[bwlodge]

The First Springer is Caught on the Blackwater Lodge beats

Lodge regular Gavin Wishart from Newcastle, Co. Down came down to celebrate his 40th. birthday
this weekend & scooped the First Salmon of the 2010 season to be caught on the Lodge Fishery.

He was fishing on March 6th. with gillie Connie Corcoran on Ballinlovane and took the fish on Flying C at Cloonbeg.
The fish would have been released, but was bleeding from the gills so had to be kept.
The cast before he lost what they both believe was another springer, so there were definitely a few about.
It was hardly surprising that it took us until now to catch a fish as there were only 64 rod days
for the whole month of February. There would certainly be more springers caught if there were
more rods out on the river each day.

Prospects
There are more fresh fish being seen in the river in the last few days.
The river is in absolutely cracking order at the moment - even for the fly.
0.44m on the gauge so perfect fly height & clarity a good 4 feet.
The weather forecast (Metcheck) looks dry for the next 2 weeks apart from about 6mm on the 15th.
Daily Updated Fishing Report: Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery - Daily Updated Salmon Fishing Report page

[bwlodge]

The Second Springer is Caught on the Blackwater Lodge beats

Bass fishing guide Michael McCormack from Wexford with the second fish of the season from the Lodge beats. It was sea-liced & weighed in at 10.2lb.
It was taken on Silver Bullet on the Green Bank on Upper Kilmurry.
Michael saw 3 or 4 more fresh fish as well during the day.
He was the only rod out on the river today - one springer for one rod day cain't be bad!
For the latest info: Fishing report page Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery - Daily Updated Salmon Fishing Report page

[bwlodge]

Third Springer is caught on the Blackwater Lodge beats
The third springer of the season was taken on Sunday, March 14 by Larry Sheridan (Dungarvan) who gillies for the Lodge.
He released the fish which weighed about 12lb & was taken on black Flying C at the top of the Island Stream on Kents.
It didn't have sea-lice but very fresh. He saw a couple more springers there as well.
Unfortunately no picture as he doesn't carry a camera with him.
The river is now at summer level - 0.36m on the Ballyduff gauge. Perfect fly order.
Lots of kelts being caught on flies as small as size 8.
For the latest info: Fishing report page Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery - Daily Updated Salmon Fishing Report page

[bwlodge]

Here's the current water level on the Cork Blackwater at Ballyduff on April 10th.

Source - Blackwater Lodge Fishing Report page: Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery - Daily Updated Salmon Fishing Report page
The river is falling slowly but steadily. The clarity has improved dramatically & is now about 5 feet on the lower river.
It's still a bit too high to fish the fly comfortably.
The 5th. springer of the season on the Lodge beats was caught on spinner on Beat 5 - Inchinleama last Sunday (April 4th.) before the last flood hit the river.
One kelt was caught today - surprising that there are still some present in the river this late in the season.

[bwlodge]

Fishing the Fly at Last!


With such a beautiful balmy evening this evening, four of us decided venture out to the river about 6.00pm this evening.
We opted to go to Upper & Lower Kilmurry, the best of the Lodge's seven beats below Careysville
with the gauge height having dropped to 0.80m.
Glenda & I headed for Lower, and the picture above is her at the Lug Pool at 7.15pm.
She was able to wade & fly-fish the whole way down the pool even at this height.


I headed down below to the Island Stream. This was about 10cm too high to be able to wade,
though could be fished from the (rather high) bank with a shooting head.
The picture above was taken looking downstream at the Island Stream at 7.45pm


and this picture was taken looking up the Island Stream to the Lug Pool on the bend in the distance.

We didn't see or touch any fish on Lower Kilmurry, but when we went back up to Upper Kilmurry,
the other two had seen three large fresh fish moving through the Sand Gap & the Hut Pool and Daniel
(a student on work experience at the Lodge from the Swedish Sport Fishing Academy)
had briefly hooked one of them just after it showed.

The clarity is about 5 feet & the level is falling steadily, so the prospects for the coming week look good.

For the latest information, see our daily updated Fishing Report page: : Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery - Daily Updated Salmon Fishing Report page

[bwlodge]

Flood moves fish from tidal water!

This is the water level situation at Ballyduff in the last few days.
The small flood on Tuesday put the river out of order for a couple of days as it became very coloured.
By Friday it was improving and 3 fish were lost on the Lodge beats.
On Saturday June 12), four fish were caught - 3 on spinner & one on fly.
The best (~12lb) was caught & released by Ray Burns on Upper Kilmurry on spinner.
On Sunday, June 13, there were 3 grilse taken on the fly. Clarity is now a good 3 feet.
Seven fish in total for 14 rod days in the last two days.
There has been a significant increase in the number of fish moving through the lower beats since the flood.
I'm also hearing about some grilse & salmon being caught up in the Mallow area.
For the latest info: Fishing report page Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery - Daily Updated Salmon Fishing Report page

[bwlodge]

The Best Ever July Catch
in terms of Fish Caught per Rod Day


On Sunday, July 25th., Mossy McElligott (Tralee) caught the Best Fish of the Season
with a 12.4lb on fly on Ballinaroone & his fishing partner Tim Quinlivan also had two on fly of 11.9 & 9.1lb.
Tim's largest was also the second heaviest weighed fish this year.

