Last night before the House adjourned I was drawing attention to the great importance of inland fisheries and I mentioned that the lakes and rivers of Ireland were a gold mine if properly developed and better advertised. No doubt the Irish Tourist Development Association are doing very valuable work in that respect. They have issued leaflets drawing attention to the scenic and sporting attractions of each county and they have been circulated all over the world. The May fly fishing is now in full swing on the celebrated and beautiful lakes in Westmeath. For once in a way the conditions are very favourable and anglers are having a record season up to the present. No matter how plentiful the fish may be if you have an east wind and sun you cannot have success. Last night I gave figures as to the number of fish that are being caught, but as fishing stories are generally supposed to be exaggerated I have got a copy of a local paper and I intend to read from it briefly its report of the fishing there. It says:—
Lough Ennel has excelled itself this dapping season. From the first day the May-fly appeared on the water, sport was consistently good and anyone who went out on the lake was always sure of getting some trout. During the past week, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday were days which gave extra good sport, but it was reserved for Sunday to stand pre-eminent in the record number of trout that were taken. Enthusiastic anglers reached the lake early on Sunday morning and, though some rain fell, the morning brightened up and a nice south-east wind began to blow. The Lake presented a very animated appearance and between twenty and thirty boats could be counted eagerly searching the water for rising trout. There was a good rise of May-fly and prospects looked promising when it was seen that several roads were, very early in the day, engaged playing fish. About the middle of the day most of the boats had concentrated on the fishing ground from Shanogue Island to the Borrough Hill. We regret it is not possible to give an exact account of all the trout that were taken, but we believe all the boats must have at least four each on an average basis, and we are pleased to learn that some visitors and tourists who were on the Lake had also good baskets. The following catches will give a fair idea of how excellent sport was. Mr. P. W. Shaw, T.D., returned with the record number of fifteen very fine trout. Dr. Keelan got eleven; Mr. Hutchinson eight; Messrs. Reilly, Dooly and Doherty eight, some of them very heavy fish. Mr. Weir got six; Messrs. Thorogood and Stenson four; Mr. E. Murphy four.
That quotation is from "The Westmeath Nationalist." The reason I have drawn attention to that very important matter is that that fishing has not been obtained there without local effort. The Minister has been severely criticised in this House on the ground that he has not done sufficient for the fishing industry, but I say that sufficient local effort is not being made by people in their various local districts. I will give the House the reasons why fishing in Westmeath has been so successful, in the hope that other counties will do the same good work which we have been doing. In the past very few of the fish that went up the rivers to spawn returned to the lakes. Most of them were speared and other classes of weapons were used to destroy them. The result was that thousands of fish that went to spawn were completely lost. Some of them were packed in barrels and salted and were no good to anybody, but did grave injury. The Civic Guards have done wonderful work in connection with the protection of rivers, and I would pay them a high tribute in that respect. They have patrolled the rivers at night and have seen that the fish that went up to spawn were not interfered with and were allowed to return to the lakes. In addition huge quantities of pike which came to spawn in shallow water were shot. Everyone knows that pike are the biggest enemies which trout have. That is another reason for the wonderful fishing which we are now enjoying.
In addition cormorants, which are also enemies of trout, are estimated to eat their own weight of fish per day. Large numbers of these birds have been destroyed. The Fish Preservation Society have been paying 2s. 6d. for each head of a cormorant brought to them. Anybody who brings the head of a cormorant to the Society gets 2s. 6d. As far as Lough Ennel is concerned, these birds have found out that it is anything but a health resort for them.