The fishing here at Delphi has continued to be excellent for the month of February with 13 fish landed so far, which makes it the 5thbest February of the modern era and well above our 10 year average of 3.5.
Four fish have been landed since my last update. The first of these was a first ever salmon for Pat Grant, one of Philip McGarrity’s party. Pat, who had never fly fished before, only fished the one day and was guided by myself and is definitely one of those few people who managed to get it ( the art of fly fishing) almost immediately, especially given the conditions on the day and the fact that he was using a small double handed rod, sinking tip and copper tubes.
Pat landed his fish in the Grilse Pool on a Sunrae Shadow and it weighed in at 9lbs2ozs. Many congratulations to him on this great feat. Philip and Geordy, who landed three at the same time last year, met fish but none stuck.
Monday was a beautiful day with the river running at 45, glorious spring sunshine and a max temperature that reached 17.6 degrees. Fish were obviously not in the mood but then on Tuesday, a similar day, except that incessant upstream gale had finally abated and, with the water at 33, there were three fish landed, all between 4 and 5.30pm.
Shane Bisgood had a fish of 6lbs7ozs from Heneghans on a Watson. Paul Smyth who has been fishing here for thirty years landed two, one in the Whin Pool of 8lbs9ozs and the second from the Quarry of approx. 7lbs. Both were taken on Paul’s own creation that only could be described at a Shrimp Fly variant.
After some more fine settled weather the river has dropped off to 26 this morning and is being fished hard by Luke Drea and company. They are normally good for a fish or two so hopefully we might land another fish or two to finish out what has been an excellent month. D.McEvoy
