Having been lucky i got a chance to fish the last day of the extended salmon season on the Blackwater river, the weather in the morning was very cold and foggy with the heavy fog covering the river, it took till about 12 o clock for it to burn off and then we got this beautiful sunshine. The water level was low and i was surprised as i had expected it to be running a lot higher due to some of the reports that i had read recently but as always you have to physically see it for yourself. Well the fat lady was singing as i fished down the beat but being optimistic i was expecting to meet a fish even in this extremely bright sunshine and i did but with a shake of its head the barbless single hook came out and i was left enjoying the view so i took a photo to share with you. You cannot be disappointed when you are standing in an area of such extreme beauty on one of the nicest days of the season, as most anglers will say catching isn't everything.... but it helps. All in all it was a quiet salmon season for me, not because of the lack of salmon but the lack of water. The rain stopped in May and didn't come back till the end of September just as the season was coming to a close ( typical ), the river Lee was the lowest and dirtiest that i have ever see it and i was surprised that water wasn't released by the dam to clean it out and bring some fish up even though we had floods in other rivers at the same time. The majority of salmon were held up below the Kingsley weir and there were quite a few fish out in the harbour waiting for the water to run but it never came, the upside is that there should be more fish spawning this year as the amount of salmon caught was low.
My best day this season was in May when i caught three salmon ,( 12lb, 16lb and a big fish of over 23lb all in high water and on the spinner, i would have preferred on the fly but that's the way it goes (the video can be viewed on my youtube channel http://youtu.be/dPlRipCZ8Kk?list=UUGAIWufjLx0343nUNnQoarg .). Well all i can do now is put away my salmon gear till next season and hope that it will be an improvement on this year
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