It's Summertime and the Fishing ain't Easy!
The 2008 Season on Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishery
on Ireland's Cork Blackwater.
Fishery Records Tumble in 2008!
2008 will be etched in our memories as three long-standing all-time records were beaten this year.
August Catch
The first was the total catch for August which was 422 of which 209 were released.
The record had stood since 1992 and was 377.
One Day Catch
The second was the total catch for one day, which we broke on September 13 when no less than 55 salmon were caught for the day 26 of which were released alive. The previous best day was 52 in August, 1992.
First Ever Salmon Caught!
The third was the number of anglers who caught their first salmon.
This was 61 which beat the previous best of 52 in 1998.
The number of first salmon caught expressed as a %age of the total rod days for the season
was also the highest ever recorded at 3.25, beating the previous record of 2.9 in 1992.
Season Summary
2008 was actually a very good season. The total number of salmon caught was 1,024.
Of these, 527 were released alive.
This was the second highest total recorded in the last 10 years, and the eighth highest since 1986 (23 years).
There were so many stories of great experiences on the river this year that we could never recount them all.
The highlight was probably the Van de Laar party from Holland who had just one day fishing guided by Glenda Powell. None had ever salmon fished before and four of them had never even fished. Starting fishing at almost mid-day, every single one of them had caught their first salmon by 3pm., two of them had caught two each & even the driver who was chauffeuring them for the day had caught one as well!
Then there was Fay Voysey-Moore & her son James from Devon who were here for a week in September. Neither had ever caught a salmon before, though were quite experienced anglers. It was Fay's dream to come to Ireland to catch a salmon. And she did 11 fish to 12 pounds for Fay and 10 for James. Her dream came true in style!
For the full report on the season with interesting tables of statistics please go to: http://www.ireland-salmon-fishing.net/FishingReport/Old/2008/2008season.htm
Catch Statistics
Within the lottery that is spring fishing, catches appear to be holding their own.
Our gut feeling would be that the spring run is improving slowly, but other factors such as
number of rods fishing and river conditions belie this fact.
There is a continuing downward trend in number of fish caught in May & June.
Here again, number of anglers plays a very significant part. Decimation of the grilse run by the nets discouraged a large percentage of visiting anglers. Obviously, we are expecting a resurgence of grilse now the nets are gone - but with these fish being predominantly 1/1 (one river & one sea year), we will have to wait until 2010 for the progeny of the 2007 run to return.
Grilse and autumn fish
It was blatantly obvious in 2008 that grilse run was even later, and in fact peaked at the end of August.
This helps to explain not only the good catch figures for August and September, but also the very poor ones for June, which was when one would normally have expected these fish to run.
- Over time, there is a definite improvement in catches, especially in the latter part of the season.
The 5YA & 10YA figures for August & September are growing steadily. However, this year, the majority of the fish caught in September were not autumn fish. Not withstanding the high water levels throughout the summer, we only started to see our fresh autumn run fish making an appearance in the lower beats on the last two days of the season.
One angler on Beat 3 caught six sea-liced fish all on fly on the last day.
Obviously, catch statistics are affected by not only the number of salmon returning to run the river, but also the rainfall & river height, plus of course the number of anglers actually fishing.
The Trends in Recent Years
Size of Fish
The average size of the fish in June & July increased even further in 2008 relative to 2007 and the averages for the previous years. In August & September, it was still above the 5YA & 10YA up to 2006 when the nets still operated, but fell below the 2007 figures. This was due the late grilse and autumn runs.
Weather and River Conditions
We thought that 2007 was a wet summer, but there was actually 54% more rain fell in 2008 compared with 2007. This obviously reflected even more in the river height.
Average River Height during the Season
During early summer & the backend, we can observe the following trends:
- Lower levels in April, May & June for the last 2 years.
- Very much higher levels in July, August & September this year.
- In 2007, the levels were higher than normal in July & August, but not to the same degree.
This explains why last year, we had such excellent results on the fly in August & September, as the river came down to a lovely fly height during this period. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case in 2008, as the water level was just too high at this time for good fly-fishing.
Percentage of Fly-caught Fish
Whilst we had a high percentage of fly-caught fish in July 2008, this was definitely not the case in August and September, when fly-fishing was virtually impossible due to high water.
The river level throughout the summer in 2008 was way above normal.
The figures for 2007 were not nearly so high, which explains the difference in the number of fly-caught fish.
The extremely prolonged wet period required a change in our thinking we had to re-write the fishing handbook,
so to speak. Normally, we would say that fly-fishing was best below 0.65m on the gauge, and spinning best below about 0.80m on the gauge. At heights greater than 1.10-1.20m, we would have not considered it worthwhile going out, as the water was just too damn high.
Fishing is a wonderful sport, and woe betide anyone who thinks he knows it all!
Fortunately, we were not so dogmatic, and persisted fishing in what we would have thought previously were impossible conditions. We were helped by having a new style spinner in stock in our shop the French-made Silver Bullet which fished superbly well in these high water conditions.
It was with a black & silver 22g one of these with a very large blade that I hooked a huge fish on August 13th. last. I had refilled my spinning reel with 19lb. nylon just before leaving, and fished our Beat No. 5 - Inchinleama on the lower river. In the early afternoon, I hooked a very large fish which I played for 25 minutes before the spinner came out! Four other anglers witnessed the event. The fish was reckoned to be in the 20-30lb class - that's fishing!
But what about the fly in high water I hear you say
Not quite such an easy proposition as much of the river is best fly-fished by wading which becomes next to impossible at gauge heights of 0.65m or more. We are however, looking to the future on this, and hope to be doing far more fishing with Shooting Head Lines, which lend themselves much better to sunk line high water bank fishing.
Courses
Glenda ran a course on Shooting heads last February with her fellow Loop No. 1 Pro Team colleague Thomas Bergren from Sweden with great success, and they are planning a further two in the first week of February 2009. Contact the Lodge if you'd like to book a place.
Looking forward to 2009 and beyond
The 2008 season started badly when we were given the news the very day before the 2008 season opened that a spring quota and brown tag system would be in operation up to May 12 on the Blackwater. This put off a lot of (Irish) anglers from taking out their licences in the spring. The administration of the system blatantly didn't work, and we are assured by the CEO of the Southern Board that it will not be in existence for 2009.
It's about time that those in charge came to their senses, and made a change to our season.
If we genuinely wish to preserve spring salmon, the best way to do it is to delay the start of the season until March.
The bag limit per day also needs to be revised. The grilse running in June & July need to be conserved, so a bag limit of one fish per day would make much more sense. With the bulk of the salmon now running in August and September, this would be the better time to allow a 3 fish per day limit.
Serious consideration should also be given to changing the season to allow us to fish on into October.
Many rivers in the UK close much later. The number of anglers who fish in October and November would help to provide a great economic boost to an industry that has suffered greatly in the last eight years. The Blackwater has superb late runs of fresh fish which could well be exploited even if it was on a fly only and perhaps catch and release basis for a trial period.
But for now, the rods are stored away, and we can but sit and wait to see what the powers that be will have in store for us for the coming season.