The month of July produced 169 salmon for a total of only 183 rod days.
This is the sixth best total for the month since I took over the Lodge at the beginning of 1986.
It is the best catch for the month since the year 2000, when 263 were caught for 750 rod days.
It also includes the two Best Fish of the Season which were both caught on fly on the same day
on Beat 3 - Ballinaroone by Mossy McElligott (12.4lb) & Tim Quinlivan (11.9lb).
There have also been at least four very large fish lost in the second half of the month.

The table below shows the figures for the six best months of July.
Only the all-time record year of 1992 (when 1511 fish were taken) has a comparable catch per rod day!



Total catch for the season to date is 219.


Take me home, Mum! Our seven year old son Ian heads away
after an afternoon on the river with his famous mum Glenda on July 18!

Current Situation
The river is still fining off slowly from the small floods on July 19 & 23.
It is now @ 0.18m on the gauge with ~5 feet clarity.

Once again there is a huge buildup of fresh fish in the tidal reaches & a good number are running into the main river.
Some of the lower beat - in particular Kents & Lower Kilmurry - are hold a good head of fish.

Prospects
With predominantly dry weather for the coming week, the river remain at summer level.
There are plenty of fish running - both hefty grilse & larger summer salmon.

For all the very latest information please see the Blackwater Lodge Fishing Report page on :
Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery - Daily Updated Salmon Fishing Report page

[bwlodge]

2010 Salmon Season Report from Blackwater Lodge
Finally, I have completed a report on the 2010 Season on Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery. This can be found on:
2010 Season Report

For more detailed reports by Month please go to:
2010 Report by Month

2010 Season Highlights

...............................Season Total: 652 for 1,342 rod days (0.49 fish/rod day).
....................................July Total: 168 for 183 rod days.
.................................................. ......(The Best July since 2000 when 263 were caught for 750 rod days)
...............Best Day of the Season: September 26 - 26 fish to 16lb.
...............Best Catch for One Rod: Eleven fish on September 21st.
......Number of First Ever Salmon: Thirty-five in total for the season.
Proportion of Fish Caught on Fly: Second Highest Ever for the Total 2011 Season.
.................................................. ......Highest Ever for the months of May & June.
.................................................. ......Second Highest for the month of September.
.................................................. ......Fifth Highest for August.
.................................................. ......Eighth Highest for July.



The Draft Proposals for the Wild Salmon & Seatrout Tagging Scheme Regulations for the 2011 Season
were issued on Friday, November 19.

The quota for the Blackwater has been raised to 5,859 from the 2010 quota which was 5,054.

The number of tags for the spring (February 1 to May 11) has not been confirmed yet.
Last year, it was one tag for the Blackwater but this was only announced in a Byelaw issued on December 17, 2009
so we are still waiting to hear if it will be one or three tags.

The Huge Run of Fish continues

I was talking to Fishery Board staff at the excellent Irish Fly Fair in Galway last weekend
& got the latest on the runs of fish into the Blackwater.
There were reports of 7,500 fish that had run into the river in the 8 days from October 27.

Just before the Fair on the weekend of November 13/14, this figure had jumped to over 15,000....................!

This bodes well for our future stocks of salmon.

[bwlodge]

The First Spring Salmon is Landed on February 3rd.!

Derek O'Keeffe, from Thomastown, Kilkenny came to the Lodge for a casting lesson
with Glenda on Thursday afternoon.
After the lesson, Glenda invited him to fish on for the rest of the afternoon on Upper Kilmurry.
He hooked and landed a lovely fresh fish of about 8lb. on a fly he tied himself.
It was a colour variation of the PoshTosh as seen in "Trout and Salmon", February 2010.
The fish was hooked at the head of the Hut Pool on Upper Kilmurry and took about 15 mins
to land, having jumped half a dozen times.
Derek - a firm believer in catch and release - carefully returned the fish alive.
Not wanting to harm the fish in any way, it was quickly released without even taking a photo
as he was fishing on his own - the only rod out on the fishery in fact today.

Current Situation


This was the river below the Lodge today.


This is the gauge height on the upper & lower river for the last five days.

Prospects
On the 3rd., the river was at a perfect height and clarity for the fly.
On the 4th., the lower river was up approximately half a metre but peaked late evening.
There was very little fishing effort and gales, but a couple of fresh silver fish were seen jumping amongst the kelts.
Certainly spinnable for the 5th. Fly is doubtful.

For all the latest info, see also:
Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery - Daily Updated Salmon Fishing Report page
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