Upper river comes into order & fish taken........

This comparatively clean 9lb. fish was the second of the two taken by Conor Arnold
on one of our uppermost beats this morning.

Another 4 rod party fishing two upper beats have met a couple of fish & are seeing fish running. They report the clarity as a good 2 feet on the upper river @ 13.00.

Picture is river at 12.00 today. Gauge 0.65m.
It's a lovely sunny day & the rain looks as if it's finished with a dry forecast for the next 5 days. The upper river is dropping & fining down well.

The lower river is dropping (coming just to fly height) but the clarity fell from 1½ feet @ 8am to a foot at midday resulting from the rise on the upper river yesterday.


The prospects for the coming days are SUPERB & we have both fishing & accommodation available.

Rain & higher water & then dry for next week..............................................

This is the rainfall radar at 07.45 this morning.
Tracking from the South-East so it may not hit the upper catchment.
Some more lighter rain tonight & then the  forecast is dry right through the weekend.

This  is the gauge height at Millstreet - 20 miles above Mallow.
Holding a higher level after the peak of the flood on Tuesday.
This should be good to help clear the river & keep the level up for the fish in the tide to run.

This is the gauge at Killavullen close to the top of our beats.
Shows a similar picture to Millstreet with height being maintained at a good level.

 This is the Ballyduff gauge.
Still falling after the peak of the flood early yesterday.
Just approaching fly height throughout & clarity is a foot or so throughout but improving.

The very latest radar now shows the rain easing & keeping well east of the upper catchment.

Prospects
Looking superb for the remainder of the season to the 12th.
The river river should come into excellent fly order
& hopefully the fish will all be moving up from the tidal water.
Large numbers of fish running on the upper beats yesterday.

Availability of fishing & accommodation is OK for the remaining 10 days.

Blackwater Lodge Newsletter - October 1st. The Season Extension starts with a Bang. And the Rains Finally Came!

Latest Newsletter  
http://www.ireland-salmon-fishing.net/News/newsletter/nl13-10-01/nl13-10-01.htm

The Season Extension starts with a Bang.
And the Rains Finally Came!

Good catches continue............................

The improvement continued yesterday with another 11 fish being caught.
That now makes 23 fish landed in the last 2 days.

Fishing picks up in spite of low water............................

 This is the Blackwater below the Lodge today with the Ballyduff gauge on 0.14m!

September started slowly with only six fish in the first week due to very low water.
However, a slight change to cooler, more overcast weather
seems to be livening the fish up a bit!

Two fish per day were caught for last Saturday & Sunday, including a 14 pounder released
on Saturday 7th on fly on the lower river, and a 13 pounder on the 8th - also released on fly.

Yesterday (9th.), 12 fish were caught including nine for 2 rods on one beat which were all surprisingly fresh grilse, & a First Ever Salmon (on fly) for Georges Caballero (France)

There are huge numbers of fish waiting in the 30km of tidal reaches for a flood
to run the main river. There is some fairly heavy rain now forecast for Saturday.

We have just a few rods available for September,
but good availability for the extension to October 12th.

Challenging Conditions but only two blank days for August.......

This is Celso Viera from Spain who had never fished a river before -
- his fishing experience being for tuna off the south of Spain.
On just his second day fishing (Saturday 24th.) with us (guided by Glenda)
he caught his First Ever Salmon which was exceptional enough,
but he then went on to catch his second the very same day.

This brings our total of First Ever Salmon caught here to 13 for the season.

On the 25th., Mark Allsop (UK) caught his first ever on the fly.

Fishing remains challenging due to the low water (Ballyduff gauge on 0.19m),
but we are still getting fish virtually every day in spite of the conditions.

 We had superb fishing in early August, but it has slowed up
in the last 2 weeks due to low water.
For the 7 days to Saturday 10th.,we landed 108 fish to 12lb. for just 87 rod days.

The August total is 175 for 205 rod days which is excellent given the conditions.
We have only had two blank days in August - the 2nd.  & the 26th.

One Italian guest landed 46 salmon in the 20 days to the 23rd., and he lost one very large fish on the 21st. on the upper river which he estimated at 1.10m long & about 25lb.  He had played the fish for at least 10 minutes and had seen the fish very clearly.

