Spring Salmon Fishing
- This topic has 6 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated Mar 16, 2015 at 11:22 am by
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I’ve spent most of the winter tying up flies for the upcoming season and have been particularly keen to get out on the water this year. I tend to start fishing in early march when the trout rivers near me open up, but this year I heard good reports of some early season salmon fishing on the Bundorragha river at Delphi lodge in Galway in the west of Ireland.
I organised a days fishing there and went down last night after a pretty cold nights sleep in my parents holiday house (broken heating!). I got up early and drove the 60km or so on some of the best driving roads in the country to the lodge. The scenery along this route is pretty spectacular driving towards the mountains with hundreds of lakes, rivers and streams along the way. To get to Delphi lodge you have to drive around Killary fjord which is the only one in Ireland. The landscape around here is steep sided valleys with multiple rivers and waterfalls flowing down the mountains. The Bundorragha river flows into the fjord on its northern side, its primarily a grilse fishery but does get a run of spring salmon which is what I was after!
I met the head guide David at the lodge and he had a look at my fly box and picked out a couple of weighted tubes that he thought would do the trick. He then showed me a number of likely spots along the river pointing out certain spots in the pools and runs that would hold fish. He obviously knows a lot about the river so I happily accepted his advice and started fishing in earnest. Now I’d like to say that I caught a nice spring salmon fresh off the tide but that didn’t happen! I fished hard for six hours or so without a touch, the other anglers on the river reported much the same when I spoke to them. Still I can’t complain there are worse things to be doing on a Monday. There were fish caught over the weekend before I arrived so there were some in the system. There had also been a lot of rain the day before so perhaps the fish ran the river up to the lakes above who knows?
I’m hoping to try for some salmon again but I might wait till the summer time when there is a bigger run of fish. Either way I’ll be back fishing for trout in another two weeks hopefully.
Man, that water looks clear! I thought most of the westside rivers were more tannic? My wife and I have been thinking about a trip over — and even without fish those photos may have clinched the deal!
Thanks guys.
Dave most of the rivers I have fished on the west coast seem to have that bit of colour in them from the peat bogs. This was the first time I have fished this particular river and even with some extra water coming down it was perfectly clear.
Jack, I don’t know if the message system is being wonky (I get a “no matches found” on you), but can you drop me a PM if you happen to see this? I’m headed that way in a couple months, and have a couple questions that Google hasn’t adequately addressed…
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