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Belgium Anglers state their case

It is not a habit of mine joining in discussions on blogs, but as a member of the, by now, hated Belgian fishingparty that fished Currane last week, I feel I don’t have another choice. I feel that what has happened here is grately injust, to say the least, to my friends and myself. So I think we have a right to put things into perspective? At first my appologies for what will probably be not the best of English. Speaking for myself now at first, I have been flyfishing (only) in Ireland for more than thirty years by now, mostly for trout, but also for seatrout and occasionally for salmon. Fishing for at least once a year, sometimes two or even three times , my guess is that this must be close to fourty visits. During all this time I must indeed plead guilty for the massive killing, keeping and eating of 6 salmon and, I guess, 30 seatrout , all perfectly within your fishery laws. That’s not even one fish per visit, partly during a period when C&R was never heard of in Ireland! I know money should have nothing to do with flyfishing, but for the people accusing my friends and me for fishing for fish and not for fun, I will let them work out the maths for themselfs.  Maybe it’s good to know that one visit is a cost of around €1000.  So I think it’s reasonable to say the fish is of no importance to us, the fishing is. And while we’re at it, this money is spend in your economy by the way, Aer Lingus, rental cars, gasoline stations, local pubs and restaurants, self catering houses, fishing licenses and hired out boats…. And no, we are not privileged people moneywise, we are working class, of which 3 out of 4 are retired.

As for the beautifull lough Currane, it’s upper lakes, River Inny and surroundings, a place we love just as much as you do, we are flyfishing there since 1998. It has been the (disgusting from what I’ve read just recently) habit of ours of taking home one (1) good fish each, if we were lucky enough to catch one. More often than not we were not, but be sure that this did never curbed our enthousiasme for going at it very hard, that’s how people out there know us, feel free to ask around. We’ve had good years and bad one’s, and the bad one’s were not necessary those of recent years, two years ago we caught more than 70 seatrout (kept one each as usual, and yes, we know the difference from a brown trout), three years ago around 40, even when being blown of the lake half the week. So forgive us from thinking this lake is ok. On my first visit in 1998 I managed 14 seatrout, two years later I managed just 1 in very good conditions. This goes to show that for us visiting anglers this has always been a very fluctuating experience. And that’s what you see on these dreadfull pictures, three fish taken home, by four flyfishing friends experiencing a lean year on Currane, it’s as simple as that, no more, no less. The seatrout being totally ok for taking, we’ve seen much worse. The grilse less so, I admit, but for a first salmon taken in a lifetime, who are we to judge?

We always take legislation very seriously, any which country we fish, also our own. Hell, we were buying our salmon licenses in a small shop in mainstreet Waterville the first year we went there, while the whole of Waterville made fun of us for doing so!! But we did, because that’s who we are, we want to do things right, and if for some reason the taking of this one fish is no longer acceptable we will be the first to go along with this. Even without being mandatory we would go along with that, we fish Sheelin a couple of years, always C&R because the local club asks us to act that way, and someone put up some flyers with “don’t kill the goose with the golden eggs”in every mooring around the lake. We don’t take any fish, even if legally allowed, if we know something is wrong.  But it is Irish responsibility, or local anyway, to point visiting anglers in the right direction. For us Currane never had this problem, because told nowhere! Connemara has and great parts of Scotland have. A seatrout collapse in Kerry, never heard of! Surely a fishery as vast as this is monitored well, knowing exactly what comes in, and when to take action accordingly when nothing does. The River Inny  is looked after nicely the last couple of years and that’s only a few miles away. If Currane is in the state you all say it’s in, how come nobody is taking any action? But that is really not my business, it’s yours.  Did I mention that I fished the Inny as well this year? On the C&R basis, barbless single hooks and all that is required. I did not do well, but enjoyed every moment of it, despite being the fishmonger you all suggest I am.

What struck us the most, except for the language some of you use (this “wanker” boy taking the lead), is the fact that you all were very quick in judging us, being foreign I guess did us no good. Let me tell you that during our week just us, a man from France and a party from the UK were fishing the lake, there just was nobody else, only foreigners. Like you all will know probably, this lake used to employ as much as fourty ghillies a long time ago, while commercially being netted for seatrout/salmon, you surely must admit that fishing cannot be the problem.

So what happens now, I don’t know, we might come back to fish, probably not. Some of you might applaud that, getting rid of foreign fishermen. Allow me to tell you just one more thing, this has taken long enough. Next time you drive into town passing Currane River bridge, if you have the problem I think you have, it will be on your left hand (salty)side, not us on your right. And it will be foreign too, and not so easily to get rid of. But if you manage to get your act together, (until a couple of day’s ago we would have taken a flight and supported you in doing so), commercial interests on the lake, environmental ones, and even the ones shouting at us incognito,  to face and fight this problem, the iconic status of the salmon and seatrout might help you in court if the judge is a relative of Kingsmill Moore. If not, which is likely, it will certainly help you to point out the economical value of this fishery, because it’s all about that these days.  And that’s when you will wish there were more of us foreign fishermen left on the system, we add nicely to the figure. I rest my case!

Kind regards to you all, even to the one person who owns that Sage rod !!!

Marc Luyten

Dirk Van Dessel

Belgium