And........... another flood is on the way!

Last night saw 2 bands of rain come across the catchment corresponding to the front & back
of a low pressure system sweeping across which brought another 8mm rain here in Ballyduff.
In Mallow, there was 14mm including an inch of snow in the early hours.

The upper river peaked at midnight from the first band & @ 1.57m @ 08.00 as a result of the rain from the second band.  Up 40cm since yesterday afternoon.
 

Not as bad as expected...................

The band of rain that went through the catchment last night wasn't as bad as expected,
& the upper river at Millstreet only went up about 20cm.

The lower river has started to rise slightly, but was only (!) @ 2.09m @ 11.30 this morning.
If the weather stays any way dry at all, the rive could come down to the height when fish were caught last Wednesday (1.90m).

Don't even ask...........................................

This was the radar piocture at 05.00 this morning. Another band of rain came in
in the early hours of this morning with more for Wednesday & Thursday evenings!

The upper river peaked at 23.00 yesterday Monday 24^th & was falling until 05.30
when it started to rise yet again.

The lower river peaked @ 2.80m @ 04.00 yesterday Monday 24^th.
It was down to 2.08m @ 20.00 last night but has been rising steadily ever since yet again!
                    yesterday & up to 2.71m at 09.30 today Tuesday 25^th & still rising.

And another flood..........................................

Heavy rain swept from the West right across the catchment this afternoon & we had 10mm fell here
at the Lodge.  This was the picture @ 18.00.

 By 21.00 the back of the rain belt had cleared the catchment, but there is another band of rain
due early in the morning, followed by yet more rain on Wednesday & Thursday evenings.

  

This afternoon's rain has already brought the upper river at Millstreet up a metre by 21.00.

The river at Ballyduff is just starting to rise again at 21.00 this evening.

And........ yet another flood and......... more rain to come tonight!

This was the river below the Lodge @ 08.00 this morning Monday 24th.
The river peaked at 2.80m on the Ballyduff gauge @ 04.00 this morning.

The upper river had peaked at mid-day yesterday & is now falling.
10mm rain fell here late yesterday. There is yet more rain forecast for tonight.

It looks as if the river won't be fishable for much of this coming week.

Yet another flood - & yet more rain tomorrow...................................

This was the river below the Lodge peaking at 17.00 today @ 2.48m.

The river went completely out of order once again today.
Worse still - there's yet another band of rain coming in tomorrow evening.

The upper river @ Millstreet peaked @ mid-day - up 1.30m.

The First Springers caught on February 19th....................

For the second time in the last 3 years the Lodge has had the privilege
of landing the First Salmon of the Season from the Cork Blackwater.

I took Charles Quesada from France (who is on work experience at the Lodge)
out yesterday for his first ever day salmon fishing.

It was the first day that the lower river was looking even moderately fishable.

It was 1.82m on the gauge, but the clarity was almost 3 feet.

We only got to the river at 12.00 & by 12.45 Charles had landed his first ever kelt.

At 14.45 he landed the first salmon of the season from the entire Blackwater system

which I was able to verify with IFI staff.

The fish was a beautiful fresh chunky fish which didn't appear to have any sea-lice.

It weighed 6lb. & was safely released. The spinner had fallen out in the net!

Second Springer

The same day another fresh salmon was landed on one of our beats
on the upper river by Mark Gledhill (UK) which jumped free
from in the net (the spinner was hooked up inside the net!)
after being played for 20 minutes.
It was a bar of silver which was estimated at ~15lb.

This was the river below the Lodge at 12.30 today Saturday 22^nd. Gauge height  1.80m.

The river is still holding at a high level @ 1.82m on he Ballyduff gauge.

Floods around Lismore Castle & bridge

Yesterday - February 15th. - i went for a tour around Lismore
& took these snaps of the river by the bridge under the Castle. 

Looking upstream from Lismore bridge.

 Looking upstream from Lismore bridge. 

Looking upstream from Lismore bridge normally.

 Looking downstream from Lismore bridge.

Looking downstream from Lismore bridge normally.

 Looking towards the Castle. 

 Looking towards the Castle normally.  

Floods on the river Araglen - a small Blackwater tributary!

I went for a drive around on Friday afternoon - February 14th..
Here's a few shots I took of the Araglen, which is a (normally!) small tributary
which comes into the Blackwater close to Kilworth - between Fermoy & Kilmurry beats.

 Downstream of Baker's bridge on the Upper Araglen

And how it looks normally

 Downstream of Baker's bridge on the Upper Araglen.

And how it looks normally

Upstream of Baker's bridge on the Upper Araglen. 

And as it is normally

 Upstream of the humpback bridge on the Kilworth road.

And how it looks normally 

Downstream of the Kilworth bridge

And how it looks normally

Yet another storm sweeps across..............

 This was the weather picture in the early hours of this morning.

This was the storm coming in at 05.00 this morning. It was moving quickly from West to East.

This was the situation @ 08.00. It travelled right through the catchment
& I recorded 15mm of rain on my gauge here in Ballyduff.

Rising Fast!
By 11.00, the upper river at Millstreet was already up by 1.10 metres & rising fast.
It is also just starting to rise already here at Ballyduff

The floods just keep on coming.......................................

We actually had no rain here in the last 24 hours, but the previous day's
brought the river up to a very high peak again - 3.49m @ Ballyduff.

The first picture shows the river below the Lodge @ 3pm yesterday with the gauge @ 3.20m.
next is the graph of height at Ballyduff. Falling away steadily @ 2.33m @ 7am.

Next graph is the upper river @ Millstreet which is the lowest it has been in the last week this morning.  I drove to Fermoy yesterday & took a couple of pictures.

 The first is the Ballyduff-Fermoy road at the Wall Pool at Ballinaroone - yes thats the wall on the left. A foot of fast-flowing water on the road!

Next is the weir at Fermoy at 2pm yesterday - just a ripple.

Last picture is the entrance to Ballinaroone beat with water flowing very strongly
off the fields just above the stile.

There is yet more rain forecast for this evening.

Here we go again! Yet more rain & high water...................................

The picture above was the river below the Lodge at 16.30 yesterday.
The river had fallen from 2.95m in the morning to 2.60m at 16.30.

By this morning , it had risen once again to 3.05m @ 10.0

There was another 14mm of rain yesterday which brought the upper river well up once again.
It peaked at midnight last night & has been dropping steadily ever since.

It was still rising steadily all day at Ballyduff
& finally peaked @ 19.00 at a height of 3.18m today 2nd.


With more rain forecast for Monday & heavy rain for Wednesday, plus more rain next weekend
It's hard to predict when the river will be in some kind of fishable order.

The Heavens opened but not the fishing.

We feared the worst & got it! The picture above was the river at 09.30 this morning
with the gauge just peaking at 2.95m on the Ballyduff gauge.
A few people turned up for a chat and two even ventured upriver
to see if it was worth a cast but went away without even taking the rods out.
Even the spots that fish well in really high water were out of order.

 

The upper river at Millstreet had peaked yesterday at 16.00
& was falling until this morning when it is now on the rise yet again.
The forecasts are showing plenty of rain for the early part of next week & also for next weekend, so it could be some time before we can get a reasonable chance to wet a line.