Lindsey Clarke reports on early August at Owenea Fishery:
July 30th to Aug 5th: Due to the wet weather, there were some good water conditions over the week. We received a nice flood on Monday (0.30m), a big flood on Wednesday (0.53m) which gave good water conditions on Thursday (0.23m) and we also received a good flood on Saturday (0.28m). The gauge average for the week was good reading 0.27 metres. The fishery was a little busier with 44 visiting rods fishing over the week. The river fished fairly well and there were some 30 salmon caught for the week. Given here are some of the catches from the register. On Monday, Alan Watson recorded a small grilse caught & released on a fly from beat 8. On Wednesday, Frankie Campbell logged a 5lb grilse caught on a spinner from beat 5. Mick McCole registered a 4lb grilse caught on a fly from beat 6. Mickey McLaughlin recorded a 6lb grilse caught on a spinner from beat 7. Alan Watson logged a 5½lb grilse caught on a fly from beat 8 and Kevin O’Neill accounted for a 9lb salmon caught on a fly from beat 6. On Thursday, Dave Sullivan caught an 8½lb salmon on a spinner from beat 8. Alan Watson recorded salmon of 4½ & 9lb caught on a fly from beat 8 with the smaller of these fished released and Brian Smith logged a 5½lb grilse caught on a fly from beat 8 along with a 1½lb sea trout. On Friday, Mick McCole recorded a 7lb salmon caught on a spinner from beat 7 & John McGimpsey registered a 5lb grilse caught on a fly from beat 8. On Saturday, Kevin Agnew recorded a 7lb salmon caught on worm from beat 8 and Andrew McMenamin registered a 4lb grilse caught on a spinner from beat 9. On Sunday, Andrew logged a another grilse of 5lb caught on a spinner from beat 7, Alan Watson registered a 3½lb grilse caught & released on a fly from beat 9 and Patrick Harkin accounted for a 10lb salmon caught on a fly from beat 8.
Aug 6th to Aug 12th: The weather was very sunny, hot & dry all week which meant that the river dropped from low levels on Monday (0.13m) to very low levels by Sunday (0.07m). The gauge average for the week read only 0.09 metres! As such, angling was not much of a serious proposition. Despite the poor conditions however, 25 visiting rods were in attendance over the week and fished toward the early mornings and evenings. Understandably, catches were low and I have only heard of a couple of salmon caught to date. On Monday, John McGimpsey recorded a 6lb grilse caught on a fly from beat 9 and Alan Watson logged a 6lb grilse caught on a fly from beat 8 on Tuesday. The forecast for the coming week is for unsettled weather and hopefully there will be sufficient rainfall to give us some good water conditions.
For info/bookings etc on the Owenea Fishery –
Tel: 074 9551141. (9am to 1pm April to May & 7am to 1pm June to Sept).
