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.