Best Day of the Season & Third Best Fish - June 19th.

On Sunday, June 19, we yet again recorded the Best Day of the Season so far.
It was remarkable as the river had only just come back into order after the last small dirty flood.
Even more remarkable was the fact that all the fish fell to just three rods on one beat on the upper river.

Mick Kennedy & Billy Jewitt fished Beat 8 - Bridgetown Priory & landed four fish in the morning & another in the early afternoon. Billy had 2 grilse on spinner to 6lb. and Mick had two on spinner & one on fly - best 13.3lb (see picture) which was the Third Best Fish so far this Season.
They were joined in the evening by Kieran Conlon who had a magic half hour that evening. He landed three fish - all with long-tailed sea-lice - a grilse of 4lb. & two 10 pounders - all on the fly.
Kieran went to the Lodge's top beat 28 miles upriver on Monday 20th., & released two more fish of 6 & 7lb. on fly.

Monster Lost!
Mick was fishing Beat 9 a little further upriver yesterday. He lost the biggest fish he'd ever hooked - reckoned to be well into the twenties of pounds - on spinner.

June 21 - Third Best Day of the Season.
The run of big fish continues, with most of the fish being taken on our upper 8 beats (Nos 7-14) from 17 to 28 miles upstream of the Lodge.
Six fish were caught in total on Tuesday 21st. Mick Kennedy (again!) caught 3 on Beat 11 - a 7 & two 10 pounders all on spinner - & lost three fish all about 14/15lb as well.
Beat 9 produced the best fish of the day - an 11.3 pounder on prawn. On the lower river, one grilse (4lb) was released on fly & 16 year old Jack Kadlubowski (UK) sportingly released the First Ever salmon he had caught - a 6 1/2 pounder on spinner from Beat 5.
There are plenty of reports of (mainly) double-figure fish running right through to the upper beats.
On Wednesday & Thursday, we had no rods out due to dirty water, but a beat on the opposite bank to one of our upper beats (20 miles upriver) caught 6 fish to 13lb. ? 4 with long-tailed sea-lice.
Just goes to show ? ?if you ain?t in, you cain?t win!?.

On Friday 24th. - there was heavy rain throughout the catchment. The upper beats (which have been fishing best in the last week) were out of order & the lower river (which was coming into good order in the previous 2 days) is going out of order @ 3pm this afternoon & is up 20cm to 0.54m & pretty coloured.




There was plenty of rain throughout the catchment yesterday (Friday). We had 30mm here at Ballyduff.
The upper river peaked at 01.00 this morning (Saturday) at Millstreet at 1.80m & is back to 0.80m at 12.00.
The word from the top of the river is that it should be fishable up there tomorrow - certainly with spinner even if a bit high for the fly.
The lower river is still rising. It was 1.20m @ 09.00 & 1.44m @ 12.00 here at Ballyduff. The clarity is not as bad as could have been expected. That siltiness that usually fines off quickly. Clarity is around 1 foot today.

Superb Prospects for Next Week!
This is the biggest flood we've had since mid-February, so with the run of fish that we already had before the flood, plus grilse now appearing in good numbers well down the West coast, we should see a bumper run of fish as this flood fines off.
Next week could be an absolute humdinger with both big fish & grilse running as the river fines off.



The clarity of the water was reasonably good at the beginning of the week when 16 fish to 13lb. were caught - all on the upper river. Wednesday & Thursday were out due to coloured water, but even though the clarity of the water wasn't great yesterday (Friday), 5 fish all around 6-7lb were taken on spinner on the upper beats, including several with sea-lice. The lower beats haven't been fishing well as the fish are all running hard to the upper river.
100th. Salmon of the Season!



The river was slow enough to clear after the last flood, but was coming back into order on the upper beats yesterday.
The fish were caught on Beats 9 & 10. Two fish about 10lb. - one sea-liced and a sea-liced grilse on fly.

This brings our catches to 43 for June & 100 for the season so far!

Plenty of fish seen running the upper river - mostly in the 6-7lb class, but there's obviously both smaller grilse & double-figure fish running with them.

With the forecast dry for the remainder of the week, prospects for sport are superb!
Rods and accommodation are available for the coming weeks.

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