Salmon and trout angling | Coarse angling
By Lindsey Clarke
Monday 16th to Sunday 22nd July 2007
The Drowes continues to fish well with good numbers of grilse and salmon recorded for the week caught mainly on flies and shrimp. The Cascade and Ally’s Shrimp Flies are accounting for the majority of fly caught fish. The river dropped nicely over the week and with more rain forecast, levels should remain favourable over the coming week. The gauge at the Four Masters Bridge is reading 6 at present.
Given here is a sample of the catches from last week. Norman Kerr recorded a 4lb grilse caught on the fly from the Red Roof. Jim Shaw accounted for a 9½lb salmon caught on a fly from the Crooked Hole. F. Grimsbey recorded a 4lb grilse caught on the shrimp from the Money Hole. B. Kerr landed a 5½lb grilse on a shrimp from the Mill Pool. J. Atkinson recorded 3 fish caught weighing from 3 to 5lb from Briney’s on the fly. C. Carty accounted for a 4lbs grilse caught on the fly from The Cascades. C. Fitzpatrick landed a 4lbs grilse which took a fly in the Mill Pool. Also from the Mill Pool, J. Mc Givern recorded a 3½lb grilse which took a worm. C. Thomas recorded 2 grilse 3 & 4lb from Lennox’s caught on the fly. Dominic Baumy caught a 4lb grilse from The Blackwater on worm and A. Bennett recorded a 5lb grilse caught from Wash Stones on a shrimp.
The weather has been very variable this week with rain showers, thunder & lightening, variable winds & sunny periods. This seemed to unsettle the fishing and the anglers and few people ventured out over the week. The trout fishing was slow for those who did fish. There were also few anglers fishing for salmon despite the large numbers of salmon and grilse present in the Lough. Two grilse were caught in the Rossinver fishery, both weighing around 5lb and caught on the fly. Three grilse were caught trolling on the Lough of which Ian Grimsley caught for 2 weighing around 4½lb each.
This week was another good week on the Eany Fishery with plenty of water and some good salmon caught. There were two good floods on the Eany Fishery on Monday (1.58 metres) and Wednesday (0.90 metres) and two smaller floods on Thursday (0.49 metres) and Saturday (0.55 metres). This gave a good gauge average for the week of 0.64 metres. 23 visiting rods fished over the week.
There were some lovely fish caught this week. On Monday, Connie Bourke caught a large salmon on the spinner from the Corry Pool. The fish was reported to weigh 17¼lb and I am awaiting photographs of the same. He missed an even larger salmon! On Tuesday, Gerry McCafferty caught and released two 1lb sea trout from Hughie’s Pool caught on the fly. On Wednesday, Michael McLoughlin recorded a 12½lb salmon caught from the Devlin Pool on a spinner. Fergal Mallon accounted for another 12½lb salmon caught on the fly, also from the Devlin Pool. Dimitrios Kandiotos caught and released a small grilse from Bonnyglen Falls. One local angler accounted for two salmon weighing 4 & 10lb caught on the spinner from Bonnyglen Fall’s and lost a bigger fish. On Thursday, Patsy McHugh had a good day’s fly fishing with two salmon recorded weighing 8 and 14lb caught from McGuinness’s Pool and Burns Falls.
There was no rain on Sunday and at the time of writing (Tuesday) the river is low. There is rain forecast from the middle of the week on so prospects look good from Wednesday onwards.
The Owenea received a nice flood on Monday (0.55 metres) and a smaller flood on Thursday (0.32 metres). After Thursday the water levels fell rapidly to give low summer levels Sunday (0.15 metres). The Gauge average for the week read 0.28 metres. There were 38 visiting rods fishing for the week. I am awaiting details of catches for the week but catches seem to be well down for this stage of the season. On Wednesday, Peter Grahame recorded a 3lb caught from beat 8 on the fly. On Friday, Fergal Mallon recorded an 8lb salmon caught on the fly from beat 8. The weather is predicted to be wet from midweek onwards so there should be some good conditions in the latter half of the week.
25 July 2007
Despite the foul weather and flooded conditions fishing in the Arva / Gowna area is reported to be quite good for the past week with the following weights being recorded: Hollybank 94lb, Gulladoo 82lb., Rosduff 100lb+, Gartylough 68lb, Strettons Shore 102lb, Leonards 96lb. , Lisany 92lb and Rhodendrums 84lb.
There are only a few anglers fishing the Cootehill area this week and they report angling to be poor, they are finding it difficult because of the high water levels.
Fishing in the Cavan Killeshandra Belturbet area has been very patchy this week. Deredis has produced some nice Perch and the odd 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.