Sunday July 1st: With the water very high it looked as if no-one would venture out on Friday.
Eventually Kieran Conlon went out for a half day at Ballyhooly – the only rod out on the fishery.
It turned out to be very well worthwhile. He killed one fish of 6lb. on worms (below on net) & released a grilse on spinner & this 11 pounder on fly. A remarkable result considering that the clarity of the water was at best between 1 – 1 1/2 feet.
Yesterday (Saturday) Tim Harty (left) & Steven Slattery also fished Ballyhooly. They released two fish on spinner – this lovely 8 pounder for Tim & a 5 pounder for Steven. Pat Quirke also had two sea-liced fish from Kents on the lower river on spinner. He kept an 8.8lb. and released another fish of ~6lb.
Ballyhooly is definitely the place to be at the moment.
Today (Sunday) Chris Whelan (left) landed three – these two fish of 9.1 & 9.4lb & a grilse he released.
Larry Sheridan (right) fished with him & took this 7.4lb. They lost another three fish as well.
They saw a large number of fish running through the beat during the day.
Joe Lonergan caught a sea-liced 5 pounder at the Jole on Lower Kilmurry on the lower river to make it 5 for the day.
The upper & lower river were both dropping slowly overnight. However some heavy rain later yesterday (especially in the upper catchment) brought the upper river up 27 cm this morning, peaking at lunchtime & now falling again slowly. The clarity above wasn’t great as the rising water was rather dirty.
The lower river was rising slowly & steadily through the day, but the clarity was good at 2 1/2 – 3 feet.
Prospects
As I write (23.00) there is another band of quite heavy rain coming into the upper catchment which will keep the river topped up.
With the high water & the superb run of fish coming in, prospects of sport in the coming weeks are brilliant!
Monday July 2nd: As expected, the band of heavy rain came sweeping down through the catchment. I had 12mm of rain on my gauge this morning. The word from the upper river is that it is up 1 1/2 feet & dirty. At Killavullen it has risen 40cm since 04.00am.
I just heard (11.30am) that there is a very dirty flood coming through the lower river now which is obviously coming in from the Araglen tributary.
The lower river will be sure to rise again as well.
Ian & Glenda 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
