Its 23.00 on Thursday night and I have just got home from a session on Enniscrone Pier. It was the first of our winter sea sessions and it was one of those half-prepared outings. It was late when we decided to go and we missed the best part of the tide. The weather turned nasty and we only fished for a couple of hours. We did manage to catch a few fish which was nice as well as promising for the weeks ahead. Its my third time out fishing since Monday, the video is from Mondays session. On Monday I fished a mountain Lough with a friend, Wednesday P.J and I visited Lough Rowan and tonight we had the pier session. The week is not over yet and I feel there’s room for another try somewhere, lets see what the morning brings.
Reflections on the season past
In short, it wasn’t bad. Certainly, better than last year, which as we all know would not be hard. The start of the season was difficult. I can’t say it was a shortage of fish because we just don’t know as there was hardly any spring fishing done. There was a very noticeable absence of anglers on the banks. Part of reason for this was the very high-water levels, if you remember it started raining in August 2023 and did not stop until sometime around May 2024. Another reason for the lack of anglers was a direct result of an email sent to anglers requesting them Not to Kill Salmon. In essence, not a bad idea and I think we all show a little more restraint with the Priest than we would have in former times but to make Anglers feel they were going against their club by Killing a fish was in my opinion, not well though out. The result was that anglers chose not to go fishing and certainly not to talk about their catches. We can not and should not ram C&R down peoples throats.
By the time the Grilse started to arrive water levels were falling and the upper parts of the river suffered. Around Foxford, there was good fishing throughout the season and the Moy Fisheries, Ridge and Cathedral Pools both seemed to fish very well. Interestingly, even when a flood did arrive, very few fish appeared on the East Mayo Anglers stretch. At one part of the summer the Cloongee fishery was stuffed with salmon. Every angler who went up there was talking about the number of fish there while just upstream the Anglers on the East Mayo stretch were seeing very few fish. Happily, in the last few days of the season more fish did appear up there and hopefully by now they will have been joined by many more on their way to spawn. I have a look at the river most mornings and I am still seeing good numbers of fish in Foxford.
Trout angling on the Loughs was difficult for most of the season and at traditional times like “Mayfly” on many of the Western Loughs it didn’t happen. The weather seems to be the biggest single factor responsible and hopefully we will not see this happen for a long time again. There were good periods and if you were there at the right time so were the fish. I myself had one of the best trout seasons I have had for years and by thinking out of the box and trying different things I managed to catch some beautiful fish. I did spend a long time chasing one Monster which I may relive for you later in the winter.
So, as I stared, it wasn’t bad and I feel there is hope for the future. One very positive thing we noticed during the summer was the number of young people around Foxford who started fishing. The most we have seen for years. These young anglers are the future and we should all do what we can to help and encourage them. I already know from what I’ve experienced that they have a different mentality than a lot of us older guys (Jesus, it hurts to admit I’m getting old). One very nice thing I witnessed was on the last days of the season. A young angler who has been trying hard throughout the season finally managed to catch his first Salmon. He came into the shop shortly afterwards to tell us his good news and was very excited. As he was leaving to go back to the river he turned back and said Oh, have you got another one of those baits I caught the Salmon on, I said yes, did you lose it. His reply was “No I didn’t but my friend doesn’t have one, I want to give him one.”
Have a good week and I hope you manage to get out somewhere for a cast.
