Public Consultation opens on new Bye-law for sea trout and brown trout on River Bandon

 Inland Fisheries Ireland is hosting a public consultation around a proposed Bye-law which focuses on the conservation of sea trout and brown trout on the River Bandon. Submissions from interested parties are now invited during the consultation period in respect of the Bye-law.

The new Bye-law aims to help conserve the numbers of brown trout of all sizes taken from upstream areas of the river and its tributaries as well as the numbers of young sea trout taken in the lower river and upper estuary. There is currently no minimum length size specified when catching and retaining a sea trout or brown trout on the river. In addition, there is no ‘bag limit’ on the number of brown trout an angler can retain.

The new bye law would:

• Set a minimum length of 25 centimetres for any sea trout or any brown trout caught and retained on the waters of the River Bandon and its tributaries.
• Set a bag limit of not more than three brown trout per day on the waters of the River Bandon and its tributaries.
• Require anglers to fish catch & release methods, ban the use of worms and allow only single, barbless hooks in angling for brown trout once the three per day bag limit had been reached.

Interested parties should make a submission to the consultation in writing. Submissions should be marked ‘Public consultation – River Bandon (Conservation of Trout)’ and be submitted by post to: Inland Fisheries Ireland, Sunnside House, Macroom, Co. Cork, P12 X602 or by email to bandonriverbyelaw@fisheriesireland.ie .

The Public Consultation period will run for 14 days and the deadline for receipt of submissions is 5pm on Monday, 31^st of December 2018. All submissions received by Inland Fisheries Ireland will be published on its website www.fisheriesireland.ie.

Paul Bourke returns to the blog to pen an appreciation of Peter O’Reilly who passed away at the end of last week…

On the 6^th of December, a great angling legend, Peter O’Reilly passed away quietly in a Dublin hospital after a long illness.  I first met Peter when he joined the Inland Fisheries Trust as a Game Angling Officer in 1978.  I had certainly heard of him, particularly when I fished and worked at times on Lough Sheelin in my early years.  His first job at that time was to find out and collect information on all the great Salmon, Sea Trout and Brown Trout waters all around Ireland.

At that time, the Trust had many field officers working on the best trout angling waters and it was from them that he gathered the complete information on the fisheries concerned.  On Salmon, Sea trout and other trout waters he visited ever angling clubs and fishery owner to collect information on all those rivers and lakes over a number of years.  After years of collecting the information he published the first of his four great books in 1987 when he then worked for the Central Fisheries Board. Entitled Trout and Salmon Loughs of Ireland, it was an instant best seller topping the bestselling book charts in nonfiction in Ireland for several weeks.

In the following years he penned the companion book “Rivers of Ireland, A Flyfisher’s Guide”.  Two more books followed “Trout and Salmon Flies of Ireland” and finally “Fly fishing in Ireland”.  His writing in all his books was superb in detail and full of good practical advice.

During these years he became a professional fly casting instructor doing a series of exams both in the UK and the USA.  He then proceeded to hold popular fly casting courses in several game locations all around Ireland annually and I was delighted to take part in several of these.

He was a prolific writer in the media especially for the bestselling magazine Trout and Salmon in the UK and began in 1990 to publish monthly angling reports for the best of our Salmon and Trout fisheries until his retirement.

I joined the angling section in 1989 and worked with him at different times during the following years.   As the Editor of the Irish Angling Update, I was to work closely with Peter on the game angling reports he wrote for Trout and Salmon magazine.  He gave me great advice on these matters and on my casting when I had several occasions to fish with the great man who was wonderful to fish with and to tie flies with.

In later years he worked at many angling fairs promoting and marketing game angling here in Ireland and abroad in conjunction with Fáilte Ireland.

My deepest condolences to his wife Rose, his son Patrick and all his family.  He was a gentleman, friend and a colleague and I will miss him greatly as will many game anglers here in Ireland.  One of the true greats in Irish Angling and he left us a great legacy. Rest in peace Peter.

Ar dheis de go raibh a anam dilis.