Regular updates of fishing and conditions

We are expecting a great run of salmon and sea trout to the system this year with the removal of the Irish drift net fishery and the continuing closure of the salmon farm in the estuary.  The weekly fishing reports will begin ftom mid-June 2008.  The salmon and sea trout fishing will be quite slow until then

27th March 2008

The season has started off with high water.  One fine springer was landed on the Derryclare Butts on Good Friday which is early for the Ballynahinch System.  There are a lot of kelts being caught at the moment following our bumper spawning season this winter.  The summer fishing is looking very promising.

12th June 2008
Spring fishing on the Ballynahinch system is normally carried out in hope rather than expectation. The fishery has always been a summer system with limited numbers of springers entering the system. With such few spring days fished between Ballynahinch Castle and Lough Inagh Fishery, 9 springers have been landed. This is the most prolific spring year since 2004!

Ann Corcoran landed the first salmon of the season for Ballynahinch in early May. It was a 9lb bar of silver taken from the run at the top of Beat 3. Local fishing guide, Cyril Biggins took a stunning 11lb spring fish from the long pier on Beat 4. The fish took him to the end of the backing whereby the attachment knot to the reel came undone. Cyril then managed to skilfully hand line the fish and bring him to the net.

UK Club Member, Jack Meredith, whilst over in Ireland on a golfing trip, threw a fly at the top of Beat 3 on 25th May. He landed a fresh 5lb fish. Based upon reports from around the country it is likely that this fish was a two sea winter fish rather than an early grilse. This worrying trend of smaller spring fish is of great cause for concern.

Traditionally by 12th June the hotel would certainly have landed its first grilse of the season. However, the trend over the past 5 years shows that we probably will not get our first grilse until the last week in June. The water levels are very low at the moment and have been like this for nearly 6 weeks. We are expecting rain next week and hopefully it will coincide with the first run of grilse into the system.

There have been some large sea trout running through the counter in the past few days, however, the main run of trout will not come until later in the month. The cod farming operation continues in the bay, meaning that there have been no salmon farmed in the estuary since December 2004.

10th July 2008
The run of salmon up the Ballynahinch has been very steady since we got water on 24th June. The total run of salmon for June was up over 50% on 2007 and the July figures are in line with that of last year. The grilse are a good size this year with the average fish about 6lbs weight which is ½ lb up on 2007. To date there have been 18 salmon caught on the castle stretch with the largest fish falling to Stephen Cullinane. It was a lovely 11lb sea liced fish caught underneath the hotel. Lough Inagh fishery has had it best start to the season in many years and they have landed nearly 30 salmon so far this season.

Most encouraging is the increase in the size of the returning sea trout this year. The number of fish has also increased and we are well on the way to getting a healthy stock of these wonderful fish back into the Ballynahinch system again. There have been over 250 sea trout landed at the castle so far this year with many fish over the pound mark

Click here for the 2007 fishing reports

Click here for the 2006 fishing reports

Click here for the 2005 fishing reports