The water had just come up by 6 inches due to the salmon pass flushing water, with the extra pace on the water I decided to use a 3 inches per second sink tip rather than my normal 10ft intermediate tip. The intermediate tip sinks at a rate of 1 to 1.5 inches per second just a bit to slow for the faster water and seeing as I was hugging the large rocks I needed the faster tip to get down and move a few fish from their lies. It started working very well as I was getting the odd pull and seeing fish pitching ..read more

               Having been away from fishing for the last few months due to Covid 19, I was delighted to get a few hours salmon fishing on the Lee. Unfortunately the water conditions were challenging to say the least with low clear slow water and a lot of weed floating downstream clogging up the line and fly. Concentrating on the known salmon lies I kept casting in and around some of the large boulders and slowly retrieving line to give the fly some movement and hopefully excite a fish into a take. Grilse and fresh salmon like fast moving flies and somet ..read more

 Just a short salmon spinning rod set up for early season salmon fishing. I use braid so that I'm in touch with the spinner at all times, as braid has no stretch I feel every rock as the spinner bounces bottom and in early season salmon fishing if you're not hitting bottom you're not covering fish properly. https://youtu.be/xhr-PqD-HUs ..read more

 Sunrise on another salmon fishing season on the Blackwater river. I arrived just as the sun was peeking above the hills , the river was at a nice height around .78m on the gauge and runnng very clear. I had a cast on lower Kilmurray with my spinning rod and touched a fish ,more than likely a kelt as there was very little positive contact and it was off. I fished up the beat casting at all the likely spots but to no avail. Fishing upper Kilmurray for about half an hour and again no contact so I decided to head down to Kents for the last cast as I had to be home by 12.30. Fishing down ken ..read more

 Carrying on from the previous post I headed down stream to Ballyduff Bridge beats 1,2 and 3 to give them a short run through with fly and spinner as I had only an hour or so left before I had to head off for home. I walked up to the start of Beat 1 and spun the far bank catching a couple of small hungry trout which I quickly released. Wading down on the nice gravel I fished the fly all the way to the bend using my 10ft 7wt Switch fly rod and floating line with a 5ins per second sinking 10ft versileader and a bullet tube. Looking at the water height and speed it would have been better bri ..read more

 Normally on opening day of the Salmon season in Cork I'd fish the Blackwater River in the morning and then head back to the Lee River for an evening session. But due to my shoulder injury and also the fact of being in good company with the lads from Blackwater Valley salmon fishery I stayed on and had a look at a few of their beats upriver and didn't make it back to the Lee in time. I woke up this morning still a bit sore in the shoulder but the anti inflammatory did take the edge off the stiffness and pain. My shoulder had a quick chat to my elbow, wrist and hand and all decided we were ..read more

 Did my annual trip to the Blackwater river for the opening day of the Salmon fishing season 2023. I arrived early just as it got bright and decided to fish Crowleys beat starting on the lower section and working my way upstream. Some how I had strained my right shoulder so fly fishing was out and I just concentrated on spinning for a few hours taking short rests here and there. I had seen a few kelts pitching down stream and while taking a short rest I saw a fresh fish head and tail, I was positive it was a fresh salmon so I covered it for a few minutes but no luck.  I caught a coup ..read more

 My cold weather gear for the start of the 2023 salmon and trout season. When you are well layered it's always easier to take stuff off if you're hot rather than trying to find extra layers to put on once cold. The main thing is to block cold air coming in and the extremities such as hands, face and feet are always going to get hit first so I have neck gators to stop inward draughts, fingerless polartec gloves for keeping the wrists and hands warm because once they are warm they'll keep the fingers warm. The leg booties keep my feet warm while wading in freezing cold water so once all my ..read more

 Opening day Salmon fishing season 2023 on the Laune river. Got to the river a bit late due to slow traffic conditions because of the icey roads, especially coming over the county bounds. I went straight up to beat 1 and was surprised how high the water level was basically all the way up to the hut. A few trees were down blocking access to most areas, and between high water and soft bank it made fishing sketchy to say the least. There were about a dozen anglers in total fishing beat 1&2 on both banks, a few kelts were met and returned but no fresh salmon was seen or caught during the ..read more

 I decided late on New year's eve that I'd do the opening day of the 2023 salmon fishing season on the Drowes River, had my salmon licence online day salmon fishing permit and all I had to do was get there..... long drive but its rarely I've been there on opening day so off I went. It rained very heavily all the way to Galway, after that bad fog but on arriving at the drowes the sun was shining and very mild. The river was 0.77m and slowly dropping, very clear with a nice run in most places. I met Shane and Bill at the shop had a nice cup of hot coffee discussed where'd I get my first fis ..read more