Learned young friend faxes last Friday from the Carna area as follows: "The Lammas flood has arrived at last in the West. While visitors gaze morosely at the sheets of rain and mist obscuring the Twelve Bens, anglers pace impatiently awaiting a day on the lough or river. Before 1989, white trout were the quarry, but now it is the salmon or (to the pedant) the grilse, those fish which have spent only one winter at sea. From near Maam Cross over the Inagh valley, small streams and lakes feed the watershed of the Ballynahinch or Owenmore river, and the angler with some knowledge can calculate where is best to fish, according to the height of water or the quarter of the wind.
"In this case, the famous Butts of Derryclare Lake near Recess. Diligent effort is rewarded with a bright fish of 6 1/2 lbs, duly transported to the holiday house to be admired by all - and consumed immediately. Of course, grilled salmon steaks should be accompanied by new potatoes; but the ridges so carefully prepared were struck by blight. But while emptying peelings onto the compost heap, some haulms are noted, and a saucepan of Roosters and others retrieved from the rich detritus. And to complete the feast, some fresh crab from a friendly neighbour. The simple life!"
The most fascinating thing about such a young salmon, as most people know, is the speed with which it takes on weight and size when it emerges from its river of birth into the sea. Dr A.E.J. Went, one of the great fathers of our knowledge of the salmon and other fish, gives in a little book, Irish Salmon and Salmon Fisheries (1955), many tables on various aspects of salmon life. When, as a smolt, it enters the sea, often around May of its second year of life, it is five inches long. If it returns in the following year to its river of origin, this usually occurs in summer or autumn.
So it has had over twelve months' sea feeding. Our correspondent's fish was 6 1/2 lbs. Went gives the average weight of a grilse as from 4.9 lbs to 6.6 lbs. And the original five inches on entry to salt water has become, on average, from 22.6 to 26.4. Some fish. Our friend's catch was 64 centimetres. That's about 25 1/2 inches, isn't it?