Good afternoon all
Its been a partially damp day here in Elgin, as we see a bit of a change in weather conditions as we are about to enter then final month of the fishing season.
There is a subtle change in some of the plants on the garden and the height of the warm weather has passed us by a starting to see a chnage in colour in some foliage in the garden and also out and about. Autumn fruits are ripening well and the apple and plum harvest is not far away. I really look forward to this time of year being an avid homegrown plum fan when I viist my mother and raid her tree, although this year again she does not have a large crop but I do know where there is a good crop and it will rely on asking nicely to take someof their jewels.
Its easy to see that we are heading into the styart of autumn and the shooting season, as the goremless pheasant poults are running about the estate where I work, with no road sense whatsoever. They seem to manage to create a wee gang as you never seem them on a solitary basis as they stand and look as if they have been caught in a cars headlights, not knowing hwwere to run- they are a nightmare on the roads.
The Board staff this week have been busy with the reesearch staff and the bailiffs installing three water quality monitoring units at sites on the Spey. The first was near Laggan called FreSpey, the second at Craigellachie called CallumR and the last at Fochabers called Hogweed, quite apt names if you know who/what thye have been named after.
These units will continuously measure temperature, turbidity, conductivity, Ph and oxygen in the water. This data will help to improve understanding of the rivers condition and guide its future management.
Once again we have a prize to give away for this weeks report and thanks to JIm Coates and the staff at Loop Tackle, the prize is one of thier brand new Ström Rods of the winners choice. Ström is a fitting name for a rod series created around one simple principle: transferring energy smoothly, efficiently and without compromise. Built on more than four decades of experience in rod design, our most advanced fly rod ever features a state-of-the-art carbon matrix and the revolutionary heptagonal (7-sided) cross section first seen in the iconic 7X.
Right lets see what has been happening on the river this week.
Starting up at Castle Grant, where Simon Crozier reports this week saw fish across our beats with the wee lift the week before shuffling the fish about.
Kevin Shanks got his week off the mark with a 4lb grilse from Polchraine, Joe Carrington had a 7lb salmon from Pollowick on Tuesday evening, Wednesday saw 5 come to the net, Bob Clayton had 2, one of 10lb from Croyrace followed by another from the same pool of 5lb in the evening.
Stylus Taylor had a 10lbr from the Wash Pot, Kevin Shanks had a 10lb fish from Polchraine, Dr Sandy Scott had a grilse of 5lb from Congash to round off a good day.
Thursday saw Will Orson have a grilse of 4lb from Greenbank, Kevin Shanks rounded off a good few days for him with a 12lb fish from Polchraine.
That was it as far as Salmon went , a few nice sea trout came to hand best being a fish of 4 and a half lbs to Di Orson .
We look forward to next week.
Slipping downstream to Knockando to see Archie Baillie where he advsies that it was another difficult week. It took us till Wednesday evening to get off the mark. An older fish of 14lb from the neck of Vrennan. No more action until Saturday morning when the neck of Vrennan gave us a 4lb grilse and coloured 10lb salmon. We had a grilse of 5lb from the draw of Vrennan just after lunch to complete our week.
At Carron, Neil Borthiwck advises that stubbornly low water returned so very lightly fished on Carron this week. A solitary grilse to my own rod on Monday morning out of Pol Voulin.
Things remain quiet until Wester Elchies where Malcolm Newbould reports that they finished the week with three fish. The lucky captors being Richard Banks, Scott Thomson and Craig Murphy with his first fish.
At Easter Elchies Orn reports another difficult week from Easter Elchies; eight salmon and grilse were caught for the week, with two from Easter Elchies and six from Inverfiddich.
Difficult fishing conditions continued, despite plenty of fish being visible throughout the beats. Fish remained largely uninterested and difficult to tempt. Hopefully the forecast rain arrives, bringing some much-needed water and an improvement in fishing conditions.
Slipping down to see Euan Reid at Arndilly who reports that this week they welcomed Brian Lovering and his team to Arndilly and by Monday morning the small rise of the previous week had disappeared and we were back to low water again. This coupled with the bright sun didn’t make things easy but Brian caught a lovely 6lb sea liced fish from Back of the Bog last thing in the afternoon to get us started. James Cheer had a grilse from the same place on Tuesday morning. Those 2 fish were pretty much the sum of our offers for the first couple of days but although we didn’t land any on Wednesday we had 4 proper losses and that continued until Saturday.
Brian Lovering, Gill Elkington and Simon Caswell all had fish on Thursday from Cobble Pot, Back of the Bog and the Spout respectively.
The best news of the week arrived on Friday afternoon when after a few years of diligently trying we finally managed to find Jeanette Tallis a fish on Arndilly, 4lb from the left bank of the Cobble Pot. I’m sure it will be the first of many.
Alex Hunt got a salmon on the opposite bank in the evening and Simon Caswell completed our week with a fresh salmon in Back of the Bog late on Saturday.
8 for the week but it felt like more because of the many pulls and losses we had.
My next stop is at Rothes and Aikenway to see Robbie Stronach who advises that they finished their last week of August with two for the week. The successful rods being Allan Differ who got one from Bluestone and Neil Borthwick got one from junction.
Mark Melville at Delfur is my next port of call to see how thier week had been after the drop of water the previous week had gone. Mark reports that John Braithwaite’s team did well to catch 5 fish each day until the mist rolled in on Friday morning.
David Bowden who was the top rod of the week catching 7 fish also managed a couple of fresh fish on Friday and Saturday.
The wee freshet of water Friday night should help this coming week.
My penultimate stop this week is GordonCastle/Brae Water where Lewis Weebb report that it was a mixed bag of conditions on the Spey this week.
Bright and settled for the first half of the week before the northerly wind arrived on Friday and made things a little awkward.
Saturday we had near perfect conditions and the fish responded, with a good few coming to the net.
A nice mix of fresh silver salmon and resident fish making an appearance too.
My final call this week is at Speymouth Angling Club, who do not report any catches to me but thanks to social media and the ability to grab stuff, I can advise that local rod Robbie Campbell landed a lovely 9lb fish just above the Viaduct. Now this was Robbie’s first fish in 15 years so my hearty congratulations to him and hopefully this will spur him on to get a bit more fishing done.
Next week looks as if there is a bit of rain due but how much is dependent on the weather gods as to the volume but hopefully enough to see the season continue well into the final month.
Finally I am delighted to announce that this weeks winner is David Bowden, well done and I will be in touch to get details from you.
Tight lines if you are out and about in the week ahead.
Sandy
