Blackwater Lodge Newsletter - Wednesday, July 9th., 2008

A Timely Flood gets the Fishing moving!

It looks as if this summer could be a re-run of last year. The weather broke the same weekend - June 20 - when Glenda was demonstrating fly-casting at the Shane's Castle Country Fair in Co. Antrim. There were a couple of smaller floods in the last week of June (22nd & 27th.)& another on July 3rd., culminating in a the biggest flood 3 days ago on July 6th., when the river was up to 1.71m on the gauge. After all the rain, the river is holding it's level better as the ground water level is higher and the springs running harder. This means that the river clears faster. Today, the river was down to 0.80m in the morning & the clarity is improving fast. After this latest flood, there seems to be a very good run of larger fish coming into the system. The average size of the fish taken in June was 8lb., which is by far the highest average since 1988. The average size of the fish so far for July is even higher at 8¾lb. - again the highest recorded for July & double the Ten Year average weight. There are plenty of sea-liced fish around the 10lb. mark being caught.

Best Day of the Season so Far
With only 7 rods out on the river yesterday (8th.), 9 fish to 10½lb were taken, all on spinner.
Denis Ryan took four on Blackstone.

Best Fish of the Season so Far
Denis Ryan strikes again!  A phone call at 11.30 today told me that he had caught a fish weighed on the bank as 15lb. It was taken on spinner at Killavullen.

Prospects
Have to be superb for the coming weeks with good water levels & plenty or larger fish running. If the weather holds, the river should be in fly order in a day or two.

Availability
Reasonable for accommodation & fishing at the Lodge in the next couple of weeks.

Best Regards & Tight Lines!
Ian Powell
Blackwater Lodge & Salmon Fishery
(Voted Best Fly Fishing Guesthouse/Hotel 2006 by the readers of the UK magazine Today's Flyfisher!)
Upper Ballyduff
Co. Waterford
Ireland
Tel: 00 353 58 60235     Web: http://www.ireland-salmon-fishing.net
                 Contact Ian                                              Contact Glenda
  Email:     info@ireland-salmon-fishing.net            glenda@ireland-salmon-fishing.net
 Skype:                      bwlodge                                                  bwlodgeglenda
Mobile:             00 353 87 235 21 20                                    00 353 87 235 12 60