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The river level for June has probably been the lowest for about 50 years, which means that most fish are holding in the tidal reaches rather than running into the main river.
The table below shows the average height for the month for the last four years since the start of the drift net ban.
This year it was 0.18m compared to the average for 2007-9 of 0.41m.
In fact it was only above 0.30m (which we would normally regard as summer low level) for 2 days during the whole month. There have also been few rods out fishing for the month.
Statistics for the Month of June for 2007 - 2010
——————— Year 2007 2008 2009 2010
Number of Fish Caught 44 21 51 24 ———- Catch/Rod Day 0.25 0.09 0.30 0.30 — Average River Height 0.35 0.39 0.48 0.18
We can see from the Table that whilst the catch number for the month was not high at 24 in fact the catch/rod day was 0.30, exactly the same as that for 2009 when there was far more water in the river.
In fact, 22 of the fish were caught for only 24 rod days in the week from June 12 an average of 0.9 fish per rod day, which was extremely good. One angler caught 5 in one afternoon all on fly & 4 were released. Best fish of the month was a 12 pounder released on Upper Kilmurry.
July has started off well after a small fresh in the river on the 2nd. Seven grilse have been caught for 6 rod days in the three days from July 2-4.
Prospects
Even although the river is very low, the clarity is good and runs of larger grilse (4-5lb.) are coming in.
There is more rain forecast during the week, so the prospects of sport for the coming week are quite good.
Very small flies, light worming & spun shrimp are working best, though fish are also being met on spinner.
Where to meet us
Glenda is fly-casting demonstrator at the Irish Game & Country Fair at Birr Castle in Co. Offaly on August 28 & 29th.
We will also have a stand at the Fair.
Availability
We have availability of rods & accommodation in the next couple of weeks.
Late summer and backend weeks are now filling up fast, so contact us quickly if you are thinking of fishing later in the season.
The rain that came across Ireland on the weekend seems to have missed the Blackwater catchment altogether.
The river is still at 0.08m at Ballyduff and there has been no rise at all on the upper river.
On a brighter note, the Metcheck forecast for Cork is giving 13mm rain on Thursday & 17mm on Friday night.
This seems to be borne out by the Bbc.co.uk forecast as well.
There were three grilse caught for 1Ŋ rod days yesterday, which makes a total of 10 fish for 8Ŋ rod days
in the last 4 days which is superb in the current conditions.
Best Day of the Season so far - plus Best Catch from One Beat in One Day
The river dropped to a lovely height on July 13.
In the morning it was 0.23 & fell to 0.20m by nightfall. Clarity 2-2Ŋ feet.
There was an excellent run of fish coming through the entire system right though to the top beats.
A total of 20 fish were caught for 11 rod days for the day.
Beat 3 (1 mile up from the Lodge): 4 caught. 1 on fly. Best 9.7 & 11lb.
Beat 7 (5 miles up from the Lodge): 4 caught. All on fly. Best 6.5lb.
Beat 8 (15 miles up from the Lodge): 1 caught. 4lb.
Beat 9 (20 miles up from the Lodge): 8 caught. 6 on fly & all released. Best 6lb.
Beat 16 (26 miles up from the Lodge): 3 caught. 1 on fly. Best 6lb.
Two rods caught eight fish today at Bridgetown Abbey.
- mostly grilse around the 3lb. mark.
Six were caught on fly & two on spinner.
All eight fish were released alive.
Mick Kennedy caught 5 (best ~6lb.) & Billy Jewitt caught three.
Seven of the fish were caught in a 2 hour “moment of madness”.
Prospects looking very good with fresh fish being taken right through to the top of the fishery.
Still more rain coming in the next 2 days which should top up the height.
Biggest Fish of 2010 caught on Saturday, August 7th. - on fly!
Gavin Wishart (Newcastle, Co. Down) caught a slightly coloured May fish
on a small gold shrimp pattern on the Lug Pool on Lower Kilmurry gillied by Connie Corcoran.
Connie estimated the fish @ 14-15lb. and it was quickly released.
Gavin & Connie caught five fish for the day, releasing four.
There were eleven fish caught for 10 rod days yesterday - the best day so far for August.
Martin Heffer (UK) caught his first ever salmon and it was on fly on a guided day with Glenda.
Total for the month is 31 fish for 41 rod days.
Gauge height is 0.15m & clarity around 5 feet.
Plenty of fish showing in the pools on the lower river and some fish running every day.
[B]It was the coldest December on record in Ireland, and for the first time since 1601 the Blackwater froze over completely at both Fermoy & Cappoquin.
There was a 20cm rise on the river yesterday (26th.) following rain in the upper catchment.
This brought the lower river up about 10cm, but it has already started to fall back.
The forecast is then dry from now until the 1st., and the river is in excellent fly-fishable order with great clarity even after the slight rise. It should be perfect for the start of the season.
Here’s the rainfall and river height at Ballyduff to this evening.
And here’s the gauge heights for the last 5 days on the upper & lower river.
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
Below: the river below the Lodge on the 3rd.
Below: 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.
John Burch from Armagh with a sea-liced fish taken on spinner on Upper Kilmurry on Saturday.
This was the fifth for March & the eighth for the season to date.
