In my last post I touched on the spawning activity which had just kicked off. Since then, there has been a huge amount of spawning especially in the main river. Until the break in the weather on December 12th, any streams I walked seemed devoid of salmon due to low water. To give a picture of how much spawning occurred in the main river a certain stretch which had been observed from 2008-2010 yielded a redd count high of 17. However this year, while walking only half of the same stretch I clearly counted at least 70 redds which is over 4 times the amount counted in previous years. Whether or not this is good news is hard to say. Due to the amount of storms and high water we've had since my count, there is no doubt that a number of redds have been washed away in the main river. Thankfully, there were still a lot of unspent fish present. These floods will have enabled salmon to ascend any tributary, where their subsequent redds will be safer. Nature always has a way of looking after itself!
Below is a short video I put together of a couple of clear photos of salmon redds that I managed to capture. The footage shows salmon held up in a pool in low water. The fish are actually holding station over previously dug out redds.
Over the last couple of days I've been tying flies in preparation for the new season. I'm waiting on new material to arrive for my salmon flies so I've decided to sharpen up my skills by tying small size 14 sea trout doubles.
The new angling regulations for 2014 have been published and a summary can be viewed here. Bandon is open for business with a quota of 752 and it is great to see the Argideen is fully open again after a couple of years of catch and release.
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