FERMANAGH FISH AND BIRDS

Samuel Lewis

A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland

1837

The fish most common in Lough Erne are salmon, perch, pike, bream, trout, and eels. It is said that perch first appeared in this lake about the year 1760, and that they were seen in all the other lakes in Ireland and in the Shannon at the same period. There are some large eel-weirs at Enniskillen, where great quantities of that fish are caught: they come from the sea when young, and are intercepted in their return; those which are not sold fresh, or sent to Dublin, are cured in barrels containing about eight dozen each, and sold at Belturbet. There is also an eel-weir near the falls of Belleek; but this town is more remarkable for its salmon fishery, considered, in conjunction with that at Ballyshannon, a little lower down the river, to be one of the most productive in Ireland. Large flights of wild geese and swans occasionally visit Lough Erne towards the close of the year, the appearance of which is considered to prognosticate a severe winter.

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