As I had mentioned in my last update, we had an excellent start to August with 54 fish landed in the first 10 days, and another 24 landed for the remainder of the month. This is the fifth highest catch for August. It was probably helped somewhat by our rainfall amounting to 392mms(15”), the wettest month of the year to date, with the gauge reading above 50 for the month. Rainfall was actually the highest since 1985. Our records date back to 1986 but Paddy Heneghan started measuring rainfall for Met Eireann in 1941 and they are archived in Met Eireann in Glasnevin, and, 1985 saw an incredible 433.8mms(17”).In other words this August was the second wettest here since records began in 1941.
There were 9 fish landed in week 33, which was slower than the previous week, but salmon tend to be more difficult to tempt in August. Successful anglers included the Beattie party, 3, with Declan O’Mahoney, Niklas Rothkotter, the Byrne Brothers, Declan Black and myself all having 1 each. There were 8 in Week 34, with the MacAuley brothers accounting for 3, Frank Kinsella 2 and Seamus O’Neill, Toby Gibbons and Tom Callanan, all had one each. There were another 8 landed in week 35 to round the month off. Archie MacAuley had 2, William Maire, Mark Corps, Barry Farrell, David Porter and Teddy Coulter all had 1 each, while Michael Rodrigued from the US had his 1st Ever Salmon, a fish of just over 4lbs in the Goat Pool on a Delphi Collie. That brought our total for the month to 79. Sea tout were much slower with only 54 landed, although most people were targeting salmon on the River and Finlough.
On a more serious and worrying note there was a major escapement from Killary Salmon Farm on the 11th of August. As of yet there is no official word on what number escaped but it’s believed it’s up to 10,000 fish between 1.5 and 2kilos. To date we have 16 escapees landed, 15 off the River all in the above range and sexually immature and one of over 2.5kilos on Doolough that was sexually mature. This fish a male, I believe is not from the same escape. The big worry is that the fish will interbreed with wild fish. To date numerous have been caught on all other local rivers and some as far away as the Owenmore in North Mayo and the Weir in Galway. To me it almost appears that they may come in and out on tides. Our end of season netting will give a truer reflection of how many there are in the system. Worrying times!!
Salmon have been a lot slower in September as we have returned to some more normal weather, with slightly less rain. 6 salmon have been landed to date, with Barry Farrell having 2 and Stephen Bird, Stjohn Barton, David Allcutt and Teddy Coulter all having 1 each. Sea trout, on the other hand have seen a marked improvement, the more normal weather helping greatly and the fact that we have had some seasoned trout anglers try their luck. As a result 165 sea trout have been landed to date, mostly up to 1lb, with a few bigger ones, including fish of approx. 5 and 3lbs. We have plenty availability till the end of the season and hopefully the salmon will pick up again, although there’s plenty sport to be had with sea trout if anyone is interested. D.McEvoy
