The Trout Hatchery at Oughterard

The trout hatchery at Oughterard, which is owned by the Federation of Angling Clubs is in my opinion one of the most important components in the overall development plans for Lough Corrib and its tributaries and in no doubt will play a big part in the development plans drafted and adopted by the Federation as their development plans for the Corrib system for the next five years.

The hatchery is operated by the Oughterard Anglers and Boatmen on behalf of the Federation. Firstly because of the location of the hatchery and secondly because of the knowledge and skills acquired by them over their years of involvement with it. It is work which requires knowledge and skill and above all a great love for angling. When operating the hatchery great care must be taken to ensure that no trout are damaged or stressed during the netting and stripping operations. One must keep in mind at all times that they are dealing with wild trout which are taken out of their natural environment and do not take kindly to any form of captivity. Each year five to six hundred trout are collected for the hatchery programme.

This process starts in mid October with a special hauling net being set in the deep end of the Oughterard river. The net is lifted twice a day and the fish from it taken to the holding ponds at the hatchery. This work goes on for a weck or a fortnight depending on the runs of fish from the lake. Some of the catches of fish can be as high as two hundred and fifty or as low as five fish or none at all. The stripping of the fish starts in November and this operation continues till all the fish are ripe and subsequently stripped for the hatchery. By stripping is meant removing the eggs from the hen fish and fertilizing them with the milk from the cock fish. The eggs are then places in the incubation trays in the hatchery.

All the fish are then taken back to the lake at the pier in Oughterard bay and released. The incubation period for the eggs in the hatchery is approximately sixteen weeks. This amount of time allows the fry to hatch out and strengthen up enough before they are released into the feeder streams by all the clubs around the lake. The distribution of fry into the system is to me one of the most important events in the hatchery programme. It is not good enough having a survival rate of 80% to 90% from egg to fry stage in the hatchery if at the end of the day the fry are placed in the wrong feeder stream. By this I mean putting fry into a feeder stream which will run dry during the summer months, putting too many in where they would not have enough of a enough of Food source to sustain them, where a system would be subject to a polluting source from time to time or lastly where the mouths of the feeder system are heavily infested with jack pike and perch and would reek havoc on the maturing fry as they try to enter the lake.

It is also important to keep a detailed record of the stocking programme from fry if possible so as to ascertain the year to year and monitor progress of validity of work being done. Since my involvement with the hatchery programme in 1985 1 have witnessed a number of encouraging developments. The hatchery has been completely renovated, a new water supply brought to it and a sand filter unit installed to eliminate the peat silt which was a big problem previously. This renovation work was all made possible by the anglers themselves when they ran a limited draw in 1990 and the Corrib system will benefit from this work for many decades to come due to the increased number of fry which it is now possible to produce at the hatchery.

A number of development programmes are in progress at the moment. One such development was done on a two mile stretch of feeder stream off the main Oughterard river, which had been damaged mainly due to drainage. Trout had stopped using it as a spawning area but by placing two to three hundred fry in it over a four year period we were able to observe trout returning to spawn there once again. There was another instance of a small spring fed lake about a mile from the Corrib and connected to it with a small outflow drain. By placing about one hundred and fifty fry in it again over a period of four years, during the season that followed I personally witnessed thirty trout of about a pound weight and in excellent condition being caught on wet fly. No doubt many more had made their way back down to the Corrib. The placing of fry in the shallow areas. of the lake itself has had had positive resulis. Anglers reports confirm this.

The numbers of small fish encountered during the 1993 season was the highest for many years. I, myself while fishing during the mayfly last year with two companions over a period of eight days caught on wet fly and released one hundred and forty three small trout, something I had not seen on the lake since the nineteen sixties. We also took home another forty two trout of between a pound and a half and three pounds. There is no doubt in my mind that the programme of development been carried out in the hatchery is producing excellent results. I would encourage all anglers to support financially their local angling clubs in development work because without their support this work cannot continue and your fishing will be the poorer at the end of the day.