Hi All

Just a note to all I wouldnt bother fishing this river again. I just returned from my annual fishing trip to Donegal and paid for me and 2 friends to fish beat 8 for a day. We came across 2 nets and a third being set on Bryan's Pool. The man and his two children then pretended to fish while keeping a close eye on the nets even tho he saw us see him setting the net. This was at 4pm!! We couldnt get hold of anyone in the office as it had closed for the day. As Im sure the poacher knew. We got his license number and the following day I provided this to the owenea fishing office when I went in to get a full refund. This was refused so I will be now escalating the matter. I was offered 2 free days on the river but declined as it would be abit like returning to your house after watching it being burgled! I've never being approached by a balliff on the river in 5 visits. The river is being poached daily and as far as I can see nothing is being done so I dont see why they are charging for day permits without protecting the river! You might as well go there with just a state licence and fish away!

Welcome to ireland....

Surprised this thread hasn't attracted more comment. As a frequent visitor to Ireland I am very aware of the poaching/illegal methods employed by the Irish themselves on their salmon rivers/estuaries. Sad but Hobble's comment sums it up really.

My friend and myself have fished the River Drowes on the border of Donegal and Leitrim for a number of years now and have never encountered poaching, although that is not to say that it does not exist. Salmon fishing is FREE ! if you book a cottage and all you need is the required licence. Both of us took a Salmon on the fly this May so we had a great trip. (P.M. me if you require any extra info). We love Ireland and it's people, whether we catch or not !

"we're watching it during the night, but the problem is they are poaching all through the day.".....hmmmm I might employ a team of monkeys to come up with a solution to that one!

the river drowes is without doubt one of the finest salmon fisheries in the country, the fishery has been transformed over the years to make it more angler friendly and also the creation of differant salmon pools allows for all methods of salmon fishing to prevail and be successful,
shane galagher, his late father thomas, bill likely and the staff need to be congratulated on their hard work and efforts, poaching is non existant on the drowes thanks to their work and the anglers who frequent the drowes,

the river is fishing fantastic up to yesterday 5th june with plenty of salmon in the system and fresh runs daily off the high tide,

Salmotheleaper I am sorry that you had a negative experience on the Owenea as I have fished several times and it is indeed a very fine Salmon River. They should do something for you as a good exercise in PR



As for Spruce's reply I take exception to his generalisation

"As a frequent visitor to Ireland I am very aware of the poaching/illegal methods employed by the Irish themselves on their salmon rivers/estuaries."

As an Irish angler for nearly 40 years I can assure you that the vast majority of anglers in this country are sportsmen and any Poaching/illegal methods that takes place are carried out by a very small minority and I am sure it is no better or worse than any other country.

__________________
Never Disturb a Trout when it's Feeding

Sadly, a lot of Irish rivers are like this.

The Drowse is exceptionally well run, but unfortunately, due to lack of funding and/or interest a lot of rivers are heavily poached.

__________________
www.paypalsucks.com

I cannot tell ypu how disapointed I am. I used to fish this river regularly and it had the highest catch rate of all the rivers I fished including the lower pools on the Moy, Something needs to be done now. I have noticed this return of local bullying in recent years. It happens on the Mourne, the Agivey and the best spots on Strangford Lough

I will let you know the outcome. Its being raised with the Development/Angling inspector & also the Letterkenny inspector. I plan to speak with them personally to discuss some of the points below.
Alot of the local fishermen I spoke to had never fished this river. 35 Euro a day may be reasonable but given the current local economic climate it remains out of reach to many. More than anything, a river must appeal to local fishermen and policies need to be put in place to ensure they do not become dis-interested in its plight. The irony of what happened on the owenea that day is it was the first time I had witnessed a father teaching two children on the banks of a salmon river how to catch a fish in nearly 10 years fishing for salmon in donegal. Albeit illegally! Of course it didn’t cost him. Whereas the cost to legally achieve the same is probably why I've never witnessed it! The result is the next generation of poachers are already coming through but the next generation of local fishermen rarely fish the the owenea, finn, gweebara, glen, cumrick, reelin etc etc. The decline in anglers on the rivers is leading them open to heavy poaching. The financial cost of ensuring more people are encouraged to fish through reduced prices, reduced prices for adults who bring a minor (with lifejacket), reduced local prices, etc etc far outweighs the current system keeping anglers off the rivers which for want of better words is a "complete disgrace!". Poachers like to set nets at times of low water allowing easy crossing of the river. A time when fishermen rarely Venture out, especially local ones. Having to pay the same price to fish a spate river in low water as the day after a flood is just plain daft regardless of how common these rules are! If the rivers were run like businesses instead of government departments they would rather have someone fishing at a reduced rate, watching the rivers, Providing feedback, rather than day after day of no one fishing because of the prices!