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Delphi Fishery Report - 2004

Wonderful spring salmon fishing followed by very quiet summer

2004 was a year of contrasting fortunes at Delphi, with amazingly good spring salmon catches but a difficult summer for both grilse and sea trout fishing.

The spring saw all-time-record catches of big multi-sea-winter salmon in both March (52) and April (83) and the best ever February-to-May total (170) since records began in the 19th century.

The fishing on some March and April days was simply scintillating, with some exceptional fish, including 55 salmon over 10 pounds and ten fish over 12 pounds (the best such total since 1986).

Among these was the best-ever tagged Delphi fish of nearly 17 pounds, caught by Tim Pettigrew from the Whin Pool using a light 7-weight rod. This was also the biggest salmon caught at Delphi since a near 18-pounder in 1987 and a 19-pounder in 1986 (The fishery record stands at 23½ pounds, caught way back in Edwardian times).

In contrast, the summer runs of smaller salmon were well below average in numerical terms and the sea trout runs were absolutely disastrous, coinciding yet again with shockingly incompetent lice control on the nearby salmon farm.

For only the third time in 20 years, more spring salmon were caught at Delphi than grilse (189 vs 169). This had only previously happened in 1990 and 1999.

The overall catch of 358 salmon was significantly below the average for the previous five years (480). The running ten-year average catch at Delphi now stands at 506 salmon.

The great majority (91%) of the salmon caught at Delphi was taken on fly. Limited trolling with spoons is allowed on Doolough (only) from February to June and spinning is permitted on the final day of the season when all staff and local farmers are invited to fish. But Doolough was lightly - and not very successfully - fished this year, yielding only 17 salmon, all to trolled spoons. The end of season party produced a further 14 fish to spinners.

Despite the poor Doolough catches, the catch of wild salmon (as opposed to the tagged fish that started life in the Delphi hatchery) was reasonable at 106, only a few fish less than the 5-year average; 50 of these were wild springers – the best such tally since the mid-1990s and a clear indication that the hatchery programme is not adversely affecting the wild population or its naturally high springer/grilse ratio.

Interestingly, only one tagged fish was caught up on Doolough, indicating the accuracy of their homing back to the hatchery below at Finlough. Eight tagged fish did stray off course to be caught by anglers on the nearby River Erriff. Intriguingly, however, no Erriff fish have been taken at Delphi in any of the three seasons in which thousands of tagged smolts have been released into that river.

The Delphi hatchery programme – and the related need to kill all tagged fish to prevent them from breeding in the wild (a precautionary measure to safeguard the wild gene pool) – requires anglers to release all wild fish, unless their first fish of the season is a wild one.

This greatly benefited the wild stock in 2004, with 61% of all wild fish caught being returned alive. This was the eighth year in a row in which over 60% of wild fish caught have been released.

Although the grilse run was poor, nobody seems to know why. It was fairly universal throughout Ireland and much of Scotland (as was the good spring run) and cannot be attributed solely to coastal netting.

The netsmen also had a poor year by their standards and failed to reach even the reduced quota allocated to them. So something else is going on in the marine environment.

The fact that some of the larger Irish rivers, such as the Corrib, the Ballisodare and the Moy, had pretty good grilse catches has led some commentators to believe that the smaller rivers may have been adversely affected by the spring drought of 2003. However, Delphi – with its large release of healthy smolts during a big flood in April 2003 – seems to cast doubt on that theory, since the Delphi one-sea- winter returns were still poor. We had expected a bumper grilse run, based on the release conditions.

Other observers believe that sea lice from salmon farms may have been a major factor in the West, affecting outgoing salmon smolts in 2003, as they did the sea trout. That seems entirely plausible, particularly as ongoing Irish experiments are beginning to show much higher returns from groups of salmon smolts treated with an anti-louse agent than from untreated control groups. Delphi will now further explore the possibility of treating all smolts released in order to improve survival at sea.

Though poor, the grilse catches were not completely disastrous – there were lower catches in four other years since the hatchery programme started in 1990. Furthermore, the programme has been deliberately rebalanced in recent years towards more springers and less grilse. The ideal average catch is considered to be 150 springers and 300 grilse.

The sea trout catches, however, were truly disastrous. Only 174 trout were taken (and all released by law) – just 3 more than in the original catastrophic 1989 season. Of these, just ten weighed 2 pounds or more and close inspection of the catch returns shows that almost all of these were identified as male brown trout (probably former sea trout that had reverted to a freshwater, cannibalistic lifestyle as ferox trout).

The rest were small trout of a size that is insufficient to attract serious angling effort.

