Where have all the trout gone??

280special

Guys as i mentioned elsewhere i have returned to a bit of trout fishing over the past few weeks. I went up to visit some of the outlaws and tried an old river haunt near Dunleer on a couple of occasions.

I have to say I was very disappointed , a few fish around but not many, and from what I was told mine is not an unusual experience. I remember a programme a few years ago, one of those fishing race things, where Matt Hayes mentioned being disappointed in the number of fish then ( about 2 years ago?) available in Ireland and cited possible problems with Foreign nationals literally taking home everything they catch.

Is this a problem or what the heck has happened to the fish ??

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

280special wrote: »

I remember a programme a few years ago, one of those fishing race things, where Matt Hayes mentioned being disappointed in the number of fish then ( about 2 years ago?) available in Ireland and cited possible problems with Foreign nationals literally taking home everything they catch.

Is this a problem or what the heck has happened to the fish ??

I remember watching that show as well

Long story short, during the boom years, a lot of irish waters mainly near towns/cities or anywhere with easy road access were hammered. even 1cm fish were kept to be boiled to make fish soup. everything from rods/reels, night lines and actual nets were used.

One "advantage" to the building down turn is most of the Foreign nationals have left to find work else where. Places are starting to recover, but I dont think many venues can recover by themselves. Rivers and lakes are very delicate eco systems, a change in the population of a fish species has a massive effect on the whole food chain. Only time will tell

Some waters are still OK, if the river/lake is signposted from a major road, I would assume it has been affected

*Im not just slating FNs here, I know there are irish anglers that kill fish too.

Daroxtar

Saw that show and tbh I tend to agree, up to a point. I think its important to remember that plenty of poachers are Irish too. One thing that annoys me though is people talking about poachers but not actually doing anything about them. If you see some scumbag poaching then report the fúckers to the gards straight away. The gards will come to check it and they will seriously punish poachers. There was a case about 2 months back where 2 Eastern Europeans were caught with a line with 40 odd hooks on it and they were done for over €2000 each in court.

Going back to your question, its also just possible you were there at the wrong place,wrong time or maybe there just wasnt any rise on that day. 90% of a fishes food is sub surface so just because they aren't rising through the surface doesn't meen they aren't there or not feeding.

coolwings

Fishing for brown trout in shallow water, clear water, in summer, during the daytime?
Now if you blanked fishing at night you may have a point.
:rolleyes:

BoarHunter

Don't want to revive this debate but blaming the Foreign nationals is just a lame excuse and a great way of thinking that there is nothing to do just to let the nature recover .... I am a foreigner, i have a great respect for nature. I catch & release 99% of my catch.

Regulations, prevention, monitoring. So few clubs are really active and actually do a bit more than taking your money.... If really there were a few bailiffs ...


So much to say and so much to do .... this country is still a gem for fishing and shooting.

I am ready to talk about it in an educatked manner in another thread.

experimenter

Personally I think allot of it has to do with water quality...

I see it at my home river in County Limerick the river bed is smothered with a slimey green weed of some sort and I can't see how any fish would thrive in those conditions.

My pet hate is these guys who turn up with there spinning rods and clean out a small river but that's a different debate..

skipz

280special wrote: »

Guys as i mentioned elsewhere i have returned to a bit of trout fishing over the past few weeks. I went up to visit some of the outlaws and tried an old river haunt near Dunleer on a couple of occasions.

I have to say I was very disappointed , a few fish around but not many, and from what I was told mine is not an unusual experience. I remember a programme a few years ago, one of those fishing race things, where Matt Hayes mentioned being disappointed in the number of fish then ( about 2 years ago?) available in Ireland and cited possible problems with Foreign nationals literally taking home everything they catch.

Is this a problem or what the heck has happened to the fish ??

