My cold weather clothing for early salmon fishing 2023.

 My cold weather gear for the start of the 2023 salmon and trout season. When you are well layered it's always easier to take stuff off if you're hot rather than trying to find extra layers to put on once cold. The main thing is to block cold air coming in and the extremities such as hands, face and feet are always going to get hit first so I have neck gators to stop inward draughts, fingerless polartec gloves for keeping the wrists and hands warm because once they are warm they'll keep the fingers warm. The leg booties keep my feet warm while wading in freezing cold water so once all my extremities are covered I can comfortably fish well and catch fish rather than be cold and miserable on a really bad day. Old saying "there's no such thing as bad fishing weather just badly dressed fishermen". Video below. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/aQTsTG4Ho9w?feature=share

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Opening day Salmon season 2023 "Laune River".

 Opening day Salmon fishing season 2023 on the Laune river. Got to the river a bit late due to slow traffic conditions because of the icey roads, especially coming over the county bounds. I went straight up to beat 1 and was surprised how high the water level was basically all the way up to the hut. A few trees were down blocking access to most areas, and between high water and soft bank it made fishing sketchy to say the least.

There were about a dozen anglers in total fishing beat 1&2 on both banks, a few kelts were met and returned but no fresh salmon was seen or caught during the time I was there. It was definitely out for fly so I concentrated on spinning and I fished the bottom of beat 2 from Beaufort Bridge upto beat 1 covering the areas that I could safely gain access to. These days I prefer caution over bravery so if it looks dodgy walk away. The bank from the laune bridge looking down to beat 2 is under water and that was just about my limit of stupidness so I fished down to the bend and basically tore up the bottom with the spinner covering as much water as I could. I gave the top of  beat 1 a good run through and also below beat 1 where I could get access to the river but again nothing met. At about 3.30 I decided it was best to head back home and to be honest the snow covered mountains and landscape were just breathtaking so I was delighted to have spent time enjoying the scenery and any day that one doesn't get poured on by rain is a good day. The water level was 2.68m at the bridge so looking at my pictures you can guage height as it drops. Here are some pictures of beat 1 & 2 from the top of beat 1 to Beaufort Bridge. I did see 2 silver salmon on my journey but definitely not fresh. Pictures below fish included.

Salmon Fishing Ireland 2023 "Opening Day Drowes Salmon Fishery 2023".

 I decided late on New year's eve that I'd do the opening day of the 2023 salmon fishing season on the Drowes River, had my salmon licence online day salmon fishing permit and all I had to do was get there..... long drive but its rarely I've been there on opening day so off I went. It rained very heavily all the way to Galway, after that bad fog but on arriving at the drowes the sun was shining and very mild. The river was 0.77m and slowly dropping, very clear with a nice run in most places. I met Shane and Bill at the shop had a nice cup of hot coffee discussed where'd I get my first fish ( only joking), but I started there and fished down to the island covering both banks up and down with my switch fly rod and spinning  set up. Didn't meet or see any fresh fish or kelts but I was happy that my set up on fly and spinner was covering both distance and depth as I was bumping rocks and weed with both.

I moved down to the tidal pools for the incoming tide with Brian whom I'd met earlier and we fished up from the tidal for a couple of hours using spin and fly, I definitely bumped a fish probably a kelt there but we soon moved back upriver to find some new water.

Had a chat with the lads from fisheries at the bridge and same story no fresh fish seen or caught. I fished down for another hour mainly fly as I was just getting my casting stroke/technique back after a 5 month sabbatical couldn't have a nicer river or scenery to do it in. I left before 4 as I wanted to be near the motorway before dark making it an easier drive home. This morning I woke up reckoned I had somebody else's arms but after a nice cup of tea they still feel like they're not back yet but getting there. Over all lovely day, chatting to Shane, Bill, Brian and loads of other anglers and thanks again Bill for the lovely soup which warmed me up for round 2..... Pictures below starting from the lake outside the Drowes salmon fishery down to the sea tidal pool. Well worth a visit for any salmon angler.

Salmon Fishing Ireland 2022 "Salmon on the fly".

 It's been a hard few weeks with very low water on the river Lee, I have no idea why the ESB are keeping such low water flow but it's definitely interfering with the fish and the fishing. I have been mainly trout fishing but with low oxygen levels due to the low water even that is proving difficult. There has to be an inquiry into this carry on because if it's not corrected there will be another brown tag season to come. At least they could run half load or less for a couple of hours every few days to clean it and freshen things up allowing fish to move through the system and not be held in the harbour or at the kingsley weir. You can see the lack of angling effort through out the river by the normal salmon anglers and when they're not fishing there's an increase in let's say other angling activities. 
I had literally just started fishing on beat 4, it was my 3rd or 4th cast and I was stripping line to impart some movement into the fly when the salmon hit hard and started swimming upstream past me very fast. I had to really be on my "A"game as I was using a barbless size 15 Ally's shrimp fly on a very light tippet due to the low clear water conditions. It came downstream just as fast and did a few explosive rolls just below me and honestly I expected the fly to pop out but it stayed in and I was able to beach the fish after some very powerful runs in the low water. It took a few moments of recovery to get the fish ready to return it back into the river and it was a very fresh wild salmon just over 10lbs. Hopefully in the next draw I can get a brown tag.............video is up on youtube link below.

