Serious delays
in summer runs may mean they won't turn up at all
CONCERN over the lack of grilse in the
north east rivers is now very evident in all quarters.
The expected runs for July have just not
materialised and those that have are in small pockets and nothing like
the numbers that should be in our rivers at this time of year.
Late? They may be, but I’ve got grave
doubts that they will come in any numbers, if at all!
The River Ness is still running well above
summer level and heavy salmon are still the order of the day but without
grilse catch returns are not good at all.
The Ness-side beat produced a very good
salmon of 16lb to Graham Cameron’s rod, fishing a three inch black/red
Devon in the Gauge Pool.
Ness Castle also recorded one salmon at
a super 21lb, for Mr Clark fly fishing in the Black Stream.
At the top of the river, the Dochfour
beat logged six with Jeremy Gibb landing a brace, a cracker of 19lbs from
Burnmouth and a small grilse of 3.5lb from the Tail of the Island. Both
came to a Toby Spoon.
Ghillie Tom Rattray landed another solid
salmon of 16lb on a red/gold Toby in Culbuie, while Mrs Haig had one of
6.5lb spinning at the Weir.
Jack Christison grassed a thumper of 22.5lb
on a 2.5 inch red/gold Devon in Two Stones and Steve Hulme finished off
their week with another fine 16lb salmon.
A few fish were seen but they don’t appear
to be settling in the river with it sitting about a foot above summer level.
AT THE top of the system, the Garry and
Oich are in good trim, with the Oich a bit on the high side for productive
fishing.
Messrs Cleaver and Rankin shared three
salmon of 8,9 and 11lb on the Garry at the end of the week.
On the Oich’s Glendoe Beat, Kenny Roberts
landed a fine sea trout of 3.5lb on an Ally’s Shrimp and Mr King, a visitor
to the river, had a lovely 12lb salmon in the Lawrence Pool.
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FRANK Durdle, Beauly Angling
Club’s president, landed a small grilse of 2.25lb fishing his own Cuileag
on Beat 1 on the 11th and on the 14th fishing another fly of his own design,
Silver
Streak, he grassed a very good Beauly
salmon of almost 14lb.
The club water fished quite well last
August so perhaps there
is some good sport in store there.
HALF a dozen were taken from the Alness
River last week, with club president George Pirrie landing a salmon of
7.5lb, Sandy Essen one of 4lb and Mr Mercer one of 4.5lb, which was seal
marked.
John Longbotham added another two to his
total and visitor Peter MacKay from Carlisle had one of 3.5lb on fly.
Peter thought he would try his hand at
dibbling after reading about it in a book by local author Arthur Chamberlain
and to his delight the fish played it by the book.
FURTHER north, the Helmsdale anglers accounted
for 48, which is well short of their expected average for a July week.
Grilse have not come into the river in
anything like the numbers one has come to expect from there and being an
‘early’ river, time may well be running out if they do not arrive in the
next couple of weeks or so.
There was plenty of water in the river
after a spate on Monday which settled and cleared by Wednesday, so there
was nothing to inhibit fresh fish running the river.
THE Thurso had a fair week, but again grilse
were only coming in small irregular groups and not the normally expected
sustained runs.
Thirty-seven fish were landed with David
Campbell taking seven in a day from Beat 2, all grilse with the exception
of a fine 10 pounder.
Malcolm Walder had five grilse for his
week, taking one on Beat 7, three on Beat 3 and one on Beat 8.
Alex Parramore landed five excellent grilse,
all weighing 7lb each, from Beat 4 on his day there.
I had it confirmed that they were in fact
grilse and not summer salmon as at 7lb they were larger than normal grilse.
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THE Halladale is still enjoying good sport
and 20 grilse in the 4-6lb class were successfully landed there last week.
Up to the 24th, 204 have been caught for
the season, with 117 of these in the 21 angling days of July.
Of the 20 caught, Alan Munro had five,
Mark Thorp had four, Graham Prankall had three, Peter Osborne had two as
did John Noakes from Farlows of Pall Mall (not THE John Noakes).
Bob Turner had his first ever salmon,
while Shirley Slocock, Duncan Walker and Mike Arnall had one apiece.
Keeping a low profile and a distance from
the river can be critical in not "spooking" salmon in a pool and to this
end John Noakes took a detour and sat on a large stone at the head of the
pool he was about to fish.
He was justly rewarded by hooking a salmon
which he played still in a sitting position.
Very shortly after hooking the fish he
was joined by River Superintendent John Pennington with the net, who sat
beside him on an adjacent boulder to watch the tussle.
The fish was duly netted with both of
them still sitting — now that’s keeping a cool head!
ON FRIDAY July 16 a team of young Inverness
anglers fished in the junior section of the Hardy’s international Fly Fishing
Competition at Loch Leven in Fife. Sponsored by Willie Armstrong of J Graham
and Co, Castle Street, Inverness, the lads set off from outside the shop
at seven o’clock in the morning.
Before departure everyone was presented
with a Hardy’s fishing cap and a fly box with a dozen flies which would
hopefully do the job on the day.
None of the lads had ever been involved
in competition angling and their experience on Loch Leven will not be readily
forgotten or the valuable lessons learned there.
Investing time and effort (to say nothing
of cash) in our up and coming anglers can only be good for the sport and
on behalf of the young men in question I would like to thank Mr ng Armstrong
for his generosity.
Unfortunately the team didn’t make the
cut for the finals, which was a disappointment for them.
They fished very hard from 11am to 6pm
which is a long seven hour stint and one of the lads was broken by a very
good fish which was estimated as being the best of the day.
Another was broken when a second fish
took the dropper as he was playing one so it could have been so different.
As a matter of interest over 800 anglers
(senior and junior) fished the week-long Hardy’s Competition.
The Inverness junior team consisted of
Murray Richardson, Alister Henderson, Garry Hines, Gordon Armstrong (captain)
and Donald MacPherson.
WITH Moy Fields Sports Fair now only a
week away, Inverness Angling Club President Graham MacKenzie, requires
some assistance from volunteers over the Friday and Saturday of the games.
If you can help, contact Graham on (01463)
241022 and it will be greatly appreciated.
Tomatin Distillers are once again sponsoring
the event and donating valuable prizes for the competitions. |
