THE River Oich’s first salmon of the season fell to the rod of Paul Kelly on Tuesday February 16.
At 8.5lb this salmon came to a yellow belly Devon in the Rock Pool on the Glendoe Beat. It was Paul’s second this sea-son as he had one of 91b from the Brora a couple of weeks back. The Brora’s third salmon come off on the 13th to John Gouldsbury, fishing the Madman on Southside. That one was at 8lbs.
 
 

THE River Moriston was back in the frame on Saturday with Gordon Ken from Inverness taking a 10lb salmon there on a black/red Devon. A fish was lost there on Friday and Gordon MacLeman lost a very sizeable salmon at the net on Saturday. 

ON THE Helmsdale. a couple were caught, bringing their total to four to date. The first of those fell to a Borrobol rod on Wednesday and weighed in at a very solid I5lb. It was taken from Sandbar on Beat 4 and had been in the river for a week or two. A Torrish rod took the second from the Vale of Tears on Beat 6. It was still carrying sea lice and came ashore at 8lbs.
 

ON THE Kyle of Sutherland rivers, spring salmon were in evidence with two caught and released on the Carron, as is the practice there for Fcbruary salmon.
Two taken on the Oykel were released, which is the mandate for all springers on that river, On the Cassley, ghillie Martin Kennedy lost a double figure fish on the Upper Platform Pool but 20 minutes later made amends by landing a bonnie 71b salmon on the Lower Platlorm Pool. Sea-liced, it fell to an Arctic Fox Willie Gunn and was tagged and released.
Conservation practice there. is that first and third salmon must be released with the option of keeping or releasing the second fish of the week.

ROD maintenance: Rod sections do work loose with con-stant or prolonged use and Spey casting produces torquing which is more evident in the point section. This is easily rectified by checking the line of the eyes from time to time during the day. Taping the sections with plastic tape, which can unfor-tunately damage the varnish finish, is probably the only option on a modern carbon rod.
A fine coating of candle wax will also give the joint a better grip, but wear will occur and eventually cause ‘butting,’ which means that there is no gap left between the flanges of the spigot and ferrule. If you gently flex the rod, holding the ferrule lightly with your fingertips, you will feel a very faint ‘knocking’ from inside. This internal play can result in the ferrule splitting under loading and shatter the rod.
There is a carbon/graphite spray available on the market which can be coated onto the spigot, building it up to give a good tight fit once more and providing a visible gap at the joint. With the cost of rod replace-ment, to say nothing of the inconvenience, it is well worth checking your rods for those tell-tale signs of wear and correcting it before the inevitable happens.