Our catches have continued to be steady since my last update, with 18 fish landed in the interim.

Mikko Lofgren continued in his good vein of form, by landing another fish on Wednesday last, this time off Finlough. As in the morning the fish was taken on a General Practitioner and weighed in at approx. 10lbs again.

On Thursday last we landed three. Graham Feilden was the early bird with a lovely fish off the Rock pool before breakfast. The fish was 8lbs10ozs and was taken on a Willie Gunn. Simon Albertini had a cracker from the Whin pool of 10lbs4ozs on a Collie Dog. Mikko Lofgren’s lucky streak continued when he landed his fourth of the week in the afternoon from the Meadow pool, a fresh fish of 8lbs8ozs, taken again on guess what, a General Practitioner.

On Friday Mikko landed his fifth, this time from Fin and actually on a Red Francis as he had given his General Practitioner to his fishing partner. The fish was taken at Boat Point and weighed in at 6lbs9ozs. Ross Hepburn also had a fish in the afternoon off Finlough on a Red shrimp, weighing 8lbs6ozs.
Saturday basically belonged to Adrian Barry who managed to land three sea liced fish on the river in the morning. The first two were from the Quarry pool and weighed in at 6lbs8ozs and 5lbs10.5ozs respectively and were both taken on a Red shrimp. After that he landed a magnificent fish of 14lbs6ozs from the Whin pool on an Ally shrimp. I should have said that he hooked the fish in the Whin and landed it in the Meadow. This is quite hard to do as I know from experience, having done it myself many years ago. He was ably assisted by his son Arron. Paul Wymes managed to make it four for the day when he had a fish from the Stream on Fin on a Curry’s Red Shrimp on Saturday evening. That brought the total for week 21 to fourteen fish landed.

David Plumpton got week 22 off the mark, when he landed a nice fresh fish of 5lbs4ozs in the Rock pool on Sunday morning, on a Sunrae Shadow.

We landed four fish on Monday. Ian Carroll had a fresh fish from the Whin pool of 6lbs5ozs on a Jack Power Special. Olivier Plasseraud had a fish of 3lbs11ozs off Doolough. His fishing partner Bertrand Fenart landed one in the Turn pool in the afternoon of 8lbs5ozs on a Nymph. David Plumpton had his second of the week from the Meadow pool on a Francis, weighing in at 7lbs7ozs in the evening.

There were three on Tuesday with Brian Shaw landing a fish of 4lbs15ozs in the Whin pool on a Bann Special. Bob Hadden got off the mark with a fish from the Deadman’s on a Collie Dog, weighing 8lbs. Finally John Bartleet who had just celebrated his 88th birthday managed to land a sea liced fish of 4lbs15ozs on a Cascade from the Rock pool. This was a joint effort with his wife Felicity who had just celebrated her 86th birthday. Well done to them both and I’m sure there’s many of us that hope we can do likewise when we are that age.

Water conditions have been excellent during the past week, but temperatures have been low with the lakes being especially cold and one needs to be dressed as you would in February. Interestingly this fact was highlighted by many people who braved the elements. Hopefully as June approaches the temperatures will pick up somewhat. Water levels remain excellent and the river has risen to 50 today so with a bit of luck we should continue to catch a few!! D.McEvoy