Anglers’ big hopes for salmon numbers
DUNDALK Salmon Anglers Association have held the fishing rights to a number of fisheries on the River Fane for many years and throughout this time the association have developed the fisheries by performing river clearance, styling and providing access routes to the river.
The local farming community have always been a great help to the association in all of the development work.
The Association operated a salmon and seatrout hatchery from 2000 up until 2016, but due to the falling numbers of wild Atlantic salmon returning to the River Fane the Association decide to allow the spawning occur naturally in the rivers.
However the Association is continuing with their development work on the river in particular the enhancing of the spawning beds.
Mr. Liam Woods, a committee member of the Association, has undertaken work on improving spawning beds on a stretch of the river.
Liam has met with the farmer concerned around the project area on the river, who has applied for funding under the Salmon Conservation Fund and been successful.
He has engaged Mr Padraic Mulroy, an Environmental Ecologist to assist on the project.
A percentage of the annual Salmon Licence fee is ringfenced and is reinvested to promote the recovery of salmon stocks and habitats.
The Association is very grateful to Liam for the work he carried out in procuring this funding.
The Wild Atlantic Salmon run, to the East coast of Ireland have plummeted over the last 10 years.
As an angling club Dundalk Salmon Anglers have been acutely aware of this problem and established a policy where bags limits for anglers was introduced in the early years.
Members are also encouraged to release salmon back to the river when caught. Current regulations by Inland Fisheries Ireland do not allow any killing of salmon and restrict the methods used to fish for salmon.
The Dundalk Salmon Anglers Association are hopeful, that through their efforts and those of neighbouring club, Dundalk Brown Trout Anglers Association, the wild Atlantic salmon can continue to run Louth rivers into the future.