Archive for May, 2021

Tradition Passed On

Tuesday, May 18th, 2021

It was really nice to have three generations of Hayden’s getting up at the crack of dawn to make the journey down to St Mullins, skirting the Blackstairs Mountains while captivated by the mist shrouded undulating landscape of narrow hawthorn bounded lanes.

Arriving a little after seven bells with high water about 10.30.am, son Dan, grandson Myles and I walked upstream along the tow path before choosing a suitable pitch. On the way up along we observed a shad being landed which signaled that the species was present. Commencing fishing an hour later yours truly felt a bump through the line with no connection, a couple of casts followed then my seven foot Mitchell spinning rod bowed over to a good fish.

A couple of tail walking stunts and deep dives later young Myles netted what turned out to be the only fish of the session. No matter, the young lad was witness to a once common species rarely seen throughout both Europe and America in modern times due to mans harnessing of rivers with dams and weirs in conjunction with habitat and spawning bed destruction again the result of ill thought out human actions.

On the positive side young Myles appeared to catch the fishing bug casting like a veteran by late morning and quite obviously captivated by what is a beautiful and unique setting to cast a line, Mullachain Cafe toasties and hot chocolate consumed on a sunny river bank late morning adding icing to the proverbial. It’s always the simple things that make the difference…………..

“Salmon” by Mark Kurlansky

Saturday, May 15th, 2021

Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Genesis 1:28

Published by Oneworld Publications in 2020, “Salmon”, by Mark Kurlansky follows in the tradition of his previous title, “Cod”, outlining human kinds historic interaction with the iconic fish species that is salmon, a species which could in time be viewed as a litmus test to indicate the survival or not of the human race. For there is a perception in certain circles that if salmon cease to exist humans will not be far behind.

Salmon’s narrative pulls no punches, it outlines very clearly how European culture has viewed the earth and its resources as there to be tamed and exploited for profit, whereas indigenous native cultures, in particular the American Indians, worked and lived in harmony with the land.

Kurlansky dedicates the book to the late Orri Vigfusson an Icelandic environmentalist who succeeded more or less before his passing in curtailing the commercial fishing for North Atlantic Salmon. That said, if as the book states there are only 1.5 million salmon left in the north Atlantic when on an average year the Pacific sockeye salmon run into Bristol Bay, Alaska alone numbers 50 plus million, then we have a lot not to be proud of as humans.

The above grainy image taken sometime in the 1960′s shows my Grandfather Redmond, Mum and Dad holding up four salmon caught in trammel nets which would have been set along the south beach in Greystones, Co. Wicklow. My memories of going out fishing post 1970 when we returned from England to live was that salmon were common then. In fact lobster and salmon were regularly served up in Granny Redmond’s house back then.

The above is backed up by Kurlansky, historically North Atlantic salmon runs in Europe and the eastern states of America were as prolific as Pacific salmon runs to Alaskan rivers are today. Riverine obstructions such as dams, various forms of pollution and over fishing primarily but not totally at sea having over centuries reduced the vast North Atlantic salmon stocks to what they are today. In the past, salmon was a staple of the European diet only becoming a luxury the more scarce it got.

The key facts that emerged for me from the whole book were that the native Americans had no word for famine because they never went hungry, that there were salmon fishing cultures within all the coastal states east and west and that there were anything from 150,000 to 300,000 inhabitants per coastal state all fishing for and reliant on salmon. That they smoked it, salted it, dried it and traded the fish commercially for thousands of years while never reducing the runs, yet within 400 years “sophisticated” Europeans by their actions succeeded in bringing the North Atlantic salmon to its knees on both sides of the pond and making a good fist of ruining Pacific salmon runs on many a western American river.

The only reason today that salmon run so prolifically in Alaska is the lack of human settlement, however even these runs are under threat due to a proposed open cast gold mine which if it goes ahead will be one mile wide and a quarter mile deep and in the process will destroy 3000 acres of wetlands and 21 miles of salmon spawning streams. Have we learned nothing? Reading Kurlansky’s “Salmon” would be a good start……….


Tail Walking at Dawn

Sunday, May 9th, 2021

Hard to believe that it has been eight years since I last made the early morning trip to St Mullins, Co. Carlow with shad in mind. Cousins of both herring and tarpon, this anadromous species (born in freshwater, lives and grows in seawater, spawns in freshwater) enters the river Barrow over the first and second spring tides of May to spawn below the weir upstream of St Mullins.

Setting the alarm for 03.30.am I arrived just as light was beginning to show about 05.15.am more or less bang on high tide. A neap tide in between the two springs the bush telegraph had told me there were fish in the river albeit in ones and twos the previous week being unseasonably cold with ground frosts every morning. That said, a few lucky anglers had made contact with the main shoal over the week which resulted in catches of 30 – 60 fish over a session, all catch and release.

Setting up a seven foot light spinning rod, reel loaded with six pound nylon attached to a 13 gram blue/silver tazmanian devil I walked up the tow path a wee bit and cast towards the far bank. It being high tide I let the lure sink before engaging the reel and applying a quick slow retrieve. A fisher upstream landed a fish about an hour in, by now the tide was starting to fall. The water was crystal clear so I could observe my lure as it came into view a few metres out.

I cast and retrieve for the umpteenth time, a bump simultaneously pulls the rod tip over but no connection. There is something out there showing interest. Another cast, another bump. I cast again, let the lure sink and begin retrieving, bang fish on, skittering left and right then up on its tail, a few more dashes then in the net, wet hands, hook out and release. No messing these fish are fragile and do not survive long out of water. Next cast a shad follows and turns away at the bank, a brief flurry of action peters out. It is now 09.00.am and I am hungry. With a good number of anglers now arriving I up sticks but already have a plan for next weekend when a big spring tide will find me yet again on the bank at dawn………….