The nearby salmon farm, which is undoubtedly the cause of this high sea trout mortality, changed hands again in 2004 and is now owned by Donegal interests. Their managers got off to an appalling start with an unforgivable failure to keep lice under control during the crucial spring period. The lice levels were seriously in breach of the farm’s licence for month after month.

Unsurprisingly, the licensing authority (the Department of Communications, Marine & Natural Resources) yet again showed itself to be pathetically inert and took no meaningful action, despite the battery of statutory remedies open to it.

Anyone feeling exercised about this might write to our new Marine Minister, Joe Dempsey TD, his junior minister, Pat “the Cope” Gallagher TD, or the responsible senior civil servant, Cecil Beamish, all of whom may be found c/o the Department at Leeson Lane, Dublin 2.

But don’t hold your breath. Based on past efforts, the best you can hope for is a vacuous reply replete with disingenuous platitudes taken straight from a “Yes Minister” script. They simply don’t give a damn.

Delphi’s cook wins Best Chef award

Delphi’s head cook, Cliodhna Prendergast, has won Food & Wine magazine’s “Best Chef in Connacht” accolade at the annual Restaurant of the Year awards ceremony in Dublin. Cliodhna has run the Delphi kitchen for the past five years.

This award is a remarkable achievement, won in the face of intense competition from many eminent Irish and foreign chefs in all the leading hotels and restaurants of the west of Ireland. All the more so because Delphi is not really in the mainstream in terms of exposure.

Quality will out, however, and it was the magazine’s readers who brought Cliodhna to the attention of the eight-man judging panel who then conducted anonymous inspections of the places nominated.

Food & Wine reported that “In a tightly contested category, Cliodhna’s formidable culinary talents just won her the vote when a significant number of the judges waxed lyrical”.

“Alas, Peter Mantle’s Delphi Lodge is ineligible for the Restaurant or Country House of the Year award categories as it does not serve meals to non-residents”, the magazine said.

We are really pleased for Cliodhna who, at the tender age of 28, has proved herself to be an inspired cook, with impeccable judgement, great vision, style and finesse - and, importantly, an unflappable temperament and a delightful personality.

Her numerous tours de force include glorious wild game recipes, simple fish dished to die for and impeccable home-made pastas - all of which, by the way, are featured in the regular food & wine weekends held at Delphi outside the fishing season.

The 2004 Delphi Season Month by Month

FEBRUARY: The season opened with the river in huge flood, following three days of torrential rain. Only when water levels settled down a bit was fishing really feasible and the first fish was hooked but lost on the 4th in the Grilse Pool

Two days later Manfred Wolf, who lost the earlier (big) fish, bagged a sea-liced 10-pounder from the Holly Pool and then caught another from the same pool, this time a 7-pounder.

The river then dropped away as the weather hardened. Only five more fish were caught in the month – Geoff Lucas had a 6½-pounder, Angus Sutherland an 8-pounder and Werner Zirngibl a 9-pounder, all three fish coming off the Whin Pool in low water. Then Rudi Groener caught two salmon of seven and eleven pounds off Finlough.

MARCH fishing was the best ever, with 52 spring salmon caught, all but two on fly. The previous best March was in 1995 when 37 fish were taken.

Despite low water in the first half of the month, a steady trickle of springers ran into the river. A big flood on March 16th then brought in a lot more fish and for the ensuing ten days the fishing was very good, despite cold weather. As the river dropped again in the last few days of the month, fishing slowed down.

Before the flood, Laurence Lock, a consistently successful fisher from London, had seven fish to 10 pounds during his visit - four off the river, two off Finlough and one off Doolough. Remarkably, he caught a sea-liced 9-pounder when the river gauge stood at just 5 centimeters and another when it stood at 9cms. Normally, 20-25cms would have been regarded as the minimum river height to attract fish in.

In the next week Urs Leibundgut from Switzerland had a 10-pounder off the river and a 7-pounder from Finlough, and several other rods had a fish each, including Chris Huxley from Castlebar, who bagged his first ever springer from the Waterfall Pool.

After the mid-month flood, catches accelerated further. Mike Shortt from Fermanagh and Pat O’Dwyer from Dublin each caught a brace in a day’s fishing. Then Werner Zirngibl and his party of eight rods from Munich took over the fishery for a week and caught 20 salmon. Zirngibl himself had seven fish, the best - a wild fish weighing about 13 pounds - was released. Heinz Hofler had three to 11 pounds and Peter Scheisel also had three, including his first ever salmon, a fine 12¼-pounder from the Finlough stream. Reinhold Schuster had two fish, as did Johannes Munz, while the other three rods got one each. So no blanks recorded in that week - a rarity in spring fishing.

