Wholesale poaching and poor weather have all but destroyed the salmon stocks in the lower Shannon, Mr Joe Clarkin, president of the newly-formed Federation of Lower Shannon Anglers, claimed yesterday.
He said that the salmon returning to the river faces many obstacles. At sea it is confronted by seals and miles of monofilament netting and in the Shannon Estuary it has to overcome the net fishermen, licensed and unlicensed.
"In the river as he proceeds upstream, he must cope with a deteriorating water quality, navigate the Ardnacrusha power station and the dam and survive blatant poaching on a scale which beggars belief," he said. The federation consists of the Mulkere Anglers Association, Shannonside Anglers Club and the Kingfisher Angling Club.