February 16th Munster Blackwater

February 16th

Munster Blackwater

Ballyhooly Beat

Height 1.19 meters

Temp 7.9 celcius

A damp & misty but mild morning greeted us on the Woodpool and depite levels being a little high for this pool clarity was excellent.

I fished through the bottom half of the pool (the best bit at this height of water) using a Guideline 3D S1/S3/S5, short leader and a Silver Grey in TD style. This pool has a classic “V” tailout and sure enough just where you'd expect the line tightened a pulled away, unfortunately it turning out to be a kelt though at least it confirmed that I was getting the fly deep enough.

Tools of Choice for the day; 15' LPXE, SI/S3/S5 and a selection of medium sized tube flies.

A few more runs through the pool and down the Gurteen Stream produced a couple of dropped takes which I am pretty sure were spent fish. The morning was soon over and after a quick coffee it was of up to the Castle Flat for the afternoon.

As we passed the Bridge Pool Paul tried a Spinner across the tail and promptly hooked something very large which he played for a few moments before parting ways. Presumable a very very large kelt but your never quite sure when you don't get a glimpse, was it a Springer ??

The Castle Flat produced a couple more kelts over the afternoon but no sign of the one we were looking for.
There's always next time.

A Parting Glance at the top of the Castle Flat