Well it’s being awhile and another season has come and gone.
A good season at that too… probably the best for some twenty years.
Good runs of healthy sea trout produced fine catches of quality fish.
However, the unpredictable weather produced high water levels on and off through the season which meant I had to cancel and disappoint many of my clients.
Overall, a very enjoyable season!
I suppose the high light of the season for me was a two day fishing trip with my good friend Pete Hannan. His guest was none other than Charles Campion… angler,food critic, author and judge on the Master Chef TV series. We hit a nice run of fish both days and enjoyed some good wine and barbeed on Bartra Island. Charles wrote a very complimentary review some time later which I will produce in my next blog.
The water quality at the start of the season was incredible… for the first time in years the estuary riverbed was visible… Pristine!
Unfortunately,the summer floods brought an end to that for long spells. Patience is a virtue they say!
The ‘Bar’ (where the estuary meets the sea) fished well and earlier than normal creating much activity with all the boats doing well.
Mackerel fishing in the bay was very poor for much of the season and the ‘Red Tide’ which appeared all along the west coast drove them back out into the deep. For the first time in my life I heard a fish monger quoting 5 euro for one mackerel as they had to be imported from Scotland. Mackerel is an important bait for sea trout on the Moy and at times I had to purchase in neighboring counties.
As usual, the channel is constantly changing creating new channels for the curious angler to explore.
Just now there is great concern re the proposed ‘super’ salmon fish farms off the Galway coast… 15,000 ton per annum!!
Over the years much has been said by marine biologists on both sides with little or nothing agreed. Sea trout stocks along the Galway coast have been decimated bringing an end to the most famous sea trout in the country. The Moy runs into Killala bay which is free of fin fish farms. We DO NOT and NEVER had a problem with our sea trout. Now you don’t have to be a scientist to figure that one out!
On the lighter side… I have another story for you.
Paddy had long heard the stories of an amazing family tradition…
It seems his father, grandfather and great-grandfather had all being able to walk on water on their 18th birthday.
On that special day they’d each walked across the lake to the pub on the far side to get their first legal drink.
So when Paddy’s 18th birthday came ’round, he and his pal Mick, took a boat out to the middle of the lake. Paddy stepped out into the water and nearly drowned!
Mick just barely managed to pull him to safety.
Wet and confused Paddy went to see his grandmother…
‘Grandma’ he said,’tis me 18th birthday so why can’t I walk ‘cross the lake like me father, his father and his father before him?
Granny looked deeply into Paddy’s troubled brown eyes and said…
“yer father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all born in December when the lake is frozen and you were born in August, ya feckin’ eedjit!
Now there’s one for Mrs Brown’s Boys! See ya, Judd