August was typically August like for fishing, frustrating, especially in the last 10 to 12 days of the month. There were plenty of salmon to be seen but extremely difficult to catch. Sea trout were disappointing overall but there were a few high points especially towards the latter part of the month.
The weather was even difficult to describe. A tourist would say it was terrible with lots of rain but the monthly total was only 178.7 cms or 7” which by our standards is not a lot. It also felt quite autumnal a lot of the time.
Total salmon catch for August was 82 which is actually not bad but all but 14 of these were caught by close of play on the 19th. Fish of the month was without question Barbara Cellier’s 13lbs10ozs fresh fish off Finlough on the 15th. It was taken on a Silver Stoat. Other notable salmon catches for the month were the following; The Beattie party landed 11 fish for their stay, the Ganly party landed 6 while Urs Liebundgut landed 16, the Brennan/Morris landed 7 and William Hamilton landed 2. Sean Moogan and his grandson Daniel Feehan landed 5 salmon to 5lbs off Doolough and Nicholas Laverty, John Mill’s grandson landed his first ever on the fly off the Turn pool.
First ever salmon were taken by father and son team of Ron and Scott Borrie from NZ , Haruro Onda from Japan and Jordan Green.
Sea trout were an improvement on July which wouldn’t be hard but were still well down on last year with only 181 compared to 208 last year, Most notable catches were the Ganly party who had 36 sea trout up to 3lbs. Bernard Barton and family then had a day with 15 including one of 7lbs8ozsapprox. (male probably ferrox) and one of 3lbs4ozsapprox. This week we had Tom and Shirley Morrison sea trout experts of old. They fished solely for sea trout and managed 22 in four days. Total sea trout catch for the last week was 55 which is not bad considering the condtions .
Total salmon so far for season is 426 so hopefully we will reach the 500 mark before the end of the season.
D.McEvoy