Salmon and trout angling | Coarse angling
By Lindsey Clarke
Monday 9th to Sunday 15th July 2007.
Angling has been excellent on the Drowes once again this week with large numbers of grilse caught. With the heavy rain at times the Drowes has been running at good levels all week and is still holding up well at the time of writing. Large numbers of grilse have been running the fishery all week with a good average weight of 5½lb based on catches. Given here are some of the catches: Frank Carty recorded a 5lb grilse caught on the fly. Chris Sinclair accounted for 2 grilse weighing 3 & 4½lb caught on shrimp. John Ford caught a 4lb fish and Tommy Carson one of 5lb on the fly. Bryson Carr recorded 2 grilse caught on shrimp and Andy Fullton 2 fish weighing 6 & 4lb caught on fly. Darra Kennedy accounted for a 5lb fish and Stephen Hooper 2 fish weighing 3 & 4lb caught on prawn. Davy Elliot recorded a 6lb grilse caught on the fly and the Foster Party 2 grilse weighing 5 & 6lb caught on worm. Two visiting Belgian anglers recorded 10 grilse (5 apiece) weighing between 5½ and 7lb all caught on fly returning most of these.
Prospects look good for the coming week with showers forecast throughout the week.
Lough Melvin fished well for trout this week with Friday being a particularly good day with good bags of sonaghan caught on wet flies from all over the Lough. Gary McDermott and Freddie Boyd accounted for 20 sonaghan on Sunday. Dessie McHugh recorded 6 sonaghan of around 1lb each. Andy Kennedy, fishing out of Lareen caught 2 lovely trout both weighing over 4lb during the week on wet flies. Rossinver Bay remained quiet but must certainly have a good head of fish present. One angler did rise a ‘huge trout’ on a Green Peter hopper but the fish was not hooked. There has been little angling for salmon. John Flanagan recorded a 4lb grilse caught trolling. The Lough must have large numbers of grilse present following the good runs of the same in the Drowes.
Angling conditions were good at times over the week with the very wet weather giving plenty of floods. The river was rising rapidly to reach 1.86 metres by 3.30pm on Monday which did not give good fishing. On Tuesday the river held all day around 0.85 metres giving great conditions. Thursday gave lovely conditions too with the river dropping somewhat towards the end of the week but still with nice conditions for the fly. The gauge average for the week read a good 0.69 metres.
22 visiting rods fished for the week and there were fair numbers of salmon caught. On Monday, Craig Gambol recorded a 5lb grilse caught on the spinner before the river began to rise and he was delighted with this being his first ever salmon. Tuesday was the best day with the most salmon recorded. John O’Brien had a small grilse which he released. Young Dylan Ward and friend accounted for a 4lb grilse apiece caught on the spinner. Gerry McCafferty recorded a 4½lb grilse caught on fly from Mickey’s Pool and Billy Johnston and 2 other anglers accounted for a salmon apiece to 9lb. On Thursday, Gus Scullion recorded grilse 4 & 5lb caught from Bonnyglen Fall’s on worm. I also have a record of a fish caught previously. This weighed 11½lb and was caught on the 30th July from Bonnyglen Fall’s by Dimitrios Kandiotos.
The weather is forecast to be wet into the coming week so prospects remain good.
The Owenea had fair conditions for the greater part of the week following a big flood (0.60 metres) on Tuesday. The river dropped away after this to reach 0.18 metres by Friday but heavy rain meant the river was at a lovely height (0.36 metres) on Saturday which fell to 0.25 metres by Sunday. The gauge average for the week read 0.30 metres. There were 57 visiting rods fishing over the week. Given here are some of the catches. On Monday, Peter Graham recorded a 3½lb grilse caught from beat 9 on a spinner. On Wednesday, Billy Blair recorded a salmon of 10lb and a grilse of 2½lb caught from Gavigan’s Pool on beat 8 on the fly. John Joe Doran recorded an 8lb fish caught on the fly from Gallagher’s Stream on beat 8. On Friday, Alan Watson recorded a 3lb grilse which was caught and released from beat 9 on the fly. On Saturday, Billy Blair recorded a 5lb grilse caught on the spinner from Gavigan’s pool once again on beat 8.
18 July 2007
Water levels are extremely high at present. However most anglers report good catches of fish in most areas. Lough Scur Angling Festival took place last week. The winners are as follows, however individual weights are not to hand.
Most anglers had bags of small Roach and some Skimmer Bream also showing. Overall a close competition and consistant angling. Organisers would like ot thank Scollan's Gala Stores, Drumshambo for sponsoring the competition and Gunnings Bar, Drumshambo who provided refreshments for the competitors and NRFB staff for helping with pegging and weigh-in. Fishing is reported to be quite good with good bags of Bream being caught on Bells Shore on Bawn Lake. Some local anglers fishing Drumsnat also report good big Bream.
The Northern Regional Fisheries Board presents this web site as a useful guide to salmon, trout and coarse fishing in Donegal, Leitrim and Cavan.