Delphi Fishery Report - 2007

September

September at Delphi was a month of two halves. The first half was characterised by low water and little wind, so that just 15 salmon were taken. The second half, however, started with a big flood on the 15th, which made for good fishing right through until the end of the season. 58 fish were taken in these two weeks and then a further 32 during the end of season party on the 30th when spinning for hatchery fish is permitted.

So, with 105 salmon for the month, equalling the total for the previous September (which was itself the second best in Delphi’s history), the season ended with a bit of a flourish.

Notable catches in the difficult early weeks were the 3 fish taken one afternoon by Marcel Dittrich from Munich and the 4 caught over two days by Mark Corps from Dublin. All were taken from the Turn Pool on beaded nymphs.

After the flood, the star angler was Andy Smith from Edinburgh who took a remarkable total of 17 fish over four days, mostly on Minkies or variants thereof. This included five fish from the middle river, which is not normally fished.

George Westropp from England had 7 salmon. Will Butler from South Africa had 4 (including his first ever salmon). Bill Brown from Belfast and Graham Smith from England had 3 each. The best fish of the month, a 10½-pounder from the Turn Pool, fell to Mike Heckler from Wales.

During the end of season party, Delphi’s Radek Gronski had 4 fish from Finlough, while Anne Brennan, Margit Lichtner, Turlough Quinn, Mark McNally, Ian Cave and Clare Heraty all caught their first ever salmon.

Tom Callinan had a 4½ pound brown trout from Finlough on the last day. Over 100 well-conditioned sea trout were also caught during the month.

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August

Urs Leibundgut, 49, from Zurich in Switzerland, became the most successful salmon angler in the modern history of Delphi (and probably of all time) during the course of his mid-August visit. He caught his 273rd Delphi salmon, one of nine that he landed over five days, thereby overtaking the previous record held by Delphi director Werner Zirngibl. The bar now stands at 279.

Urs’ record-breaking fish was hooked by accident as he trailed a fly in Finlough while lighting one of the several thousand cigarettes that he has consumed during the course of his 16-year fishing career at Delphi (the exact butt count is just about the only data missing from Urs’ very precise personal fishing log).

Urs’ achievement is the product of painstaking dedication over what most people would regard as ludicrously long, dawn-till-dusk, fishing days. The maxim that “he who fished the most, catches the most” was never more clearly demonstrated. Of course, he is also a skilful and knowledgeable angler.

At just 2½ pounds and skinny, the landmark fish was less than prepossessing. But Urs’ very next fish, caught the following day on the Turn Pool, was a wild brute of about 15 pounds – the biggest Delphi fish of the season so far and the biggest salmon of Urs’ life – which was netted by Delphi’s maintenance manager, Noel Wallace, and then released. This big fish was probably the same one that was previously hooked in the same pool by Alan Dunlop in July.

Apart from these momentous highlights, August at Delphi was quite disappointing. Although some fresh fish continued to arrive throughout the first half of the month, the bonanza run, that many had expected, failed to materialise.

Just 65 salmon were caught in the month, many of them very small grilse. Apart from three stale springers, only four other fish topped the 5-pound mark. By month-end, the season total stood at 312 salmon, including 97 multi-sea-winter fish.

The August weather was mixed and afforded no real excuse for the disappointing catches, with adequate rains and variable winds. There were perhaps too many sultry, calm, midge-ridden days, but that’s not wholly abnormal for August. There were simply not as many fish as expected and the picture was similar on the neighbouring Erriff.

Several young children did catch their first ever salmon, including Amber, Ludo & Milo Knatchbull, Eoin Mahon and Max Groener, the latter two on fly. And Derek Corrigan bagged his first ever fly-caught salmon.

One unexpected feature of August was a noticeable improvement in the number and quality of sea trout caught. Although still a very pale shadow of its former magnificence, the sea trout fishing at Delphi at last gave a glimpse of what could quickly return if the local salmon farm was able consistently to eliminate its lice problems; sadly, it appears incapable of doing so.

July

Ireland’s new ban on drift nets certainly allowed more big one-sea-winter salmon into Delphi during July. But the overall catch for the month, while very respectable at 146 fish, was far from record-breaking in terms of numbers.

The July catch included 14 stale spring salmon, but nearly all the grilse were fresh-run and sea-liced. The size of grilse caught ranged from just 1lb 3oz right up to 7lbs 5oz. Eighteen of them were over 5lbs, a size that was a great rarity in past years. But there were still lots of very small fish around, especially in the first half of the month; the apparent feeding problem at sea has clearly not gone away.

Top rod was Andy Smith from Edinburgh, who had 12 fish for his week. Andy also helped his son, Adam, and nephew, Donald, to catch their first ever salmon. Alois Pfeiffer from Germany also caught his first ever.

Urs Leibundgut from Switzerland had 11 fish over two weeks, the best weighing 6¼lbs, and the Westropp family from England also had 11 salmon to 7½lbs and a fair few small but plump seatrout between them. The minor revival of healthy seatrout coincided with an improvement in lice control on the local salmon farm during the spring.

Alan Dunlop and John Mills from Northern Ireland bagged 8 salmon between them (and lost “a monster”), while their fellow countrymen Ken McMillan and Alan Boyd shared 10 salmon and 15 sea trout, including the best fish of the month, a 10½ pounder taken by Ken from the Turn Pool.

Laurence Lock took six fish to 8¾ pounds in as many days. Brian Shaw also had six to 8½ pounds over three days. In that particular week, all Delphi anglers caught one or more salmon.

