Anglers who wish to catch and keep wild salmon from the Waterville catchment in 2022 are being advised that ‘brown tag’ regulations to boost conservation efforts are coming into force from Monday 17 January.
The measures are included in the Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Tagging Scheme (Amendment) Regulations, recently signed into law by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan.
Under brown tag regulations, an angler who wishes to ‘harvest’ a wild salmon and keep it must attach a brown tag as well as a standard blue tag to the fish.
To help conserve stocks of wild salmon within the Waterville catchment, a total of 64 brown tags will be available for the season to anglers with a 2022 rod licence through a lottery system.
Three draws are set to take place in 2022 and these will be held on Monday 10 January (to allocate 24 brown tags), Monday 28 February (to allocate 20 brown tags; applications will be open 14-25 February) and finally on Monday 28 March (to allocate the remaining 20 brown tags; applications will be open 14-25 March).
Anglers may only fish one brown tag over the full season, and multiple applications will disqualify.
Meanwhile, anglers with a 2022 rod licence who are not allocated a brown tag are only permitted to fish for salmon on a ‘catch and release’ basis in the Waterville catchment, where the salmon is returned safely to the same waterbody.
The brown tag regulations come into force on the Waterville catchment from Monday 17 January and will remain in place until midnight on Thursday 12 May.
Any anglers that are interested in entering the January draw are being asked to email their request to [email protected] up to midnight on Friday 7 January, providing their name, contact address and phone number and quoting their 2022 Salmon Licence number.
Further details are available by phoning Inland Fisheries Ireland’s Macroom office on (026) 41221.
