Salmon and trout angling | Coarse angling
Tuesday 1st to Sunday 6th April 2008.
There are still good numbers of salmon entering the fishery. The weather however, with the exception of one day, was still somewhat wintery. The weekend brought near gale force winds with snow and sleet! Still, there were fish caught by those who braved the elements. The river was fairly quiet over the week however, probably due to the cold conditions. On Monday, John Nelson recorded a 9lb salmon caught on a Flying ‘C’ and a German visitor accounted for a 7lb fish caught on the fly from Lennox’s Bridge. On Tuesday, Stephen Flanagan recorded a 7lb 12oz salmon caught from the Crooked Hole on a black fly. Pat Kildare also landed an 8lb salmon. There was little fishing for the rest of the week until the weekend. Over the weekend there were 4 salmon caught and I am still awaiting confirmation of details.
Conditions were poor on the Lough once again this week. The weather was cold all week and the weekend brought near gale force winds with snow, hail and sleet! A number of anglers braved the elements however. Three salmon were hooked and lost during the week. John Parkinson recorded an 11lb salmon caught trolling on Sunday. John Flanagan had a good week with three salmon caught. The fish were taken trolling and weighed 8lb, 8lb and 12lb and were caught from Flanagan’s Bay (two 8lb fish) and Garrison. Trout angling seems to have been fairly quiet, due in great part to the unfavourable conditions I would surmise.
The estuary has some fine sea trout present at the moment but with the cold conditions, angling attendance is light with only 5 or so anglers fishing over the week. Michael Patton accounted for 6 sea trout on one day with the best 2 weighing 3lb each (returned) and the other fish averaging 1½lb.
The Owenea River Fishery opened for the season on Tuesday. Conditions were somewhat wintery here also. There was good water on Tuesday (0.35 metres) but this dropped away over the week to low water (0.16 metres) by Sunday. The gauge average for the 6 days read a low 0.18 metres. Only 3 visiting rods fished for the week and we await news of the first salmon of the season.
The following are the results of the Cootehill Easter festival. Forty eight anglers fished Bairds Shore, Annaghmakerrig and Annaghierin.
1st. Steve Sadler 7.900kg
2nd. D Biddle 7.140kg
3rd. Dave Forde 6.960kg