O’ Mahoney party do very well in the fishing stakes at delphi

David McEvoy from the Delphi Fishery has the latest news from the the river:

It’s hard to believe that we are only two days away from the longest day of the year! February 1st only seems like yesterday. Since then Delphi valley has seen a complete transformation, from the winter browns to the lush green of summer. Added to that we have the Gorse (or Whins as we call them here) in their full yellow bloom and of course the Rhododendron in resplendent purple. It all makes the valley even more beautiful than normal, if that’s possible.

The fishery has also continued to produce despite conditions being far from ideal for salmon fishing with water levels dropping off dramatically, but we still managed to land sixteen fish since my last update.

Ken O’Boyle was the first off the mark with a nice sea liced grilse on the evening of the 7th from the Rock pool of 3lbs6ozs on a Collie Dog. John Mills continued his good run of form, with two fish on the 9th, both from the Turn pool on the old reliable, a Willie Gunn. The first was 7lbs4ozs and the second was approx. 8lbs. He had another on the 10th off Finlough of 7lbs2ozs again on a Willie Gunn. That now brings John’s total for the modern era to 197, just three short of 200. I’m sure if we added in what he caught here since the 50’s he’d be closer to 300.

Juerg Sturzenegger managed to land his first ever salmon, also on the 10th from Doolough. The fish was sea liced and weighed in at 7lbs10ozs.

John Somerville got his year off the mark with a sea liced fish of 8lbs15ozs from the Turn pool on the 11th on a Collie Dog.

The 12th was a very productive day with four fish landed. Mark Corps landed two, one from the Meadow pool of 3lbs6ozs on a Willie Gunn and the second a beautiful sea liced fish of approx. 11lbs from the Turn pool on a Corps nymph. Mike Shortt also had a sea liced fish of 6lbs from the Quarry pool on a Collie Dog. Michael Blake had the fourth fish of the day, again sea liced from the Whin pool on a Claret Bumble variant, weighing in at 6lbs10ozs.

The past week has seen the O’ Mahoney party account for nearly all fish landed. Declan himself had three, one from the Turn pool on a nymph weighing in at 6lbs6ozs, one from the Rock pool of 4lbs9ozs on an Ally shrimp and the third from the Meadow pool on a Francis of 5lbs8ozs. William Tanner had two, one from the Whin of 3lbs4ozs on a Red Assed Green Peter and the second from the stream on Fin of 4lbs9ozs on a Kate McClaren. Brian McGarvey also had one of 8lbs11ozs from the Turn pool on a Thunder and Lightning.

Margaret Downes had a good fish of 10lbs6ozs from Boat Point on Finlough yesterday on a Cascade. And finally Cian Murtagh left it until this morning, even with the river at 10, before landing a lovely sea liced fish of 7lbs2ozs from the Whin pool on a Willie Gunn.

Results from the scale readings from Tony Barrett-Jolley’s 20lbs11ozs fish confirm that the fish is actually a 3 sea winter fish. For those of you not in the know this means that the fish would have migrated to sea in 2012 and then spent three winters at sea, more than likely feeding off the West coast of Greenland.

I had stated before that Tony’s fish was the second biggest fish caught here, but I was incorrect as Peter Mantle very kindly has since sent me the full list of salmon over 20lbs landed at Delphi since records began. The attached list makes interesting reading and hopefully we may add to it in the near future.

David McEvoy
Delphi Fishery

Go fishing…

At Delphi Lodge, with many years of experience with the timing of the best runs of fish, we have in place a price system that offers both great value fishing and lets our anglers know when they have the best chance to catch a fresh run spring salmon or a summer grilse or Delphi sea trout.

Delphi Fishery
Delphi Lodge, Leenane, Co. Galway.
Tel: +353 (0)95-42222 Fax +353-95-42296
Web: www.delphilodge.ie