Ian Powell of Blackwater Lodge reports:
Geraldine Gaffney (UK) caught this fine salmon (the biggest by a female client this year) on spinner at the Vee on Killavullen on Thursday, August 9th and just to prove that it wasn’t a fluke, she then went & caught this 10 pounder the following day. The salmon also fell for spinner, this time at Kents on the lower river. Both fish were released alive. It was the biggest of the five fish caught on Friday 10th. Four of the fish fell to spinner & just one to spun shrimp.


On Saturday 11th, nine fish were caught in total for the day with the top rod hooking 7 and landing 5 grilse – four on prawn & one on worms. He lost 2 fish that were much bigger – one about 8lb and the other 13/14lb at the net.
The catch total for August now stands at 55 fish to the 13th. for 65 rod days. The season total is 342.
Following heavy rain (8mm) in the early hours of Sunday, the lower river was very coloured & completely unfishable. However we managed to catch a couple of fish on our upper beats on spinner.
We then had 38mm Sunday night which rendered the whole river completely unfishable.
Current conditions
The upper river peaked at 10.00 yesterday morning at Killavullen @ 2.55m but it has already fallen to 2.01 by 20.00 last night. The lower river peaked early evening yesterday @ 1.94m & was back down to 1.70m by 21.30. The clarity was very poor throughout the system all day.
Hopefully at least the upper river will be fishable today (14th.).
Ian Powell
Blackwater Lodge & Salmon Fishery
Upper Ballyduff, Co. Waterford.
Tel: 00 353 58 60235 From UK: 0871 474 0135 (10p/min any time!)
Mobile: 00 353 87 235 21 20
E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.ireland-salmon-fishing.net