Salmon and trout angling | Coarse angling
Monday 30th June to Sunday 6th July 2008.
The Drowes has risen somewhat due to reasonable rainfall over the week and is now reading 3.5 on the gauge at the Four Masters Bridge. The grilse are running into the river well now and there were numerous records of catches. There were some 40 plus grilse caught this week, mostly in the 3 to 4lb weight bracket, caught throughout the week. Catches are too numerous to list all of them so given here are a selection. On Tuesday, Joe Baker recorded two 3lb grilse caught on the fly from the Island Pool. On Wednesday, John Parkinson accounted for a fine 11lb salmon caught on the spinner from the Washstones. On Thursday, Dave Peach recorded two 3lb grilse caught on worm from the Black Gutter. Martin Norris caught three grilse on Friday from the Red Roof. The fish weighed 4, 4 & 5lb and were caught on worm.
Prospects look very good for the coming week and grilse should continue to enter the fishery in good numbers on the high tides.
Water levels on Melvin were up slightly this week but the lough was still lower than would be desired. The trout fishing remained poor and I have little to report on this front. The sonaghan seem to be very dour and are hard to catch. There are a fair number of grilse in the lough and anglers reported catching fresh grilse trolling with some boats catching a couple of fish for the day. Angling pressure has been fairly light however.
The Owenea was running fairly low on Monday reading a meagre 0.16 metres but we had good rain overnight and the river was in flood on Tuesday morning reading 0.45 metres on the gauge. This gave us good water in the evening and for the following day and fair water for Thursday & Friday. By the weekend the river had fallen to low levels once again. The gauge average for the week read 0.22 metres. There were 26 visiting rods fishing for the week with 11 of these fishing on Tuesday. Paul Fergusson recorded a 5½lb grilse caught on Tuesday from McGill’s Long Pool on a spinner. The following day, Peter Graham recorded a 4lb grilse caught on the fly from McGill’s Long Pool. Surprisingly Peter was the only visiting rod fishing on Wednesday when the water was at its best for the fly! On Saturday, Maurice Kennedy recorded two small grilse caught on the fly upstream of the Crooked Pool on beat 6. I have yet to hear of further catches for the week.
The Eany had variable levels over the week. Monday saw the river running at reasonable levels with Tuesday morning giving a good flood reaching 1.0 metres on the gauge. Wednesday to Friday gave fair levels though the days were too bright. By the weekend the levels had fallen away to low levels once again. The gauge average for the week read 0.41 metres and there were 15 visiting rods fishing for the week. I have yet to hear of any catches of salmon. One angler recorded a 6lb rainbow trout caught in Hughie’s Poll on Thursday and I hope this is not a sign that the lower river is going to full of rainbow trout once again this season!!
10 July
There have been less anglers in the region for the past week, also water levels are significantly higher.
Good fishing was reported on Tullyguide with 60lb mixed bag bagged on Sunday last, also Foxholes, Garadice and the Derries at Eonish are all producing good mixed bags of fish.
Brackley has been fishing well for the past week, also good Tench is being caught on Bolganard, Corgar and Drumlonan.
There are good Bream, Roach and a few Tench being bagged in the Cootehill area with one report from Drumlona where two anglers fishing one day and bagged 105lb and 80lb mixed bag.