If its the river Dee in and round Dunleer you fished then you should have had good fishing.
That river was one of the best trout rivers i have fished and was ok for salmon too.
I had right of fishing in some parts through my uncle and had very good sessions there with the fly rod and mepps spinners. Another good swim was the bridge in Drumcar.
Before i left Ireland last year we had up 10 brownies upto 2lb and a mate hooked and lost what looked like a 5/6lb sea trout while moving from swim to swim over 3 hours.
I think to Dee was well looked after and we never had bad fishing, strange?

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

BoarHunter wrote: »

Don't want to revive this debate but blaming the Foreign nationals is just a lame excuse and a great way of thinking that there is nothing to do just to let the nature recover .... I am a foreigner, i have a great respect for nature. I catch & release 99% of my catch.

I wasnt just blaming Foreign nationals, and im not saying ALL Foreign nationals are to blame. Im talking about people who have no respect for irish rivers and lakes, and literally fill their freezers with pike meat, I include irish people in that.

BoarHunter wrote: »

Regulations, prevention, monitoring. So few clubs are really active and actually do a bit more than taking your money.... If really there were a few bailiffs ...

I agree 100%. New pike regulations were introduced, BUT how can they be properly enforced when 1. people dont know the rules, and 2. there are very few people to enforce them.

BoarHunter

Don't you think it would be nice to receive in the post a little leaflet with the local rules when you pay for your licence ?

How are you supposed to know the rules ? There is the problem.

I haveb the same problem with shooting around the country. You join a club, you ask where you are authorized to go and everybody goes head down in their corner hoping you don't ask them ....

So i had to make it the hard way and meet with the farmers and so on ... As for fishing you need to grab a bit of info here and there but it is not super obvious. Access to the fishing spots is very hard in some places and have to say where the access is good the place is wiped out due to totale anarchy ...

I'm sure a lot of people have seen how it is managed in the US or some other places ... so it's possible. Just need to have a bit more than a few people creating a club in order to have some fishing rights and not doing anything but just meeting in a pub.

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

I agree. I live near ballyforan in co roscommon, which has a slipway onto the river suck. There should be a sign listing the fishing regulations, and not only in english, there are lots of genuine anglers who fish there whos first lanuage isn't english.


The UK have a good system, in that angling clubs maintain stretches of river, but there prob arnt enough anglers in ireland for it to work here.

BoarHunter

How many times have I been called to do a clean up of my local river ? 0. I do my bit where i fish, cutting the branches that are in the way for casting, getting awful stuff out of the river ( tyres, plastic bottles and more ).

Why would the club not be able to find sponsorships ? I still wonder why we need to give money to the ESB .... what are they doing for the fishermen in this country ?

ironbluedun

the rivers are very low, many of them have been low for a good while now...in such conditions its very hard to catch trout during daylight hours, even on the best rivers its hard when the rivers are low and clear.
the dee was a super little salmon and sea-trout river years ago, but over the years it has suffered heavily from the affects of intensive agriculture, fish kills, pollution, habitat loss, loss of spawning streams, and of course the big old chestnut, poaching. in the 80s the life was netted out of, even some people shooting salmon with rifles. Now they wonder where are the fish gone.

280special

Thanks for all the replies folks, Just to say that I still remember where, when and how to look for a trout and it wasnt just a case of not catching anything there just didnt seem to be too many trout visable either over a few days and at various times.Maybe it was just bad luck although the same thing occured up near Dundalk recently , on the Castletown. Only thing that was visable or biting was very small Brown trout.

And No the problem with people "cleaning" out a river isnt confined to Foreign nationals. Here goes with an old fisherman's tale ! When I was a kid, back in the 70's, I used to go down to a stretch of the Castletown almost every day of the summer holidays. There was one place in particular where you could see large trout and salmon , prob 3lbs +, swimming in a run where it was impossible to use a rod...but not a net. Lets just say it wasnt a Foreign national who cleared them out apart from one 18 inch brownie that had been left in a net for at least 3 or more days.

ironbluedun

knowing the rivers of those parts reasonably well i totally understand your story.