelled up to 38km. Time at liberty has ranged from three to 298 days.

By checking all bass for tags and reporting recaptures, anglers will help to discover additional information regarding movements of Irish bass.

IFI head of research and development Dr Cathal Gallagher said: “Ireland has always been a pioneer in terms of bass conservation and is showing progressive thinking in bass management by using the expert knowledge of anglers to collect information that would otherwise not be obtainable. We call on anybody interested in promoting bass conservation to contact IFI for information on how to get involved. All support is much appreciated.

“If you catch a bass with a yellow tag, or a fouled tag, please don’t remove it from the fish. Simply clean the tag and note the tag code (eg B-00001). If possible take the length and weight of the fish, and five scales from behind the pectoral fin, before you release the fish alive.

"Please send us the details, along with the date and location and your name and phone number by email or call IFI on 01-8842600. Information on the original bass tagging location and date will be provided to everybody who reports details to the IFI.”

IFI chief executive Dr Ciaran Byrne added: “Bass is an extremely important and valuable marine sport angling species in Ireland. It is a particularly valuable national resource, contributing €71 million to the Irish economy annually and supporting over 1,200 jobs nationally.

"Bass is an angling-only species so it is important that anglers, as guardians and custodians of this iconic sportfish, contribute information to support conservation orientated management.

"Some anglers are using voluntary logbooks to provide information on catches, angling effort, fish sizes and methods used. Scale sampling packs and logbooks are available from IFI and feedback on scales received will be provided to individual anglers outlining fish age, the year it was spawned and its growth rate.”

IFI has a dedicated email address at [email protected] to enable members of the public to report details on caught bass or to request information on how to support the NBP.

For more information, visit www.fisheriesireland.ie or call IFI at 01 884 2600 during office hours.

#Angling - Ireland's first salmon of the year was caught last week in Co Kerry, as The Irish Times reports.

And it was a first for Lough Currane as angling guide Neil O'Shea landed 2016's maiden salmon catch nationally, a 10-pounder taken near 'The Bridge'.

However, it marks the third time O'Shea has been the first of the year to catch a salmon on the lough, previously claiming that title in 2009 and 1986.

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

#Angling - Come April, paper-based angling permits in Northern Ireland will be replaced by electronic records, as the Belfast Telegraph reports.

All rod licences, permits and day tickets will now be available to purchase online via NI Direct or authorised local distributors, with e-records providing all the relevant data for fisheries officers.

This eliminates both the need for anglers to carry paper documentation when they go fishing –– as well as the requirement for anglers with disabilities to travel to Portadown to avail of concessionary permits.

The Belfast Telegraph has more on the story HERE.

#Angling - Feeder anglers should save Saturday 30 January in their calendars.

That's the date for trials for the Irish feeder team headed to Serbia this summer.

All feeder anglers are invited to Annaherrin Lake in Shercock, Co Cavan from 9am for a day's fishing to select the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland's squad.

For details contact 087 251 0260 or email [email protected]

#Angling - Anglers in Northern Ireland have been reminded to report their catches from 2015 to the Loughs Agency by this Thursday 21 January at the latest.

As the Belfast Telegraph reports, anyone who holds a Foyle and Carlingford rod license for salmon and sea trout angling is legally obliged to inform the Loughs Agency of how many times they went fishing and whether they caught any fish.

This data is necessary for the agency to gauge the health of fish stocks as well as the popularity of angling in any particular area under its remit.

"A lot of anglers are not aware that they must make a return within 21 days of the end of the season, even if they never actually went fishing or didn't catch anything and have a nil return to make," said the Lough's Agency's Art Niven.

The Belfast Telegraph has more on the story HERE.

#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.

#Pollution - The effects of diesel laundering over decades in South Armagh are being felt even greater today, say Dundalk anglers, as the New Year starts with the River Fane closed to all but catch-and-release fishing.

As Independent.ie reports, a 10-fold decrease in stocks of salmon as well as brown trout and sea trout in the river, which flows into Dundalk Bay from the Monaghan-Armagh border, is the direct result of diesel laundering operations by the IRA since at least the 1980s.

Waste from the process of converting subsidised agricultural 'green' diesel to 'white' diesel for general road use has reportedly been dumped openly into a tributary of Lough Ross, which feeds into the Fane – a river that supplies drinking water to Dundalk and much of North Louth.

A recent study found that these pollutants include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs, the same chemicals that continue to affect spawning grounds in areas impacted by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska 26 years ago.

Independent.ie has much more on the story HERE.

#Angling - Minister of State Joe McHugh has approved a suite of regulations and bye-laws that will govern the wild salmon and sea trout fisheries in the New Year, coming into effect from Friday 1 January.

Minister McHugh said 50 rivers will be fully open and this will provide opportunities for all to share this important natural resource on a sustainable basis. A further 32 will be open for angling on a catch and release basis.

In all, 82 rivers will open for angling activity in 2016 - one fewer than in 2015.

Minister McHugh received management advice in relation to 146 genetically individual wild salmon stocks in Ireland from Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) before making a final decision.

This advice was also made available publicly as part of a public consultation process and was based on the scientific assessment of the current status of all stocks carried out by the independent Standing Scientific Committee on Salmon.

The committee comprises scientists from IFI, Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), the Marine Institute, the Loughs Agency, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI- Northern Ireland) other State bodies and third level institutions.

Thirteen submissions were considered as part of the public consultation process which closed on 10 December.

In all, the Independent Standing Scientific Committee for Salmon (SSCE) assessed 146 rivers/estuaries/harbours and has advised that:

• 50 rivers are open as a surplus of fish has been identified in these rivers.
• 32 rivers are classified as open for “catch and release” angling.
• 64 rivers are closed as they have no surplus of fish available for harvest.

The Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Tagging Scheme Regulations for 2016 are in essence unchanged from the Regulations which were introduced for 2015.

#Angling - Following the news that Ireland's bronze-winning anglers will host next year's Shore Angling Worlds in Wexford comes confirmation that the FIPS-ed Youth Worlds will be held in Cork in 2017.

According to The Corkman, more than 40 teams from around the globe will make the trip to Coachford for the championships that will be fished on Inniscarra Reservoir.

And it's set to be the biggest world championship angling event ever staged in Ireland, says National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland (NCFFI) president Der Casey.

The Corkman has more on the story HERE.

#Angling - The tender process for Inland Fisheries Ireland's (IFI) State fisheries for 2016 is now open.

A list of available fisheries is available to download from the IF website HERE. To tender for one or more fisheries, fill out the Condition of Tender and Application Form 2016.

Tenders will be accepted up until 18 December 2015; proof of postage on or before this date will be accepted. Please mark your envelope TENDER APPLICATION and send it to:

Paul O’Reilly
Business Development,
Inland Fisheries Ireland,
3044 Lake Drive,
Citywest,
Dublin 24

If your angling club is interested in a longer-term licence, fill out the relevant section on your form but ensure to tender the ‘per year’ licence fee.

In addition, all clubs who held a licence on a State fishery during the 2015 season need to fill out an End of Year Report Form and return it to IFI Swords at the above address, or by email, by 31 December 2015.

End of Year Reports may be posted together with tender applications, however, all envelopes marked ‘TENDER APPLICATION’ will not be opened until after the closing date for applications. Any tender cheques enclosed will also not be acknowledged until after 18 December.

If you have any queries relating to State fisheries or the 2016 tender process, contact Paul O’Reilly at [email protected] or at 01 884 2600.