Dan O’Neill made a trip recently to the Munster Blackwater and reports the following on his trip to the waters at Longueville House. Dan says that “the weather recently has been slightly unpredictable, the wind has made many of the different fly fishing techniques tough on even the most experienced angler, as anglers we take each of nature’s obstacles and we work around them in hope of beating the odds, Trying to catch the unexpected, fishing into the unknown is one part of fishing that time after time excites me, casting a fly over a pool not knowing what might make that klink shoot off, make that nymph indicator stop dead or make a fishy movement. I find when the ” take ” happens my reactions and feelings have never changed from the moment I hooked my first trout at the age of four.
Looking for a new challenge over the weekend I contacted William O’Callaghan of Longueville House. William is lucky enough to have the River Blackwater flow through his land, a dream come through for any angler. On arrival we had a cup of coffee spoke about some patterns that William himself used over the past season to see if I could make an educated guess as to patterns to start with. Looking at some of the patterns and studying some nearby fly life I started out with a pheasant tail nymph which was under my trusty ‘sighter sedge’.
The next step of the adventure was to walk the river with William himself to get an insight into where I should start to fish. There are many salmon pools and trout runs along the stretch which all looked like the kind of things that dreams are made of. After our walk I decided on a lovely run called ‘the sally stream ‘, I entered the water at the bottom of the run planning to fish directly upstream using my dry dropper rig. One thing I noticed and enjoyed the most was stealthy making my way upstream fishing in under the overhanging sally’s. Looking along the bank the sally’s looked as if they were sculpted and shaped perfectly, moving from one dome to the next was spectacular and something that brought a very unique sense to the experience. Trout on a few occasions took my ‘sighter sedge’ with quite a few falling to my trusty pheasant tail and working my way upstream I noticed many little runs also that held some trout. The most magical for me was the way in which the sally’s had grown creating canopies and fishing under them, it was like stepping into a different world, one in which i was more than happy to get lost in.
As with all fishing trips my few hours passed like minutes, seconds even, leaving thoughts and many happy memories of my day on the Munster Blackwater.
Go fishing…………
For details on availability and conditions of fishing for salmon and trout on the Longueville House waters please contact them at
Contact : Longueville House Hotel, William O’Callaghan
Address : Mallow, Co. Cork.
Telephone : 00 353 22 47156
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.longuevillehouse.ie
