James Quinn reports on a fantastic week in Galway – perfect water levels, good weather donditions and an excellent run of grilse combining to produce 92 fish landed for the week, with many more again providing anglers with sport before exercising their right to early catch-and-release.
Among the lucky anglers this week were Brian Howard (Dublin) who had 2 fish to 4lbs on fly, and Denis Healy from Galway who had a 4lbs grilse on fly. Jack white and son Simon (UK) had 5 fish for 2 days between 4 and 5 lbs, 2 on shrimp and the rest on fly. Kevin Mitchell landed 2 grilse to 5lbs on fly, and Paddy Gargan also had 2 on fly to 4lbs.
Loughrea man and Ashford fishery manager Willie Cullinane had a hat trick of fish between 5 and 5.5lbs. Dan Bell from Rhode Island, USA, home visiting relations in Ireland, landed his first Atlantic salmon – a lovely grilse of 5.5lbs on shrimp. Long-time regular and former fishery manager Ned Cusack, still fishing weekly at 97, landed 2 fish on shrimp, both 4lbs.
A group of Carrickmacross lads had good sport and brought home 4 fish on fly, average weight 4lbs. Michael Rogers, son Gary and Andy Smyth, all from Dublin, landed 6 fish for two days fishing on fly between 4-5.5lbs. Tim Keane from Dublin had 4lbs grilse on fly, while Seamus McElenery and George Houston (NI) had a grilse each on fly and shrimp.
Longford angler Phil Donohue scored a hat-trick for a morning between 3 and 5lbs and released a couple more. Brian Howard also had 3 fish for his half-day, and Jim Kinahan (Mullingar) completed a hat-trick of anglers with 3 fish – three for three as James says!
Water levels are perfect for angling at the moment, and grilse are running in good numbers on every tide, making for excellent fishing prospects for the week ahead.
