One often wonders where the time has gone, as it’s hard to believe we have already passed St. John’s or Bonfire Night. As a little aside, the 23rd of June is more often than not referred to as Bonfire Night in these parts, which is an old tradition going back centuries, whereby huge bonfires are lit and people gather and basically socialise or have the craic as we would say around here. Not all the bonfires would be exactly what you’d call environmentally friendly as you can often see pillars of black smoke rising for miles around.
The fishing in June was not bad despite fairly low water throughout, with rainfall only amounting to 98.4mms(3.8”). Water levels varied from highs of 60 to lows of 10, with levels being between 15 and 35 for the most part. As reported in my last update we already had 5 for the first few days in June and we finished week 22 off with two more, Andrew Cunningham and Peter Joyce getting on the score sheet.
We got a nice drop of water in week 23 and we landed 17 fish as a result, a mixture of Springers and Grilse. The pick of these was Tim Holmes’ first ever salmon, a cracking fish from the Rock Pool, of 13lbs8ozs, taken on a Gary Dog. The Larkin family had an excellent few days, with 10 anglers in total, 4 experts and 6 novices. By close of play on the final day it was Experts 1, Novices 6. This was a great result, considering 5 of the novices landed their first ever salmon.
Week 24 saw good water throughout and we again landed 17 fish. John Matchett landed his first ever salmon, a nice Grilse of 2lbs12ozs, taken in the Grilse Pool on a Cascade. The Martin brothers were the highlight of the week, landing 6 Grilse off the River on the 18th, with Sam landing 5 and John 1, all on an Allie shrimp. I don’t know whether they’re still talking or not!!
Glenda Powell also ran a fly fishing course this week and all enjoyed themselves thoroughly, although the fish were not overly cooperative, with 1 fish being landed but there were numerous encounters and a few technical errors also!
Week 25 saw relatively low water but there were 34 fish landed. 18 of these were landed by 6 anglers making up the mad keen Drea party. Fish of the week fell to Ken O’Farrell who had a sea liced fish from the Bridge Pool of 9lbs5ozs, on a Nymph. Both Ken Whealan and Rory Donnelly managed to land 4 in a day.
There were 10 fish landed in the remaining days of June, although the river has fallen off to 10. Hopefully we will get some rain in the next few days as there are reports of a good head of fish in the Killary. While they could still run at the moment, a rise in water would help dramatically. With any luck I’ll have plenty to write about in the next week or so! D.McEvoy
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