Salmon Fishing Ireland The Suir River

Probably the nicest salmon fly fishing beat that i have fished, it allows the fly to fish through the run perfectly with a great pull of water. When you hit a salmon here the fly stops dead in the water and then you get the mandatory three seconds to get your things in order i.e., making sure the line is not wrapped around your reel, rod, jacket, waders etc., and then the fireworks begin. The fish screams off down stream at mach 2 and then the fight has started, you and your knots against the fish and you pray that they will hold out till the fight is over. Another beat that comes to mind is Heffernans beat on the Laune salmon anglers stretch of the Laune river in Killarney, it too has a beautiful pull of water which allows the fly to fish properly through the pool. I will have some video footage of this beat and more from the Laune river in the not too distant future.

SALMON ON THE FLY ( THE SUIR RIVER ) IRELAND.

The Blackwater River

This video shows three beats on the Blackwater River held by Blackwater Lodge, the beats are Kilmurray, Kents and Ballyhooly bridge. When making this video i caught and released 14 salmon kelts, 5 on a 15gram black/silver flying 'c' and 9 on the fly. Most of the salmon caught on the fly were at the Ballyhooly beat section of the Blackwater and i will be featuring that fly being tied by Tony O Sullivan on a video soon. I was using a 13' Thomas and Thomas 9/10 weight salmon fly rod loaded with an A.S.F shooting head floating fly line and added to this i had a Rio 10' brown sink tip which has a sink rate of 3.9inches per second. The leader was six feet of 15lbs flurocarbon looped through the sink tip and tied to my salmon fly. I haven't given the fly a name yet as i have only tied a rough pattern for myself to see if it would work and as it has i will be giving it to tony to tie me up a selection of sizes and one for the video and i promise to have a name for it by then.

Salmon Fishing Ireland The Blackwater

The Blackwater River.

I fished the Blackwater Lodge beats of Upper and Lower Kilmurray and the Ballyhooly Bridge on thursday morning the 9th of February last with my fishing buddy Kieran Conlon. We had heard that there were three salmon caught last week weighing between six to eight pounds on the Blackwater Lodge Beats so we decided to give it a go. The weather was extremely mild for this time of year and we were slightly over dressed to say the least as i was actually sweating, but at least you can take layers off when you are warm. We fly fished Lower Kilmurray early in the morning and then moved up to Upper Kilmurray a few hours later not having any luck or seeing any fresh fish. I then spun the beats with a twenty gram black and silver flying 'c' size four blade to get down deep and follow the bottom contours. Normally i would either move or meet fish with this method but this time i had no success.

We moved up to  Ballyhooly Bridge later in the afternoon and again we fly fished and spun it down stream of the bridge only meeting the odd out of season brown trout which we released. Later that evening we fished the bridge pool under the pine trees where there is a nice salmon lie but again to no avail. We then moved up above the bridge to the flats where i changed down to a fiftheen gram black and copper flying 'c' with a size three blade because it was shallower with a nice gravel bottom and the lighter spinner worked better there. I saw a salmon head and tail above me at the bend so i walked upstream to cover the fish, i wasn't sure if it was fresh or not because it was some distance away but my motto is to cover what i see as best as i can. I caught six kelts in quick succession which i brought in and released quickly. There were a lot of kelts holding up in that pool so i decided to move away and let them in peace. We fished away until dark but didn't see or touch any fresh fish, it's hard days like these that make you enjoy the catching of a fresh salmon.

Salmon Fishing Ireland, The Blackwater River.

ATLANTIC SALMON THE LIFE CYCLE

Salmon Fishing Ireland 2012

This blog will help all salmon anglers be they beginners or experts with information and videos of the tackle and tips i use while catching salmon. There will be videos of rivers that i fish showing the best salmon lies to help anglers maximize their chances of catching them. Being able to view a river that one has not seen before and have a guided tour with tackle tips etc., thrown in should vastly improve most  anglers experiences while fishing new areas.The only thing i ask is that anglers respect the enviroment and help in the conservation of salmon stocks by returning most of their fish for future generations to enjoy. The following video shows the life cycle of the salmon from egg ( ova ) to adult fish ( springer ) and i hope this will help new anglers to recognize the differences between fresh run fish and kelts, so that the kelts having spawned are heading back to sea and should not be killed by mistake.

Salmon Fishing Ireland 2012 The Laune River.

My Best Salmon Fly For Last Year 2011