It’s hard to believe that we are already in the Merry month of May. Some people call it the start of Summer, although more often than not we would find here that June seems more like Summer. Having said that, the way weather patterns are going it’s often hard to know what season it is! Fishing here in Delphi has basically been a reflection of the rest of the country, slow, with 17 salmon landed to date. Conditions have been mixed, but if I’m being realistic and truthful, we nearly always had enough water to bring fish.
The last fish reported was Alexander Mills from the Waterfall on the 11th of March. Conditions during the remainder of the month were okay with water levels slowly dropping off till the 22nd , from which time water levels were decent enough. Total rainfall for the month was relatively low, at 141.5mms(5.57”). There were another 5 fish landed for the month to bring the total to 7. Karsten Kronborg had a fish from the Turn Pool on the 14th of approx. 5lbs on a shrimp Fly. Simon Osterberg of the Dehlin Group had a fish off Doolough on the 20th of approx. 7.5lbs. This was closely followed by George Lederle with a fish off Finlough on the 23rd of almost 7lbs on a Delphi Collie. Urs got his season off the mark with a fish of approx. 6.5 from Sligo Bay on a Willie Gunn on the 29th, while Tomas Ryan finished off the month with a fish of 7lbs from the Rock Pool on a Wolverine.
Conditions for the first few days in April were okay and then water levels dropped off till the 19th, and then conditions were perfect till the end of the month. Total rainfall was again relatively low with only 160.8mms(6.33”), with 149.6mms of this from the 17th to the end of the month. Luckily the rain came when it did as it provided much needed water for the smolts on their outward journey. Again, there were 7 fish for the month. Jim Carolan had the first of these on the 15th from the Turn Pool of 8.5lbs on a Collie Dog. Andrew Wilson had another from the Turn on the 18th of approx. 7lbs, while Barry Farrell had one from the Stream on the 21st on a Collie Dog. Pierre Brette from France managed to land his first ever salmon on the 23rd, of approx. 8lbs from the Meadow Pool on a Willie Gunn. Bill Bullick had one on the 25th from Sligo Bay on Finlough of approx. 7lbs on a Silver Badger and Pat White finished off Week 17 with a fish of 8lbs again off Finlough on a Non Descript. Finally, Urs finished off the month with another off Fin of approx. 7.5lbs on a Recycled Fly on the 29th and he landed the first in May, again off Fin of approx. 8lbs on a Collie Dog.
On another note, our Cuckoo arrived on the 6th of April this year, which is about 2 weeks early and once again it was lovely to hear and especially for those visiting who have no Cuckoos left. The water is holding up nicely and is still running at 30, as the rain we had in the last week of April built up our reservoirs again, which will hopefully entice Springers into the system. For a number of years May was our best month for Springers, so there’s hope yet. We’ll hopefully see many of you, in the near future. D. McEvoy
