Angling guide Pat McLoughlin reports that he took his son Gerard out salmon fishing for the last 3 days of the 2012 season. And what a weekend it turned out to be! Gerard had been trying to get his first salmon of the season for about 3 weeks and was starting to kick the grass in frustration.
However, all was about to change for young Gerard. On Friday evening after a spot of pike fishing the lads changed to salmon fishing. Pat started by losing one fish of around 18lb that went through a gap in the trees and frayed the line on an overhanging branch. Shortly after this Gerard had his first salmon success with a nice small coloured salmon of around 5lb.
On Saturday the lads were joined by Jonathan O’Brien and fished for salmon but failed to catch after seeing 3 fish showing.
Undeterred by this they headed out again on Sunday at 10.30am and they knew that this was their last chance to catch salmon for the 2012 season. Pat thought with all the rain, it would have freshened up the shallower more streamy water rather than the slower deep pools, so the plan was to hit a few places with big tubes with lead under-bodies. The first place they tried was a short pool which only takes 10 minutes to fish so Pat sat watching Gerard as his rod bent into a fresh enough 5.5lb salmon. After a quick photo he released the salmon and moved on to the next area.
Pat watched from the car as Gerard fished down the pool but he missed a bit because of the trees so he decided to have a go himself. After a few casts Pats rod bent and he was into a salmon of around 8lb. Not to be out-done, Gerard fished the last piece again and had one of around 6.5 – 7lb. Pat and Gerard headed home for an early lunch and in the afternoon went more upstream for a couple of hours and Pat got a take straight away. After landing a 7lb’er within 5 minutes Pat was in again. This time 5lb and 5 minutes later had a 5lb pike. We fished on to 4pm and headed home for a rest. We went out again at 6pm but Gerards hand was sore so he fished with nymph for trout and had 6 all around 8oz.
What a weekend, 10 river pike to 17-18lb, 6 trout, 1 1lb perch and 6 salmon between 5 and 8lb one 18lber lost.
Pat finished by saying that he and Gerard both “slept like baby’s after our long and enjoyable day on Sunday”.
