Up until this Saturday the highest water temperature I recall in my twenty three years here has been 21 degrees C. This Saturday it peaked at 23 degrees C. Let’s just say it was definitely better weather for swimming than fishing. In fact swimming felt like being in a tepid bath which it must be said is a rather unusual experience in this part of the world.
Air temperature here on Saturday was 28.2 degrees C. I believe it was even too hot for the dreaded midge although it must be said that the horse flies made up for them. They were as bad as I have seen and had an absolute field day on any exposed flesh.
As a result of the above our fishing has been relatively quiet, both from the number caught and the effort put in since my last update with only two fish landed, both by Michael Shortt. The first was on Wednesday last off the Turn pool on a beaded nymph, weighing in at 3lbs3ozs. The second was on Thursday from the Whin also on a beaded nymph and weighed in at 2lbs6ozs. Amazingly both these fish were sea liced, even though the river had dropped to 0.
At the moment the river is about -10 and some very interesting features are becoming evident. I often find it a great opportunity to walk the river and see why fish lie in certain places at normal levels.
There are plenty of fish to be seen in the river but at this juncture they are becoming increasingly difficult to tempt. On the positive side of things there are fish showing on the Killary so hopefully a good percentage of these will be bound for Delphi, once we get some water, which with some luck will be this week.
All I can say is keep you eye on the weather and if it looks like we are getting rain here it may be worth giving me a call, as there may be rods available and hopefully hundreds of salmon running the river!!
D.McEvoy