No Fish in Ireland

[Brett1907]

Hi guys, I'm back from the holiday. We spent almost 3 weeks driving around Ireland seeing the sights, eating the food and drinking the beer (the nightwatchman had cider, and the rugrats were back home). The days in Paris.

Beatiful countries, Ireland was green and lush with some very inviting rivers and streams. We stayed in one place (in a castle) where they had photos of 16lb salmon and Prince Charles fishing from the bridge. So I mentioned to the missus that they do day guided fishing trips one on one, and they had a day spa too! I was given a pass out to go fishing.... but when I went to organise the guide was summarily told that due to the drift netting of salmon in the Atlantic Ocean the numbers of fish travelling up the rivers to spawn had been decimated and the government had put a total ban on fishing!!! So we went to the bar and had something to drink.

Upon further investigation during our trip the same information was given. The pro drift netters had taken record hauls of salmon, and in doing so had threatened the fishery as a whole. In areas like Galway where they have built a Salmon Causeway purely to ensure the fish are able to travel upriver safely you couldn't see any fish schooling or jumping. Now the fish are usually in prolific numbers at this time of year and a lot of people are very concerned about the long term effects this will have. Seems like the pro/rec antagonism isn't centred here in Australia.

Anyway, the rest of the trip was awesome. Walking through castles built in the 11th century, and seeing the foundation stones and walls of churches and battlements built in the 4th & 5th centuries was humbling. We have a real lack of history here in Australia (documented that is). Went to the Waterford Crystal factory, and could buy the crystal cheaper here at home!

In paris we went to Moulin Rouge, the Eifel Tower, cruised the River Sien, walked through Notre Dame and the Louvre, the Champes Ellyse and drove around the Arc De Triumph. Man those French drivers are MAD!!! A roundabout that is probably 6 - 8 lanes with no line markings and they just go anywhere, if you need to exit the roundabout and you are on the inner most lane you just turn. Absolutely crazy!! The taxi drivers are the most sane drivers we saw!!!

Anyway, back home since Saturday and still trying to get back into the right sleeping pattern. It is hard when it didn't get dark over there until 11pm.

Brett:D

[revs57]

Thanks for a great read Brett, Hope to do the trip one day ourselves...I bet they don't have state of origin there either! The orange and the green is not quite maroon and blue...but the info you've given will mean I don't needlessly pack a rod or two when we go...damn shame that!

Cheers

Rhys

[Brett1907]

Yeh, they did play the State of Origin! Only in a couple of pubs though.

It is a shame about the fishing, hope the fishery recovers.

Brett

[Lucky_Phill]

Welcome back Brett.

Maybe some pics of the rivers, castles etc.

Salmon drift netting..... >:( >:(

Ya gotta wonder what type of clown makes these decisions to allow such activities.

I had a meeting a few years ago with the inner workings of the DPI&F and one of the managers there told me about what was about to happen in regard to commercialising a new fishery. I said to him " just because you find a way to harvest a new target group, why do it ? ". no answer.

Commercial activities seems to control the Governments of all countries that have a ' ocean ' border. bugga !

Cheers Phill

[Wahoo]

welcome back Brett, good read.... i was told about the HUGE roundabouts LOL, and a few pics be good :P


Daz

[charleville]

What a great read!

Thanks Brett.

:)


.

[Paddyinoz2006]

Glad you had a good trip to ireland. I am from the north east of ireland and have lived here on gold coast for nearly 2 years now. I know what you mean on the fishing side of things I have not caught a salmon back home in years and neither have a lot of my friends back there.
There would have been some good offshore options for you while on the west coast but not to worry. I am sure you could have also found a few good places for some good trout fishing and so on but mayeb another time.
It makes me so angry about the netters on our coast lines. When I was growing up, ireland was one of the best places in the world to go for salmon and trout fishing. Our freshwater fishing was second to none in europe, and we used to attract anglers from all around the world to fish our waters. unfortunatly now that whole part of our tourism industry has gone and this has angered irish people and also people from all around the world who used to enjoy this form of recreation in the wonderfull surroundings of the Irish countryside. It is something that totally pisses me off that these fishermen just clean us out of the most wonderful fish the atlantic salmon, just makes my blood boil. They just are not the numbers anymore and it is so sad.
It would be great if you could post some pictures. Maybe opens your eyes as to over fishing and what needs to be done here to control fish stocks.

