| Weather and lack
of grilse combine for end of July flop
THE last week of July, which should see
the summer runs at their peak, was by and large a non-event.
Catches throughout the north were abysmal
and thoughts of the coming month are a mixture of wishful thinking to total
pessimism.
OK, it has been very hot and dry, but
the harsh fact is that they are just not there at sea or in the rivers.
Optimists like myself are hopeful of a
later run of fish. Only time will tell.
Ironically the Ness Angling Club water
had its best week of the season so far with four landed successfully.
Gary Urquhart had his first ever at 5lb,
fishing a fly on the Maclntyre Pool.
Perhaps his regular attendance at casting
classes earlier in the year had helped him towards his goal.
Archie Campbell took one on fly from the
Weir Pool at around 4lb and Murray Richardson had his season’s first at
4.5lb, fishing the glide at the bottom of the Mill Stream.
Over from Beauly for a visit on his club’s
transfer permit, Mike MacDonald grassed a bonnie grilse of 4.5lb at Charlie’s
Seat, again on fly. The upper beats were blank with the exception of Dochfour
which produced a grilse of 4lb for John Hasham.
It came to a size 8 Silver Stoat at Burnmouth.
THERE has been a bit of activity on Loch
Ness with George Cassells taking a grilse of about 5lb a week or so back.
Last week Angus MacKenzie and Christopher
Blake’s boat connected with an 8lb salmon at Hammer Rock.
It was tempted by a Silver Toby and played
to the net by Christopher.
There has also been a couple taken from
Urquhart Bay but I don’t have all the gen on those and with Ala McGruar
in Canada at present, I am missing my loch contact, but I’ve no doubt he’ll
be catching fish no matter where he is.
ON THE Helmsdale, catches have not improved
and between 30 and 35 were caught last week.
Realistically that’s about a quarter of
what is normally expected from the river at this time of year.
Two salmon which had been resident in
the river for a week or two came off Beat 2 on consecutive days, one at
26.5lb and one of 17lb. When you hook one of these thumpers, expecting
a grilse, it’s a very pleasant surprise. |
THE Thurso toiled under the
sun and being a shallow river top to bottom, it heats up quite quickly.
Last Sunday the midday temperature at
Halkirk was 84 degrees and the river was standing at 73.6 degrees.
Under those conditions stimulating a salmon
to take a fly is almost impossible.
It wasn’t quite that hot up until Wednesday
and 11 fish were caught by then but no more as the temperature soared for
the rest of the week.
Peter Cardosi caught four fish on Beat
3, one a salmon of 9lb.
Keith Gerry caught a similar salmon on
Beat 9. All the other fish were grilse of about 6lb in weight.
THE Halladale, now down to its bare bones,
produced only one, which is not very surprising considering the very bright
conditions.
The water was not quite as hot as the
Thurso and at 58 degrees wasn’t that bad.
What is needed is a drop of fresh rain
water to perk it up and encourage more fish to enter the river.
David Baxendale took the grilse from Hugh’s
Pool on a Silver Doctor, a fly that you don’t hear mentioned much these
days but certainly a favourite prior to the hairwing revolution.
Perhaps there’s a hairwing pattern for
it. Worth a thought.
TAGGED spring salmon which were caught
and released to the upper reaches of the Kyle of Sutherland’s River Carron
are alive and well. A local keeper, with scuba equipment assistance, inspected
the tagged fish in their release pools and they are in first class condition
and none the worse for their air lift over Glencalvie Falls.
A few of those tagged salmon were re-caught
below the falls and they had obviously dropped back downstream as the new
location wasn’t to their liking.
Some 40 of them have settled in and no
doubt will move on to spawning gravel later in the year to complete a remarkable
in-river experiment.
|
 BOB
Lucas from Inverlochy took his two grandsons, Alistair and Stuart MacLeod,
up to a Lochaber hill loch with spectacular results.
The lads caught five wild brownies which
weighed in at 11 pounds, with the best of those a remarkable six pounder.
The 45 minute walk up to the loch was
completely forgotten as Alistair played the big trout. After some 25 minutes,
it was tailed by grandad Bob who had omitted to pack the landing net. I
can’t see him getting much peace from the boys for the rest of the summer
holidays.
TARVIE Loch has been fishing exceptionally
well of late and in the last couple of weeks large rainbows have been taken
on a regular basis.
Fishing very deep has been the answer
in the hot bright weather and Nymphs, Gold Heads, Damsels and the old favourite,
Cat’s Whisker have been the fancied patterns.
There have been some really remarkable
catches with Richard Allan (Invergarry) taking 4 for 18lb 3oz, with his
best 9lb 9oz.
Andy Newberry (Edinburgh) had four for
17lb 7oz, his best at 8lb.
Torquil Murchison (Derby) had a good one
at 9lb 13.5ozs, almost matched by John Nicol (Ullapool) with one of 9lb
3.5oz.
He also returned two larger rainbows as
he had reached his bag limit.
Gary MacKinnon (Inverness) had one of
7lb 4oz; Tom Redmond (Drumnadrochit) one of 8lb 6oz; Tom Allman (Drumnadrochit)
one of 6lb 4oz; Roy Mutter (Dingwall) one of 7lb 9.5oz and Mike Woolley
(Stafford) one of 10Ib 6.5oz.
Bob Matheson (Inverness) caught three
on Sunday last which weighed in at 14lb, the best of those at 7lb 14oz.
Bobby Urquhart boated a brace for 1 7lb
9oz, with the best of the pair at 9lb 12oz.
Ian and Marie Chalmers enjoyed a super
session by taking 18, with the best at 3.5lb.
Up on the brown trout loch, John MacKay
from Dingwall and John Ross from Muir of Ord had a fine basket of trout
with John landing the best at 2lb 9oz.
Not to be outdone, John Ross boated one
of a pair of ‘charmon’ that were stocked in the loch to create a bit of
interest. It weighed in at 4lbs 1oz.
All I know about a charmon is that it’s
a cross between a char and a salmon.
Anyway, there’s another one up there of
about 5lb in weight.
Tarvie Lochs have an Open Competition
on Saturday August 14, with an entry fee of £20.
A maximum of 23 rods will fish over 6
hours to a four fish limit.
Cash prizes of £50, £25, £15
and £10 will be presented to the four anglers with the heaviest bags.
Phone Gerry Breau on (01997) 421250 to
book a spot.
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