Shane Gallagher of Drowes Salmon Fishery reports that the first salmon of the season has so far eluded anglers on the Drowes…

Anglers fishing on opening day of the salmon season
The corner of the Blackwater today, with boardwalks still underwater.

01 January: Day one of the 2015 salmon season has ended and no salmon have been reported. Around 90 anglers braved wet and windy conditions in pursuit of the first silver of 2015, but despite valiant effort the first spring salmon of the season did not give itself up. The water level had dropped remarkably quickly in recent days and stood just a shade over 0.9 metres on the gauge as the first line was wet at 8.30am this morning. Conditions were very windy from the start and rain, at times quite heavy, persisted all day. The day was remarkably mild, the mildest opening day conditions for many years with temperatures reaching up to 12c. Despite day long rain the water level has dropped marginally from this morning and now stands at 0.898 metres, though this will more than likely rise a little by morning as Melvin rises.

Island Pool
Fishing the Island Pool on 03 January

03 January: The hunt for the first salmon of the 2015 season continues. Today was a beautiful dry, sunny, winter’s day. There were fresh fish seen at the Island Pool and there were reports of an angler having a brief connection with a fish below Lennox’s but still no fresh salmon landed. The water has dropped a little further to 0.88 metres and tonight is dry and frosty so will likely drop further by morning.

Make a booking

The Drowes Fishery is one of Ireland’s premier spring salmon and grilse fisheries. The Drowes is among the earliest opening salmon fisheries in the country and regularly claims the honour of producing Ireland’s first salmon of the season on opening day, January 1st. The river is some 5 miles in length, with over 70 named pools, flowing from Lough Melvin at Lareen Bay and entering the sea at Tullaghan, just outside Bundoran. The Drowes has a wide variety of water suitable for all fishing methods, including several miles of good fly water and deeper slower moving pools suitable for spinning and bait fishing.

For information and bookings on the Drowes Fishery & Lough Melvin see http://www.drowessalmonfishery.com or Tel: 071 9841055 (8am to 12 noon).

Paul Hanley @ Salmon Fishing Ireland Blog

Opening Day
Plenty of anglers braved the conditions on opening day

Paul Hanley and some hardy anglers from Cork decided to travel the long journey  to Bundoran to fish the opening day of the 2015 Salmon season on the Drowes Salmon fishery even though they knew that the weather was going to be a howler with strong gales and heavy rain. To make matters worse the river was very high but these guys are, as mentioned earlier, hardy anglers and not fine weather fishermen! We already know how this story ends, but its well worth a read – http://salmonfishingireland2012.blogspot.ie/

Current Water Levels

River Drowes at Kinlough
Today’s conditions on the Drowes at Kinlough courtesy of Farson Digital Water Cams. Click for the current image