Skip to content

Kells Anglers 2020 AGM Newsletter

  • News

Salmon

There were 3 salmon recorded in club waters, which was disappointing considering there plenty of good water conditions for salmon. The best fish that I know of was 11.75 caught by myself.

Trout

Trout fishing to my mind was quiet. There was the usual good fishing to nymphs, but the evening fishing was poor. The best trout that I know of was a 3.5lb caught by Morgan Brennan.

Instream Development

Apart from some overdue trimming back of trees on the enhanced section of the Kerian river there was no instream work on the main river or any tributaries on the Blackwater and very little country wide. This was due to ridiculous and self-servicing disingenuous IFI policy’s. The club took a leading role in a campaign by the Boyne Catchment Group to reverse this shocking breach of IFI’s statutory obligations.

To this end over seventy parliamentary questions were tabled to the fishery minister, through our local elected representatives. Many thanks must go to Thomas Byrne, Shane Cassells, Imelda Munster and Peadar Tóibín. Thirty-five Freedom of information requests were also made. This information was used to make direct complaints to the fishery minister.

A special thanks must also go to Helen McEntee who made sure our complaints actually made it to the fishery minister, and facilitated meetings in her office with departmental senior officials.

IFI have reinstated technical support to the OPW in the form of instream plans, supervision and signing off on projects. We will be keeping a good eye on future developments on this subject.

Benefit night

The club held a benefit night for Stephen MacManus a lifelong member who suffered life changing injuries. Many thanks to all involved in making the night a success. In particular Noel McLoughlin.

Pollution

The past year was a busy one on this front. Early in the year Antony Boyle reported an oily slick coming down a ditch into the river. He soon discovered the site where this material has been dumped.

The council placed booms at out flow and got specialist clean up contractors in. There is ongoing monitoring of the site. This was a very serious incident carried out by callous perpetrators. The only saving grace was the river was in a big flood.

There is an ongoing issue with Cavan county council and Irish water in regards to the waste water treatment plant in Virginia which is nothing short of shocking. The behavior of Cavan county council is beyond belief. We taught that the situation had being brought under control. Due to councils planning permissions being over turned by the planning board. Now it seems that the planned upgrade to the plant has been pushed back by two years. We will continue to make noise on this issue.

Juniors

We had two junior competitions during the year. The barbecue competition was a great success and provides parents with a very cheap day out. Junior membership is only one euro.

Gene Survey

There is an ongoing follow up survey to back up the results of the last survey. Any scales from the river or more particularly from the lake would be appreciated.

Back To Top