One of the more bizarre catches made by the German party was a floating 100lb ewe, taken in high water on (rather appropriately) a Collie Dog from the Meadow Pool. Eventually beached after a ten-minute battle, the beast shook itself down and ran off. One for the “various” line of the game book. Is this what they mean by “catch & release”?

Of the 52 salmon caught in the month, 11 were wild fish and 41 were tagged fish that had been released as smolts in 2002. Thirty seven fish were taken off the river, 13 off Finlough and 2 off Doolough. As usual, the most successful fly patterns were the Collie Dog and the Willie Gunn (in Waddington format).

Peter Mantle observed that the springers were, in general, somewhat smaller than usual, with one fish weighing only an ounce over six pounds and several others coming in at under eight pounds. Normally the Delphi springers weigh between 8 and 12 pounds, with an average weight just short of ten pounds. Towards the end of March, however, the weights starting rising and Peter Milne from Luxembourg rounded off the month with a fat 11½-pounder from the Turn Pool.

APRIL was another record-breaking month, with a remarkable 82 fish, easily eclipsing the previous April record catch of 39 fish set in 2001.

Nearly 75% of the fish caught were tagged salmon, released as smolts two years earlier. But it was not just the Delphi hatchery that was responsible for the good fishing - the catch of wild fish (37) was also the best ever. In the 19 seasons since Peter Mantle arrived at Delphi in 1986 only 1995 (with 35 fish) came close to matching this year’s February-to-April total of wild salmon.

Fifty of the April fish were caught on the river, 26 on Finlough and 6 from Doolough. All fish bar those from Doolough were taken on fly, with Willie Gunns and Collie Dogs continuing as the most successful fly patterns.The Ally Cascade was also a popular newcomer.

The catches were fairly equitably distributed in April, with no particularly big individual bags except for the amazing haul of six fish to 11¾ pounds taken by Sean Downes on April 24th - four from the river and two from Finlough. A total of 12 fish were taken on that day, including the first grilse of the season.

The best fish of the month - and the biggest hatchery fish ever taken at Delphi - was a glorious, fresh, deep fish of a shade under 17lbs which was landed by Tim Pettigrew from the Whin Pool. Tim was fishing with a 7-weight trout rod and 12-pound nylon, yet he managed to tire the fish in less than half an hour. This was also the biggest salmon caught at Delphi since 1987 and the third heaviest of the Mantle regime.

On that same day Dermot Layden took a lovely fish of 14lbs from the New Island Pool and Bowen Ormsby nailed another one of 13¼lbs from a section of the river close to Finlough that nobody normally fishes. Both fish were sea-liced, as were over 90% of all fish caught in the month.

Among the other good results were the five fish to 14lbs taken by John Mills & Alan Dunlop in six days; the five fish to 10lbs taken by Ken McMillan and Alan Boyd in a day (four of them in two hours on Finlough); the three 9-pounders taken in one morning by Christopher Jarman (of six for his week) and the three fish to 9½lbs caught by Andy Smith in a weekend. David Alcutt bagged his first two fish at Delphi, one a very fine salmon of 12¼ pounds.

The one ominous development was the very high incidence of sea lice on the local salmon farm in February, March and April. The numbers of egg-bearing lice were higher than at any stage in the past ten years. Not only did this bode very badly for the few remaining sea trout at Delphi, but it potentially threatened the Erriff and Delphi salmon smolts which were migrating at the end of April.

The extent of sea lice damage to several of the adult salmon caught was also unprecedented. Two had the tops of their heads eaten away. Peter Mantle described the situation as “the dispiriting result of defective regulation and a seriously myopic government strategy”.

MAY saw a slowdown in the great spring fishing as dry weather shrank the river and cool northerly winds suppressed the fish already in the lakes.

Still, 29 fish were taken, which was above-average for the month. Three of these were early grilse.

The best fish in May, a 12½- pounder, was caught by Benjie Weeks from the Turn Pool. John Mills was top rod with six fish. Twelve fish came off the river, 11 from Finlough and 6 from Doolough.

As grimly predicted earlier in the spring, hundreds of prematurely-returning sea-liced sea trout smolts came back into the river due to the grave lice levels on the Killary salmon farm. These fish faced almost certain death due to infection or the lack of food in freshwater.

JUNE: The big runs of the smaller summer salmon had not arrived in Delphi by the end of June, despite a lot of rain in the last ten days of the month. Just 22 grilse were caught (a record low). The total catch of 34 fish for the month (another record low) included 12 late springers, some fresh, some not.

