BEAT 1
Looking up to Beat 1
Beat 1 main bank
Beat 1 opposite
The water height had obviously dropped due to the fact that there was rubbish and branches left scattered further up the bank, the temperature was about 5 or 6 degrees celsius with little or no wind and good bright sunshine a nice day to start the 2014 salmon season. There were about thirty optimistic anglers fishing Beat 1& 2 some like myself having been there from first light, very few spent ( kelts ) salmon were seen throwing, i myself only saw less than a handful for the whole day and no fresh salmon showed. I did see one angler catch and release a spent fish and that was all that i saw being caught for the whole day. The water was cold and running fast but the depth up at beat one near the lake has obviously shallowed up considerably and there was alot of weed which made it awkward for spinning as one was taking weed with every cast. There were many phone calls made and recieved during the day and then came the news that a fresh fish had been caught up high in the system on the Killarney Flesk river , a fish weighing over 11lbs and caught by Ger O' Shea. At least one angler had broken in his rod for the start of the new season and hopefully the rest of us will do the same in the not so distant future. Unfortunately many anglers agreed that they wouldn't be fishing Beat 1 next year for the start of the season because over the last few years very few fish have been caught there and also having talked to a few anglers they all said that last year was the worst they had on the Laune especially as having put in many fishing days. There is obviously an issue here with Beat 1 shallowing up and not holding fish as everthing just seems to be passing through.
As you can see from the above photos the water levels were fairly high and even those brave enough to walk up to Beat 1 left bank decided to take the long scenic route on their way back as some had a few hairy moments walking near the river in the high water.
fishing conditions do not loo good for opening day on the blacky this weekend paul, seemingly a lot of rain coming again tomorrow. rgds kieran.
ReplyDeleteI was talking to Ian from Blackwater lodge early in the week and at the time the water was over 3m and dropping but with that heavy rain and storm force winds coming friday the river is going to shoot back up to a big flood covering the fields. I don't mind the rain but storm force winds are bad especially with falling debris and trees etc. Will call it on friday night whether to go on saturday, the winds are gone down on sunday so i might go then. I might be mad when it comes to fishing in bad weather but i'm not stupid. Regards Paul.
DeleteMy local river here in Glanmire is bowling down today, so i could only imagine what state the river Blackwater is in. I must look at the webcam in Fermoy and look at the opw gauge at Ballyduff. I was going to go to Blackwater Lodge tomorrow myself but i think i will go to work instead and see if the flood drops off early next week. Rgds Kieran.
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