We use cookies for analytics and advertising. Cookies necessary for the site to function are always kept. Learn more
Maddock River (County Down) — a spot well known among anglers. About 17 km long. Close by — Rathfriland and Castlewellan. Here you'll find a bite prediction — when fish are active and which hours give the best chances, adjusted for weather and pressure.
Drizzle: 10–14 °C
The bite is strong — fish are active. Pressure is rising — activity tends to be more subdued.
Best time — 06:00–08:00 (dawn bite) and 20:00–22:00 (dusk bite).
Work the cover — snags, weed edges, hole entrances; retrieve the lure with pauses.
The water's turning murky — go with bright, noisy lures: salmon spoon or salmon fly.
No special gear needed — seasonal clothing will do. Rain is expected — don't forget a rain jacket or a waterproof shell.
Worth going — it's a productive day.
The computed water temperature is around 15 °C — warmer than the 4–14 °C comfort range for Atlantic salmon: in the heat it drops deeper and feeds less often.
Atlantic salmon works the twilight: the peaks are pinned to sunrise and sunset — their times are in the sun-and-moon card above.
Pressure is dropping 8 hPa over the day — fish are usually more active ahead of a weather change.
One more input — the moon's feeding windows: within their hours the score sits higher than across the rest of the day. The window times are in the “Solunar feeding periods” card below.
September is an active season for Atlantic salmon here.
These are the same values the bite curve above was computed from. How the forecast works
Partly cloudy · feels like +13°
The day is 4 min shorter than yesterday.
Sunshine hours count direct sun only — cloud cover cuts it, so it is shorter than daylight.
The windows are set by the moon's transit and rise, and the forecast above already accounts for them: within these hours the bite score sits higher than across the rest of the day, while the day's overall level still comes from the catch-calibrated model.
What are solunar periods?