Well it’s hard to believe that it is now just over a year since this part of the world was engulfed by the Covid 19 pandemic. I sincerely hope that all the readers of this blog are well and for those of you who have lost friends or loved ones, I can just offer our condolences.
I know I have said this before but I truly hope that at this stage we can see light at the end of the tunnel. Not that I’m a councillor or anything but at I think we just have to be patient and wait for the vaccine roll out which will hopefully be a success so that you can all get back here fishing again.
We are now just a month and a half into the fishing season and despite relatively good conditions it has been fairly quiet with just three fish landed for February. It must be said that fishing pressure was very light as restrictions here limited people to stay within 5kms of their home so we only have a handful of anglers that fall into this category.
Water was low in early March but weather patterns changed on the 9th which brought rain and water levels just back down to 50 today. Since the change in weather we have landed three fish.
The pick of these and the fish of the year to date was landed yesterday by Eric Heneghan who lives in his grandparents house just opposite the Waterfall pool less than 100metres from the river. Eric landed a beautiful fish of 13lbs in the Rock Pool on a Sunrae Shadow. His father Sheamus, who some of you may have met or will have heard stories about, passed away just over a month ago, so Eric said to me this morning that it was the Auld Fella that put that one on the line for him. Sheamus would have been one of the most efficient anglers to have fished here. He had a very unusual style at the time.
I have often said to people that Sheamus would have been picked by the so called experts as an example of how not to fish for Spring Salmon. He rarely fished anything but a Badger Tube tied roughly by himself on a line that was floating but well cracked and not alone did he strip the fly but he also lifted the point of the rod at the same time and to make matters worse he would also strike the fish, totally against all conventional wisdom at the time. Nowadays it’s basically how we fish a Sunrae Shadow and we all know how effective that can be!
Historically Paddy’s Day was often the time when one would see a significant increase in the numbers of fish running and it will be interesting to see whether this holds true this year. I’m still hopeful of a good Spring run but it would be nice if they ran a bit later as then some of you may get a chance to fish for them when they are fresh. At this stage all I can say is hopefully we will see you all before too long and in the meantime Stay Safe and Happy St.Patricks Day.
D.McEvoy
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