River Maine catch records

River Maine, County Kerry, Catch Statistics 2010 - 2016

River Maine, County Kerry, Marshalls Bridge.

If you take a glance at the catch records of the river Maine in county Kerry, provided by the Inland Fishery Board, it makes for interesting reading. The records go back to 2001 - 2002 and at that time Salmon fishing was not what it is today. Very little regulation existed and drift nets were still in place all along the west coast of Ireland. There was no such thing as fish counters or Angling licences and I suppose it was a bit like the wild west on some rivers. With todays regulations, sometimes Angling for Salmon, can feel like a job, if you are not catching fish. I for one find all this regulation fascinating and to be honest if you stand on the bank all day, you will here nothing but negative feelings. If you look back to 2001 - 2002 very little Salmon were caught on the Maine but maybe the majority of the fish were not accounted for. The real evidence based statistics, can only be studied from 2010 up to the present day.


Here is a graph showing the rod and line statistics of rod caught Salmon from 2010 up until 2016.



As we can see in 2010, there was a reported amount of 66 Salmon caught on the river Maine. In the year 2011 there is 30% increase of fish reported caught. Again in 2012 there is another increase of 30%. Why the increase? You can do all the studies in the world but in reality, a definite answer can not be given. The Castlemaine draft net fishery was closed for a number of years up until 2011, so maybe this was the reason for the increase? Maybe there was a few good breeding years that led to the increase. Again the reasons for good and bad years cannot be explained but what is for sure, is that the commercial fishing at the mouth of the river Maine never seems to have bad years. We can then see a downward trend, from 2012 till 2014, but after 2014, it starts to rise again. From talking to the experienced anglers since a child, they have always said, that every five years, brings on a good year and it will be interesting to see if this is the case on the river Maine.

Here you can see the statistics of the commercial Salmon fishing on the river Maine.





Here we can statistics from the Inland Fishery Board showing the number of Salmon netted legally at the mouth of the river Maine. As you can see in both graphs the dotted line which is called a trendline, shows that the rod catch statistics is on a downward spiral. If you read reports from both the EU, the various Salmon Conservation Groups and the Inland Fishery Board they will state the importance of wild Salmon in our rivers. It is not sustainable to be taking an average of 800 Salmon out of the river Maine. On average the anglers take out approximately 150 fish, obviously all these figures are in line with the Total Allowable Catch of the river Maine, but as an angler the benefits of the river Maine as a Angling Fishery far outweighs the commercial fishery. So what about the future of the river Maine? In my opinion things are now better then they have ever been. All these regulations are vital in saving our Salmon. At least now with the introduction of a fish counter on the river Maine, if the number of salmon entering the river fall below a certain threshold the river will be closed. It has happened both the commercial fishing and recreational fishing were closed before. The number are on the rise again with an increase was 50% from 2014 until 2016. The only way is up!

Please note not fully aware if the quota for castlemaine harbour includes commercial quotas for other river systems within the harbour. Article is just a blog not a study.Tight lines.