Lough Currane and River Inny updates from Vincent Appleby and the Waterville Lakes and Rivers Trust

26/7/18 Well it did make some rain last night, not that one would know it, but thankfully the Wild Atlantic Game Fish does, so lets get to the action and its all from one boat, UK Angler Mr. Michael Fish, while fly Fishing with his gillie, caught three Grilse, weights as follows 4 ½ lbs. 5 ½ lbs. 6 ½ lbs. and a fine Sea Trout of 1 ½ lbs. We’re about to call it a day and decided to have a few more casts and as luck would have it, within a couple of casts Michael’s  fly rod was doubled into a fine 6 ½ lbs. Sea Trout and just for the record the 6 ½ lbs. Sea Trout was put back. Wind SW fresh, raining in the morning and cleared by early afternoon. Yesterdays weather, maximum air temperature 20.6 c. Will put photos up as soon as I get them!

27/7/18 Again UK angler Mr. Michael Fish and his Gillie take all the fly fishing headlines, so straight to the fly line and reel in today’s facts, Well Michael wasn’t fly fishing long before his fly rod doubled with a fine 4 lbs, Salmon / Grilse and then topped that with a fine 5 lbs. Salmon / Grilse followed by a cracker of an 8lbs. Salmon and to finish their marvellous fly fishing this day with a Junior and topped it again with a fine 4 lbs. Sea Trout. I asked the Gillie what flies did you catch them on, he swiftly replied they were Salmon and Sea Trout A la carte flies. Well that sums up today’s action. Wind W light to fresh with good cloud cover. Yesterdays weather, maximum air temperature 18.3c.

28/7/18 In the words of one Gillie, Lough Currane was hard out there today with a strong WNW wind blowing and nothing doing. They say self praise is no recommendation, well I would beg to differ because my words of wisdom came into reality and if one back dates to the 24/7/18 you will get my drift. Wind as already stated with the odd shower. Yesterdays weather, amount of rainfall 4. 6 mm. Maximum air temperature 18.1 c.

29/7/18 Straight to the World Famous Butler Pool and at www.watervillegolflinks.ie the Butler Pool gets another first in the Salmon department and that honour goes to 14 year old Master Will Lodge of The USA, while on a golfing holiday with his Dad and staying at the Would Famous Butler Arms hotel and at www.butlerarms.com decided to rest the driver and putter and put the fly rod into action today and it wasn’t long before Will caught his first ever salmon on the fly and by all counts his Gillie told me that Will wasn’t satisfied with his fly selection, so fair play to Will, he changed his fly and the rest is history and all I can say is some change of sport and some change of fly and may it be the first of many. Congratulations and well done. Now we head upstream to Lough Currane for today’s news, well it was all quiet on the SW front. Wind WNW light to fresh with reasonable cloud cover. Yesterdays weather, amount of rainfall 0. 3 mm. Maximum air temperature 16. 9 c.

30/7/18 Lough Currane was on the wild side with a strong WSW wind blowing and one can say without any fear of contradiction that Currane Anglers reels were as dormant as the Currane wild Game Fish. Just for the record there was the odd shower, wind as already stated. Yesterdays weather amount of rainfall 1.8 mm. Maximum air temperature 17.6 c.

31/7/18 Lough Currane anglers still thirsty for fish and dehydrated with lack of Natural Currane Water, so you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to what the poor wild Atlantic Game fish feels like and that sums up this Months manipulations. Wind Strong SW with reasonable cloud cover followed by the odd shower. Yesterdays weather, amount of rainfall 2.0 mm. Maximum air temperature 17.4 c.

The Waterville Lakes and Rivers Trust Report

With the change in the weather, welcomed by the anglers at least, more water has entered the catchment and the lake has risen slightly. This has resulted in a marginally better flow through the Waterville River which will hopefully enable the salmon and sea trout, which have been noted staging, both in the Butler pool and in the Bay, to finally run into the system. A number of grilse have been caught over the week together with a few sea trout, including only the second ‘specimen’ sea trout of the year so far. In more ‘normal’ years the anglers would have been reporting large numbers of ‘juniors’ every day at this time of year and this lack of sea trout running the system has reinforced the Trustees resolve to move forward with the small stream spawning enhancement work they have planned to carry out at the end of August.

Work begins on Currane spawning streams

The Trust has sought grant aid for this work and subject to it being forthcoming, Professor Ken Whelan, Research Director at the Atlantic Salmon Trust, and his team will be carrying out a survey of the small streams running into Lough Currane, to identify the critical areas in need of spawning habitat improvement. The Trust has also asked the Wild Trout Trust to supervise our volunteers to carry out the work recommended by Professor Whelan. We would welcome all volunteers!! This is an independent initiative by the Waterville Lakes & Rivers Trust; the Trustees are well aware that the culprits for the collapse of our sea trout stocks, are out at sea, but the freshwater habitat is at least one area they feel they can make an immediate difference and provide good spawning conditions for the few sea trout which do make it up the streams to spawn.

Now onto other matters. The Trust is happy to report that it will be locally assisting in the National Water Heritage day on Sunday the 26th August and will be co-hosting a ‘source to sea’ visit to the Cummeragh Catchment. Details for the day will be available later. The idea of this Water and Communities Office initiative is to invite the general public to hear the ‘story’ of the water in their own catchment and life it sustains. All will be welcome.

Also advance notice of the Learning Landscapes event, which was such a success last year, is happening again this year, between the 5th and  7th October. The Trust will be running a small streams event during the weekend which hopefully by then, will involve some of the work to the streams noted above!

Rod Robinson

Waterville Lakes & Rivers Trust