Flooded Drowes hampers any prospect of first salmon for now  

As more rivers in the south of the country open for the salmon season on January 17, high waters and flooding in Donegal and Leitrim have led to the curtailment of any prospect of the first salmon being landed from the famous Drowes river at present.

Shane Gallagher from the Drowes salmon fishery confirmed this afternoon that the high waters had basically resulted in little or no fishing activity on the river over recent days. The first salmon had already been caught by this time last year on the river.  

He said that the trend showed that rising sea temperatures meant that the salmon were going further and further out to sea to feed which in turn meant that it was taking them longer to return to the rivers to spawn.

He said that this was just another knock on effect of global warming, but the recent flooding of the river due to the adverse weather conditions would certainly not be conducive ‘to grass’ the first wild Irish salmon of the year and a “general shift” in the salmon arriving back along the coast.

The flooding as seen from the new Bundrowes Bridge. Pic: Michael McHugh 

“That is one theory although there has been a general decline over the years in terms of salmon stock,” he explained.

Shane, who took over the fishery after the passing of his late father Thomas back in 2002, coincidentally on the first day of the salmon season, January 1, said that the water levels would need to settle down again, before anglers were back on the trail for the big prized first salmon of the year.   

Flooding of the river seen from the old Bundrowes Bridge on the Donegal Leitrim border Pic: Michael McHugh

Extensive flooding of the banks of the river right down to the new and old Bundrowes Bridges was observed by this reporter with temperatures there plummeting down to zero degrees within the next few hours, as happened last evening as well.