The first three weeks of June, like most of May, were exceptionally dry at Delphi. As a result, almost all the fish taken in the month were accounted for in the last ten days, after the rains had come.

The best of the June fish weighed 13 pounds and was taken by David Solomon from the Turn Pool. Michael Phil Coyne bagged a ten-pounder from Finlough, his first ever springer. Werner Zirngibl’s party had 16 fish to 9½ pounds for their week - a far cry from their record haul in the same week in 1998 of 130 fish.

JULY: The poor grilse run into most west of Ireland rivers continued and Delphi was no exception. The July catch of 92 fish was well below the 10 year average. This was especially disappointing because weather conditions were often favourable for angling and the run actually peaked in mid-July, instead of late June, which is more normal.

The run was made up of small numbers of mostly net-marked fish in the two to four pound range. Although the netsmen were also said to have had a bad year, they clearly still managed to intercept the entire run, with only the small fish wriggling through.

Quite why the run was so poor remains a mystery. The usual large batch of Delphi hatchery smolts had been released in what looked like superb migration conditions during April 2003. So something dramatic must have gone wrong at sea. The optimists believe a switchback towards spring runs is taking place. The pessimists believe the Russian mackerel trawlers are to blame. Who knows?

The best of the July fish were in fact less-than-fresh springers. Andy Smith from Edinburgh bagged a 13-pounder from Finlough and Sandy Walker, with help from Graham Feilden, caught an 11-pounder from the same lake. Urs Leibundgut from Switzerland had 12 fish in a fortnight and John Mills had 9 fish in various visits to Delphi in the month. But many anglers failed to catch anything at all.

Sea trout fishing was almost non-existent, though Paul Cahill had a 3½-pound brown trout on Doolough and George Westropp had a more silvered one of similar size on Finlough.

AUGUST was a quiet month at Delphi with just 13 salmon caught in difficult, mostly dry conditions. All the fish were grilse, the best weighing about six pounds, which was one of four taken by Jean-Francois Dessalle from France.

Patricia Houlihan, Donough McCarthy, Steve Miller and his wife Anne, all participants in a fishing week with Peter O’Reilly, had some marvellous brown trout fishing on nearby Lough Moher, as well as some excellent dapping on Doolough and Finlough. They took 16 sea trout up to 4½ pounds. Otherwise, however, the sea trout fishing was poor and the salmon fairly dour.

SEPTEMBER at Delphi was extremely wet, with over 15 inches of rain. This helped the fishing and 51 salmon were caught for not much effort - 14 of them wild, the rest tagged hatchery-origin fish. Over 70 sea trout were also taken, but it should have been ten times that amount, given the favourable conditions.

The best salmon of the month weighed 10¼ pounds and was taken by Mark Corps (Fermanagh) from the Quarry Pool. Andy Smith from Scotland, celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary with a houseparty in the Lodge, took time out to bag 7 salmon to 8 pounds, while his friends caught a couple more, including a 9-pounder for Gary Lloyd.

John Grindley from England had three fish to 7 pounds in three days and several people caught their first ever salmon (see table). Cathal Ryan caught his first plus two more, in his first two days of salmon fishing.

Fourteen of the September salmon were caught on the last day of the season, when all staff and local farmers are invited to break the rules and go spinning (any wild fish taken are released).

GIFT IDEAS

Smoked wild salmon

Delphi’s smoked wild salmon has earned a great reputation and generates much fan mail. Sadly, it has also earned a reputation for not arriving, especially in the USA, Germany and Italy. We have therefore now limited our postal distribution to Ireland and the UK only.

The salmon comes in packs varying from about ¾ pound to 1½ pounds. It is sliced and vacuum-packed and costs €26 per pound plus (fast) postage. Last orders for Christmas by 10th December. Note that we can also do despatches to clients or friends if you supply the mailing list & budget.

Delphi fly wallets

We still have left a few of our limited-edition calf-leather fly wallets, engraved with “Delphi Lodge, Ireland, An Elysium Piscatorum” (“a heavenly place to fish”!). These are beautifully crafted, with heavy duty zips, and come in a presentation box. They cost €66 plus p&p. Last orders by 10th December.

PillowTalk cushions

Jane Mantle continues to produce her amusing cushions, many of them to do with fishing, shooting and hunting.

You can make up your own wording or choose from hundreds of standard witticisms, such as “We stay together for the sake of the dogs”, “Fishing widow”, “I blanked at Delphi” and “This chair belongs to [dogs name]”.

