The 12th of July. The biggest day of the summer, if not the year, for many in the Unionist and Loyalist communities in Northern Ireland. A day full of tradition that many would say defines their culture.
Many are members of marching bands, whether they be flute bands, accordion bands or pipe bands. We really do have some fine pipe bands locally. Others will don their Orange Sashes and walk behind those bands as part of the various lodges from various parts of the districts as generations have done over the centuries. It is a family day too with maybe three generations of the one family on parade in many of the lodges.
In recent years, the day has drawn criticism and ridicule from those seeing it as a day of blatant sectarianism and hatred. Especially from those political parties that thrive on that kind of sectarian divisiveness. Stirring the pot to increase tensions when there was no tension there to start with, till they got involved.
While there is an element of that in the big cities, the country lodges are very different with their halls being a hub for the entire community. With very little round about, the "Orange Halls" hold Bingo nights, music and dances, meet ups with hot meals for the elderly so they can meet up with the people they've grown up with but wouldn't get to see too often if it wasn't for these types of things. From all sections of the community. In many cases, the halls keep the community together.
The "Twelfth week" was traditionally the start of the "Belfast fortnight". When all the industry and factories in Belfast would give their workers time off to take their families on holiday. The the last week in July and the first week of August was known as the "Derry Fortnight" when those industries in Londonderry would do the same. Those days are long gone.
The 12th and 13th of July are Bank Holidays in Northern Ireland. Many will go to the parades on the 12th then rest up and recover on the 13th. Others will go to their holiday homes or somewhere for those days. Me? I liked to fish.
"The Twelfth Week!“. The number of times I've heard those words in all my years fishing on the Faughan. "You're only wasting your time. The Twelfth Week! There's never fish worth in the Faughan till the Twelfth Week. Wait te ye see". My old shooting buddy, now sadly passed away, always said that, "...there was never any fish worth in the [river] Roe till they heard the big drum in Limavady on the Twelfth morning".
Most of the auld hands around here believed that to be so true that they wouldn't even buy their permits until this week.
While there were salmon and sea trout in river earlier than that, the old hands weren't really used to scracting around for a fish here and a fish there, in the way we are now. They were going to the river to catch fish and as many as the possibly could at that.
The Twelfth Week always seemed to coincide with the massive grilse runs to the Foyle system. The nets on the Foyle would be at their busiest and there were still thousands of fish running the rivers. Anglers catching 3, 4 or 5 in day was pretty normal. 10 or more in a day wasn't all that rare either. There were just so many fish.
I was last at a 12th of July Parade in 1996 I think it was. It was in Limavady anyway. My Grandad used to March in the local orange Lodge but after his health deteriorated and he was no longer able to march, I stopped going.
On the morning of the parades, in the village of Claudy, the lodges of the "Claudy District" parade around the village before going to the main parade wherever it was being held. My grandmother liked to see them and my mum and dad would take her to see the parade in Claudy. It just so happened that Claudy is pretty close to the Faughan. So, it soon became my 12th tradition that I'd get a lift with my parents to Claudy and fish the river back to where I lived. It would be a good 6 or 7 miles of river. I'd nearly always hook fish too.
I don't think a season passed that if there was water on the Twelfth Week, I got fish. Usually my first fish of the season at that.
I remember one of those years fishing down from Claudy, I hooked 4 grilse on the fly.
Even after my grandparents passed away and my own parents stopped going to the parades, I still got fish if there was water. I can jump back through the pictures on my phone now and guarantee there would be photos of fish from this week from the past.
Last year, and this year, we're in the middle of a long dry spell. I went to the river last night, just out of my Twelfth tradition, but it was extremely low. Many of the pools are so low now that they are almost incapable of holding fish.
What flow there is, has completely changed in direction. In one pool in the past, the water came down the 'stream' at the neck of the pool. The river then took a slight right turn as the water hit the rocky left bank. The current then was forced across the pool the left bank where the force of water had gauged out a deeper channel.
The fish would lie tight to the left bank in the calm water. You only had to get the fly into the calm water and the current would fish the fly for you. The fish I've had out of that pool over the years, really is incredible. No more sadly.
The water now is so low that there no longer is a stream into the pool. It is now a gentle glade for about 50 - 60 yards. There isn't enough force to push the current across the pool any more. The lack of flow has seen the right side silt up and shallow and the stoney bank now sits clear of the water where I used to have to wade.
Any current now holds tight to left bank, straight through the traditional lies, and the river now empties from the left side. The once deeper right side has now filled in and there is now an island of stones and gravel starting to form at right side of the tail of the pool. It really is a sorry sight. There isn't even a deep pot or belly to the pool any more. It just looks incapable of holding fish.
The pool above it has changed too with no depth to the neck of it and any fish that are in it now are lying deep in the only part of deep water left in the pool which is impossible to get a fish to rise to a fly. I could use a bottle tube or something and get down after them but it's just not as exciting as seeing them on the surface after the small stuff. It really is a sad sight to see my once favourite pool on the river in such a sorry state. A pool I once had 14 fish out of alone in a single season.
So, unfortunately it looks as if this Twelfth week will pass me by for another year season without a fish. I just hope that we get rain soon to shift any grilse that have arrived, out of the tidal and the dam.
In the past in spells of low water, the fish have entered the tidal section, got to the dam about 2 miles from the estuary, used the fish pass to get into the dam and then stayed there. Even when water did eventually come, they just stayed there and didn't run. Hopefully we get some rain soon and a "wee fresh" to get those fish moving. I certainly won't be back at the river until there comes water. It just depresses me looking at it.
So, it remains to be seen if this Twelfth Week starts the fishing season off properly, as it would have in the past, or if the Twelfth Week has went the same way as the Belfast and Derry fortnights and become things of the past.
Tightlines to anyone out for a cast this week!
