In my last update I did mention that the weather this week was supposed to be mixed! To say this was a slight understatement is rather appropriate as we had some truly beautiful days. They were the kind that landscape photographers dream of. We also had the complete opposite with driving rain and winds that you would have to brace yourself against to remain standing.

On these days fishing was almost impossible, as a result of high water, violent winds and the usual tons of sedge grass in the water. Monday was one of these, when I was tasked with trying to demonstrate to a film crew how to hook and land a spring salmon. Needless to say given the conditions I failed miserably even though I actually saw fish.

In the five days since Sunday it has actually made 76.6mms (3.02”) of rain. The river was actually at its lowest on Tuesday afternoon and even this morning it is running at 60. Yesterday morning it was just below 100, which makes fishing difficult to say the least.

Tuesday was actually the nicest fishing day and we managed to land two and there were also a couple lost. John Shipley from England had the first, a small fish of 4lbs5ozs in the Meadow pool on a Cascade conehead.

A couple of hours later Ronan Walsh who had gone through an unlucky spell here last year losing a couple and it looked like it was going to continue in the same vein as he had lost a fish in the morning, managed to land a cracking fish of 9lbs from the Meadow pool on a White Winged Cascade. His fishing partner for the day Ciaran Boland blanked but he did gracefully land Ronan’s fish. Again it was one of those picture perfect spring salmon, short and deep.

This morning, conditions were ideal, with the river at 58 and Michael McLaughlin from Armagh made the most of these conditions. He landed a lovely fish of 8lbs14ozs in the Meadow on a Willie Gunn.

Conditions played a big part in the week so far, making angling difficult. Having said that I believe there are still good numbers running the system as anytime I look for fish I can see them which is always a good sign. It looks like the weather is finally going to settle so conditions should be ideal for the next week or so and this will hopefully enable our anglers to land a few fish! D.McEvoy