Larne & District Game Angling Association

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The Inver River, Larne,  Co.Antrim

 

The Inver is a small spate river approximately 6 miles in length originating on Thorny Hill on the uplands below the better known Shanes Hill.

 Fed by small springs and burns it drops several hundred feet from its source becoming a fairly fast moving water for most of its fishable length before finally entering Larne lough.

 

The river holds a good stock of wild brown trout, a genetic mixture of idigenous trout and hatchery fish stocked in the early 60's by Larne & District Angling Association.

The Association, the forerunner of the present club, fished the Larne reservoirs, Ballyboley and Ballymullock and whilst not having the fishing rights of the Inver, regularly stocked the river with salmon, brown trout and sea trout fry, the last recorded stocking of sea trout being in 1969.

( The Association was disolved in 1985 when  the reservoirs were drained and capped)

 

Historically, the Inver has always been  fished by local anglers who enjoyed casting a fly over hard fighting, beautifully marked brown trout rarely exceeding half a pound in weight!

However, every year, given suitable water, August, September and October sees a small run of salmon accompanied by a significant run of sea trout weighing up to 6/7lbs.

Over the years, many superb fish were caught legally using spinners or worms but the majority of the bigger fish were hauled out using nets and gaffs ........ as an unregulated river with no club to protect it, poachers had free rein to do as they pleased.

 

Throughout the 1980's and early 90's, sporting anglers began to notice the gradual decline in the quality of the Inver as evidenced by the decreasing number of fish caught.

The lower stretches of the river had, for many years, been subject to relentless industrial pollution from the Inver Bleach Works but in the upper river, where most of the fishing was done, it was becoming increasingly evident that, along with the ongoing problem of poaching, changing agricultural practices such as field drainage and run off from artificial fertiliser and animal waste slurry now posed an even greater threat to the river habitat.

Despite regular representations by members of the old Association to government agencies, local councillors and MP about the state of the Inver, little was done to stop the poaching or to arrest the flow of industrial and agricultural pollution. 

 

However, in the summer of 1996, the river was subject to a pollution incident which enraged Inver anglers. 

Two miles of the lower river were wiped out and in spite of  requests to the various agencies for an explanation of what had caused the fish kill, no answers were forthcoming!

Eventually, after a constant stream of phone calls and correspondence following the incident, it was finally made public  that , " test samples taken from the Inver River revealed the presence of cyanide." !!!

When that statement was made ....... Larne & District Game Angling Association was born!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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