Report from Ireland’s Cork Blackwater (Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery)


At 17.30pm on the 19th. February, local angler Bill McNamara caught this superb fresh-run salmon
- the first springer of the season on the Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery. The fish fell to spinner and weighed 6.7lb.We believe that there may have been four other springers already caught on the private beat below the first weir on the river, which is immediately above our Beat 7, but this is rumour rather than fact.


The map above shows the Lodge’s 16 beats on the river.
They are spread out from only 3 miles above the tidal limit to over 30 miles further upstream.
It is interesting to see the distribution of fish hooked/caught in relation to the geography of the river.
The first springer hooked was on Beat 8 - Ballyhooly Bridge (17 miles upstream of the Lodge) on the 1st. February – on fly when there was a 7 foot flood on the river.
The second springer hooked was on the top beat which is Beat 16 -: Ballygarrett, which is over 28 miles upstream of the Lodge. That fish was hooked on spinner.
The first fish caught (above photo) was on Beat 5 – Inchinleama.


The graph above shows the rainfall and river height at Upper Ballyduff for January/February.
This explains why fish were being hooked so far up the river so early, as they were able to run very far upstream on the high water.
The rainfall has abated in the last 10 days, and the river is now coming down to a perfect fly height & clarity.
The water temperature is 7°C - 45°F.

Prospects
Absolutely superb for spring fishing in the coming weeks, with springers present and the river in fantastic order. The only reason that more springers have not been caught already is the low fishing effort.
There have only been 44 rod days on the fishery in the first 20 days of the season.
An average of only 2 rods/day over 14 miles of fishing!

Spawning Run
The spawning run has been truly exceptional and is judged to be one of the best since the 1960s. T
here are a huge number of very well-mended kelts in the river. Remarkably, disease is almost totally absent,
which is a very pleasant surprise with the very high concentration of fish in the river.
All this bodes well for the stocks of salmon for the future.

Availability of Rods
There is no problem for rod availability on most of the fisheries on the Blackwater at the moment.

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[quote name='Ian Powell - Blackwater Lodge' date='Feb 20 2009, 09:09 PM' post='2035260']
Report from Ireland’s Cork Blackwater (Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery)



Shouldn't there be a brown tag on this fish as well?

No, we don't have that system this year - it was only in existence on the Blackwater for 2008.
This year, there is an overall limit of 3 spring fish to be kept for any licence in the Republic in the period up to May 11.
Some areas vary slightly. here on the Blackwater it is one fish only to May 11.
Once you've kept your limit, it is C&R - single barbless hooks & no worming.
I anyway don't allow worming until all the kelts are safely out of the river.

Thanks for the info,

I think the system you have in place in Eire is very salmon angler friendly (though it does seem to change in detail quite a bit!). Have you noticed a significant increase in fish runs over the years?

As you probably know, we have a blanket no fish taken before 16th June rule here. I have certainly noticed an increase in the number of fish running the rivers over the past few years.

Again thanks for enlightening me,

Regards, Worms

Hi Worms,
The system is indeed a bit tedious, but definitely going in the right direction. Personally I think they would be a lot better - certainly here on the Blackwater - to only open the season in March & close mid to late October.
This would help to preserve the early running springers & give us superb backend fishing.
Traditionally in Ireland, the season has always closed early - the salmon season ends on September 30th. everywhere.
This doesn't take into consideration that the runs of fish are getting later & later.
On the Blackwater the grilse run peaked at the end of August last year whereas it was the end of June only 5 years ago.
We have seen a large increase in both the number & size of the summer fish in the 2 years since the drift nets were taken off. Surprisingly though, the number of fish running in June isn't great.
The nets were fishing in June & July & they certainly decimated the early grilse, particularly with the added effect of increased marine mortality which has become so evident in the last 5 years.
There is some increase in the July run here, but more particularly in August & September.
We had an all-time record month of August last year in spite of the fact that the number of rods fishing was quite low.
This also highlights the stupidity of having very low bag limits in the ealry season & particularly in September where hte limit is 1 fish per day. It would be much better to make the limit one fish per day from May 12 to the end of August & 3 fish per day in September.
About 80% of the total Blackwater run comes in from September to December, so there is every justification for higher bag limits & a later closing date.
Now I'll step down off my soapbox & stop preaching!
Regards
Ian