See my latest Newsletter (August 18) on http://goo.gl/Hu9urG

 The water continues to fine down very slowly & is @ 0.24m on the Ballyduff gauge. this morning. There is some light rain forecast for Thursday & again on Saturday.

There have been few rods fishing in the last couple of days, but we had 3 fish caught on Sunday, & two rods on one beat yesterday (Monday) landed 8 fish & lost 4 more.

The August total is 128 which is already the best for the month since 2009 - & this is only in the first 12 days! The season total to date is 270.

See my latest Newsletter (August 7) on http://goo.gl/ghgdxo

Prospects are looking good for the coming week.

Superb Fishing in the last Week.........................................

With the spell of dry weather, the river has fined off to summer level.
The Ballyduff gauge is now on 0.26m this morning & the clarity is 4-5 feet.
The forecast for the week is dry except for some light rain perhaps on Wednesday & Thursday.

We have had superb fishing in the last week. For the 7 days to Saturday 10th.,
we have taken 108 fish to 12lb. for just 87 rod days. The August total is 118
which is already the best for the month for the last 4 years - & this is only in the first 10 days!

Fresh fish are continuing to run in good numbers.
One angler who was fishing our top beat just below Mallow (28 miles/45km upriver)
caught 4 sea-liced grilse in one hour in the late afternoon & lost 2 more.

Prospects
Excellent for the coming week. Very small flies are the most successful.
There's no problem for availability for fishing & accommodation for most of August.

Another 18 Salmon yesterday.......................................

18 fish caught yesterday to 9lb. for 14 rod days.
Total for last 5 days is 89 for 66 rod days.
August total 97 & Season 239/
Forecast continues dry so superb conditions continue!

Best Day Record for 2013 broken twice in the last 2 days.

The Best Day for 2013 record which was established on Sunday with 20 fish caught
lasted just 2 days.
On Tuesday, we caught 21 fish to 12lb. for just 10 rod days.
This new record however only lasted one day as yesterday we recorded 22 fish to 7lb.
for 17 rod days.
We have now caught a staggering 71 fish for 52 rod days in the last 4 days.

The August total is now 76 fish, & the Season Total is 219.

Four foot flood helps us smash Best Day of Season record............

A Well-needed Flood

A dirty 4 foot flood hit the river on Friday, August 2nd. peaking at 1.28m.
This was just what we needed to bring the huge numbers of fish waiting in the tidal reaches
up into the main river. This resulted in our only blank day in the 16 days to August 5th.

The Day Record is Smashed!
By Saturday evening, it had dropped to 0.51m but was still coloured.
There were 4 fish caught that day.
The river fined down to good order on Sunday, and we smashed our record
for the Best Day of 2013 with 20 fish to 11lb.caught for just 12 rod days.
The previous best day was eight fish. Two anglers each had four for the day, one of which had both his first & second ever fly-caught salmon. The other had fish of 11,10, 7 & 3lb.
Nine fell to fly & 11 to spinner. Fourteen were caught on the upper river & six on the lower beats.

Mat Burbridge with his First Ever Fly Caught Salmon which he released.


We now have 60 fish caught for just 70 rod days in the last 16 days.

There was very heavy rain in the middle catchment for a couple of hours on Sunday evening which gave another 1½ foot flood yesterday morning

 This is the picture of rainfall & Ballyduff gauge height for the last month.
It has been very unsettled for the last fortnight, but is now settling.

This was the picture of the river below the Lodge this morning after the two recent floods.
Ballyduff gauge height 0.43m. 
Clarity 1-1½ feet early this morning improving to ~2 feet by lunchtime.

Prospects
With a river fining down rapidly, a dry forecast for the week & large numbers of fish running,
we look set to have fabulous sport in the coming week.

At last - a rise in the river and fish running in good numbers!

Yesterday, just one rod (Daniel Kadlubowski above) went out at about 2.00pm.
He released a couple of grilse around 6.00pm & I joined him at 7.30pm.
Shortly after I landed this 11.8lb salmon for him which is his Personal Best.
I then released a grilse & lost a bigger very fresh fish of ~6lb. All fell to small flies.
Another grilse was caught on the upper river late in the evening making the total 5 for the day.

This was the river below the Lodge @ 08.40 this morning.
Gauge height then was 0.71m and the clarity was ~ 1-1 ½ feet.
At  11.30 it was up further to 0.78m.