The July weather was mostly broken, but water levels were generally medium or low for most of the month; the west of Ireland missed most of the heavy rain that flooded Britain. A cloudburst and landslide above Leenane did remove the main bridge in the village, cutting Delphi off from Connemara; but the river at Delphi never rose above 60cms the whole month and mostly varied between 20 and 30cms.

Peter Mantle does not know what to expect for August. Will the grilse run continue? Will the fish get bigger still? Or will the run fizzle out? The last few days of July were bright & calm, causing catches to plummet; will this be the pattern for August?

Whatever happens for the rest of the season, the total catch so far is a modest 247 salmon, made up of 94 springers and 153 grilse.

June

Yet again, the main grilse run at Delphi was extremely late. Whereas June used to be the most sought-after month for fresh grilse, it is now a month that tends to see more large “spring” fish being caught than grilse. This new pattern has developed over the past five seasons and begins to look like it’s here to stay.

As a consequence it is still too early to measure the impact of the Irish drift-net ban in terms of delivering additional fish. But there are signs that the average size of the grilse is rising steadily, as expected (previously, the drift nets filtered out nearly all the good grilse). The mood at Delphi is one of quiet anticipation.

In all, forty one fish were landed in June. Of these, 23 were springers or multi-sea-winter fish, some of which were fresh-run and the best of which was a sea-liced 11-pounder taken by Werner Zirngibl from the Waterfall Pool on June 28th.

The 18 grilse that were caught ranged in size from 2 pounds to 6 pounds. One or two were thin, but most were plump and normal, unlike the fish of last year.

Ten-pounders were taken by Bertrand Fenart (Doolough), Udo Felsner (Finlough), Liam Dunne (Finlough), Marcus Duna (Finlough) and Roy Caple from England (Doolough). Roy’s fish was his first ever salmon and others to lose their piscatorial virginity in the month were Teresa Wolf (Germany) and William Waterer (England). Paul Shalvey (Ireland) took his first ever Delphi fish.

The June fishing was never prolific, despite reasonably suitable weather towards the end of the month; the top rods for the month, with just three fish each for their week, were Laurence Lock, Udo Felsner and Werner Zirngibl. Earlier, the weather was mostly dry and the river levels low; even so, the June catches were seen by Peter Mantle as “mostly disappointing, even allowing for the lack of water”.

May

Midges made an unusually early appearance at Delphi in the first few days of May, reflecting the calm & sultry weather that continued to prevail for much of the month.

Salmon fishing conditions were less than ideal, despite occasional small amounts of rain. Just 26 fish were taken in May, including 6 early grilse. The season total stood at 60 fish by the end of the month.

The best fish of the month, an 11½-pounder, fell to Nick Holding while fishing Finlough on a day when his boat partner Ian Scofield also had a 9½ pounder. Other good fish were taken by Peter Milne (11 lbs & 8½ lbs), Alexander Mills (10½ lbs), Michael Evans (10lbs), Stephen Coulter (10lbs & 7½ lbs) and Tobias Oetjen (10lbs), the latter his first ever salmon.

Arthur Jardine had three fish to 8½ lbs for his week. Paul Shalvey grassed his first ever Delphi fish. And all bar three of the May fish were taken on fly, including one for Steve Jones from Doolough. But overall the fishing was disappointing for the time of year.

April

The extraordinary spring drought, with no rain at all from March 19 to April 21, badly hampered salmon fishing at Delphi.

The low water prevented any run of fresh fish and the predominance of bright, calm and often cold days did nothing to enliven the fish that were already in the system. When some rain came in the last part of April, it too was interspersed with bright, calm periods and the fresh fish were difficult to tempt.

Just eleven fish were taken in April, bringing the season total to 34 salmon. Of the April fish, three came off the river (all from the King’s Pool), four from Finlough and four from Doolough.

The best, a wild fish of about 11 pounds, was taken by Hugh Brennan. The smallest, a tagged fish of 6lbs 10oz, was caught by Patrick Keenan. James Goold from England caught his first ever salmon, an 8-pounder from Finlough.

March

March at Delphi saw mediocre salmon fishing, despite reasonable conditions in the first half of the month. When water levels were good, the run of fish appeared to be modest. Just 15 springers were taken, almost all very fresh fish, bringing the total for the season to 24.

The best fish of the month, estimated at 13 pounds, was caught (and released) by Peter Schiesel from Finlough – one of three he accounted for in his week.

Other fish over ten pounds were bagged by Stephen Noonan (Turn Pool), Chris Huxley (Rock Pool) and Heidi Hoefler (Rock Pool), while 9-pounders fell to John Mills (Waterfall Pool), Paul Wieczorek (Duffers Run), Laurence Lock (Rock Pool) and Peter Joyce (Meadow Pool).

An astonishingly early grilse, sea-liced and weighing just 3lbs 10oz, was caught by Rocky Moran off Finlough.

The month ended with a spell of cold, calm, bright weather and low water levels, which showed no sign of breaking before Easter.

February

The Delphi salmon season opened on February 1st with little water in the river and therefore little fishing effort. But the first fish was landed on February 10th by Giles Fraser from the Rock Pool. A wild fish of about 7 pounds, it was returned alive in line with Delphi's new "catch & release" policy for all wild salmon.

Other wild 7-pounders then followed for Florian Schweitzer (his first ever and the earliest Finlough fish for many years), Werner Zirngibl (Waterfall Pool) and Geoff Lucas (Finlough stream). There were also five tagged hatchery fish ranging from 6 to 10 1/2 pounds, with the best falling to Jenny Lucas from the Meadow Pool.

So nine springers for the month, all on fly and most much smaller than usual, which came as no surprise in view of the tiny size of the grilse last season. Six came off the river and three from Finlough. Among the other successful anglers were Ash Mathews and David Felton.

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