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Fishery News & Reports

Fishery News & Reports

ROCK HOUSE

So, season 2014 has arrived, and although it's been here a while, the lack of fish in April made it seem somehow like Christmas without Santa Claus.

April was fairly dry in general, and with what rain there was, few fish were showing in the catchment area, despite the best efforts of our regular anglers Pierre Morrisens and Dr. Declan Little.  There were odd days with water but no fish. Just when they started arriving in the lower beats the rain came to a halt.

May started as April had finished : 1st, 2nd but by the 3rd rain was in sight, on the 4th the gauge at Blue lodge read the lucky number 7 right on cue for the Huxley party on the 5th, the water was quite high and rising. The party fished only a few hours.

On the 6th May it was a case of Happy Birthday : Chris Huxley although he felt younger rather than older catching the first Rock House beat salmon of 2014, a 6.5 pound fairly fresh salmon from the High Bank pool with the water gauge tipping 9.

On the 7th Digby Lewis  took a nice 11.25 pound springer  in the High Bank pool and Sean Lysaght took a 5 pound fish in the Otter pool. Chris took a 5 pounder in Broken Banks and not to be out done Lynda Huxley landed a 7.5 pounder on the High Bank. Days don’t get much better than this!

The total for the Huxley party was 8 salmon a week to remember again and again. On the 10th Declan Coyne lost a fish and Ken Mc Millan had a 10 and 3/4 pounder on Lurgan Darra pool, a beautiful setting to catch a fish. Our French guests Claude Durand and Jean Hamon took a 4 pounder and an 8 pounder that same day ; also conditions were excellent. Later in the month things teetered out : Oisin O’Sullivan had a 9 pounder later in the month, but even in good conditions in late May there were not so many fish about although the last week was somewhat dry with not enough on the gauge to fish.  But then this last week in May was a great week for our artist-painters and their pastel workshop …& May 2014 was in general good, more so early on with 12 fish in total ; no one was complaining too much. May seemed a long long time coming but was, as with all good things, well worth the wait!

Tight lines till the end of June.............