Apologies for not updating you all for a couple of weeks. Fishing was quiet the first week in September and then Delphi lost one of our great friends, John Mills who passed away after a short illness. To honour the man we knew I will write a separate blog in the next few days because we will all miss him around here, not just for his fishing ability but just for being himself.

Fishing the first week in September was slow with the water running off steadily during the week. The only fish landed was a first ever salmon taken by Sharon Firn in the Road pool on a beaded Nymph. The fish weighed in at 3lbs14.5ozs and needless to say Sharon was delighted with her catch.

Even though water levels continued to decrease till last Friday, twelve fish were landed in this period. Mark Corps had the lions share with nine, all off the river, three on a Corps nymph, three on Corps shrimp and three on a Collie Dog. The fish ranged in size from 12lbs11ozs to 3lbs. Mike Shortt had two, one off Finlough of 3lbs8ozs on a Somers Shrimp and one off the Turn pool on a Corps shrimp of approx. 10lbs. Henri Pescarolo also had a fish from the Quarry pool of 3lbs4ozs on a Stoats Tail.

By Thursday evening the river was at 8 on the gauge. Then the weather changed slightly to say the least. By Friday evening the river was at 100 and then with more rain yesterday afternoon and last night it was at 110 this morning. This time of year we check the rainfall at 10am and since Friday morning the readings have been as follows, 20mms, 73.5mms, 1mm and 51.8mms this morning, i.e. a total of 146.3mms in the four days or 5.75 inches which even by Delphi standards is a lot. The whole valley was awash with water and people who had not experienced such rainfall here before were totally gobsmacked.

Fishing therefore was rather difficult on Friday, but we still managed to land two. Hamish Godman-Dorington had a nice fish of 8lbs4ozs from the Turn pool on an Ally shrimp and Mark Corps had one from Salmon City on Fin of 4lbs5ozs on a Cascade. On Saturday the river was at 80 but despite this Hugo Pearson Wood managed to land his first ever, a nice fish of 6lbs9ozs from the Turn pool on a Willie Gunn. I also had one from Peter’s pool on the Middle river of 5lbs14ozs on a Willie Gunn.

There were four landed yesterday. George Craig had one of 4lbs on a Silver Stoat from the Mouth of the Glencullin river on Doolough. Hamish Godman Dorington had one of 4lbs15ozs from Peter’s pool on the Middle river on a Cascade. Jack Browne had one off Fin of 4lbs10.5ozs on a Willie Gunn and I had one in the Stream on Fin of 4lbs3ozs on a Willie Gunn copper tube fished on a sinking line.

With the heavy rain last night the river was unfishable this morning. Jack Browne did however manage to land a fish of approx. 3lbs on a Willie Gunn casting from the road at the mouth of the Glenumera river on Doolough. Jack is an early and when he was waiting for me to get the boat ready, I suggested to him to fish the mouth of the river from the road as this time of tear especially, given the right conditions it can be very productive. Jack was surprised to say the least because he thought I was actually having him on.

I think the weather is supposed to clear now for a few days but there will be no shortage of water for the foreseeable future, so hopefully we can still manage to land some fish as we have an excellent team of experienced anglers here this week.

D.McEvoy