Catces for 2005
Kylemore Abbey Fishery.Overall Season Report 2005.
As with other Salmon fisheries throughout the country,our spring salmon fishing was somewhat slow. We were spoilt in 2004 with our first salmon landed on the 2nd of February, this salmon was indeed the first fish to be landed on the Western seaboard so our hopes were somewhat upbeat for 2005. The start of the season, February 1 st , heralded us with very low water and these conditions remained until the third week of the month. Very few anglers were about to avail of the good water conditions and only one fish made a brief connection with one of the hardier anglers. Although difficult at this time of the year to spot fish entering the river, due to light conditions, there were a couple of springers seen to enter the system.
Even the Salmon kelts did not seem to enter the equation earlier on in the season and we had to wait until the last week of May before fishery manager, Nigel Rush, landed the first Salmon of the year, one of 8.5lb taken on a Kylemore Killer at Tullywee Bridge Pool. From this point onwards, the Salmon season started to improve and become more consistent whenever we were given the appropriate conditions. The peak run for 2005 arrived during the last week of July and although the trend for the peak of the run seems to be getting one week later every year, we were not the only fishery in the neighbourhood to panic and feel some despondency with regard to the missing Salmon.
Overall for the season, 77 Salmon/Grilse were taken on the Abbey waters, just one less than 2004. Although there was a slight improvement on rod days this season, our catch to rod effort still continues to exceed that of other local fisheries.
The general size of the Salmon during the 2005 season was small and averaged only 3.64lb against a combined average for 2002-2004 of 4.86lb. The smallest grilse weighed in at just 1lb2oz with the largest salmon reaching 8lb8oz. The best days fishing provided 9 salmon to 4 anglers and the most salmon caught on one day by any one angler was 5 to former fishery manager, Giles Fraser.
Sea trout angling this season was frustrating. We had a very good run of sea trout, much the same as 2004 but we also had a decline in numbers of trout anglers and this combined with poor lake conditions throughout the main trout angling period left us only accounting for 289 sea trout against 651 during 2004. The majority of sea trout angling is conducted throughout the three lakes and whilst there was a good head of fish in the lakes, the wind never seemed to veer from a predominantly southerly direction. A south wind makes it almost impossible to stay with a true drift and boats tend to get buffeted in all directions. There were days that fortunate anglers did manage to have a combined boat total of 20+. The largest sea trout for the year were up into the 3lb mark but the average would be more on the 3/4lb mark.
Many improvements during 2005 were made to the fishery. Hidden pools were once again allowed to see the light of day and over thirty new walkways were placed throughout the fishery. The work continues this winter and it is envisaged that by the start of the 2007 season, the fishery will be totally accessible in it's entirety from the Abbey to the estuary by the left bank. Additional walkways will be added to compliment this access and easier entry/exit routes to some individual pools will be included to further compliment this development plan.
With the increasing likelihood that the commercial netting is potentially going to be a fact of the past, whether this coming season or sometime in the not too distant future, it is the management's aim to have the Kylemore system seen and used in it's full glory. With the combination of the above work and hopefully, more numerous amounts of fish along with inevitably larger fish being allowed to enter the river, we can only expect our fishery and indeed other Irish fisheries and visiting anglers to benefit greatly for many years to come.
|
