This week saw an increase in salmon catches for the Drowes and Delphi. Fishery manager Shane Gallagher reports a more significant run of salmon on the Drowes than was present earlier. Tony McCabe was out last Thursday at the Upper Mill and had the first fish of the season on fly on a Willie Gunn variant. This fine fish weighed in at 10lbs 6oz. Following up quickly behind Tony was Eddie Roulston with a sea liced fish of 9lbs 4oz on a rapalla from the Grazings. On the 22nd, Jason Nash recorded a personal best above the Turn Hole and Simon Harris had a 9lb fish upstream of the Ash Hole. Earlier on the 20th, Sean McNiece landed a lovely deep 14lb 9oz salmon on a prawn from Rooney’s Turn.
Moving over to Delphi we saw a busy David McEvoy delighted to say that the fishing in February has been excellent with seven caught to date. Top marks to Steve Jones who proved what an excellent student he was at the School house stretch and landed a 6lbs 15ozs sea-liced fish on a Delphi Collie.
David Felton battled with a ‘head-shaker’ who got away but made a great come back later with a sea liced 7lbs 4ozs fish. Robert Arthurs who travelled from the North with Philip McGarrity and George Yendell managed to land his first ever salmon after just 20 minutes. The fish weighed in at 9lbs 9ozs and was only in the system a few hours.
Wintery showers plagued the Currane and made fishing impossible for much of the time. The Munster Blackwater seems to have fared better and there are reports of a few sea-liced springers caught on the lower river. Melvin remained quiet all week, although John Flanagan landed a salmon while trolling and Noel Johnston caught and released a 7lb Ferox trout.
Gery Seck, Crossmolina made the most of his day’s fishing on the Moy by catching an 8lb springer. The river Bonet saw its first salmon of the season being caught by Nigel Hannon from Dromahair – again fine 8 lbs springer.
The River Finn has an open day on March 1st with the Loughs Agency launching their ‘River Finn Angling Status’ report & ‘River Finn Development Plan.Sunday also sees the start of the season on many other rivers including the Boyle, Feale, Mulcair, Lower Shannon, Erne and Eske to name a few.

Master Byrne with a fine 20+lb pike from the River Barrow
Young Master Byrne with a fine 20+lb pike from the River Barrow is our ‘Catch of the Week’ winner

Jason O’Riordan was at Flower Hill Beat below Ballyduff on the Munster Blackwater. Some small but but nicely marked brown trout were caught. The restocked Knockaderry reservoir in Tramore, Co. Waterford can hold its head up high as it impressed a group from Denmark with its new harbour which was supported by Waterford Leader and Inland Fisheries Ireland. Great work done by all and PRO David Tantrum warned anglers to have some strong tackle if they wish to land these fighting trout. A great battle guaranteed!
Guide Tomi Kurman fought rain, wind, snow and hail stones to catch some early season trout on Lough Corrib but he is hopeful of an improvement in the weather and catching bigger guys soon.

Melview Lodge in Co. Longford welcomed anglers from Russia and Bristol. Richard Dolby had his first pike in years, while Russian pals Dimitrios and Yuri drew in some nice pike to 14lbs.
Roly Byrne and son frequented the Barrow. This young man threw the X-box to one side in search of Esox and that is certainly what he achieved. Master Byrne caught a 20+lb pike and is our winner of ‘Catch of the Week’. It’s great to see father and son enjoying this great sport and watching the next generation getting to grasp with watching nature, watching the river and enjoy the angling.

Lanesborough the jewel in the crown of Ireland’s coarse angling sector reminds us it is open for business. Looking ahead it has a National and International Coarse angling competition on the June Bank Holiday weekend and offers 3,000 euro in prizes.
Darren Fairhurst won the Ballybay Angling Association Winter League at Dromore. Oaklands too had a winner with James Foley 23 carp for 65lb at their open day at New Ross, Co. Wexford.
Round 7 of the Ballyhaunis Winter League took place on the River Suck. The weather fought hard against the anglers and as the day progressed the weather got even worse. At the end of the day Gary Doyle came in first with 9.60kg.

Unfortunately the weather for the weekend looks unsettled. Saturday should start fine with highs of 9 to 12 degrees. It will be a windy day with fresh to strong westerly winds. The rain will clear to showers on Saturday night and it will become cooler with lows of 2 to 4 degrees. The showers will become more wintry on Sunday night with some accumulations possible. A cold night with temperatures falling below freezing with frost and ice forming.

Safe fishing to all of you and tight line especially here in Ireland.

Nancy Hearne

Catch, Photo, Release

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Delphi Lodge
Photo compliments of Delphi Lodge, Leenane, Co. Galway.