This was the rainfall radar picture @ 12.00 today showing further heavy rain
which looks as if it will get into the upper catchment.

Whilst we probably won't get a very big flood, the rain falling in the upper catchment
will help to maintain the level and give the river a good flush out.

There are reports of good numbers of fish moving from the tidal water
up into the main river, so the prospects for sport
are looking superb coming up to the weekend.

In spite of the low water in the last week or so, we have not had a blank day for the last 11 days.
We have caught 24 fish to 11.8lb. for just 43 rod days in the 11 days.

Heavy rain this morning.......

By 09.45today, the heavy rain was right into the upper catchment.
There is more heavy rain forecast for tomorrow.

Finally the rain is falling in the catchment. Expect great fishing if a flood comes.........

 This was the radar rainfall picture at 05.15 this morning.

 I had 10mm rain on the Lodge gauge @ 08.20 this morning

This is the river at 08.20 this morning. Ballyduff gauge on 0.25m.

10mm of rain in the early hours of this morning has not started to affect the river levels yet.

We have caught 19 fish for 42 rod days for the 10 days to yesterday.
Yesterday, there was just one rod out & he released a grilse
& lost a very good fish of ~15lb.
which opened his treble - both fell to fly.

Prospects

This is the very latest radar picture which show heavy rain
heading right for the catchment at 09.00 today.
Looks as if there's plenty more to come.

We should see a good rise in the level
& this will mean fantastic sport as soon as the flood begins to fine off!

.

The river freshens up.................................

This was the river this morning at 12.00. 0.26m on the gauge.

After a 6 week drought, we finally had some quite heavy rain starting on July 23,
& the forecast is continuing broken well into the coming week.

Whilst there hasn’t been any significant rise in the river,
the water has certainly freshened up.
Sea-liced grilse are running through to the upper beats,
which promises well for sport for the coming week.

The week before last was a blank, but we have taken 16 grilse
for just 34 rod days for the week to July 28th.,
including the Joint Second Best Day of 2013 yesterday (28th.)
with seven grilse caught – 6 of which were on fly.

Prospects for the coming week are looking good
and we have availability
for both fishing & accommodation.





.

Rain livens the river up a bit.................................................

At Ballyduff, 3mm rain fell on the 23rd. & 20mm on the 24th.
The Ballyduff gauge rose 15cm to 0.35m, peaking @ 06.45 on the 25th.
as can be seen more clearly from the graph below.

Rain fell in the upper catchment, where the level also rose ~15cm.
It also peaked once again again this morning at mid-day at Killavullen
with a total rise of 20cm at that time.

After a week without fish (though with very few rods out) we have had 8 grilse
caught in 5 days for just 23 rod days which is a reasonable result.
Five were caught by Peter Berger from Germany in 3 days.
 

Bizarrely, a club beat on the upper river which is situated amongst our upper beats
recorded well over 20 caught between Wednesday evening & Thursday mid-day,
whilst other beats in the area are not even seeing fish!

The forecast predicts very broken weather for the next 5 days
with quite a lot more rain due especially from Monday to Wednesday.

High Tides & maybe some rain for this week.............................

Spring tides will peak at 4.0 metres on Wednesday & Thursday this week.
Hopefully this will be combined with some rain which should encourage fish to move up from the tidal water into the main river.

One fish of 5lb. caught on spinner on the lower river today.

A Change in the weather ?

http://www.met.ie/forecasts/5day-ireland.asp


The Met Eireann 5 day forecast is now showing a break in the weather for the coming week
with some rain due in the catchment on Tuesday & temperatures falling gradually during the week
from 25C down to 21C.

Any rise in the water should get the large numbers of fish gathering in the tidal reaches to run into the main river.

Challenging Conditions.................................................

The Heatwave continues........................................

 This was the Blackwater below the Lodge on July 16.

We have uncharacteristically high temperatures at the moment 

- most days are in the high 20s & it has gone as high as 34C !
With no significant rain since June 16, the river is now very low.

Large numbers of grilse & larger salmon are building up 

in the tidal reaches just waiting for a rise in the water
to encourage them to run into the main river.
In spite of the challenging conditions, we have managed to
catch 19 fish in the first two weeks of July for just 87 rod days. 
Three of these were first ever salmon.