Scottish Highlands fishing reports April 15th 2000

"Week ending Saturday April 15th 2000"

Luxton on form with a brace on River Garry

MOST of the north rivers produced salmon last week, although not in any great numbers, with the exceptions being a couple of the Kyle of Sutherland rivers.
Snow melt by mid-day tended to raise levels and a touch of frost at night brought them back down again, resulting in fluctuating water levels and temperatures which generally is not a good combination.
But the good news is that there are salmon in our rivers.

AT THE top end of the Ness system, the River Garry produced a couple to Bryan Luxton’s rod on Saturday.
Fishing a silver Toby in the
Estuary Beat, he had a fine brace at 9lb and 12lb.
It could have been a red letter
day for him but unfortunately he lost two others in the process.
There were a good number of
salmon in evidence in the estuary into Loch Oich.
On the River Oich itself, the
Glendoe Beat saw Jack Christison account for their only salmon.
At 12lb and sealiced, it came to a black/yellow Devon in Park.
The River Moriston surprisingly only recorded two salmon last week. Both at 8lb, they were caught on Monday by Duncan MacKenzie from Maryburgh, one on a yellow Ally and the other on a 2.5 inch black/orange Devon.
There was a lack of good water all week as there was no hydro generation to speak of and this is the main factor when fishing the estuary beat.

FRIDAY saw the River Nairn in good trim and a couple of salmon caught. There was a 7lb fish taken from the Slab Pool and Adrian Ormerod grassed a cracker of 14.5lb on fly in the Milton Pool.
During the past week, there were also some good sea trout taken.

THE Kyle of Sutherland rivers saw a fair bit of action, with the six rods on the on the lower Cassley accounting for 20 salmon, 15 of which were tagged and returned.
The Carron also enjoyed a grand week with 25 grassed. Something like 90 per cent of those were released or transported to nursery areas.
On the other hand, the Oykel would appear to have had a blank week.
The lower Brora produced three last week, so they are still picking up a few springers there.
The Helmsdale, as I said earlier, suffered from a fluctuating river with the combination of snow melt and frost during the week.
The salmon that were in evidence were proving reluctant to take but seven were caught over the duration.

THE Thurso River fared a little better with nine in the book last week. Peter Davis had three salmon for his week, all about 10lb, from Beats 7,
10 and 12.
Chris Simpson from Wick had his first of the season, also at 10lb on beat 12 and John Bojda added another to his tally with a fine ten pounder on Beat 4. Fluctuating water temperatures seem to be the unsettling influence there also, as salmon were seen on the beats but reluctant to come to the fly

THE Halladale, which hasn’t been heavily fished of late, upped its tally to seven with three salmon being caught there last week. Not having the backup of a reservoir, it does depend a lot on rainfall and snow melt to enhance it and last week it was at a fine height.
Alan Munro landed a fresh fish of 7lb fishing an orange Tube Fly in Harpers on Beat 2.
Richard MacNicol grassed a sea-liced cracker of 12lb fishing a 1.5 inch Garry Dog Waddinton in Hugh’s Pool on Beat 1 and Robbie Campbell from Reay took a fresh run 8.5lb salmon on a 1.5 inch Ally’s Shrimp dressed Waddington from Ashills on Beat 3.
LOCH Achility, probably one of the largest stocked fishery lochs in the north, is now seeing some surface movement as it warms up. Always a challenge, Achility affords the visiting angler at first glance, a daunting task in finding the hot spots but advice and guidance is readily to hand.
With fish on the surface and fly hatches imminent, dry flies should come into their own and the comparative boredom of sunk lines and lures not your only option for success, but a big rainbow taking a surface fly is still a heart stopping experience and one not readily forgotten.
Roll on summer.

GEDDES Trout Fishery at Cawdor held its
Troutmaster Final on Sunday.
It was won by Ron Maslin of Inverness.
The Troutmaster Grand Final will be fished over Grafham Reservoir in Cambridgeshire later in the year. Representatives from all the
Troutmaster Fisheries will be eligible to compete in this event.

These reports are written and compiled byKenny Macdonald and published every Thursday by,
the Highland News Group, Henderson Road, Inverness IV1 1SP,
in the Highland News, the North Star and the Lochaber News.

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