Category Archives: Salmon fishing reports
Report week ending 20 May
May 20, 2013Following a bout of heavy rain the week started off with a bang with Tiernan’s big fish in Enniscorthy. A number of other high double figure fish were lost including one by Eanna Murphy which broke him by wrapping itself around a rock on the Farmleigh stretch. The good fishing was spread along the river with one beat producing 4 fish on Thursday and several lost. Also on Thursday Stuart Feeney landed 2 fish at Kildavin, and Mary Harkin one further downstream on Friday. By the week end the sun and dry weather started to take its toll and I would expect the river to quieten down a bit until we see another fresh.
Another big springer landed
May 16, 2013Another big fish has been caught, this time by TiernanSludds at Enniscorthy. Tiernan, an experienced angler who has caught plenty of Slaney fish, estimates the fish would easily have hit the magical 20 pounds mark on the scales and you’d find it hard to argue with him on the evidence of this photo.
He also landed another fish about 12 pounds and lost 2 more during the day. This is the third 20 pounder landed in the space of three weeks on the Slaney and while the river is noted for it’s big Spring fish in recent years it is unheard of for it to produce more than the very occasional fish of this quality.
What’s the reason for this significant improvement? Many would argue that the banning of drift nets at sea and the absence of draft nets in the estuary has given these fish a much better chance of returning to spawn. Now that the netting gauntlet is gone we can hope to see many more fish like this one in the coming years, and maybe even one or two more this season.
Report week ending 12 May
May 12, 2013As expected the fresh water during the week brought in a run of new sealiced fish. Although fish were landed at Enniscorthy, Solsboro, Riversdale, Clohamon, the Wood and Kildavin many seemed to be turbocharged and heading upriver fast. This was borne out by reports of 4 (or 5?) fish off the Tullow stretch between Friday and Saturday. Successful anglers included Andy Kelly (Kildavin), Bill Connolly (Clohamon), Teddy Synott (Riversdale) and Francis Connolly (Solsboro). It was not all easy fishing with 4 anglers on one beat (including the webmaster) seeing nothing all day while 2 miles up stream it was a red letter day with 3 fish to one rod.
River and salmon take a bit of a rest
May 6, 2013With the guage at about 13″ the mid and upper river has gone a bit quiet with no more than 3 fish being reported off any of those beats for the week. For many 13″ is still reasonable May water although some areas are suffering from heavy weed growth. The encouraging fact is that 4 fish were landed and 4 more lost on the Enniscorthy anglers stretch who also report seeing fish on the move suggesting that there is still a run of fish comming in A bit of fresh water might well liven up the river up.
Second Slaney 20 pounder landed in 2 days
May 1, 2013Andy Kelly, fishing at Clohamon on Tuesday landed the second 20lb plus fish to come off the Slaney in 2 days. The 38″ long 18.5″ girth fish estimated at circa 21lbs was the largest off the beat in over 20 years and Andy’s personal best. This super fish was landed on a Monkey tube stripped across the surface on a floating line. Andy had another fish earlier in the year estimated at 16+ on the same techique!
Mossy hits the Jackpot with a 20lb plus sealiced springer
April 29, 2013Mossy Browne had a red letter fishing at Tombrick today with a small yellow shrimp on a floating line. After a fight that twice saw him out on the backing this sealiced springer, a cock fish estimated at circa 22 lbs fell off as Brian Hennesy got him into the net. This is a delighted Mossy’s best ever fish. There are some great quality fish on the Slaney this year.You can get a good idea of its size as it swims off.
Prospects for week
April 29, 2013The word form Enniscorthy is that fish are still arriving on each tide so prospects for May are good. Some beats require rain while others will enjoy the lower water and should start accounting for fish.
Ladies out fish the men
April 29, 2013On two days during the week it was the girls who out fished the boys. On Tuesday 23rd Hannie Blake had a very good day landing two fresh fish and losing 2 others, one of them quite large which Hannie never saw despite playing it for a good ten minutes. Then on Thursday Margaret Downes landed two fresh fish of about 10 and 12 lbs.
Fish Running Hard in Week to Sunday 28th
April 29, 2013The week to Sunday 28th April was another good week on the river with upto 30 fish landed from Enniscorthy to Tullow. – see the report here
Time to change tactics?
April 21, 2013As the river warms up and the levels drop it may be time to change over from big heavy weighted flies to smaller flies with floating or slow sinking lines. The week started with big Willie Gunns doing the business and by Sunday size 6 yellow shrimps and the like were sucesfull as showed by a very happy looking Paddy Syme who had 11lb sealiced fish.
Anglers are reminded that with the exception of the Enniscorthy anglers water below the old bridge where black flying Cs have been doing well, the river has a fly only rule which IFI are actively policing.