Free Fishing on the Cork Blackwater from February 8 to 12th.


Blackwater Lodge will once again be offering free fishing from Monday to Friday, February 8th. - 12th. inclusive.
The river has been in flood for the last couple of days, but the forecast looks mainly dry right up until the 21st.
The river should come into order for the beginning of the week.
Booking is essential so please contact the Lodge to reserve a place.

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Proprietor of Blackwater Lodge - Ireland's premier salmon fishing lodge - with his wife Glenda. The Lodge is situated 35 miles from Cork in a beautiful location overlooking the Blackwater river. 15 miles of private fishing. B&B/cottage accommodation, smokery, guides. Fly-casting & Fishing Tuition with Glenda (APGAI-IRL Salmon & Trout) – one of the world’s highest qualified female fly-casting instructors & Emerald World Masters Ladies Salmon Distance Casting Champion.

Feb. 11. Free Fishing next week. Glenda appears at Dublin this weekend.

The spell of dry weather continues, and the river is coming down to a lovely level.
The picture above was taken today (February 11) with the river on 0.75m & clarity about 4 feet.
Air temperature this morning at 8.00am was -6°C.

Here's the current river situation:


This graph should update itself each time you log in until the end of February.

The river is now getting close to the magic 0.65m level which I would regard as ideal for fly.
There hasn't been any news on fish caught since the two on opening day,
but there have been very few rods out on the river.
Prospects for the next fortnight look very good with mainly dry weather, so we certainly shouldn't be flooded off the river.
With the comparatively low water levels, the best of the fishing will be concentrated in the lower river from Clondulane down.

Free Fishing again next week
The Lodge will once again offer free fishing from Monday to Friday next week - February 15 to 19.
Advance booking please.

Glenda Powell
The Nationwide programme featuring Glenda's tuition has been re-scheduled and will now be broadcast on Friday, February 19.
The whole half hour programme is dedicated to fishing.
For those of you who are not able to access this on TV, you will be able to see it
on the Internet for 21 days after the programme has been broadcast on RT Player: Catch up with your favourite TV programmes online.
Glenda will also be demonstrating at this weekend's Ireland Angling Expo at the National Exhibition Centre, Swords, Dublin on Saturday & Sunday, February 13/14.
We also will be there on Stand 55 next to the Casting Pool.
Glenda will also be giving free tuition & advice throughout the weekend.

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Proprietor of Blackwater Lodge - Ireland's premier salmon fishing lodge - with his wife Glenda. The Lodge is situated 35 miles from Cork in a beautiful location overlooking the Blackwater river. 15 miles of private fishing. B&B/cottage accommodation, smokery, guides. Fly-casting & Fishing Tuition with Glenda (APGAI-IRL Salmon & Trout) – one of the world’s highest qualified female fly-casting instructors & Emerald World Masters Ladies Salmon Distance Casting Champion.

Blackwater Lodge beat 7 – Upper Kilmurry on Wednesday, February 17.

The Lodge will once again offer free fishing from Monday Feb. 22 to Friday, Feb. 26 inclusive.


This graph should update itself each time you log in until the end of February.
The river is in superb fly order. We’re still waiting for our first springer to be caught, but are seeing some fresh fish running through every day.

If you missed The Nationwide programme on Friday, February 19 - which was entirely dedicated to fishing - you can access this on the Internet for 21 days after broadcast on RT Player: Catch up with your favourite TV programmes online.

Took a few pics at Swords Show last weekend & put them up on Youtube.

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Proprietor of Blackwater Lodge - Ireland's premier salmon fishing lodge - with his wife Glenda. The Lodge is situated 35 miles from Cork in a beautiful location overlooking the Blackwater river. 15 miles of private fishing. B&B/cottage accommodation, smokery, guides. Fly-casting & Fishing Tuition with Glenda (APGAI-IRL Salmon & Trout) – one of the world’s highest qualified female fly-casting instructors & Emerald World Masters Ladies Salmon Distance Casting Champion.

The First Springer is Caught on the Blackwater Lodge beats

Lodge regular Gavin Wishart from Newcastle, Co. Down came down to celebrate his 40th. birthday
this weekend & scooped the First Salmon of the 2010 season to be caught on the Lodge Fishery.

He was fishing yesterday (March 6th) with Connie Corcoran on Ballinlovane and took the fish on Flying C at Cloonbeg.
The fish would have been released, but was bleeding from the gills so had to be kept.
The cast before he lost what they both believe was another springer, so there were definitely a few about.
It was hardly surprising that it took us until now to catch a fish as there were only 64 rod days
for the whole month of February. There would certainly be more springers caught if there were
more rods out on the river each day.

