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Latest Newsletter dated January 29, 2014
http://goo.gl/0Dh0nh

Well - there's good news & then there's bad news.................

Millstreet gauge height for the last week

The good news! (If you can call it that...)

The rain last night didn't take the upper river up as high as the previous flood.
The previous one hit 3.26m @ Millstreet @ 14.00 on the 24th.
This last rise peaked @ 2.28m at 17.00 today.

The Bad news! (and there's plenty of that!)

The Ballyduff gauge had dropped to 1.80m this morning at 08.00,
but has risen again this evening to 2.55m but still hasn't peaked.

Now there's plenty more rain & showers forecast for Monday thru' Wednesday,
dry on Thursday & then more rain Friday.

Definitely looks as if it's going to be high water spinning at best for the Opening Day.

 

Ballyduff gauge height for the last week.

Yet more rain & a rapidly rising river........................

The radar picture above from 04.15 shows the extent of the rain which fell in the early hours.
I had 10mm on my gauge here at the Lodge.
The river at Millstreet is already up almost a metre at 11.15, & is rising rapidly.

The Ballyduff gauge was down to 1.79m at 08.00, but is just starting to rise through the morning
The 8 Day Magic Seaweed forecast has drier weather through the week
followed by more rain for next Friday & Sunday.

More rain takes the river up to 3 metres on the gauge.............!

This was the river at 13.15 today (Saturday), peaking at 2.97m on the Ballyduff gauge.
 

By 23.30 tonight (Saturday)  it was down to 1.94m.

There is a lot more rain to fall in the early hours of the morning (Sunday),
so we'll have to see what that brings.
The forecast then for the week up to the Opening Day is looking pretty dry,
so it should at least be in spinning order.
I suspect that the ground is so saturated that it won't be able
to drop to a reasonable fly height by Saturday.

Yet another little rise......

The river rose by 12cm again last night & is just starting to fall again - it's 1.22m @ 10.00 today.
There is heavy rain forecast for tomorrow (Friday) & also for Sunday.

The calm before the storm.........

The river is once again dropping & clearing & is again at the lowest level since December 18.
However the weather forecast yet again is looking ominous, with heavy rain forecast
for Friday & Sunday coupled with storm force winds as well on Sunday.
It remains to be seen how much it will affect the state of the river for the Opening Day
which is now a mere 10 days away.

More Interesting Weather Information on my Fishing report page

Those of you that know my website well know that I have a suite of interesting links
to all things weather & river related on my Fishing Report page. I am always on the lookout for new knowledge & information to add to this. This week I came across a very interesting site called
MagicSeaWeed.com   -   which is actually aimed at surfers.

It has some very well presented weather forecasting
with predictive sequences up to 8 days by 3 hour periods.
Of particular interest are the charts for
Air Pressure (which has the rainfall also embedded) & Wind.
I have included the charts for 06.00am next Sunday as examples below.
It will be interesting to see how it's accuracy proves to be
especially compared to the Met Eireann & BBC sites.

 If anybody comes across information that they think would be of use to our audience
of anglers interested in salmon fishing on the Blackwater, do please let me know,
& I will look at it with a view to including it on the website Fishing Report page.

Hopes rise as river falls.................. only 14 days to Opening Day!

Hopes are rising as the river is falling.
The Ballyduff gauge was down to 1.37m at 16.00 this afternoon.
This the lowest it has been since December 30th.
Photo above is the river below the Lodge @ 13.00 when the gauge was at 1.39m.
Bit of rain forecast for Tuesday but other than that the 5 day forecast is mainly dry.

Following some more rain in the upper catchment the river
is holding steady throughout it's entire length this afternoon.
The Ballyduff gauge is on 1.87m.
The forecast up to next Monday is for broken but rather drier weather
so hopefully the river will continue to drop.

Excellent Spawning Run

A lot of the spawning fish once again ran late into the river,
with many of them coming in the third week of November.
They were reported to be there in large numbers.
Spawning was under way in earnest at the beginning of December.
Hopefully, the high water from mid-late  December on will help to
push the spawned fish out of the river to return safely to the sea.

Second Biggest Flood of the winter yesterday...........

This was the river at 13.00 yesterday with the gauge on 3.14m.
It peaked at 3.26m @ 19.00 yesterday evening

This was the river at 15.00 today with the gauge on 1.98m.

Yet more rain is bringing the river river up once more............

Another band of heavy rain came across this morning.
We had 14mm rain fell here in Ballyduff in a few hours.
The upper river at Millstreet is up 1.5 metres & still rising fast at 15.00.
At Ballyduff it was down to 1.45m this morning (the lowest it had been since December 30)
but is just starting to rise once more.
The water temperature is a balmy 8.3ºC or 46.9ºF.
The 5 day forecast for the coming week is mainly dry.

Fishing Report Page now being updated.....

27 Days to go and counting...............

Not long to wait now. Just 27 days left until our salmon season re-opens on February 1st.


As usual in the run-up to the Opening Day, I have started to update the Fishing Report page with the river conditions (rainfall & height).

Like the UK, we have had a lot of rain since mid-December & water levels have been very high.

Hopefully the level will drop as we get to the start of the season.