Count-down to Salmon Opening Day on February 1st on the Cork

The forums are very quiet

The Global FlyFisher forum has existed for almost as long as the site, and the oldest posts are more than 20 years old. Forums aren't what they used to be. Social media has taken over a lot of their roles, and the GFF form is very quiet ... to put it mildly.
We keep everything online for the sake of history, and preserve the posts for as long as possible, but as you will see, quite a few of them aren't in a good shape, but rely on old images hosted elsewhere, which are no longer available, odd codes from old systems and much more, which can't be shown in a decent way.
But the posts are here, and you can - if you insist - start new threads. But don't stay awake waiting for replies, because they are unfortunately few and far apart.
Martin

Fly fishing - Fish Better

Ireland's Cork Blackwater river was running very low for the time of year up until the 11th. January, when the first rain came.
Since then the weather has been very wet & the level has stayed very high.
The graph below shows the actual height & rainfall at Ballyduff.

[img:9513d569bc]http://www.ireland-salmon-fishing.net/FishingReport/gc09-1.jpg[/img:951…]

This could be a perfect run-up to the start of the season as it is always good to have a flood in late January
to help encourage the first of the spring fish to run. We have already seen a few fresh-run fish showing,
but at this time it is difficult to know if they might be early fresh-run spring fish or late spawners.
What would really make it for us would be dry cold weather for the last week of January to help hold up the springers in the lower beats on the river.
For the first time ever, the first (two) springers of the year in Ireland have been taken on the Laune/Killarney Lakes.
The presence of springers so far south bodes well for the opening on the Blackwater which is only round the corner from Kerry.
We would be very hopeful that we'll be catching a spring salmon or two in early February.

The spawning run in the Blackwater system has been truly exceptional this year – one of the best for very many years.
It is also very encouraging to see virtually no diseased fish present in spite of the very high numbers of kelts in the river.
We all now wait with eager anticipation for the start of the new season.

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