Prospects
There are more fresh fish being seen in the river in the last few days.
The river is in absolutely cracking order at the moment - even for the fly.
0.44m on the gauge so perfect fly height & clarity a good 4 feet.
The weather forecast (Metcheck) looks dry for the next 2 weeks apart from about 6mm on the 15th.
Daily Updated Fishing Report: Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery - Daily Updated Salmon Fishing Report page

__________________
Proprietor of Blackwater Lodge - Ireland's premier salmon fishing lodge - with his wife Glenda. The Lodge is situated 35 miles from Cork in a beautiful location overlooking the Blackwater river. 15 miles of private fishing. B&B/cottage accommodation, smokery, guides. Fly-casting & Fishing Tuition with Glenda (APGAI-IRL Salmon & Trout) – one of the world’s highest qualified female fly-casting instructors & Emerald World Masters Ladies Salmon Distance Casting Champion.

The Second Springer is Caught on the Blackwater Lodge beats

Bass fishing guide Michael McCormack from Wexford with the second fish of the season from the Lodge beats. It was sea-liced & weighed in at 10.2lb.
It was taken on Silver Bullet on the Green Bank on Upper Kilmurry.
Michael saw 3 or 4 more fresh fish as well during the day.
He was the only rod out on the river today - one springer for one rod day cain't be bad!

__________________
Proprietor of Blackwater Lodge - Ireland's premier salmon fishing lodge - with his wife Glenda. The Lodge is situated 35 miles from Cork in a beautiful location overlooking the Blackwater river. 15 miles of private fishing. B&B/cottage accommodation, smokery, guides. Fly-casting & Fishing Tuition with Glenda (APGAI-IRL Salmon & Trout) – one of the world’s highest qualified female fly-casting instructors & Emerald World Masters Ladies Salmon Distance Casting Champion.

Third Springer is caught on the Blackwater Lodge beats
The third springer of the season was taken on Sunday, March 14 by Larry Sheridan (Dungarvan) who gillies for the Lodge.
He released the fish which weighed about 12lb & was taken on black Flying C at the top of the Island Stream on Kents.
It didn't have sea-lice but very fresh. He saw a couple more springers there as well.
Unfortunately no picture as he doesn't carry a camera with him.
The river is now at summer level - 0.36m on the Ballyduff gauge. Perfect fly order.
Lots of kelts being caught on flies as small as size 8.
For the latest info: Fishing report page Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery - Daily Updated Salmon Fishing Report page

__________________
Proprietor of Blackwater Lodge - Ireland's premier salmon fishing lodge - with his wife Glenda. The Lodge is situated 35 miles from Cork in a beautiful location overlooking the Blackwater river. 15 miles of private fishing. B&B/cottage accommodation, smokery, guides. Fly-casting & Fishing Tuition with Glenda (APGAI-IRL Salmon & Trout) – one of the world’s highest qualified female fly-casting instructors & Emerald World Masters Ladies Salmon Distance Casting Champion.

Here's the current water level on the Cork Blackwater at Ballyduff on April 10th.

Source - Blackwater Lodge Fishing Report page: Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery - Daily Updated Salmon Fishing Report page
The river is falling slowly but steadily. The clarity has improved dramatically & is now about 5 feet on the lower river.
It's still a bit too high to fish the fly comfortably.
The 5th. springer of the season on the Lodge beats was caught on spinner on Beat 5 - Inchinleama last Sunday (April 4th.) before the last flood hit the river.
One kelt was caught today - surprising that there are still some present in the river this late in the season.

---------- Post added at 01:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:14 AM ----------

Fishing the Fly at Last!


With such a beautiful balmy evening this evening, four of us decided venture out to the river about 6.00pm this evening.
We opted to go to Upper & Lower Kilmurry, the best of the Lodge's seven beats below Careysville
with the gauge height having dropped to 0.80m.
Glenda & I headed for Lower, and the picture above is her at the Lug Pool at 7.15pm.
She was able to wade & fly-fish the whole way down the pool even at this height.


I headed down below to the Island Stream. This was about 10cm too high to be able to wade,
though could be fished from the (rather high) bank with a shooting head.
The picture above was taken looking downstream at the Island Stream at 7.45pm


and this picture was taken looking up the Island Stream to the Lug Pool on the bend in the distance.

We didn't see or touch any fish on Lower Kilmurry, but when we went back up to Upper Kilmurry,
the other two had seen three large fresh fish moving through the Sand Gap & the Hut Pool and Daniel
(a student on work experience at the Lodge from the Swedish Sport Fishing Academy)
had briefly hooked one of them just after it showed.

The clarity is about 5 feet & the level is falling steadily, so the prospects for the coming week look good.

