Fishing in week 19 has been difficult this year, which is not at all surprising given the beautiful weather we have had. We had a mixture of long standing syndicate members and a relatively young and highly enthusiastic group from Munich, who it must be said kept fishing despite incredibly difficult conditions. In Munich it was 9 degrees C with flood warnings, whilst here the river had dropped below 10 and we had highs of 22.6 degrees C.

The first few days of the week were extremely thundery and on Sunday we had 8mms of rain in approximately 20 minutes. This did bring water levels up somewhat but the fish were not cooperating. On Wednesday Hugh Brennan did manage to land a nice fish of approx. 7lbs from Big Bay on Doolough.

After that even though there were fish showing the weather got better and better, with some magnificent views all over this area. The clarity of everything was exceptional. There were a few fish lost but credit must go to our anglers this week for the way they stuck at it. It finally paid off on Saturday afternoon for Leo and Jakob on their last session on the river.

First of all Leo had a nice fish of 5lbs15ozs from the Rock Pool on a size 12 Stoats Tail. He then followed this up with a cracking fish of approx. 14.5lbs from the Whin on the same Stoats Tail. Jakob also managed to land a good fish of 11lbs3ozs in the Turn Pool on a Flame Thrower variant. All I can say is well done to both of them for sticking at it. Needless to say the fact that they got the fish in such extreme conditions made it all the better for them and they were over the moon to say the least.

Today is absolutely stunning and tomorrow is to be much the same, but it looks like there will be a return to what we would consider more normal West of Ireland weather from Tuesday on, which the anglers that are here this week have been lucky enough to have for the last number of years. It will be interesting to see what happens then with weather and fish!!

D.McEvoy