I did a day's fishing on the Blackwater salmon fishery beats at upper and lower Kilmurray yesterday. We knew that the salmon catch reports were low but any day fishing on the river is a bonus especially the Blackwater River. We met up with Glenda and Noel and had a nice chat regarding the river etc and Glenda informed about her new project Fish-Live-Learn, I honestly think it's a great way to bring new people into angling and outdoor activities. When I'm fishing I immerse myself in my surroundings and I'm very aware of what's going on especially the flora and fauna as I'm a very keen photographer etc. Even if people aren't interested in the fishing, walking in the countryside seeing nature, visiting old architectural sites, climbing hills getting out, breathing fresh air and getting exercise relieves the everyday stress of work, computers, mobiles, TV etc.
I've put information regarding these events and contact details for Glenda if anyone is interested at the end of the post..
We decided to fish two different approaches, I went deep and Alex went midwater. I used a triple density line and a fly rather than a tube as the water was only 0.38m on the guage and even then I was rubbing bottom halfway on the drift. We moved through the beat towards the bend and fished it hard, wading down I did rub bottom so I knew I was definitely covering everything and if a fish was there I'd definitely have moved it. Wading at the head of the island we again fished in tandem, Alex going first fishing midwater and me covering the deep. I had to change my set up to a floating line, 10ft 4ins per second sinking versileader with a cascade fly and I was still rubbing bottom especially at the end of the island where I got stuck and had to use my retrieval tool ( picture below) to get my fly back as it was really well stuck.
At this stage the wind was very blustery making casting awkward but nevertheless we covered the water well and didn't get any takes or see fish. The temperature dropped in the heavy showers and it was definitely more like March than May plus the water was cold especially when wading up to ur nether regions...
We moved back upstream and fished the upper kilmurray beat down to the island and back to the hut. I decided as the salmon were absent I'd give Alex a lesson in Czech nymphing as the trout weren't interested in dry fly, there was little or no hatch and no rising trout so it was better to go down to them. I set up a czech nymphing cast and met a few brownies but even they were slow on the take, plenty of smaller trout but the big ones were hard to come by. We ended up leaving at about 8.30 as there were some more heavy showers coming through but sadly no salmon seen or caught. Pictures below of the beats and also Glenda's contact details for any upcoming events, guiding, casting etc. The good side to fishing in hard conditions is that you learn the river, pools, rocks, holding areas, wading areas and especially casting strokes because I tell every salmon angler use both hands or practice with your weak hand to deal with the bad winds or high banks etc....
