Scottish Highlands fishing reports August 26th 2000

"Week ending Saturday August 26th 2000"

Improved catches at
lower beats of Ness

CATCHES on the lower beats of the River Ness showed a marked improve-ment last week and the river as a whole produced 49 salmon and grilse.
   The club water saw nine on the bank which really is a significant improvement on recent weeks.
    Denny MacKay started the ball rolling on the notorious twelfth with a fish of 6lb from the Mill Stream.
    Last Monday Archie Campbell and Ian MacLennan (Flookie) had fish of 7lb each in the Weir with Archie losing a second.
    On Tuesday Archie was back in action with an 8lb salmon, again at the Weir and Denny MacKay a 7lb fish in the Mill Stream.
    Another club member caught two in half an hour in the Little Isle Pool right on top of the tide, those at 6 and 7.5lb.
    On Thursday, Bob Kelman took one of 5lb at the Weir and Paul Kelly one of 4lb in the Little Isle Pool.
    On Friday, Paul was sitting in his car watching points when he saw the fish show, he put his rod together, cast over the spot and the rest as they say is history.

NESS-SIDE, now past the 50 mark, added 14 to their tally last week with the Milson party grassing ten of those. Mrs T Milson accounted for their best fish, a perfect specimen of 15lb which came to a size eight Black Shrimp in the Gauge Pool. Hamish Campbell caught a grilse of 4.5lb on a size eight Ally's in the Gauge Pool and Mr Crocket a fish of 7lb on a black Ally's in the HoIm Pool. The Villar party took two salmon of 9lb and 7lb from the Gauge and HoIm pools respectively, on a size 10 Ally's and a half inch orange tart tube fly. The 11 salmon and three grilse caught were in excellent condition and appeared to have found good feeding in the North Atlantic if their girths were anything to go by.

NESS Castle also produced 14 last week to bring their tally to 65 which is encouraging with two good fishing months of the season yet to come.
Mr Pumell had one at 5lb in the Laggan Pot and a brace at 7.5lb and 12lb in the Black Stream.
    His father, Dr Purnell, had fish of seven, two nines and 10Ib in the Black Stream and Mr Clark had fish of 7.5lb in the Lady Pool, 5Ib in Laggan and 10, five, six and 8.5lb in the Black Stream.
    Mr Dames also caught an 8.5lb salmon in the Black Stream.
    All of last week's catch were fresh run including one being eaten in the Lady Pool by a seal on Friday which resulted in salmon moving off their lies.
    The Laggan Beat would appear to have been blank which is a bit surprising.

DOCHFOUR suffered somewhat due water fluctuation and most of the eleven fish caught were towards the end of the week.
The majority were clean-run, two of which were sea-liced and there are signs of salmon settling on the beat.
Dr Pignon had the best rod with four fish, the best of which at 7lb came from Burnmouth. Dr Smellie had one of 9lbs in Burnmouth.
Mr Haig a 4.5lb sea-liced grilse at the Tail of the Island and Steve Hulme a sea-liced salmon of 7.5lb at the Tail of the Island. C Munro had one in Major; Bill Blackhall one in the Tail of the Island; Mr Gibbs one at the Black Trees and David Hulme one in Netting Water.

ON Loch Ness, Walter Scott was back in action with a fish of 6.5lb off Glendoe. Finlay MacAulay, I hope I've got the name right, was out with a young French lad and they boated identical salmon of 10Ib fishing Turbo Tobys off Aldourie Pier Point. Dennis Barton boated his first of the season about a quarter of a mile east of Temple Pier. At 8lb it came to a red/gold Malloch Devon. Gavin Hunter, the week before last, caught a 6.5lb salmon on Loch Oich and one of 6lb on the Garry's Estuary beat into Loch Oich. Both fell to a black/silver Toby.

THE Averon is still seeing fish entering the system and they are being spotted as they clear the Sluice at Dalmore.
Donnie MacLeod caught a grilse of 3.5lb on fly in the Distillery Pool, George Pine one of 6lbs on worm in the Estuary and Stephen Heenan his first ever at 5.5lbs fly fishing the Lady Pool.
Sandy Esson and John Longbotham equally shared four six pounders worming Burn's water.
There hasn't been much activity on the River Nairn with the notable exception of Gordon Hines grassing a 6.5lb long tailed sea-liced salmon from the Old Bridge Pool at Holm rose. The river has just come up afoot - Sunday, August 20 - so, watch this space.

THE Helmsdale was a bit erratic and coloured during the week. However, 70 were caught on the beats with the majority resident fish with some fresh run salmon in evidence in the lower half of the river which is sitting at about plus 1.2 inches.
    The Association Water also produced fish with eight or so being recorded.
    A salmon of 20lb plus was released and an Achintoul rod returned a fresh run salmon of about 16lbs so perhaps there are some sizeable autumn salmon on the move.
    The Thurso never rose some 10 inches last Wednesday which is the first drop of water its seen in about 14 weeks.
    It just wasn't enough to clean out the river completely, but it certainly helped and it encouraged a few anglers to make the effort and give it a go.
    Over Friday and Saturday eleven made the net with John Bojda taking three ten pounders plus a 7lb and an 8lb salmon from Beats 2 and 3.
    lain Ross had fish of 7lb and 10lb on Beat 4 and ghillie Morris Murray one of 7lb also on Beat 4.
    Peter Cardosi returned a fish on Beat 13 and my son Ross and I shared a brace of six pounders on Beat 2.

ANGLERS in general are pretty safety conscious and are well aware of the potential hazards of overhead electric wires and the presence of lightning in the locality.
Some of us however tend to ignore local weather situations, me included, and adopt a 'can't happen to me' attitude.

Click here to read about my two 'strikes' with thunder and lightning.

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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