Lough Currane and River Inny updates from Vincent Appleby and the Waterville Lakes and Trust…
The Appleby reports
3/4/18 Mr. Andrew Wishart of Northern Ireland takes all the Salmon headlines, while fishing with his Gillie Mr. Dominic McGillicuddy of www.fishingwithdom.com caught a cracker of a 10.1bs. Salmon on the troll. And the other anglers that were manipulating lures and flies sadly it was all quiet in all departments. Wind SSE fresh with good cloud cover with rain at times. Amount of rainfall 11.9mm. Maximum air temperature 11.4c.
4/4/18 Lough Currane was all quiet on the SW Front and with a fresh Northeast wind blowing. So it’s not that surprising that their lines were slack, but as Hands once said to a Gillie many years ago, East wind very good for fishing and the Gillie replied I’m a Gillie and I’m Telling you East wind no good for Fishing, well, Gillie or no Gillie I have 18 lbs. Salmon in one hand and 8 lbs. Salmon in the other hand and what do you say to that, ahh East wind very good, so the moral to the story is East wind or not you can catch the old Gentlemen if you’re out there. Wind as already stated with reasonable cloud cover, with light rain this morning. Rainfall 0.2mm, maximum air temperature 9.3c.
5/4/18 Lough Currane anglers headed out this morning hoping to catch My Noble Gentlemen, the Salmon, before the yellow weather warning came in and luckily or sadly the luck was on the side of the Lough Currane Salmon, because come 1.30pm all boats were blown off and two anglers, Mr. Peter Rall and Brother Mr. Bernard Rall of Germany, had their days lake fishing interrupted so headed off down Stream with their Gillie Mr. Michael O’Sullivan of Waterville Boats and at [email protected] to the World famous Butler Pool and of www.watervillegolflinks.ie and I can tell you it wasn’t long before Mr. Peter Rall had his fly rod bent double into a fine 9 lbs. Salmon and I can tell you the conditions were terrible but I’m sure Peter and Bernard are well satisfied with their day’s fishing. Wind SSE fresh to strong and overcast with heavy rain this evening. Rain 16.8mm and maximum air temperature 10.9c.

6/4/18 Strong winds and heavy showers were the order of the day. First the wind was South then veered SW and with all the elements against my Noble Anglers this didn’t deter them heading out to the South side where one could get a bit of shelter but with all their efforts they couldn’t register a Wild Atlantic Salmon, but to be fair there was an almighty flood this morning and you can say without any fear of contradiction the elements were against them and in my opinion they did well to get out there and as you can see by the photos of the flood coming down the Inny, it gives you a fair idea how big the flood was. Rainfall 26.8mm. Maximum air temperature 12.3.
7/4/18 Lough Currane was settling down this day after the big flood so it wasn’t surprising that the Currane anglers drew a blank but saying that the Lough Currane binocular man did see one boat lose a reasonably good fish, but losses sadly don’t count. Wind SW light to calm and variable at times, with reasonable cloud cover. Rainfall 1.6mm. Maximum 13.9c.
8/4/18 All Salmon headlines go to UK and Waterville angler Mr. Ken Towner, while fly fishing with his Gillie Mr. Dominic McGillicuddy of www.fishingwithdom.com caught a fine 9 lbs. Salmon on the fly. Ken was telling me that he had a good battle with his Wid Atlantic 9lbs. Salmon. Wind SE then veered N light to calm all day. Rainfall 9.0mm. Maximum air temperature 12.9c.
9/4/18 Sadly my Noble Anglers weren’t in tone with the Wild Atlantic Salmon today on Lough Currane and in the words of renowned local Gillie Mr. Vincent O’Sullivan, we caught nothing, we rose noting and it was dam cold out there and to top it all I’m soaking wet, well I think that sums up today’s manipulations. Wind SSE then veered E plus there was very good cloud cover with heavy rain. Rainfall 15.3mm. Maximum air temperature 10.1c
10/4/18 A very cold NE wind takes control over My Noble fly anglers, because they were anticipating a change of wind, but sadly this wasn’t the case, all the fly anglers caught by the end of the day was a touch of rawhide and the same goes for the lure manipulators. Just for the record there was another flood last night which didn’t help either. Wind as all ready stated.
That is your ration from the last week on Lough Currane, from your Gillie and the Waterville Fishery, no spin no fly’s just facts.
Vincent Appleby
www.salmonandseatrout.com
The Trust report
Good news from our Conservation Hatchery!
Our hatchery manager tells us that all the eggs we took from the salmon catch up at Christmas are now hatched and the alevins are doing well. It is interesting to note that we have been finding a distinct time difference, over the last few years, in the readiness of our caught up fish to spawn.
In some of the years this difference in spawning time has extended up to four weeks. This last two years we have been keeping the two classes in separate tanks so that we can see if there is any difference in subsequent growth rate. Last year we found that the later spawned group never caught up with the earlier ones, despite identical feeding regimes. All the grown on parr are released at the end of November into the upper Cummeragh System and it was noticeable, at that point, that the later group were five grams lighter on average. We have found in previous years that the released parr move into the deeper pools on the rivers with the majority rapidly dropping down into Lough Currane. This coming autumn we are planning to try and mark the two classes differently so that we can monitor the relative return rate of mature fish.
With the problem that these fish face, when they get to sea, we need to be able to give them every assistance we can!
This week the Trust has been co-hosting, with Sea Synergy, some French students from the Erasmus project. They are studying both marine and freshwater ecology and the Trust has been introducing them to our stream management programme and invertebrate sampling methods. They will also spend time this coming week, studying the data from our conservation work at the hatchery.
It’s worth noting again that the Waterville Lakes & Rivers Trust manages the Angling access, on behalf of the owners, to the Upper Lakes, Loughs Derriana, Cloonaghlin and Namona, together with several river beats on the Cummeragh and Inny. Tickets for these fisheries are readily available from the Mace Store in Waterville and can be booked in advance on 066 947 5243.
Every Euro collected from this Ticketing goes into the Trust’s Conservation Fund.
Rod Robinson
Waterville Lakes & Rivers Trust
Go fishing…
Vincent Appleby
Eureka Lodge, Caherdaniel West, Co. Kerry.
Telephone: +353 (0)66 9475248
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.salmonandseatrout.com
Waterville Lakes and Rivers Trust
The Waterville Lakes & Rivers Trust, formed by concerned volunteers in 2016, is one of the new Rivers Trusts to be set up in Ireland and is currently aspiring to Charitable Status. Its remit is to protect the fresh and coastal waters of the Iveragh Peninsula.
Find out more and how you can contribute at
Find out more about Lough Currane…
The rivers and lakes of Waterville drain a large catchment and are regarded by many as the foremost Salmon and Sea-Trout fishery in the country. The lake system is well developed with access to boats and guides being readily available to the tourist angler. The Sea-Trout caught here are renowned for their size and quantity. For more details see