Yet another year has slipped by - it seems like yesterday when I reviewed 2001. Apart from a very cold period after Christmas, the winter generally remained pretty mild and pleasant. Duckfly arrived on cue, however, I cannot help feeling that, progressively over the last four years, the actual quantity of fly hatching has diminished. This does not appear to have adversely affected the fishing as, anybody who has fished duckfly knows, you can frequently have too much fly with the fish gorging themselves. It did, however, mean that there were not large quantities of egg-laying females to prolong the actual fishing towards the end of April.

It started to rain and rain and rain, and rain again, which kept the lake at a higher than normal level right up until mid-August. This did not appear to bother the olives. Whilst the top of the water olive fishing was good the deep fishing, with olive nymphs, was at times superb. The main Mayfly season was good as conditions for fishing remained suitable throughout. Dry fly fishing was excellent with, what I call "drift on dries" where you allow the boat to drift on to relatively static dry flies.

Reports of good quantities of salmon and grilse were not realised in our section of the lake. As far as catch returns were concerned, I would consider it to have been a poor year for salmon and grilse. It is time that the Government stopped pussy-footing about and did what needs to be done - ban the drift nets at sea. Anglers, too, must play their part progressively exercising catch and release more and more.

New recommendations asking anglers not to kill more than four trout/boat/day are to be welcomed. Old habits die hard, however, and we must lead by example. It is hard to quantify it but I would guess that over 80% of fish caught by guests at Grasshopper Cottage are returned alive to the water. It is particularly gratifying to walk along the banks of the spawning streams at this time of year (October) and see fish spawning and to think that perhaps, maybe, just maybe that is one of the fish you returned during the year.

After the Mayfly (mid-June), fishing became more difficult than it had been for the last few years. One can only speculate on the reasons why: certainly there were considerably more perch fry this year than for many years. The perch population has recovered following their virtual wipe-out six or seven years ago. Trout feed heavily on this perch or pin fry making life for the fly angler very difficult.

There was also an immense amount of daphnia dispersed throughout the lake. I can only surmise that the feeding trout were also dispersed, as daphnia feeding fish could be located in relatively small pockets, here, there and everywhere. From mid-August condistions for good daphnia fishing were not there. Generally, it was much too bright and settled as we entered into an Irish form of an "Indian Summer".

We welcome back to Grasshopper Cottage Roy's fish of a lifetime. This incredibly marked fish has undergone painstaking restoration by Paul Douras following a botched job by the taxidermist. Thank you, Paul!

Much time this year has been spent filming the video, Corrib Seasons. This is in three parts - Spring, Summer and Autumn. Part 1, Spring, is now available and it concentrates upon Duckfly fishing.

The other major achievement of the year was the completion of our new rod-room facility - has to be seen to be believed! This proved to be a winner though Denis still has not provided the optics as promised! 2003 maybe? See you there!

Roy E. Peirce

October 2002