For the latest information, see our daily updated Fishing Report page: : Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery - Daily Updated Salmon Fishing Report page

__________________
Proprietor of Blackwater Lodge - Ireland's premier salmon fishing lodge - with his wife Glenda. The Lodge is situated 35 miles from Cork in a beautiful location overlooking the Blackwater river. 15 miles of private fishing. B&B/cottage accommodation, smokery, guides. Fly-casting & Fishing Tuition with Glenda (APGAI-IRL Salmon & Trout) – one of the world’s highest qualified female fly-casting instructors & Emerald World Masters Ladies Salmon Distance Casting Champion.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...........................Cast

Yes - it's now only 5 days to go to Opening Day!

This is the Cork Blackwater river today - 27th.


There was a 20cm rise on the river yesterday (26th.) following rain in the upper catchment.
This brought the lower river up about 10cm, but it has already started to fall back.
The forecast is then dry from now until the 1st., and the river is in excellent fly-fishable order with great clarity even after the slight rise. It should be perfect for the start of the season.

Here's the rainfall and river height at Ballyduff to this evening.


And here's the gauge heights for the last 5 days on the upper & lower river.


For the very Latest Info: Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery - Daily Updated Salmon Fishing Report page

__________________
Proprietor of Blackwater Lodge - Ireland's premier salmon fishing lodge - with his wife Glenda. The Lodge is situated 35 miles from Cork in a beautiful location overlooking the Blackwater river. 15 miles of private fishing. B&B/cottage accommodation, smokery, guides. Fly-casting & Fishing Tuition with Glenda (APGAI-IRL Salmon & Trout) – one of the world’s highest qualified female fly-casting instructors & Emerald World Masters Ladies Salmon Distance Casting Champion.

The First Spring Salmon is Landed on February 3rd.!

Derek O'Keeffe, from Thomastown, Kilkenny came to the Lodge for a casting lesson
with Glenda this afternoon.
After the lesson, Glenda invited him to fish on for the rest of the afternoon on Upper Kilmurry.
He hooked and landed a lovely fresh fish of about 8lb. on a fly he tied himself.
It was a colour variation of the PoshTosh as seen in "Trout and Salmon", February 2010.
The fish was hooked at the head of the Hut Pool on Upper Kilmurry and took about 15 mins
to land, having jumped half a dozen times.
Derek - a firm believer in catch and release - carefully returned the fish alive.
Not wanting to harm the fish in any way, it was quickly released without even taking a photo
as he was fishing on his own - the only rod out on the fishery in fact today.

Current Situation


This was the river below the Lodge today.


This is the gauge height & rainfall for the last month. The river is at a perfect height and clarity for the fly.

Prospects
The forecast is dry until Sunday when 27mm rain is forecast with 8mm more on Monday then 16mm
on Wednesday and 21mm Thursday (Source: Weather forecast for Ballyduff in Waterford (Ireland), 64 m. - which gives an excellent forecast for Ballyduff ! )
If this is correct, then we will probably see a bit of a flood next week.

For all the latest info, see also:
Ian Powell | Facebook
or follow us on
Ian Powell (blackwaterlodge) on Twitter

__________________
Proprietor of Blackwater Lodge - Ireland's premier salmon fishing lodge - with his wife Glenda. The Lodge is situated 35 miles from Cork in a beautiful location overlooking the Blackwater river. 15 miles of private fishing. B&B/cottage accommodation, smokery, guides. Fly-casting & Fishing Tuition with Glenda (APGAI-IRL Salmon & Trout) – one of the world’s highest qualified female fly-casting instructors & Emerald World Masters Ladies Salmon Distance Casting Champion.

This is the Blackwater this morning. Gauge is 2.77m and rising.
The upper river peaked last night and is falling.


Little rain fell in Ballyduff, but there must have been a considerable amount in the upper catchment.

Prospects
Poor in the coming days with this flood & more rain for today and then Wednesday.
Temperatures are very mild (10-12C) so the high warmer water should encourage more fish to run, and may bring them to the higher beats (Ballyhooly to Mallow) once the flood subsides.

For all the latest info, see also:
Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery - Daily Updated Salmon Fishing Report page
Ian Powell | Facebook
or follow us on
Ian Powell (blackwaterlodge) on Twitter

__________________
Proprietor of Blackwater Lodge - Ireland's premier salmon fishing lodge - with his wife Glenda. The Lodge is situated 35 miles from Cork in a beautiful location overlooking the Blackwater river. 15 miles of private fishing. B&B/cottage accommodation, smokery, guides. Fly-casting & Fishing Tuition with Glenda (APGAI-IRL Salmon & Trout) – one of the world’s highest qualified female fly-casting instructors & Emerald World Masters Ladies Salmon Distance Casting Champion.