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You are > Home > Flying salmon goes through roof of Ballina house!
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Wednesday, September 03, 2003
Flying salmon goes through roof of Ballina house!
Ballina, as the salmon angling capital of the World, has had its fair share of fishy tales but none so astonishing, or unbelievable, as the true story told yesterday (Monday) by Gertie Clarke of the Piper’s Inn in Hill Street in the town.
The Clarkes were in their home at about 11.20 in the morning when they heard a loud bang. At first they thought the noise came from within the house but later discovered it was caused by “a fair sized salmon” smashing through the roof.
The four and a half pound (2 kilos) salmon was partly through a broken slate on the two storey roof. Pieces of the fish were splattered on the roof and on the ground below.
Paws the black cat - later to get a feed of the fresh salmon - sat in the yard in total shock.
Was this a Ballina weapon of mass destruction, a flying fish or some elaborate hoax?
Gertie Clarke, mother of Mayo sub goalkeeper David, said she could not believe it when she went out to the back of her house and saw a salmon had gone through the roof. “It was half hanging in the hole in the slates and was splattered on the roof,” she said.
She believes that a bird must have been carrying the fish and let it fall.
If it was a bird it would have had to have been a big one flying at some height to create Ballina’s own - and very first - flying salmon and the (true) fishy tale to beat all fishy stories. There appears to be no credible explanation other than the involvement of a bird.
But then in the sport of angling where there are so many tall stories and that has lures and baits called by such exotic names of Tasmanian Devils and Flying Condoms, why not a flying salmon?
l An expert estimated that, judging by the force of impact, had the salmon hit a person a serious injury, if not a fatality would have been likely.
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