Salmon and trout angling | Coarse angling
By Lindsey Clarke
Monday 30th July to Sunday 5th August 2007.
The Lough was fairly quiet this week and the World Cup competition on Mask during the latter half of the week meant little trout angling over the weekend. For those that were out fishing seemed to be variable and the thundery weather certainly did not help matters. Freddy Boyd & angling partner had a good days fishing catching 7 good sonaghan on the wet flies and James Doherty recorded a good bag of fish also. The salmon angling was very quiet with few boats out fishing for the same.
The river remained low for the greater part of the week. There were however two small freshes on Wednesday (0.43 metres) and Saturday (0.48). The gauge average for the week was low reading 0.26 metres. These freshes were enough to bring fish up the river and there were numerous reports of good numbers of salmon rapidly ascending the river. 36 visiting rods fished for the week (with the majority of these fishing on Saturday) but we have no great catch returns. Despite the good run, the fish seemed particularly dour and were hard to interest by any method. I have no reports of fish caught during the week so far. On Saturday, Jed Cole and Stephen Cole accounted for a grilse apiece weighing 5lb & 3½lb. The fish were caught on the worm from Bonnyglen Fall’s. Francie McHugh recorded a grilse of 4lb caught on a spinner from ‘The Devlin’. 2 further grilse were caught from the Fish Counter Pools and I am waiting for confirmation of details of these. I did not help the averages by catching a 1lb grilse on fly but we’ll say no more on this! On Sunday, Dermot McLoughlin recorded a 5½lb grilse caught on the fly from Burn’s and lost another fish. We hope for more rain (unlike the rest of the population who seem to be sick of it!).
The Owenea River ran at low levels all week until Saturday when we received a small flood (0.26 metres) which gave only fair conditions by Sunday. The gauge average for the week was low reading 0.16 metres. 52 visiting rods fished for the week with 28 of these fishing at the weekend. There were a number of grilse recorded. Davy Arbuckle recorded an 8lb salmon on Wednesday and a grilse of 2½lb on Friday. Both fish were caught on the fly from McGill’s Pool on beat 8. Billy Blair recorded grilse of 4lb and 2lb caught from beat 8 on Wednesday & Thursday on the fly from Gavigan’s & Brian’s Pool respectively. On Sunday, Kevin Agnew recorded a 3½lb grilse caught from beat 8 on worm. We pray for more rain!
09 August 2007
The Belturbet Annual Fishing Festival took place last week. Sixty seven anglers fished the event over four days. The winners are as follows:
1st. Willy Wheeler 49.900kg
2nd. Tony Kersley 36.570kg
3rd. Russ Dowding 33.970kg
4th. Paul Lee 33.940kg
5th. Tommy Marshall 33.780kg
A Pairs competition also took place over the four day and the winners are listed below:
1st. Willy Wheeler/Eddie Brydon 76.050kg
2nd. Mark Renshaw/Paul Lee 60.590kg
3rd. Dave Slater/Andy Greg 54.300kg
4th. Dave Lawrence/Russ Dowding 54.020kg
5th. Wayne Fuller/John Potters 52.720kg
Leonards Shore on Lough Gowna has been fishing consistently over the past few weeks with mixed bags of 70 – 90 lb of fish. However, one angler from Hamstead who fished Leonards Shore bagged 144 lbs. of fish over one day mostly Bream some up to 7 lbs. Kevin’s Shore also on Lough Gowna has been giving bags of fish up to 100 lbs., meanwhile Church Lake, Gowna and Dernaferst are producing bags from between 70 and 100 lbs. Hollybank and Gulladoo are also producing mixed bags of 70 – 80 lbs.
Trinity on Lough Oughter is producing good bags of fish while the bridge at Killykeen is also giving good bags of fish. Garadice is reported to be giving bags up to 40lb with advanced ground baiting.
Drumlona is producing good mixed bags of 60-70 lbs. Plenty of Roach are being caught on Haltons at the new bridge. Annamakerrig is producing some Bream and mixed bags of 60-70 lbs., also Barnagrove mixed bags 70-80 lbs.
The Northern Regional Fisheries Board presents this web site as a useful guide to salmon, trout and coarse fishing in Donegal, Leitrim and Cavan.