Paul Hanley returned to the Laune on Sunday to start the salmon fishing season in the southwest. The conditions were difficult to say the least with the only excitement coming from the waterspouts which ran the lake from time to time…
Well we started another salmon season in bad weather by heading down to the Laune river in Kerry. I think I said last year that I would change my location and go some where else this year, but unfortunately I got some how lost in distant memories of days gone by when the Laune was the premier salmon fishery. So with a lot of optimism we ended up there again.
There were only a few anglers that braved the weather conditions, about a dozen at best. Way down from the old days of fifty or sixty and that in itself is an indication of how bad the fishing on the Laune has got. With big waves coming down the lake it was sending a lot of silt into the river which made it very murky and impossible to spin. I eventually stopped fishing (which is not normal for me) and just ended up chatting to the other anglers about the weather, lack of salmon, tackle etc., anything other than fishing. The wind had really picked up and by lunch time was driving some big waves down the lake and with it loads of silt so we decided to move down to Beat 2 and see if the water clarity was any better down there. Luckily the clarity was better, maybe up to 2 feet or more, so once again we started fishing hard and finally met a few nice trout which indicated that at least they could see the spinners so maybe the elusive salmon could too. I got one hard take with a lot of rolling involved – probably a kelt, but with the high, strong water the fish was soon off and that was the best that the day had to offer.
A WORD OF WARNING THE BANK DOWN TO BEAT 2 NEEDS TO BE NEGOTIATED VERY CAREFULLY AS IT IS FALLING IN, IN SOME AREAS.
Read the full report and see all the photos at http://salmonfishingireland2012.blogspot.ie/
