By Lesley Walsh
A CHARITY fishing club in Conlig, which had to close down after a pollution spill killed more than 5,000 fish, has reopened after the founder, his friends and family dug deep to restock it.
The Ross Jord Trout Fishery reopened to anglers on April 5 after Kevin Magee’s supporters helped him restock it with contributions estimated at between £15,000 to £20,000.
The facility, set up in memory of Kevin’s son Ross, who died tragically at the age of 19, had to be closed down at the end of 2023 following a chlorine spill by NI Water which killed an estimated £140,000 worth of fish.
Kevin established the fishery in 2018 as a way of coping with the trauma of Ross’s passing, after he was found dead at Ballyholme beach in Bangor following a night out with friends in 2013.
Ross had been a keen angler, and since it opened, the fishery has hosted annual fishing contests in memory of the teenager, raising thousands of pounds for good causes.
Everything came to a halt however, in September 2023 when a chlorine spill into a reservoir killed approximately 5,400 rainbow and blue trout, within a month.
“We had 3,000 fish come to the surface and the rest died at the bottom, 5,411 in total. Now there is no trout in the lake at all,’’ Kevin revealed at the time.
NI Water had admitted a spill of chlorine and later offered to drain the lake, but that would have involved PH testing of the water and possible dredging of the reservoir’s silt bed, a project which could have ended up costing tens of thousands of pounds.
Kevin had said the charity could not afford such a large financial outlay and the only option he felt he had was closure.
It was a traumatic experience that Kevin’s close friends have blamed on the heart attack he suffered a short time later.
Kevin attributed that to ‘all the stress and the disappointment’ of the closure, and followed two previous heart attacks he suffered since his son’s untimely death, on top of a post traumatic stress disorder diagnosis.
But following the turbulent period, Kevin is now overjoyed to be able to re-open.
“We re-opened on April 5 so it’s starting to get back up and running and we’ve got a small stock so far,” he said.
“I’ve restocked the fish through friends and family, out of their own pockets and mine. They’ve been very generous and I’m very grateful for that,” he continued.
“Since it reopened people are starting to come back.”
In the aftermath of the chlorine leak, NI Water had said a small amount of the compound, consistent with amounts in drinking water, had been spilled in the water, and had also agreed to lower the level of the reservoir.
The Ross Jord Fishery is open from 9am to dusk every Wednesday to Sunday.
