Our dry weather continued till Wednesday last, which made it almost three weeks without rain. On Tuesday evening the river was running at -10 and the rock in the Quarry pool was out of the water which doesn’t happen that often. The much needed rain arrived Wednesday morning and continued till about 4pm. It actually made an inch and a half or 38.1mms, so by 5pm Wednesday the river was 55 and dirty. There were huge tides that evening at 7.30pm of 4.9mtrs so fish ran despite the dirty water.
Water had dropped off on Thursday morning to 20 but a heavy downpour in the afternoon put it back up to 30. We have had little rain since, so at time of writing the gauge is reading 10.
We did land three fish off Finlough on Wednesday, all from the stream. There were also a few more lost. What actually happens is that as soon as fish sense a rise in water they head for the shollow ground in the stream and they actually go mad. I suppose it’s because the rise in levels brings renewed life and oxygen into the water. Over the years I have witnessed this behaviour on numerous occasions. It can also be witnessed at the head of the Turn pool. It’s normally quite a spectacle because fish will jump and flash (piscatorial term meaning fish turning on their side and even rubbing themselves on a sandy bottom) a lot.
Bob Hadden was the first on the mark with a fine fish of 11lbs4ozs on a beaded Claret Daddy. In the afternoon Steve Pattenden managed to land his first ever salmon on an Allie of 6lbs4ozs. Later on Peter Joyce had a sea liced fish of 3lbs also on an Allie.
From an angling viewpoint Thursday was disappointing with no fish landed even though there were some fresh fish seen.
On Friday Patricia Scott Bolton (Ben Blower’s daughter) landed a sea liced fish of 5lbs7ozs from the Quarry Run on a Red Shrimp. I was saddened to hear of her mum, Ann’s death earlier in the year. Herself and Ben were a great couple and it’s lovely to see their children and grand children keeping up the family tradition.
By yesterday the water was well down again and there were plenty of fresh fish to be seen in the river but as of late they were extremely hard to tempt. Gareth Byrne did manage to land two fish in the morning, both on a beaded nymph and both from the road pool weighing in at 4lbs13ozs and 3lbs13ozs.
In the afternoon Eoin O’Connor managed to land his first ever salmon on the fly, weighing in at 5lbs1oz from the Whin pool on a Cascade.
We have landed nothing so far today. Having said that it is a beautiful sunny and warm day i.e. not ideal fishing weather. We are supposed to get some serious rain this week which would be a great help and hopefully would also bring the water temps. down to a more normal level. It might be well worth giving us a call during the week!!
D.McEvoy