Prices vary from €35 to €50 plus p&p, depending on whether it’s standard or custom wording and whether a picture is added (various dog heads etc). Last orders for Christmas by
1st December.

Learn to flyfish weekend

A weekend of flyfishing tuition makes a great gift, especially when it’s with Ireland’s top teacher, Peter O’Reilly.

There are several 3-day courses run by Peter each year at Delphi, with an inclusive price of €750 covering full-board & tuition. Ring Carole for 2005 dates and voucher details – or check out our new website www.delphi-salmon.com.

OTHER NEWS

A missed putt

Unexpected overnight guests at Delphi in April were Mark O’Meara, the American golfer, and friends, who dropped in by helicopter for a day’s fishing as guests of a Delphi syndicate member. Throughout the day it rained and rained as a massive depression swept up the west coast. Rising river; no fish.

Come time to leave, conditions were so bad that the chopper was grounded; this meant inflated dinner numbers and all rooms filled for the night. Lively conversation flowed, and O’Meara turned out to be a delightful man and a passionate fisher (We hope he will be appointed captain of the American Ryder Cup team for 2007, when the venue will be in Ireland).

As the party flew off the next morning they could not have realised they were leaving on what would turn out to be one of the greatest days of spring fishing in Delphi’s history. For that was the day on which three of the top ten salmon of 2004 were bagged, including Tim Pettigrew’s 17-pounder. And who had been O’Meara’s hosts the previous day? The Pettigrews.

Two to tango

They say if you can do, do. If you can’t do, teach. But in the case of Delphi’s fishery management duo, David McEvoy and Sandy Walker, it now appears that they can both do and teach. They have passed the Level 2 instructors’ examinations for teaching both salmon and trout fishing. Rumours that they bribed the examiners, who were flown in from Britain, are probably true.

So for those who cannot make one of Peter O’Reilly’s marvellous tuition weekends at Delphi, there is always the option of a day with one of the dynamic duo.

Houseworks hooray

A sainted member of the Delphi fishing syndicate, Mark Shortt, has generously agreed to upgrade the kitchen and appliances in Cottage 2. Mark and his wife Rosie run Houseworks, Ireland’s supplier of top quality Siematic kitchens, with outlets in Dublin, Cork & Belfast.

So the lucky tenants of Cottage 2 will henceforth have no excuse for not producing culinary masterpieces. Anyone who covets ownership of similarly grand new kit may check out Mark & Rosie’s excellent website www.houseworks.ie.

Syndicate slots open

Due to the retirement of a syndicate member, we have a slot for two rods and Cottage 1 in week 14 (begins 2 April in 2005).

The remaining lease is for 16 years and is available for €13,500 plus the annual management fee of €399. To rent the rods and cottage in that week over the next 16 years would cost some €27,200 at current prices. A bargain for those who like their spring fishing and think they’ll make it as far as 2020.

Two syndicate members, who originally joined up for the sea trout fishing, would now sell their weeks for a reasonable offer. The guaranteed access to a cottage for 16 years at peak holiday time is alone worth a lot of money, even with the need to pay the annual management fee. Anyone interested in an August syndicate week, with a cottage and two rods each year, should suggest a reasonable offer to Peter who will pass it on to the members wishing to sell.

Wine & food weekend

Following the great success of the last grande bouffe, the next wine & food weekend at Delphi is likely to be from January 14th to 16th.

With Cliodhna’s brilliant dinners, gorgeous Irish cheeses from Seamus Sheridan and tutored tastings from one of Berry Brothers & Rudd’s UK Masters of Wine, the all-in cost is €395 per person.

The theme will be the Pinot Noir grape in all its forms, from grand old Burgundies to the sexy new fruit bombs of Napa and New Zealand. Contact Carole quickly if you want to book in.

Spawning weekend

A special Spawning Weekend is being held from December 10th to 12th. The brainchild of one of our syndicate members, the idea is to witness all aspects of the Delphi operation in its winter guise.

Guests will watch wild salmon spawning, help catch the hatchery fish (in nets) and see the fish being stripped, the eggs fertilised and the
smolts microtagged – all between sipping hot whiskies and eating Delphi’s finest winter grub.

€295pp for all accommodation & meals. Contact Carole if you would like to join in.

In conjunction with Tempoweb, we have set up a brand new website to deal with all aspects of Delphi’s fishing. It is really very comprehensive and stuffed with all the news, the statistics, the pictures, the tips and the tutoring.

It will be updated each month with all the latest fishing news (or, if there’s no new report, it’s because there’s not much new to report!).

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