Angling Notes: Inland Fisheries closing down three of four fish farms

Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) recently announced it will phase out fish farming operations in in Roscrea, Co Tipperary; Cullion, Co Westmeath; and Lough Allua, west Cork.

The IFI said it will maintain a facility at Cong, Co Mayo due to the quality and quantity of the water supply, an important consideration for fish production.

Farming at the affected facilities will continue through the end of the year. A consultation process for developing a cessation plan will take place.

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Sean Carty with 6kg of ferox trout, caught and released on Lough Melvin.

The farming facilities were designed and built in the late 1950s, with limited modernisation in the many decades since.

The IFI commissioned a review group to evaluate its production capabilities, operational processes, facility design and costs. The review identified some major challenges.

Base on these, the board has decided to stopped the production of rainbow and brown trout.

A selection of listed points included the fact that fish farms have made a significant operating loss over the past five years. In addition, the Roscrea fish farm (largest of the plants) has an issue with available levels of water supply.

Also, current operations are subsidised by the IFI, as the price of fish for sale does not reflect the real cost of production.

The board has therefore instructed its executive committee to develop a plan to facilitate exiting the business while making efforts to ensure continued supply of trout for stocking for anglers.

All permanent staff will retain their employment and every effort will be made to ensure a smooth redeployment to other areas of the organisation, the IFI said.

Submissions should be made in writing before 5pm on August 19th to Fish Farm Consultation, IFI, 3044 Lake Drive, Citywest Business Campus, Dublin D24 Y265, or fishfarmconsultation@fisheriesireland.ie.

Of course, all of this begs the question: The 30 listed put-and-take fisheries, plus the many private club waters in the 26 counties, currently rely solely on this fish farms. Where will they turn to from 2017?

Weighing in with brown trout

Anglers are having a ball with brown trout, with a few to 1.5kg and a beast of 4kg landed by regular angler Ronan Power on Lough Inagh in Connemara, Colin Folan reports.

Power fished in tepid conditions for three days, and on his final day hooked into this great fish which took a size-10 Fr Ronan (a fly named after him!) on 2.7kg leader on a floating line.

Fishing enquiries to the Lough Inagh Lodge at 095-34706 or inagh@iol.ie. Pre-booking is essential.

Not biting

Over at the Galway Weir, James Quinn reports that fishing has slowed down of late. This is not due to lack of fish but to the fish just not taking. “This is indicative of the whole system from the weir to Cong,” he says.

The numbers of fish to be seen in the river and on the pool camera, which is a live feed, are fabulous. Angling conditions with one gate are excellent, but the OPW has opened another gate – a strange decision, since the lough and rivers are very low.

Hopefully this will not cause the fish to run upstream out of the weir. “We would ask anglers that are booked to fish to contact the fishery regarding water levels,” Quinn says.

Fishing results

The Corrib report from Declan Gibbons saw Tom "Doc" Sullivan guiding two Fulling Mill Flies staff for two days in the Cornamona, Co Galway area. They landed 12 trout, best 1.1kg, on fry and mayfly patterns. Tom also guided Tony and Elaine Stone from Yorkshire, who caught three fish on mayfly patterns.

John Sommerville had a memorable day at Inchagoill, landing four trout on wet mayflies and a personal best of 2.93kg, which he sportingly released.

Keep a watch on TG4: John assisted cameraman and Cloughbreac native Trevor Laffey on an upcoming production in relation to angling.

In the Oughterard area of Co Galway, Basil Shields reported an improvement in fishing on daphnia, olives, mayfly and sedges. Belfast angler Colin Wright had seven for two days on olives, best 1.47kg.

Father and son Frank and Oisin (16) Reilly, fishing in the Greenfields area, enjoyed their day on dries, landing and releasing three trout for 3.4kg.

Trout fishing on Lough Melvin remained variable with some rods happy and others reporting the going to be hard. Highlight of the week were two ferox caught on the fly. Bill McNeary landed a fine trout of 4.8kg on a Gosling from Rossinver Bay, while Sean Carty caught and released a 32-inch fish from the Sunken Island, estimated at 6kg.

angling@irishtimes.com