Artic Char

Deer Hunter DL

anyone on here fish artic char , they come into a few donegal lakes around october time

brianthebard

I thought they were just farmed here?

coolwings

I'd love to, but over here on the East coast mountain lakes where I am they have all been killed off by acid rain. :-(

jd

http://www.charr.org/ is worth a look...

Zzippy

Deer Hunter DL wrote: »

anyone on here fish artic char , they come into a few donegal lakes around october time

They are in the lake the whole time, they just live in deep water most of the year and come into the shallows to spawn around November. Fished for them in Lough Eske once, bloody cold, and very small fish. Shame to see so many small fish being taken for the pan when they are spawning... should be left alone IMO

dangleberries

Deer Hunter DL wrote: »

anyone on here fish artic char , they come into a few donegal lakes around october time

hi
there is a conservation group for char in ireland, look up nfo@char.org
on a seperate note i saw a char caught at a fly fishing competition on lough derravaragh yesterday sunday october 12th a lake that according to all available information does not have a char population.

Deer Hunter DL

what kind of fly was it taken on

coolwings

Derravaragh is lowland, warm in summer, eutrophicated, and full of roach and pike. Those are all bad for char, and there is no record of them being there.
On the other hand it has a deep water refuge area which char need to make it through warm weather. So it would be fantastic if they were there.
Did anyone take a photo of the char?

I would be inclined to think that that fish is more likely to be a brown trout with the unusual no spots colouration variation.

They are rare but one turns up every few years. they look like a char which has no red colouration. Picture from here: http://www.wild-fishing-scotland.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=8567.0

dangleberries

coolwings wrote: »

Derravaragh is lowland, warm in summer, eutrophicated, and full of roach and pike. Those are all bad for char, and there is no record of them being there.
On the other hand it has a deep water refuge area which char need to make it through warm weather. So it would be fantastic if they were there.
Did anyone take a photo of the char?

I would be inclined to this that that fish was more likely to be a brown trout with the unusual no spots colouration variation.

They are rare but one turns up every few years. they look like a char which has no red colouration. Picture from here: http://www.wild-fishing-scotland.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=8567.0

Hi
With regard to the fish caught on derravaragh last sunday and its colouration, the fish did not have red colouration to its underbelly however the red colouring is indicative of the male char and the female has an underbelly colouring not unlike a brown trout, a good example of this can be seen on the "kerry lakes" page of the char preservation site listed in my origonal posting.http://www.charr.org/species/kerrychar1.htm
With regard to this particular fish as far as i know it has been frozen and i intend to get a photo of it and a sample of the scales if possible, unfortunately i did'nt have the presence of mind to get a photo on my phone at the weigh-in.
In addition i was talking to another compeditor who caught what he describes as an identical but smaller fish in the same area which he returned as it was under size.
with regard to the fly/fly's on which the fish were caught I dont yet know.
I tried to inform the char preservation site of the "siting" but my message came back with a note saying that their mail box is full ?????.
if any one has more contact information for this organisation i would be greatful.

coolwings

Call Fran Igoe of the Shannon RFB, Limerick. Or send me a PM and I will forward it to him. He is the driving force behind the www.charr.org website. They would love a tissue sample so they can do a genetic analysis.

Woger

Is the Char Organisation still on the go? I fished for them in Lough Eske a few times. They usually come into spawn the two weeks after halloween and they are caught almost exclusively on maggots. I know of another small lake where they are in Donegal. Someone fishing beside me at a competition ages ago caught two. They have been caught occasionally in this lake and I know of someone who shot a net in it ages ago and got alot of them. I think the problem is that apart form spawning in Eske it's hard to predict when they will come up from the deeper water.

Daroxtar

I've caught a good few over the years in Lough Talt in sligo. Its where i'm from. Most of them were on perch fry or gamarus imitations and a few on the worm and spinner but they've all been quite small. When i was a kid i just thought they were weird little trout and not worth keeping. The biggest i caught was about 6 ounces. They were all caught in roughly the same area of the lake ,in under the steep part of the mountain.