Salmon - A Season of Two Halves

| | |

Water conditions: excellent levels for the last 10 days of the season, dropping gradually
Weather: mixed conditions of Sunshine and overcast conditions, though generally excellent fishing conditions

"...Thoughts already turn to next season, which for us means January 17th on the Laune..."

Looking back at what was surely a season of mixed fortunes. A very poor Spring run due low water levels right up till mid June, meant we did not get the usual sport one would expect form mid March till the end of May. While there was some good sport early on in January/February on the Laune and some of the early rivers in Kerry, come early March the rivers had dropped away to low summer levels, that didn't encourage the Spring Salmon to run. Then at last the rain came at the end of June and It made up for lost time, with several weeks of heavy rain giving excellent conditions up to early August. We saw straight away the benefit of having the drift nets off as large numbers of larger than usual Grilse entered the systems, particularly the River Lee, were excellent catches were made on all methods. We also saw good numbers of larger Summer Salmon being caught on rivers such as the Munster Blackwater and the Laune. The first half of September was quite poor with low water levels and many though that we would not get any more rain before the season closed. The rain finally came and we finished the season in fine style with good fishing on most rivers, mainly the Laune and Munster Blackwater. I fished the Roxborough Fishery on the River Suir (Clonav Flyfishing Centre) this year and found ti to be an excellent fishery with some of the finest flyfishing water I have seen anywhere. The Salmon in the Suir definitely run larger than average, though the river could really benefit from a reduction in the weirs downstream, with have a negative effect on running fish in anything other than very high water. Thoughts already turn to next season, which for us means January 17th on the Laune. Will we get the high water levels required for good fishing at this time of year ? I find the a cold Winter and wet early Spring give the best results for a good spring run, leaving all the rivers bank high in January/February, so Lets hope. Meanwhile I shall spending some time Flyfishing for Bass over the coming months as-well as getting some Speycasting practice in and hopefully a few lessons. Will keep you up to-date. Tighlines Kieran

in Fishing reports by kieran the 2007/10/11 at 13:10:34