Fishing are being seen in good numbers on the lower beats
- there was one put at #30lb. seen several times today on Lower Kilmurry.
Fish seem to be holding in the beats below Clondulane,
which may explain why so many are being seen but not hooked
as springers go off the take quite quickly once they’ve been in the river a week or two.
Currently summer level with superb clarity. We’ll have to see what the rain later in the week may do…......................
This is the Biggest Fish of the Season so far weighing 13.8lb. It was taken today on the upper river 20 miles upstream of the Lodge where we have 9 beats from 17 to 28 miles up. The angler that caught it also reported seeing a good number of fish running in that area in the last couple of days including one of about 20lb.
The level is dropping steadily but slowly on both the upper & lower river. Clarity on the upper river this morning is ~2 feet. Perhaps a bit less on the lower river where the level is down to 0.76m @ 09.30.
I had reliable reports of 3 fish hooked (1 landed) in 3/4 hour 15km above Mallow yesterday evening & 3 more caught 10km below Mallow by 10.30 this morning. All were very fresh double-figure fish. The May run is coming.
With the forecast dry thru’ the weekend, prospects are excellent for the coming days.
Chris Ryan (r) & Tony Finlay (l) arrived lunchtime yesterday for a half day on the river.
They started fishing on the Hut Pool on Upper Kilmurry @ 2.00pm and by 3.30pm
had landed these three fine fish.
One for Tony of 10.5lb., and two for Chris of 9lb & 14.5lb.
which is the Biggest Fish of the Season to date.
All three fish fell to fly! Evidently they arrived to the pool at the same time as the fish.
The run of fish seems to have slowed up a bit in the last couple of days, but there is more rain forecast for tomorrow night which should liven things up again.
This said, we have caught 31 fish in the last eight days, and a total so far of 36 for May & 48 for the season.
There was a fair amount of rain at the end of last week giving a (smallish) flood. Fluctuating water levels & coloured water meant that no fish were caught over the last 5 days.
The level is now falling back very slowly but steadily and is now back to fly height & the clarity improved today to about 2Ŋ feet. It was in quite good spinnable order since yesterday when we had 3 fish lost on upper beats as fish were taking short.
Coming into the weekend it will be in fly order - certainly on the upper river.
Clive Gronow from Wales had never been fishing before. His first experience was a guided day with Glenda with 3 friends yesterday. Today, under Glenda’s watchful eye he caught a magnificent sea-liced 13.1 pounder on worms on the Island Stream on Lower Kilmurry.
As we say - it’s all downhill from here!
Prospects for the coming days are superb with sea-liced fish of this quality being caught on the lower & upper river.
Mike O’Driscoll from Cork caught this beautiful sea-liced 12.8 pounder on spinner on the Island Stream on Beat 5 - Lower Kilmurry today.
We have caught 11 fish to 13.1lb in the last 5 days. The total for May was 45 fish to 14.5lb. and the season total to date is 59.
The river is fining off well, at a perfect fly height with clarity about 5 feet.
Prospects from the remainder of the week look very good as there is a steady run of both larger salmon and good-sized grilse (4-6lb.)
Fresh Salmon on the upper beats!
Report for June 6th.
This fine 9.2 pounder was taken on fly on Beat 9 on the upper river on Saturday by Ronan Brennan from Wicklow
With little or no rain in the last couple of weeks, plus high temperatures & strong winds, the river level has fallen quickly.
This has slowed up the run of fish, but some very fresh (even large) fish are getting through to the upper beats.
Beat 9 - where the fish above was caught - is over 20 miles upstream of the Lodge in the Castletownroche area.
There were also a couple of grilse lost on fly yesterday at Beat 7 - Ballyhooly Bridge yesterday afternoon, & a sea-liced grilse from beat 3 on the lower river this morning.
Water temperature had risen to 13.5ēC during the hot weather last week when air temps. maxed @ 26ēC!
This week is going to be cooler (12-15ēC) & broken weather with some rain especially next weekend.
In the last 10 days, we have caught 15 salmon & grilse to 13lb. with only 2 blank days,
including 4 fish from the upper river which should probably have been fished harder.
A good flood is what is really needed to get the fish moving (especially the larger ones), but at least the change
in the weather should encourage them more than the very hot very windy weather of last week.
Rods & accommodation are available in the coming weeks.
A series of heavy showers particularly in the upper catchment yesterday (Tuesday)
has brought a moderate flood on the upper river already.
It has risen 63cm at Millstreet by 11.00 this morning, & is up 6cm to 0.28m at Ballyduff.
Catches
In spite of low water in the last 12 days and low fishing effort, we have only had 2 blank days.
May 28: 2 fish of 11 & 13.1lb.
May 29: 6 fish of 6 & 7.6lb.
May 30: 2 fish of 5.1 & 8.4lb
May 31: 2 fish of 6.4 &10lb;
June 1: 2 fish of 5.5 & 12.8lb
June 2: 1 fish of 4lb.
June 4: 2 fish of 3 & 9.2lb.
June 6: 1 fish of 4lb.
June 7: 2 fish of 10.3 & 12.5lb
This next rise in the water should encourage more grilse & double figure fish to run
which promises good sport for later in the week.
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