The first salmon of season 2012
20/02/2012
I fished he Cornhill beat on Friday 17th February the river level was 1 ft 4 inch it was a fairly mild day with bright spells and a steady west wind, the previous day the river was running at 2 feet 2 inch. so it was dropping back nicely.I am delighted to report that at 12.15, I connected with a strong fish in the March pool that fought extremely well and shortly after I managed to land a fresh sea liced 9lb salmon it was taken on a 1 .25 inch Kyley this is the first of the beat and I am reliably informed by Andrew Graham Stewart that it’s the first springer off any of the Kyle rivers. Saturday brought in fresh snow and a big dip in temperatures but apparently rain coming in Monday with milder wetter weather and by Thursday temperatures up around 14 degrees ! which would be very high for this time of year so we will see.
Fishing on River Tyne.
01/11/2011
Ann Cleverly a good friend that i have fished with and ghillied for was up staying with us ten days ago and was telling me about her fishing trip to the River Tyne on the Bywell beat at the end of September. Below is photo of Ann with a fresh run 12 lb salmon and John with a fresh 4 pounder caught at Bywell.
Otter on McKenzie pool.
The clocks have now went back and its dark up here today November 1st at about ten past five, weather quite mild a few fish moving preparing to spawn a bit of activity today in March pool.
Rio Grande SeaTrout
18/09/2011
Douglas Chalmers who was fishing Cornhill last week was telling all me about his trip to South America to the Rio Grande for the big Sea trout, These are the two largest that Douglas caught during his week. 19 and a half pounds and 15lbs, according to Douglas the 19 and a half pounder was very strong, active and acrobatic.
This is the Web Address for Douglas’s country pursuits – www.ashbournecountry.com
I was quite intrigued by Douglas’s take on a McNab when he was explaining it to me it’s a McDougall I am sure anyone going along would would not only enjoy the fine food wine and sporting activities they will also be well entertained by Dougie’s tremendous wit.
Aly’ first salmon.
11/09/2011
Fishing the Raven pool on the Cornhill beat on Wednesday September 7th. Aly Morris landed her first ever salmon, Aly is doing very well at learning to Speycast, With the river at 2ft 9 inch fishing with a floating line with an intermediate tip attached and a 1.25 inch kyley tube, Aly hooked the grilse two thirds of the way down the Raven pool. ( See catch reports for more )
Fishing on North esk
28/08/2011
Just had e mail from Adam Shaw who was fishing the Kinaber beat of the North Esk for the day last week he went over to join Jamie for the day on the river, Jamie got one nice fish and unfortunately lost 4. Adam had this one at 11lbs and another very fresh sea liced grilse of 6lbs, no doubt their would have been a lot of ribbing going on. Adam was telling me they were going when he was staying with us a couple of weeks ago, that it would be another round of the Shaw Parratt trophy! At the end of the season the one with the most salmon takes the title the other is always runner up, or second, or silver medallist, so that never ever sounds to bad, so well done lads.
Fishing Loch Hope
I went up to Loch Hope for the day with Keith Williams, there was very little wind to start with, We were on the Middle bay beat so we took our time motoring over and had a bite to eat as we did so. Their was the odd salmon showing in the very calm conditions and the wind did get up as the day went on and we did have some sport and it mainly came in short flurry’s we had four sea trout about 1lb and a few smaller brownies and finnock.
I managed to rise one of a couple of pounds but it did not connect and the best fish of the day came up for the Dap when Keith was dapping very close to the shore it would have been between two and three pounds, we waited for an evening rise that did not materialise mainly due to a stiffish colder wind that got up.
As we tied the boat up the midgies were really horrendous so we made as quick an escape as we could.
Report from friend on Arndilly beat
17/08/2011
I have just had an e mail from Hugh a friend who was fishing the Spey at Arndilly during third week in July the water levels were between 4 feet an 8 inch and Hugh comented that at 4feet the Spey is a pretty daunting big river the, The grilse had not arrived by then however they had 37 for the week and Hugh thought I would be pleased to know that he had 7 salmon to his own rod all on Kyley’s I had tied for him. Needless to say I was delighted and pleased he had some sport so well done Hugh.
Oystercatcher pool Gledfield 26.5lb salmon
21/07/2011
I have been over on the opposite bank fishing with Callum on the Gledfield beat a few times this week, On Tuesday with the river at 1foot 3inch I was fishing the Oystercatcher pool this pool is called the Lairds cast when fished from the Cornhill beat. I fished the good lie near the tail which produced a good solid take and simultaneously a swirl to my size 10 kyley shrimp, I connected with a good salmon after a surging run upstream he tore back into the tail and sulked in the deep rough water just above the white water at the head of McGregor pool I could hardly move him out of this spot for 6 or 7 minutes lowering the rod and applying solid side pressure on him eventually got him moving, he moved across towards cornhill bank and moved down into the very head of McGregor twice he did this and on both occasions after I had made my way back ashore along bedrock ledge prepared for a head long rush into McGregor he simply moved up out of the white water back into tail of Oystercatcher after some strong surges and with latterly some unnerving head bumping I managed to drag him into a litlle gully in the tail of the pool he was sea liced fat and in superb condition after carefully measuring him he would turn the scales at 26.5 lbs. He was safely released, Callum arrived down and missed the whole scenario by 5 minutes he was almost as pleased as me, Almost!
20lb salmon from honey pot on Kyle
09/07/2011
I fished the Honey pot on the Kyle at Bonar Bridge today and managed to land a real a real cracker of a salmon, a sea liced beauty of 20lbs it took a 1inch Kyley.
It took the fly on the dangle and took about 8 yards of line off the reel as I raised rod to set hook it had already turned downstream and continued to take line in the strong current, I knew he was a good fish as soon as I hooked him he fought very strongly and was netted by Keith Williams and was then released.
Had it been hooked earlier in the tide with a bigger ebb flow it could have been even more of a battle, fortunately he did not go down through narrows to river mouth.
