We decided to fish Beat 1 & 2 on the Laune River due to the fact that the water level was half way up the stones at Beat 1 and this would have put out many of the lower beats downstream. The lake controls the water level and colour when in flood but the tributaries downstream can sometimes flood badly with muddy water and debris this then becomes unfishable. We started up at beat one where Kieran met a fish near the lake but it didn't stay on, we both fished slightly different methods, i was using a floating line with a sinking tip and Kieran was using a hover, intermediate, sink 3 fly line to get down deeper. After fishing through the beats with the fly i then threw a spinner across each pool just to make sure that we didn't miss one. Kieran had spotted a salmon boil on the surface in the pool below me so i covered the lie with a few casts and hooked a small grilse of about four pounds which i quickly played out and released.
There were plenty of anglers fishing on the river using different methods but we were the only ones that met or caught fish. Personally i had not seen any fish show all day and Kieran had only seen the one salmon that i covered and caught, this is not good due to the fact that the nets are supposed to be off for the weekends and we didn't see or hear anything go through and even the small grilse that i had caught and released had lice and net marks. The lice were an indicator that he was netted near or during the weekend as they die in the first 48 / 72 hours of entering the fresh water and i caught the fish early on Monday. Also the scales on the salmon hadn't tightened up yet so it was only in fresh water a very short while. The Laune has definitely got issues as the last couple of years i have fished it hard and not seen or caught many salmon compared to four years ago, it needs to be looked into because this will have a bad effect on visiting anglers and tourism alike.
We'll paul it doesn't take a scientist to figure out what's wrong with the laune.FIrstly governments failure to look a the tourist euro is worth far more to the economy rather than the lobby of a few nets men has to be looked at ,the quota on the laune bye.the nets men is not being meet bye them so every year a extension is granted problem no 1 yet. There supposed to be plenty of fish goin up that river jst look at. That the sea trout are declining as well as the salmon poaching plays it's part as we'll yet bailiffs are telling you there under staffed the lobby bye a angler is not being listened to .the knock on effect for hotels bars restaurants clubs on the laune doesn't seem to matter so let's hope the future for salmon and trout gets better buy a buy out of the nets and more tourism for the laune to safe guard the fishing on this majestic river .
ReplyDeleteHi Keith, you are right about a few controlling everything that happens on the Laune, as you can see from my blog i couldn't be bothered fishing there much this year. I have a big angler readership worldwide and anytime someone asks me for information on the Laune i have to tell them the truth " its not fishing" and until the nets and poaching are sorted out it will get worse. When you hear reports of anglers seeing fish or expecting fish etc you know that its bad as they are not catching fish and thats all that should be in a report, fish landed or released not maybe's. All the bars, hotels etc should put pressure on the government to sort it out once and for all and gets moving in a positive way.
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