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They caught flatfish, dabs, trout and 14 salmon. Ben raced back to Kildare with the catch to put it in the freezer and returned immediately to continue the fishing!
Popular fishing pubs were McGinleys and the Thatch of Bishop street and the Nook in Main street. The Gormleys owned the Nook (renamed Dilingers) since 1958 and Gerry fished with Eddie, Bamey, Jack and Dessie Drum, John Mclntyre, Matt Corbett, Willie Grimes and Aidan Gormley.
At a fishermans party in the Nook in 1993, Danny McIntyre sang his self composed ballad 'The Wanted Man' about the elusive salmon of the channel.
He's a wanted man up in the tailrace, the Spillway and the Lake
From the Island to the Black rock, someone's given it a rake!
In recent years, Hugh John McGonigle skippered a crew which included Frankie McGonigle, Andrew Lang, the Pattersons and Fergus Slevin. Michael Donagher, well known soccer coach and jazz musician, has encouraged youthful fishermen including Michael Ward, Timmy Gallagher, William Gallagher, Patrick O'Malley, Danny Kane and Stephen Cunningham. Harry Coughlin fished with Jim Mahon, James McIntyre, Willie 'Popeye' Murphy and P.J. Lynch. Owen Coyle has worked with Paddy Kelly, Darby McGroarty, Anthony Patterson and Michael Patton. John, Gary and Martin Gillespie fished with Tony and Charlie Kane while songwriter Danny McIntyre teamed up with Eddie McIntyre, Oliver McIntyre and Keith Brennan.
Ronan McInerney has an enthusiastic crew with Paddy Kelly, Larry Dolan, Francie Doherty, Frankie Doherty, Alan Kane, Billy Grimes, Pauric Kane and Daniel Grimes on board at different times. Dessie Drum teams up occasionally with Anthony O'Malley Daly, Paul Devaney and Jason McCormack while Sean Gavigan also has a boat on the estuary.
Channel fishermen who occasionally fish 'outside' for lobsters are John Gavigan, P.J. Gavigan, Mick Gavigan, Jim Morrow, Thomas Barron, Michael Farmer, Alan Kane, Pat Ward and Willie McNeely.
So, the draft fishing in the channel still survives but catches have decreased drastically in recent years, despite the best efforts of the Northern Regional Fishery Board and Ballyshannon Salmon Hatchery near the ESB dam.
Apart from draft fishing from boats, the Erne channel has provided great entertainment for rod fishermen. Rogans fly tying shop on the purt, established in 1830, is known internationally and the 'Gadget' fly and the ,silver and blue' are just two successful products. Television presenter and fishing fanatic Derek Davis always speaks highly of Rogan flies and back in 1982 a 46 pound salmon was hooked on the river Conway in England on a 'silver and blue' made by Rogans. A poem commemorating the event includes the following lines:
The fly was by Rogan of famed Ballyshannon
The best man whoever dress hook for a salmon.
In days gone by, the Mall quay and the surrounding rocks were alive with lone fishermen, patiently casting their lines, like stalking herons. Some of the best known rodmen were Pat McGettigan, John and Pat 'Kerrigan; Jim and Michael McDonagh, Paudge Dorrian, Teddy Tieman, Frankie Millar, Paddy O'Neill, Tommy O'Brien (Finner), Maurice Foley, Mrs. Foley (the Mall), Hugh McIvor, Paddy Meehan, Brother Fidelis, Brother John, Michael Rogan, John Miles and Jack Fannon.
More recently Leo Chisom, Tommy McNern, Jim Mahon, Michael 'Fishy' Patton, Paddy Gallagher (Cluain Baron), Danny Kerrigan, Gerry McDermott, Jack Grimes, Billy Grimes, Michael Donagher (who has also revived eel fishing in the area), and P.J. Keon were some of the many anglers to enjoy the pleasures of the Erne while Gerry McNamara favours lake fishing.
