I fished with my cousin & his mates on the Killary Harbour in Galway, Ireland from the backyard of my mothers house, hitting the schools of salmon as they came in from the Atlantic to lay eggs and would use a net & curragh boat for that.
We would save the rod for the lakes & streams
Best day on the water I ever had with was once with my mate & I held the net's end on the shore and then the school of salmon would be encircled and pulled in & harvested.
Took 58 in 1 loop at an average weight of 12lbs each. You should have seen the water boil as we pulled them in
Sold all of them at Hamilton's Market for 2 pounds 50 pence each (around $10) for a total of almost $600 which was a LOT of money for a farmer then, and even now actually.
This is how it was done.
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This was the back yard
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The little house on the left is where my family lived in Galway, the West of Ireland and where my mother was born along with her 11 brothers & sisters (A good Catholic family)
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My family was originally from Ulster, in the North of Ireland, but was "relocated" to Connamara, at that time the worst land in Ireland, (all fecking rock
) by Oliver Cromwell in 1650 to make room for his fucking Scotch Protestants. (Yea, I still hold a grudge/fuck the Queen
)
Funny thing is that now that area has some of the most expensive land in Ireland, noted for it's beauty (still all fecking rock though, it can hardly grow a potato, sheep & cattle are what they exist on.
Yup, that house is where I spent all my summers from the age of 7 until Iwas 16, chasing sheep (I owned around 35 once) cutting hay, going to the bog to cut turf for heat & cooking, going to the spring for water (no plumbing) milking cows & after that, fishing
.
This is my Da's families back yard
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Oh yea, fond memories of those day's and that place
1st pint of Guinness I ever had was here in Leenane at Gaynors Pub after that day we caught all those salmon
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If any of you make it to Ireland, go as far West as you can and you'll end up here.(That's my boy
)
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Tell them your a friend of a Coyne who lives in Connecticut & I guarantee the 1st drink will be on the house