Draft Irish Regulations for the 2008 Salmon Season.

[bwlodge]

Jan Persson from Denmark prepares to release the first springer of 2007 taken on fly.
March 26 on Blackwater Lodge Beat 16 – Ballygarrett.
[black][size 4]Draft Irish Regulations for the 2008 Salmon Season.[/size][/black]
The Irish Department of the Marine have just issued the draft regulations for next year.
These will be subject to a consultation period & then will be finalised in late December.
There is little change from last year - the only difference being an increase in the number of fish which can be taken in spring.

The draft regulations can be summarised as:

Season: 10 fish in total per licence

Spring Fishing: January 1 to May 11 - 3 fish per licence in total.
Summer Fishing: May 12 to August 31 - a daily bag limit of 3 fish.
Autumn Fishing: September - a daily bag limit of 1 fish


A full regulations on the Dept. of the Marine website can be found on:
http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/NR/rdonlyres/824...ns2008.doc


My Opinion

Spring: The increase to three fish for the spring is a cautiously welcome one, as unfortunately the one fish limit in 2007 for the same period definitely had an adverse effect on angling tourism. Notwithstanding, we actively encourage all visiting anglers to exercise restraint in the number of fish they keep. Catch and release is becoming the norm – over 60% of the fish caught (804 salmon & grilse) on the Blackwater Lodge fishery in 2007 were released alive.

Summer: I am still at a loss to understand why the Dept. of the Marine put the bag limit up to 3/day from mid-May until the end of August. The most damage done by the now-banned drift nets was to the grilse run, and this is the one that should be protected.

Autumn: Even more bizarre – especially on the Cork Blackwater – is the reduction to 1 fish/day in September.
Our autumn run has always been the most prolific, and it is the most popular month as a consequence.
It would make more sense to have a 1 fish/day limit from mid-May until the end of July, and then increase to 3 fish per day for August and September when the biggest runs come in.

Looking Forward to 2008
After the superb fishing we had in 2007 once we had reasonable water levels from late June on, we are looking forward to another great season in 2008. Hopefully, we will once again see a big increase in the number and size of salmon running, not only the Blackwater, but also the other Irish, UK & Continental salmon rivers.

Any person may submit objections to the draft regulations
electronically to the Minister at inland.fisheries@dcenr.ie
or in writing to Inland Fisheries Division,
Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources,
Leeson Lane, Dublin 2 at any time during the period of 30 days
commencing on 16 November 2007.

For any more info, please refer to:
Dept. of Marine website:
[url "http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Natural/Inland+Fisheries+and+Marine+Research/Inland+Fisheries/"]http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Natural/Inland+Fisheries+and+Marine+Research/Inland+Fisheries/[/url]
Central Fisheries Board website
[url "http://www.cfb.ie/"]http://www.cfb.ie/[/url]
Blackwater Lodge website
[url "http://www.ireland-salmon-fishing.net/"]http://www.ireland-salmon-fishing.net/[/url]
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[davetclown]

that sounds incuraging,

I thought they just had a bad salmon kill in the past couple weeks, sufficated by tiny jellyfishes?
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[bwlodge]

The results this year were certainly very encouraging & we're looking forward to even better things next season.
The jellyfish kill occurred in the only salmon farm in Northern Ireland & wiped out their stock. What a shame...............
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