A number of sea angling clubs exist at Creevy, Ballyshannon, and Bundoran. Outstanding anglers in these clubs are Hugh John Patton, Sean Gavigan, Alec Reynolds, Mick Kirwan, Jim Barron, John Devanney, Seamus Coughlin, Anthony O'Malley Daly, Chirsty Higgins, Michael Goodwin, Harry Jordan, Willie McNeely, Patrick Patton and Gerry McGowan.
The list of fishermen who have enjoyed the waterways of the Ballyshannon area is endless and varied and before we finish we must mention Captain Dan Auchinleck, a former captain of Bundoran Golf Club, who lived in Laptua, Ballyshannon. He was pictured with a 35 lb. salmon which he caught in the Erne. Auchinleck was killed in Belgium in October 1914 in the Great War. He was a cousin of Claude 'the Auk' Auchinleck who commanded the British forces against Rommell in Africa during World War Two.
Lucius Emerson, the renowned Historian, has fond memories of 'Gussy' Gonigle, an excellent angler from Belleek. Lucius himself preferred the gun to the rod and aided the fishermen by hunting connorants on the estuary. He actually shot and bagged a pike from Mall quay with a rifle!!
Undoubtedly, the Erne was an idyllic setting for anglers and Sir Humphrey Davy write, circa 1800, �I should place the Erne at Ballyshannon as now the first place for salmon fishing from the banks with a rod in the British dominions.�
In 1775, Dr. Richard Twiss toured Ireland and wrote of Ballyshannon's waterfall that it ... �falls down a ridge of rocks, about 12 feet, and at low water forms one of the most picturesque cascades I ever saw. It is rendered still more singular and interesting by being the principal salmon leap in Ireland.�
Arthur Young, in his Tour of Ireland in 1776, also visited Ballyshannon and viewed the waterfall.
Thomas Davis, who was part of the Young Ireland movement in the 1840's wrote: �I sat by Ballyshannon in the summer and watched the salmon leap.�
Sadly, the salmon leap waterfall disappeared with the building of the power station in the late 1940's.
Still in a nostalgic vein, we end with William Allingham's celebrated tribute to his native town and to the fishing life of the Erne:
No more on pleasant evenings we'll saunter down the Mall,
When the trout is rising to the fly, the salmon to the fall,
The boat comes straining on her net, and heavily she creeps,
Cast off, cast off! - she feels the oars, and to her berth she sweeps;
Now, fore and aft keep hauling, and gathering up the clue,
Til a silver wave of salmon rolls in among the crew.
Then they may sit, with pipes a-lit, and many a joke and 'yarn;'-
Adieu to Ballyshanny, and the winding banks of Erne!
References:
Ballyshannon; History and Antiquities��..... Hugh Allingham
Ballyshannon, Past and,Present�����....Canon Edward Maguire
Ballyshannon; the Rare Old Times����... Edward Barron / Grace Donavan
Rock Memories 1998���������....Fr. Ramon Munster
Salmon Fisheries of the River Erne����.. Frank Hayes
History of Bundoran Golf Club������ Anthony Begley
Diary of a Ballyshannon Lady 1844-48���Anthony Begley (Donegal Annual 1993)
Assaroe 'Abbey of the Morning Star'����Geraldine Carville
The Erne Fisheries Case���������Joe McGarrigle
Irelands Sea Fisheries; a History������John De Courcy Ireland
Angling Articles (Donegal Democrat)���.. Anthony O'Malley Daly
Special thanks to Tommy and Fred Daly, Danny and Tom Coughlin, Malachy Daly, Joe Morrow (R.I.P 1999), Seamus Grimes (R.I.P 1999), Hugh John Patton, Lucius Emerson, John Skinner, Jennifer McClay, Billy Grimes, John Cronin, Anthony O'Malley Daly, Paddy Kelly, Carl Duggan, Anthony Begley, Pauric Kane, Marie Gavigan, Linda Gavigan, Aidan Breslin, Cecil Stephens, Derek Doyle, Jim Slevin, Danny McIntyre and Historic Ballyshannon.