https://youtu.be/cV8R0K9oGTI

Salmon fishing Ireland 2022

 Water levels on the river Lee have been irregular to say the least over the last few weeks, but they have been running water at 4pm most evenings this week at full load. I ventured up over the last few evenings and met about 12 salmon in the high fast water but when using single barbless hooks on flying c's its very hard to hold onto the fish for more than a couple of minutes especially when they want to head down stream at pace. Unfortunately you don't have the luxury of space at the dam and when the fish wants to go it goes very fast using the fast pace of the water to its advantage and as you try to put pressure on the barbless hook pops out especially as fresh salmon have soft mouths. The salmon I caught had pushed the single barbless hook through its mandible and caught the line on the other side enabling me to land the fish. It was a very fast fight beaching the salmon on grass as I was praying that the hook would hold till I at least touched the fish. It all went to plan and my first landed salmon of the 2022 season was accomplished not forgetting the other 12 that got away only due to the barbless hooks. Normally I might drop/lose one or two salmon in a season but 12 so far is just demoralising, the same last year but after about the fifth lost salmon I stopped fishing for salmon until I got my brown tag. Hopefully I'll get a brown tag in this draw and continue to fish normally and maybe do a video here and there, not like this one as the only video was on my phone when releasing the fish. It was a nice 9lb spring fresh fish, sealiced, wild with a bit of marking on the side from a bite more than likely a seal due to the size of the mark. I rested it for a few moments and released it back into the river to hopefully spawn the next generation of river Lee salmon. The upside of losing 12 springers is that its a good marker to the amount of fish moving through the system at the moment. Video of release is attached below. 

Salmon Season 2022 " The Laune River ".

 

Beat 2 Beaufort bridge.

 

Beat 1 

Just some photo's from the opening day of the 2022 salmon fishing season on the Laune river, its a day that got off to a bad start there were no permits available from the normal shop but were available online. Eventually I was able to purchase the permit from the O' Sullivans shop and petrol station at Beaufort bridge where the metal fish photo was taken at the end of beat 2. I started late as I had spent time driving around and looking for a permit, fishing at beat 1, I met a few of the regular opening day anglers but again this year their number had dropped and some of the older faces were missing unfortunately a sign of our times.
I fished down beat 1 and met a couple of hungry skinny trout but no salmon or kelts but there were a few kelts caught and released at beat 1 from the far bank. The water was at about 1.6 on the guage and that level can be seen on the photo of beat 1 just at the base of the stones. In terms of fishing it was ideal for fishing a fly and I had no problem covering most of the river with my 10ft 7wt Switch fly rod using a floating line and a 10ft 4 inches per second sink versileader and a small bullet allys shrimp fly. I had a very positive hit down river but the fish dropped the fly, not the normal kelt hit but hard and fast just like a travelling fish but we'll never know. I must admit it was a beautiful mild sunny day to be out in the fresh air and on a river bank, when leaving I didn't hear of any fresh fish caught or seen. There were about 20 anglers fishing beat 1&2 of the Laune river so a busy enough opening day.

Salmon Fishing Season 2021.

Decided to give the trout a rest tonight and go out for a couple of hours at the dam. I went up for the evening ticket and started at beat 1 fishing with my 10ft switch fly rod, a floating line, 4 inches per second sink versileader and ally's hot orange sprimp fly in size 15 double. Second cast I hooked and landed a fresh sea liced salmon of about 7 lbs which I quickly released after taking scale samples etc. Moving down river I hooked and lost a second fish estimated about 10lbs again on the same fly. I had to leave and head home for a couple of hours but arrived back after 7.30 and again went up to beat 1. There were a couple of anglers fishing it down in front of me so I waited till they had moved on and set about fishing down. I hooked and lost a small fish, a very short take and it just rolled off the fly and it was gone. Recasting I moved on down further and again hooked a better fish, this time it was serious. The fished screamed up river leaving my line in its wake, scaring other salmon into the air. It went completely beserk cartwheeling and fighting very erratically but I was able to keep up with it and eventually get it in. I needed 3 attempts to beach the fish on the grass as it was so powerful that it kept ploughing back out through some weeds. I took out the hook which was under its tongue and set about releasing the fish, one of the anglers was filming the release for me when I noticed blood coming from its gills underwater. On close inspection the fish was bleeding under the tongue so I had to take the fish as they will bleed out and won't survive from a cut like that. I had just received my brown tag and unfortunately had to use it today. There were a few fish showing on beat 1 and beat 4 so there are some in residence and nice water for the fly. Short video will follow showing scale samples being taken from 7lb fish. The samples were also taken from the harvested fish. 

The full video of the fishing session will be up soon. I have a post running at the moment on Facebook under MrKingfisher3 where I'm doing an hour evening sessions fly fishing for trout with dry fly, if anybody is interested just check out the post it's up to date on the flies that I am using and catching with on the Lee River, its all catch and release.