[atlantic_salmon]

dont know about crap fishing, just returned from 5 years living over there, did most of my fishing on the lee and laune with a bit up at the salmon weir on the river corrib (galway), my biggest was 20lb from the inishcarra fishery on the river lee in full flood and with 46 in total in 5 years the fishing is still decent, although the lee is esentally a stocked fishery with 15000 salmon smolt relesed into the lee annually so they can head off to sea when they are ready and return the following year as grilse (8lb or less) or two plus summers later as multi winter salmon, a good friend of mine is a guide/gilly in the munster reigon and has acess to beats on the rivers Cork Blackwater, Kerry Blackwater, lee and the laune you can contact him on www.sgs-fishing.com if he cant put you onto a salmon you should stay in the pub...

[Paddyinoz2006]

Howya atlantic, were you catching them on the fly or were you spinning for them. 20lb is a bloody good salmon. I got a 16lb er when i was younger. Sounds like you enjoyed your time over there.

[Tangles]

Welcome back Brett,
great report, reminds me of some hazy times i had over there, beers great

Mike

[atlantic_salmon]

hey Paddy, what ever was suitable, dead low it would be the shrimp or 6 weight fly, small flow would bring out the spey rod or light spinning gear and flood conditions would bring out the heavy spinning gear with 40lb braid and anything upto a 30gram flying C for up steam casting and 45gram toby for down stream drifting, its always a good thing to befriend a guide they give you all the information, its amazing the imformation you can get from fishing with people who are better than you...

[Paddyinoz2006]

those flying c's are supposed to be the business.

[Paddyinoz2006]

must look him up when i am home next. Sounds like he knows a thing or too. By the way i am not saying fishing in ireland is crap by any means I just am anti the politics behind the whole industry!!! Would love to see some photos of the big 20 lb er.

[lock]

Hey atlantic lock here mate I knew you would dive in to this one if you read it. I have been into the flyfishing heaps more since I have been back. I am up in mackay now loving it. How has the double handers been going over here.

[Davemclean]

jus stick to the lochs and go after the coarse fish, you can make massive hauls if you do your homework, or higher a boat and troll for pike, trout, perch, anything that will take a spinner

[joeT]

In paris we went to Moulin Rouge, the Eifel Tower, cruised the River Sien, walked through Notre Dame and the Louvre, the Champes Ellyse and drove around the Arc De Triumph. Man those French drivers are MAD!!! A roundabout that is probably 6 - 8 lanes with no line markings and they just go anywhere, if you need to exit the roundabout and you are on the inner most lane you just turn. Absolutely crazy!! The taxi drivers are the most sane drivers we saw!!!




I'll be in Paris next week so will take some vids of the Arc De Triumph and the mad driving. Last time I was there I remember seeing a couple police cars parked waiting to attend an accident - it was peak hour and I'm sure they expected one soon!

[Paddyinoz2006]

Did you try the black stuff when over there Brett!!!!!

[shaman]

Is that Stradbroke Ireland or Moreton Ireland you're referring to?????

[Brett1907]

Sorry guys, here are some photos. Took around 1200 - 1300 shots over 3 weeks. About 400 - 500 turned out really good.

The Galway town wall was dicovered during foundation excavations of a major shopping mall. It is law in Ireland that if any medieval relics are dicovered they must be restored and/or incorporated into the construction. There was more hidden under the suspended slab we were walking on as the floor. The rest was off limits to anyone except archeologists with special permision.

[Brett1907]

One of the oldest working lighthouses in the world.
Donna's new Champagne glass.
A pretty little brook in the grounds of Blarney Castle.
The French phallic symbol.
Labeled
Labaled
Reginalds Tower was first built by the Vikings before the 11th century. It has been destroyed a couple of times and the current structure has been standing for hundreds of years.

[Brett1907]

This shot was taken at around 10:30pm. The sun didn't drop below the horizon for at least another hour.

[Brett1907]

Shaman, it was Drunk Island!