Fishing this past week at Delphi was challenging to say the least. Water has been extremely low, although we did get 13.2mms over two days in the middle of the week. Unfortunately with the ground being so dry the impact it made on water levels was negligible.

However credit where credit is due our anglers this week rose to the challenge and managed to land eight fish. People often ask the question as to what makes a good salmon angler. One of the most important attributes to be successful is persistence. When conditions are difficult people would often ask my advice, which is not easy. The best advice I can normally give is “Keep the Flies in the Water”, because you are sure as hell not going to catch any fish otherwise. The other thing anglers should remember about low water is that it’s an ideal opportunity to study the river and see where the lies are.

One of the anglers that persisted was Benni Weltz and he was duly rewarded by landing four fish. His first was on the 22nd from the Bridge pool on a Beaded Nymph. The fish was actually sea liced and weighed in at 3lbs15ozs. He followed this with a fish of approx. 4.5lbs at the Sunk Rock on Doolough on the 24^th. On the 25^th he had a fine fish of 12lbs3ozs from the Turn pool on a Beaded Nymph. His fourth fish was also on a Beaded Nymph off the Turn pool on the 26^th and weighed in at 9lbs7ozs.

Martin Nolde kept at it also and he was duly rewarded with two fish. His first was off Finlough on the 27^th on a Collie Dog and weighed in at 8lbs9ozs. His second was off the Turn pool on a Beaded Nymph on the 28^th and weighed in at 7lbs6ozs.

Finally Sean Dempsey who has guided many people to fish in the last couple of weeks managed to hang on to a couple himself. Sean is an international trout angler and earlier in the week whilst playing a fish had decided to hand line during the battle. Bit like John Somerville’s story last year you wouldn’t win any prizes for guessing what happened next, ping and “oh sh—“. Having learnt his lesson as to why not to hand line spring salmon he duly landed two in hour on the 27th. The first was amazingly a sea liced fish of 6lbs13ozs from the Quarry pool on a Delphi Collie. The second was off the Turn pool on a Beaded Nymph and weighed in at 9lbs2ozs.

This week promises to be another difficult fishing week with water levels now about minus 5. Hopefully we may get some rain later in the week. Other than that we’ll just have to enjoy the beautiful surroundings and “Keep them flies in the water from time to time”

D.McEvoy