Angling Notes/ Derek Evans: The atrocious weather for most of the past two weeks brought angling across Ireland almost to a standstill.
Gales, downpours, hail, thunder and lightning played havoc with rivers, lakes and coastal waters, and left most pleasure-anglers with no option but to sit it out. That said, on the odd days when conditions allowed, anglers took advantage of the "eye of the storm".
The Drowes in Co Donegal appeared to benefit from the poor weather. With good tides, 26 fish were reported to the fishery office. Eighty-year-old George Coulter, fishing with his son Paul, caught his first Drowes salmon in 50 years from Stakeys on a Flying "C", a fresh sea liced fish of 9lb.
When conditions allowed, the Lennon, also in Co Donegal, performed well with salmon caught on most days from Watt's Pool. Patrick Devaney, Lismore, Co Waterford, caught a 9lb fish on his first day, on a size 10 Cascade fly, and next day caught a seven pounder on a size 10 PD Killer (a fly of his own device).
Eight salmon were landed from Beat One on the river Laune in Co Kerry, the heaviest was 11.5lb. Two lovely fresh fish from the Blackstone Beat on the Blackwater both fell to spinner.
- Details of the forthcoming European Federation of Sea Anglers (EFSA) Boat Championships in Ireland, were announced by the Minister of Sport, John O'Donoghue, at a reception in Dublin last Tuesday evening.
The five-day festival of top-class angling will take place at Cahersiveen, Co Kerry, between August 27th and September 4th, and will include European Team and Individual boat championships, European Line Class and ladies and junior championships.
A record 17 countries already intend to travel and some 30 registered boats and skippers will serve the anglers.
Following the highly successful championships at Cahersiveen in 2001, EFSA-Ireland acceded to the request from the governing body to host the event again this year. This was due to the hospitality and fantastic fishing afforded three years ago during which 32 different varieties were recorded over five days.
Ireland's two teams for the championships are: A team - J. Cronin (Waterford), W. Doyle (Wicklow), H. Dreier (Kerry), T. Behan and J. Gough (Dublin). B team - S. Doyle, E. Troy, P. Hutchinson, J. Byrne (all Dublin) and R. O'Sullivan (Cork).
- Delighted to see RTÉ's Nationwide gave an airing to our most polluted river last Monday. The Avoca river in Co Wicklow, poisoned by discharge of toxic acid leachate from copper mines, is designated a quality value of 1/0, the impact of which has damaged aquatic invertebrate and plant life and caused staining to the riverbed.
The discharge of acid drainage from the mines, which at present seeps at 35 litres-per-second, has resulted in 30 salmon fish kills in 2003 alone. Yet a recent report commissioned by the Eastern Fisheries Board recommends the Avoca could be restored to become one of our finest salmon fisheries.
Electrofishing surveys ascertained the presence of salmon and trout stocks, and juvenile salmon were widely distributed at 74 per cent of the sampled sites. The report also recommends the construction of a treatment plant to manage discharge from the mines.
The cost of such a scheme will be €3,600,000, plus annual operating costs of €254,000.
In return, the river would generate a minimum of €750,000 per year, sufficient to sustain river ghillies and guides. Socio-economic benefits to the local community would also be enormous.
Copies of the report are available from info@erfb.ie