Blackwater yields up the first salmon of the year at Careysville
THE Careysville Fishery in Clondulane has earned its own little piece of history after it produced the first salmon of the year – just hours after the season opened along its stretch of the River Blackwater.
Despite the fact that the salmon season had already opened on many Irish rivers at the start of the year, January proved to be something of a barren time with Inland Fisheries Ireland reporting no salmon landed during the month.
That changed last Wednesday after Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) confirmed that Dubliner Ronan O’Connor, who was enjoying a few days fishing at scenic Careysville, had landed a 7lb fresh run salmon.
Ronan’s success followed a morning of stormy weather, which cleared slightly before he managed to hook the elusive salmon. It was caught at around 4pm while the river was running high with approximately two-feet of visibility.
Speaking to The Corkman Careysville fishing manager Patrick Devennie said it was a day of firsts for the fishery.
“Not only was it the first salmon of 2017, it was the first time that this has happened at Careysville and the first time for the River Blackwater,” said Patrick.
“At 7lbs this was a good weight for an early springer. As the year progresses we would expect to catch bigger fish weighing up to 15lbs by the time the season draws to a close in September,” he added.
Patrick said that no further salmon had been landed at Careysville since last Wednesday, due largely to the fact that the Blackwater was in flood.
“When the weather is like this it makes it a lot more difficult to catch salmon. We expect that to change once the weather conditions start levelling out a bit,” he said.
“Given the fact that Careysville is a bit behind other rivers that opened for salmon fishing a month ago it is a real coup for Careysville to get the first fish of the year. It certainly bodes well for the season ahead,” he added.
Inland Fisheries CEO Ciaran Byrne said that after what had been a slow start to the season he was delighted the first salmon of the year had been caught.
“Given that there are more than 273,600 domestic anglers in Ireland, Ronan O’Connor did extremely well to secure the title for catching the first fish of the year,” said Mr Byrne.
He said IFI would continue to work with rural communities to promote angling, given its importance to local tourism and job creation, particularly outside of the traditional tourist seasons.
“We look forward to growing angling participation in Ireland even more this year. With that in mind, we will be running a number of education and outreach initiatives during the year for those looking to try fishing for the first time. Information on these will be posted on www.fisheriesireland.ie,” said Mr Byrne.