TROUT FISHING CATCHES DECLINING ON LOUGH DERG ...

We have reached the end of another fairly disappointing Mayfly season on Lough Derg, judging by the catch return from one of the main weigh stations on the lake.

Only 145 trout over the legal limit of 14 inches in length were weighed in at Ciss Ryan’s Pub in Garrykennedy. That’s a disappointing return for six weeks of angling that included a total of eight keenly contested competitions staged by the Garrykennedy Fishing Club.

And even though the weather conditions for evening fishing on the spent gnat were better than recent years, the catch rate continues on a worrying downward trend in recent years. It’s interesting to look at the trends for this particular weigh station over the years. There were fairly bad seasons in the late 1990s but then things started to improve and catch returns more than trebled between 2004 and 2006 before the slide started again in subsequent years.

Here are the Mayfly season fish returns for this key weigh station for the past thirteen seasons. The first three years were very bad. In 1998 there were 71 fish weighed in. In 1999 it dropped to 44 fish and in 2000 it rose to 78.

After that things started to improve somewhat. In 2001 the number of fish weighed in more than doubled to 183. In 2002 it was 120 and 2003 was a disappointing season with only 94 fish weighed in.

Returns then reached a peak in the following three years before a very pronounced slide became evident again over the past four seasons. In 2004 there were 223 fish weighed in; in 2005 there were 270 and then there was a high of 296 fish in memorable season of 2006.

Hopes that trout fishing on Lough Derg were finally back to a very good standard were then dashed again. In 2007 the returns to the weigh station were down by 50 per cent on the previous year (146 trout) and this downward trend has continued. In 2008 the return was 187 fish; 2009, 154 and 2010, 145 fish.

What makes the situation even more worrying is that the membership of the Garrykennedy Fishing Club has actually been on a healthy upward trend in recent years and the decreasing returns of fish come in spite of a considerable increase in angling effort.

One wonders if the decline in catches in recent years is a reflection of the fact that the only trout hatchery on the lake, at Mountshannon, has not been in operation over the past few years. Indeed, the peak in catch returns from 2004 to 2006 coincide with a period when the hatchery was producing hundreds of thousands of trout fry which the local club released into feeder streams around the lake.

Over the last number of years it has been a big bone of contention with many anglers that fishery authorities have discouraged the development of hatcheries. The official line from some of the country’s leading biologists working in this area is that it is far better to try to maintain sustainable trout stocks by creating ideal spawning conditions for the native wild fish in rivers and streams. Yet one cannot help thinking that the hatchery in Mountshannon did make a contribution to the increase in catches on Derg and that its closure over recent years has something to do with declining catches.

RECENT COMPETITION PRIZE GIVING ...

A large group of anglers attended the prize giving night for the Mayfly competition sponsored by Roy and Denise Breen of Ciss Ryan’s Pub in Garrykennedy was held on Friday night last. The winner for the Heaviest Fish caught in May was John Cassidy who was presented with a beautiful trophy (6lbs 11.5ozs). Martin O’ Brien won €100 for the heaviest trout caught in April (3lbs 8ozs). Jim McCormack won €300 for the heaviest trout caught during the first half of May (4lbs 13ozs) and Síle Corish won €300 for the heaviest trout caught in the second half of May (5lbs 10.25ozs).

Garrykennedy Fishing Club will hold its annual prize giving for the Mayfly Season in Ciss Ryan’s Pub in Garrykennedy on this Saturday night, June 12. The club is urging all members who have collected lamprey eels and trout fin samples for the Lough Derg Bio-Diversity Project to bring them on the night. The final recommendations arising from this project are expected to prove vital in the future management of the trout fishery of the lake and its tributaries.

Meanwhile, the winner of the Joe Carey Memorial Mayfly competition fished out of Dromineer was William McGrath with a trout of 4lbs 1oz. In second place was the winner’s brother Jody with a fish of 3lbs 2ozs. The competition, which is run throughout the month of May, is held in memory of one of the most popular anglers on the lake and whose untimely death a few years ago was deeply regretted by all Derg anglers who knew him so well. Sponsored by Joe Ryan, the proprietor of the Whiskey Still Pub in Dromineer, the presentation of prizes will take place in due course.