Week beginning 23rd September Hamish McFarlane & party.
Mon 23rd. The week started out with the river down again at just at 2.5 inch.
Tue 24th. The river still at just 2.5 inch at 09.00 but the very heavy rain overnight saw the river rising very quickly and by 14.00 hrs the river was at 4 foot.
Wed 25th. This morning the river was 1ft 6 inch Allan Donaldson landed an 8lb Salmon in the Lairds cast, and lost another salmon in the March pool.
Thurs 26th. The river level was up today and running at 2ft. Allan Donaldson landed a 9lb Salmon in the McKenzie pool and followed up with an 8lb Salmon in the Wall pool.
Fri 27th. The river was running at 1ft 3 inch Allan landed a 5lb Grilse in the March pool and lost another Grilse at the net in the Clump pool.
Sat 28th. The river was 1ft today. Alf Gamblin and Steven Urquhart were fishing today as guests of Hamish, Steven had a super day landing 3 Salmon in very quick succession in the morning all from the March pool weighing in at 14lb, 8lb & 6lb. Well done Steven.
Weeks total 7. 5 Salmon 2 Grilse
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Week beginning September 11th Douglas Chalmers & party.
Mon 9th. The river level again down to a very a low level with just 2 inch on the gauge.
Tue 10th. The same water level this morning at 09.00 just 2 inch, the river was destined to rise as we had torrential rain overnight but we had the usual delay for it to come into the system and come down river to Cornhill. It began to rise quickly at 11.00 hrs and was already up 16 inches showing 1ft 6 inch it continued to rise all day reaching 3ft at 16.00 hrs.
Wed 11th. I had a phone call late last night from Douglas saying that they himself and son Mark had to go back south first thing this morning due to a Family emergency so for them their fishing was over before it had begun. I did not envy them their long drive back down to Kent. The river today was 3ft 6 inch Allan Donaldson landed an 8lb,7lb,7lb,7lb, Salmon & a 4lb, Grilse all in the Gledfield pool, two others were lost.
Thur 12th. The river had dropped yesterday afternoon and overnight but had risen again and at 09.00hrs this morning was showing 3ft. Allan landed another couple from Gledfield at 8lbs, & 7lbs, two others were lost. Allan followed up with a 9lb salmon in the Clump pool.
Fri 13th. The river was running at 1ft4 inch. Allan landed an 8lb Salmon in the McKenzie pool, a 5lb Grilse in the March pool, and rounded of with a 12lb salmon in the Well pool. and a salmon was briefly on off in McKenzie stream
Sat 14th. The river level was 1ft1 inch Allan Donaldson landed a 7lb salmon in McKenzie pool just before the river started to rise and by mid day it was at 1ft 9inch.
A long lunch saw that the river was down to 1ft 8 inch Allan caught a 6lb Grilse in the Clump pool, a 9lb Salmon in the McKenzie stream, and a 7lb Salmon in the Wall pool.
The best was still to come certainly the biggest was. I hooked into a salmon in the March pool that was landed carefully measured and safely released and back at home after looking at three weight to length charts the 41.5 inch came out at 27lb /28lb. As it was hooked just after 15.00 hrs and was pretty tired by then i really was knackered after i played it and landed it. It was a superb 4 days landing 16 Salmon /Grilse. Thanks to Douglas & Marks misfortune. I have spoke to them since and although a private matter i can report all is now well and good.
Weeks total 16. 13 Salmon & 3 Grilse
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Week beginnig Sept 2nd John McGinnis & party
Mon 2nd. The low water conditions continued into this week with just 2 inch registering on the water gauge, but we were going to get rain in early evening and over night.
Tue 3rd. This morning started off with the river running at 1ft 1 inch, a 7lb Salmon was caught in the Clump pool and that turned out to be the only catch of the week.
Wed 4th. The river was down to 8 inch and dropping, There was no more activity on the fishing front.
Thur 5th. The river continued to drop back and by Saturday the river was registering just 3 inch on the gauge.
Weeks total 1 Salmon
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Week beginning August 26th
Mon 26th. The start of another week and another dry one, the river was showing just 2 inch on the water gauge.
Tue 27th. On Tuesday late in the evening the river rose quickly to approx 1ft and by the following morning it was dropping back quickly.
Wed 28th. The river showing 8 inch and dropping after last nights quick rise again Allan Donaldson took the oppertunity to have a cast before the river went rapidly back to the bare bones. Allan managed to land a 6lb grilse in the McGregor pool and once again that was it for the week, the beat was not fished again this week.
