Well we started another salmon season in bad weather by heading down to the Laune river in Kerry, i think i said last year that i would change my location and go some where else this year but unfortunately i got some how lost in distant memories of days gone by when the Laune was the premier salmon fishery and with a lot of optimism we ended up there again. There were only a few anglers that braved the weather conditions, about a dozen at best, way down from the old days of fifty or sixty and that in itself is an indication of how bad the fishing on the Laune has got. With big waves coming down the lake it was sending a lot of silt into the river which made it very murky and impossible to spin seeing as the salmon ( if there were any ) would never see the spinners unless either it bumped into them or they bumped into it. I was gradually losing my optimism and eventually stopped fishing ( which is not normal for me ) and just ended up chatting to the other anglers about the weather, lack of salmon, tackle etc., anything other than fishing. The wind had really picked up and by lunch time was driving some big waves down the lake and with it loads of silt so we decided to move down to Beat 2 and see if the water clarity was any better down there. Luckily the clarity was better maybe up to 2 feet or more so once again we started fishing hard and finally met a few nice trout which indicated that at least they could see the spinners so maybe the elusive salmon could too. I got one hard take with a lot of rolling involved which indicated to me that it was probably a kelt but with the high strong water the fish was soon off and that was the best that the day had to offer. Here are some photo's of the Laune and unfortunately some of the damage caused by recent storms.... A WORD OF WARNING THE BANK DOWN TO BEAT 2 NEEDS TO BE NEGOTIATED VERY CAREFULLY AS IT IS FALLING IN, IN SOME AREAS.
As you can see by the photo above the water quality and clarity was bad visibility only a few inches and very rare for the Laune on opening day loads of empty spaces.
Here are the rest of the photo's showing Beat 2 going down stream towards the Island which was too to dangerous to wade or fish in such high water conditions.
As you can see from the photo's above the bank is falling into the river so be very careful here.
And just to prove that the water quality was better down stream here's a friendly trout that was released.
Roll on the first of February and the opening of the Lee and Blackwater at least we will see some salmon then..... hopefully.
