Salmon and trout angling | Coarse angling
By Lindsey Clarke
Monday 23rd to Sunday 29th July 2007
The Drowes continued fishing well over the week with good numbers of grilse caught. The river dropped over the week to read 5.5 on the gauge at Four Masters Bridge which gave ideal conditions for the fly. With the big Spring Tides towards the weekend good salmon in the 8 to 10lb range entered the fishery.
Given here are some of the recorded catches for the past week. Derek McLoughlin recorded 4 salmon caught from the Red Roof and the Mill pool on the fly. Alfred Vandewalle accounted for 5 grilse ranging from 3 to 6lb caught on the fly from the Mill Pool, Scot’s Corner and Island Pool. Alan Kendall recorded grilse of 3 & 5lb caught from New Bridge and Sea Pool. Graham Cochrane caught 3 grilse weighing 3, 3 & & 4lb from Lennox’s Bridge on spinner & worm. Colin Harrgan accounted for a 4lb grilse caught from Briney’s on a Cascade shrimp fly. Anthony Carty landed a 4lbs fish on spinner from the Mill Pool.
The Lough fished very well for trout (especially sonaghan) at times this week. There were thundery spells which put the fish off, but overall, there were some good catches of sonaghan with anglers recording catches of 20 to 30 fish with many of these over 1lb. I know one angler recorded 6 sonaghan for 7lb and returned another 20. The deepwater out in the middle of the Lough seems to have provided the best fishing. With regard to successful flies, it was just a case of finding the fish, fly pattern seemed irrelevant with various patterns taking fish. The Lough seems to have been quiet for salmon.
The river was low for the most part this week but there was a good flood (0.92 metres) on Thursday and levels were excellent for the fly on Friday morning. The gauge average for the week read 0.35 metres and 25 visiting rods fished for the week. There were fair numbers of salmon caught for the week and all of the fish seem to have been caught from Thursday onwards. Given here are some of the catches. On Thursday, John Wilson recorded 2 grilse caught in the morning from the Eanybeg. The fish weighed 4 & 6lb. Charley Fury accounted for a 10lb salmon caught from the Fish Counter Pools on a spinner. In the afternoon I caught a 4½lb grilse from the Flag Pool on a Bann Special shrimp fly. On Friday, Phillip McMahon recorded a 5lb 12oz grilse caught on the spinner below Burn’s Fall’s. John McLaughlin recorded a 9lb salmon caught on a Cascade fly from the Luggie’s losing 2 other salmon and rising a further 2. On Saturday, Alan Cully recorded a 5lb grilse caught from Bonnyglen Falls on worm. We are also still catching numerous 5 & 6lb Rainbow Trout! God help us if these start feeding on the salmon fry and parr! We have no bag limit for Rainbow Trout! Anglers are requested to kill any they catch.
The Owenea River ran at low summer levels all week except for a good flood on Thursday which raised the river to 0.45 metres on the gauge. This gave good conditions for Friday also but by Saturday the river was once again running very low. The gauge average for the week read 0.21 metres. 26 visiting rods fished for the week. There were a number of salmon recorded though catches were lower than we would expect at this point in the season. Brian Smith recorded a 3lb grilse caught on Monday from beat 9 on the fly. On Thursday, William Forrester recorded 2 grilse caught from beat 5. The fish weighed 4 & 5lb and were caught on a spinner. Peter Grahame accounted for a 5lb grilse caught on beat 5 on the fly. On Friday, Davy Arbuckle recorded a 4lb grilse caught on a spinner from beat 8.
The Erne Estuary is fishing extremely well with good numbers of sea trout being caught on all methods with a large proportion of these being large trout. Of course any over 40cm have to be returned with the fishery closed for salmon and 40cm plus sea trout. No doubt the cessation of the draught nets on the estuary has meant large numbers of sea trout have not been netted out this season. This certainly is the year to be fishing the estuary!
02 August 2007
The annual N.C.F.F.I. All Ireland Championship 2007, sponsored by the Healy Group, took place on Sunday last the 29th. July. Five venues were fished, Bawn Lake (Juniors), Killykeen (two sections), Rockfield, Glasshouse, Town Lake Killeshandra. The following is a list of the winners:
Ten junior anglers took part in the competition.
The winners in that section were as follows:
All venues fish consistently with plenty of small fish mostly Bream and Hybrids.
Rockfield has been fishing quite good recently with bags of 40-60lb of small fish, also Tullyguide is giving mixed bags of small fish. The narrows at Killykeen is reported to be giving good bags of fish.
The Northern Regional Fisheries Board presents this web site as a useful guide to salmon, trout and coarse fishing in Donegal, Leitrim and Cavan.