Catch Statistics
The Catch Records
Summary of the Catches for the 1999 Season
402 Fish
During 1999, Coolcronan was underfished until mid June and so we largely missed out on an excellent run of Spring salmon.
From mid June to mid July, the grilse attracted a good numbers of anglers. As a result, catches reflected Coolcronan's potential as an excellent grilse fishery.
Conditions in September were poor in the first two weeks. After that, anglers were usually well rewarded, but heavy water until the end of the season kept all but the regulars away. As a result, the September catches fell short of what we saw in 1998.
The 2000 Season
251 fish recorded (See "Comments on 2000 catches below")
595 rods days
Average Fish to Rod Day ratio: 42%
Very low water until July seriously affected both the Spring run of salmon and the grilse run.
The grilse arrived late, with a large population of fish building up in July. However, by that time most of the visiting anglers were gone and the July catches did not reflect what was on offer.
After mid July up to the end of August, Coolcronan was only fished sporadically, as few anglers were around. However, over 30 fish were caught by relatively few anglers, showing a good fish to rod ratio.
In contrast to the rest of the season, September fished well with over 70 fish recorded. When conditions were right, early September fished well, but the last two weeks of the season offered some of the best catches of the year.Comments on our Recording of Catches during 2000
No catches were recorded after 6 pm, largely due to a lack of manpower that will be remedied in the coming season.
As a result, a substantial percentage of the real catches are not included in these figures. We have only recorded fish that were actually seen by either Andrew Wrigley or David Carlisle
Summary for the Year 2000 Season
In summary, the poor fishing conditions, compounded with a reduced presence of anglers when the runs came in, resulted in a negative impact on the year 2000 catches.
Again, our recording of catches had room for improvement.
We consider that 251 fish is more of an indicator of what turned out to be a disappointing Season rather than the full story.
Size Matters: Year 2000 Season
The biggest fish of 2000 was twice as big! Best Fish of the Year 2000 Season
Our record fish for the year was caught on 21st September, weighing in at over 20 lbs, on a day when 14 other fish were caught.
This was also one of the best days of the Season, reflecting the excellent sport that September can offer.
Size Matters: 1999 Season
In 1999 the first week of June came up trumps amidst the glorious tail end of one of the best Spring runs in recent years. Our record fish for 1999 was caught on June 2nd and weighed in at 17.5 lbs. The average weight of fish caught in the first 7 days of June was over 8.5 lbs.
April and May were under fished, but anglers were mostly well rewarded. The average weight of fish caught in May was well over 9 lbs and the Fish to Rod ratio was 0.46, almost 1 large Springer for every 2 days of fishing.
Despite a poor start, the last 12 days of September performed well, with a Fish to Rod ratio of 0.94 and an average weight of over 6 lbs.
The surge of very large fish in early June may reflect the banning of the state operated fish traps at the falls in Ballina during June and we look forward to seeing how late May and early June perform in the future.
Over the last two years, Coolcronan's Fish to Rod ratio (i.e., how many fish were caught in relation to the number of anglers present), show that anglers will sacrifice an excellent chance of catching good numbers of large fish in exchange for the smaller but more evident and predictable grilse.
When averaged over each month, the Fish to Rod ratio does not vary hugely. For example, in 1999, June showed an average ratio of 0.68. As stated above, May 1999 averaged a more than acceptable 0.46.
This shows that fishing in June is certainly more consistent than May, but every angler knows that it takes quite a few grilse to match the heart lurching excitement of 15 pounds of pure silver fighting the line.
As rods are limited at Coolcronan, taking fish are available to fewer anglers and our Fish to Rod ratio will consistently outperform other beats that can get overcrowded, especially when they are fishing well.
