“I’ve been fly fishing since I was a wee little grasshopper. Hell of a long time with the fly. To me, the only way to catch a fish really is on the fly. Spinner? Not that exciting. One salmon on the fly is better than ten on the spinner.” –Connie Corcoran, the fishing manager and ghillie for Ballyduff Bridge Salmon Fishery on the River Blackwater in the south of Ireland.
Many thanks to our friends at Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures and Scott Fly Rods for their continued support.
This is the first chapter of The DrakeCast’s EuroTrip miniseries. For the next four weeks, we’ll take a trip through the North Atlantic in search of Atlantic Salmon. We start in Ireland. I had a wedding on the Emerald Isle but made sure to book two days of fishing on the River Blackwater in County Waterford. It was there that I met Jason and Connie Corcoran. Connie has been fishing and ghillieing (sp?) on the River Blackwater for over sixty years and his son Jason was born into the family business.
During our time together, we chased salmon, native brown trout, and good times. We found all three. Make sure to listen to this week’s episode of the podcast to hear the whole story.
“Go out and enjoy yourself. People actually forget to enjoy themselves when salmon fishing. It’s not about catching the fish. It’s about going out and enjoying yourself and improving as a fisherman every single time.” –Jason Corcoran
“She is what we would say is in close to perfect condition now. Very close. The water is a little bit dirty but visibility is still a good foot, foot and a half, which is what you want. It’s quite good.” -Jason Corcoran
“I’m not branding myself as my own person or as anything. All I’m doing is continuing on Connie’s legacy. Just keeping the tradition going hopefully for the next thirty or forty years.” -Jason Corcoran. Pictured above is three generations of Corcorans standing on the river that supports the family.
“I’ve often asked my husband if he’d ever move from where we live now and he always says no. He has to be by the river. It was his mom’s house originally like. He’ll always live here.” Eileen Corcoran talking about her husband’s relationship with the River Blackwater. She and Connie are pictured above with their pooch.
EMBED TRAILER TO “THE RIVERMAN” HERE
<iframe src=”https://player.vimeo.com/video/135073438″ width=”640″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″ webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/135073438″>The River Man</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/gorodecky”>Richard Gorodecky</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>
Here is a link to the trailer for the film “The Riverman” made by Richard Gorodecky. It follows Connie Corcoran as he fishes the River Blackwater. He talks about the past, present, and future of The Blackwater River.
For more information on the Corcoran Clan and the Ballyduff Bridge Salmon Fishery on the River Blackwater, check out their website.
