WINTER AT DELPHI · 12 January 2010
Following a wonderful, record-breaking year for spring salmon at Delphi and a correspondingly dismal run of grilse, attention in the winter months turned, as usual, to netting out the hatchery-origin fish. This extensive exercise, centred on Finlough and to a lesser extent Doolough, has two main aims – to prevent the hatchery fish from inter-breeding with the wild fish (just in case they are genetically different) and to provide broodstock for the next generation of hatchery smolts.
The netting results also tend to confirm whether the angling results represented an accurate picture of the salmon runs in the year. Both the number of fish netted and the split between grilse and springers are carefully monitored.
There are normally proportionately less springers netted than in the rod catch, since the exploitation rate of springers by anglers tends to be higher than for grilse (partly because they are fished over for longer and partly perhaps because they are easier to catch) and also because the springers tend to be more difficult to net, lying in deeper water.
The netting exercise was hampered this year by very heavy rains and high water in November, when over 18 inches of rain fell. Nevertheless, 742 salmon were extracted, of which 292 or 39% were multi-sea-winter fish or “springers”. In the rod catch, 72% of the 404 salmon caught were springers. The corresponding numbers for the previous season, which featured a much better grilse run, were: total netted – 1,502, of which just 122 or 8% were springers; total rod-caught – 489, of which 93 or 19% were springers.
Encouragingly, a handful of fresh wild springers were accidentally taken in the nets (and released), which bodes well for the coming season.
Very good sea trout spawning took place throughout the catchment – the best for many, many years. Ominously, however, the local salmon farm, which had ceased operating in 2008, has now been bought and is to be reopened. Lice control on the farm will be closely monitored, but there are few grounds for optimism.
The extremely harsh weather of late December and early January caused Glencullin Lough to freeze over for weeks. And a ferocious easterly storm on December 30 blew down over 50 trees, young and old, around the Delphi demesne and turned the angling hut on Finlough upside down.
The last – and worst – chore of winter at Delphi, before the angling season starts again on February 1st, is to tag and fin-clip the next generation of hatchery smolts. This has to be done by hand, over 50,000 times, in freezing water. Not for the faint-hearted…..
— Peter Mantle
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