River still falling, forecast still dry............

 

This was the river this morning (Saturday 15 March) at 09.00 with the gauge now on 0.87m.

Continuing to fall but only very slowly. It has dropped just 5cm (2") in the last 24 hours.

 

It is a perfect spinning height & just coming to fly fishable height on the upper river.
It is still too high to wade & fly fish on the lower river today.

Prospects are looking superb for the coming days.

Still falling. Perfect spinning water & almost to fly height.........

The Island Stream on Lower Kilmurry @ 17.00 today.
Ballyduff gauge height 0.90m & Clarity ~5 feet.
Perfect spinning water but a bit too high to wade for the fly yet.
Forecast should be dry until the middle of next week.

By far the lowest level since the season opened!

Superb weather & Superb conditions.....................

Alan Watkinson from the UK was just one
of only 2 rods on the fishery today.
He caught this cracking 7.2lb fish on a copper Toby at the Sand Gap on Upper Kilmurry
on the lower river.

The fish would have been released
but was bleeding heavily.

Alan saw fish moving through the beat & also 
saw another fish caught on the opposite bank so
there was certainly quite a lot of movement today.




























Both the upper & lower river are both only falling very slowly at the momentdue to a very high water table keeping all the springs well fed.

   

This was Killavullen today - down to 1.66m. It needs to be at 1/50 to really fish well.

The Ballyduff gauge is down to 0.94 this evening. It will start to fish well with the fly
when it approaches 0.70m.  Clarity is ~5 feet.



The weather forecast continues to be dry, conditions are good - Happy Days!

Glorious weather............................................

What a beautiful day not to catch any fish!  Just 3 rod days for today but no fish to report.
After a frosty misty start the sun soon burnt off the vestiges of a cold morning & it turned out to be a glorious day.

 

The river has reached it's lowest level so far this season - it was down to 1.08 by 22.30 this evening. It's in absolutely cracking order with the clarity knocking 4 feet & the temperature close to the magic 48ºF. Fabulous conditions to be out on the river & the forecast is for more of the same for at least a week.   It should be in fly order in a couple of days if this continues!

 

 18.15 on Kents beat on the lower river as the watery sunset signals the end of the day.

We have 4 springers caught for the first 11 days March for just 28 rod days.
As the river fines off we can expect great sport in the coming days.

A dry week ahead & the Fourth Springer for March landed.................

 

Fourth Springer for March on the Lodge Fishery reported by 11.00 today..............

Dan O'Keeffe from Mallow landed an absolute beauty of 8lb. on spinner
on Lower Kilmurry at the Island Stream - which shows the level is dropping
as it would have been unfishable a couple of days ago.

Rain fell in the upper catchment but there was none at all down river.
The upper river at Millstreet rose yet again late last night by 25cm
but it was already back 15cm by 07.00 this morning.
The level of the lower river crept back up again this morning peaking @ 1.36m at 13.00 today.
It is already falling by 15.00 & the clarity is ~4 feet - perfect conditions for spinning.

The very very Good News!

The weather forecast is for dry mild weather right the way through into next week,
so the river should continue to fall steadily from today.
The picture above was below the Lodge at 13.00 on a glorious sunny day!

Prospects are looking very good indeed in the run up to the Bank Holiday weekend.
There is no problem for availability in the coming days.

Finally the waters are receding..............

This was the river below the Lodge at 09.00 today Saturday 8th. March.
The gauge height was 1.50m & falling & the clarity ~1 ½ feet.

This is the gauge height at Millstreet on the upper river for the last week to this morning.
Last Thursday March 6th., the river got down to it's lowest level since the start of the season
on February 1st. Then of course it rained yet again & the upper river rose 80cm.

 The river was down to 1.25m at Ballyduff on Thursday, but the rain brought it back up to
2.05m @ 20.00 last night. By this morning it has dropped rapidly & is at 1.43m @ 12.15 today Saturday 8th. Clarity is about 2 feet on the upper river & 1½ feet at Ballyduff.

Promising forecast
It now looks as if we are going to have a spell of dry weather as the longer forecasts are now giving high pressure building suring the coming week & warm dry weather. About bloody time!

Superb Prospects
With fish reported as far up as Killavullen, we should be in for some excellent sport
once the water drops - which it is bound to do in the coming days.

There is no problem for availability of fishing for the coming week.

Springer Number Three is Landed

David Jackson from Cork had one thing on his mind this year - to catch his first ever spring salmon.
Conditions have been very tough with the high water, but he has already put in a lot of effort to try to realise his dream.
Last Sunday he came  close - landing a kelt.
Today the dream came true...............................................
A very proud David returned to the Lodge in the early afternoon to weigh in his first ever springer.
It tipped the scales at just over 7lb., & red marks around the tail revealed it had only just lost it's sea-lice in spite of being caught at Ballyhooly - over 20 miles above the tidal limit just below Lismore Bridge.
Fish are obviously well up the system as I also heard of an 11 pounder caught even further upriver at Killavullen 2 days ago as well.

Well done David - you thoroughly deserved it!

Showers keep upper river topped up but.............. Fish met yesterday!

There are continuing showers that are keeping the river topped up, but the overall level
is slowly but surely starting to reduce, & hopefully this will continue in the coming days
as the weather forecast - whilst continuing to be broken - is certainly not as wet as it
has been in recent weeks (he said optimistically!).

The overall reduction in the level can be well seen on the upper river at Millstreet @ 03.00
today Monday. Last night it was down to 1.02m which is almost as low as it was on February 20 (0.99) and January 30 (0.98m) - the previous lowest levels since the start of the season.

A similar picture can be seen on the lower river which got down to 1.77m yesterday.
Just a couple of rods ventured out & three fish were briefly hooked, one of which was a very heavy fish & definitely a springer from the way it fought.

ProspectsIf the river drops just a little more, the conditions for (albeit heavy) spinning will be much better
& the likelihood of springers being met will increase dramatically.

Some rain this morning................

This was the radar picture @ 09.15 this morning with the band od rain
sweeping in from the west into the top of the catchment.

By 12.45 the rain had passed through & was already well to the east,
leaving just a few showers behind it.

This was the river below the Lodge @ 13.00 with the Ballyduff gauge @ 1.77m

Hopefully this morning's rain may not have quite as much effect as one might have expected.

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