In article .com, Tarby777
wrote:
Hi all,

This time next year I'll be hitting the big four-oh, and I'm determined

Another stripling huh?

to catch my first salmon. I'm guessing that short of trekking halfway
across Europe, somewhere in Ireland would be my best bet.

or at least a very good bet.

I must admit to being a total dunce when it comes to Salmon but I do at
least know that they run at different times of year in different
rivers. Can anyone in the group recommend a good destination in Ireland
for salmon at this time of year?

I believe the best way to approach Irish fishing is to be flexible. This is
a very good time of year to try, a month ago might have been fractionally
better. The trouble is that most Irish rivers are very rain dependant so
even on a first rate water (and the Moy -is- a first rate water) you can
struggle if the rain god misbehaves.

By all means book a beat for the first day or two of your trip but be
prepared to move elsewhere if conditions dictate. If (say) the Moy is
unfishably high then a few of the smaller West coast spate rivers only
thirty miles away might be in trim - or they might be taking them from the
boats on the loughs. In the south the Blackwater might be showing its bones
but the hydroelectric generators may be passing enough water to keep fish
in the Lee - got the idea?

FWIW, I've fished the Moy at Foxford before and wouldn't mind going
back there. It was in full spate (raging torrent, tree trunks floating
along... you get the picture) and I caught an eel and a perch.
Grrrrr....

Google for a Moy report of mine here in April 2003. Very different
conditions.

Cheerio,

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