Posted in May 2014
May saw a big improvement for angling here at Delphi with a total of 58 fish landed for the month. There were some cracking fish among these none more so than John Somerville’s record breaking 19lbs9ozs fish off Finlough. The first three days in May were relatively slow with only two fish landed. Week 19 we had eight, and weeks 20, 21 and 22 were very evenly and diplomatically spread with sixteen fish for each of the three weeks. Conditions for the most part were excellent with plenty water throughout, with a total of 285.7mms or 11.3 inches of rain.
The first two landed in May were taken by a regular German/Swiss group. Markus Merz from Switzerland was delighted and relieved to finally land a Springer, 9lbs8ozs off the Grilse pool in his Spring week.
Week 19 Angus Sutherland’s party, although not as successful as last year, again had the lion’s share of the catch with four landed. Peter O’Reilly had two, Niall Green one and Angus himself had the pick of them, a fine 11lbs8ozs fish from the Meadow pool. Heribert also had two fine fish for his week of approx. 13lbs and 11lbs4ozs. Hopefully Ken Williams has by now recovered from the disappointment of breaking in a good fish in the Meadow pool when he was supposed to be under my supervision!! Mark Corps and David Lennon also had fish off Finlough.
Week 20 saw a big improvement with sixteen landed. Top rod for the was Christopher Jarman with four, closely followed by Ciaran Boland with three, Paul Shalvey and Paul Wymes had two each and Robbie Burton, John Tappin, Stuart Lyon and Mikko Lofgren all had a fish each. I should also mention Inona Grochowska from Poland who landed her first ever salmon, from the stream on Finlough. Fish of the week would have to be Christopher Jarman’s 8lbs12oz fish, which he caught from the far side of the Rock pool at the back of the island with the river at 75.
Week 21 saw sixteen fish also landed. This time there was a good spread with 11 anglers landing fish. Simon Albertini, Kurt Roth, Mikko Lofgren, John Plumb and Graham Feilden all had two fish each, while Niall Higgins, Seamus O’Neill, Martin Devlin, Arthur Jardine, Bertrand Fenart and last but by no means least Charles Dring all had one each. Charles’ would have to be fish of the week not least because it was the biggest but because he actually telephoned the lodge looking for someone to go down and net his fish, which I duly did. I don’t know if Charles has quite come back down to earth yet!
Week 22 was the same again with sixteen landed. It was a memorable week not just because of Somerville’s monster but also due to the fact that five people landed their first ever salmon. They were Jean Louis Berthomieu, Anouchka Jennings, Chris Simpkin, Etienne Verhasselt and Bill Marsden. Bertrand Fenart, Michael Wymes, Nick Cunningham and of course John Somerville all had a fish each. Paul Wymes landed seven.
Fish of the week and the year and the modern era was without doubt John Somerville’s 19lbs9oz fish off Finlough on a Delphi Collie. The fish which took over an hour to play was duly landed by John’s boat partner Paul Wymes.
So ended May 2014 with a total of 58 fish and many great memories.
D.McEvoy