Well we are still awaiting a new record to surpass Anthony Barrett-Jolley’s magnificent fish last week. Given our history it may be a while before it is surpassed but one never knows when it might happen! Where there’s one there should be two.
Fishing has continued apace since our Monster blog and we have have some lovely fish landed in the interim. On Wednesday last Peter Milne a long standing syndicate member had a lovely fish of 11lbs2ozs from Wrens Bay on Finlough. The fish was fresh in and took a Thunder and Lightening.
There were three landed on Thursday. Peter Milne had his second for the week, a smaller fish of 6lbs15ozs from Fisherman’s Rock off Doolough. This was shortly followed by his boat partner Hugh Brennan 15 minutes later when he landed a fish approx. 7lbs again from Fisherman’s Rock off Doolough. Later in the day Christopher Jarman got his first fish of the week in fine style when he landed a tuna like fish from the Rock pool of 13lbs. The fish 
was fresh in and was taken on a Red Francis.
Christopher had his second of the week the following day, Friday, again from the Rock pool of 8lbs4ozs on the same Red Francis.
Saturday the only fish taken was by Paul Wymes. This was again from the Rock pool and weighed in at 5lbs13ozs and was taken on a Sunrae Shadow. That brought the total for week 20 to eleven fish landed, including of course Tony Barrett-Jolley’s of 20lbs11ozs. We should also mention the unfortunate Stuart Lyon from Scotland who had a really bad run of luck on Friday afternoon and evening when he had four fish on in the Stream on Finlough, but sadly they all came off. He did say to me the following morning that he had thrown his 15’ double handed rod into Finlough afterwards!! (Needless to say he was only joking)
Sunday saw the start of week 21 with many of the usual suspects returning for another crack at Salmo Salar. Graham Feilden was first off the mark with a fish of 6lbs14ozs from Weedy Point on Fin on a Minkie. John Plumb also got off to a flyer with a fresh fish of approx. 6lbs on a Cascade, from the Goat Pool. Mikko Lofgren from Finland also got off the mark early with a lovely fresh fish of 12lbs2ozs from the Stream on Fin on a General Practitioner.
Monday and Tuesday were extremely difficult with arctic like weather conditions returning and Doolough being more akin to the Atlantic ocean in Wintertime. The greatest excitement of these days was when Charles Dring lost a fish on Fin for reasons unbecoming an angler of his ststus!! Many of his friends have been reminding him of this fact, but hopefully he will be more successful by the week’s end as he often is.
This morning Mikko Lofgren had his second of the week, a fine fish of approx. 10lbs from the King’s pool on the same General Practitioner that worked for him earlier in the week. The river is now running at 38 and the wind has abated slightly and temperatures are supposed to rise which will hopefully make the fish more active as even the water temperature dropped to 7 degrees C during that cold snap on Monday and Tuesday.
Hopefully in the next few days I will have information on Tony’s monster from last week regarding its life and how long it spent at sea. D.McEvoy