We are not getting prolonged rainfall and subsequently the ground is very dry we are getting occasionally very localised heavy rain for a short period that results in a very quick rise that drops back immediatley.
Weeks total. 1 Grilse
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Week beginning August 19th.
Mon 19th. The week started out with the river running at approx 5 inch, It briefly bumped up a few times and rose to around 1 ft 7 inch late evening on Wednesday and overnight into early Thursday morning
Thur 22nd. The water level at 09. 00 was showing 1 foot on the gauge and dropping quickly Allan Donaldson fished the morning and landed a 5lb grilse in the McKenzie pool and that was all that was seen, Allan packed in at lunchtime.
The river rose quickly again in the evening and once again dropped quickly and by Saturday was showing 5 inch. We are badly needing a good lift in water levels for several days. We had flood warnings for Wednesday and Thursday but the much talked about storm and heavy rain in midweek did not materialise up here.
Weeks total 1 Grilse
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Week beginning August 5th
Mon 5th. Tue 6th. The low water we have been experiencing for the last three and a half weeks continued with minus – 2 inch on the gauge, Wednesday saw a little overnight rain but only enough to register 3 inch
Thur 8th. River 3 inch.
Fri 9th. The river bumped up and down erratically but not to any significant level, in late evening getting up to approx 5.5 inch.
Sat 10th. The river rose very quickly in the early hours of the morning and peaked at Cornhill at approx 09.00 hrs. registering 2ft 5 inch and it imediately began to drop back. The water was understandably dirty, Allan Donaldson took the oppertunity to have a go on the quickly dropping river and was rewarded with a couple of grilse both weighing in at 4lbs and both taken in the Gledfield pool in quick succsession. at 10.10 and 10.30 and that was the activity i packed in at 12.30 for the day with the river dropping quickly and now showing 1ft 6 on the gauge.
Week total 2 Grilse
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Week beginning July 29th. Chris lacey & party
The river continued to fall back slowly and reached minus – 1.5 inch on Sunday 4th August
week ended blank.
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Week beginning 22nd July Mr Lawson & party.
Continued low water zero on gauge and reaching minus – 1 inch by the Sunday
The week ended blank
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Mrs A Galloway. Thursday 18th, Friday 19th Saturday 20th,
July.Fri 19th. David Brown landed a 3lb Grilse in Lairds cast.
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Week beginning July mon 15th, 16th,17th,
The beat was un fished.
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Week beginning July 8th.
Mon 8th. The week started out with the water guage showing 1ft. Allan Donaldson landed three fish in the morning. A cracking 12lb Salmon in the Lairds cast, a 4lb Grilse in the Little falls, and followed up with a tiny grilse of 2.5 lbs in Lairds cast. In the afternoon Allan caught another 4lb Grilse in the Little falls pool.
Tue 9th. The river went up over night and was running at 1ft 6 inch today, Allan Donaldson landed five fish in the morning, Allan caught two Grilse at 4lbs each in the Lairds cast, a 4lb Grilse in the McKenzie stream and a 3lb grilse in the March pool. and a 7lb Salmon in the McGregor pool. In the afternoon Allan landed a 5lb Grilse in the Clump pool. Allan briefly had a hold of another in Gledfield pool and pulled another in Lairds cast.
Wed 10th. The water level started off at 10 inches and by 17.00 hrs it had dropped back to 8.5 inch. Allan landed a 7 lb Salmon in the McGregor pool and caught another salmon of 7lbs in the Little falls pool. one other was lost in Little falls, and another pulled in the Wall pool.
Thur 11th. Water level today 9.5 inches Allan caught a 5 lb Grilse in the McKenzie pool, and followed up with a 4 lb Grilse in Little falls. Iam absolutely delighted with the first one today the 5 pounder in the McKenzie pool, as it is the 1.800 hundredth Salmon i have caught in my life time fishing. So really really pleased and at the start of the week did not expect to land 14 in four days 10 Grilse & 4 Salmon. and managed to get 12 of them on my video camera so that was good for the future & memories. I did not fish Friday or Saturday the river ran off quicker and it was noticeably quiet.
Friday 12th. and Saturday 13th. were not fished
Weeks total 14
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Week beginning July 1st James England & party.
Mon 1st. The week started out with the river running at 8 inches
Tues 2nd. Water level today 7 inches. a couple of grilse were lost today in Little falls pool & Raven pool.
Wed 3rd. The river down an inch today to 6 inch on the gauge
Thur 4th. Heavy rain last night put the river up to 1ft 10 inch, James England landed a 7lb Salmon in the McGregor pool
Fri 5th. River level up again to 2ft 8 inch James England lost a salmon in the McKenzie pool before hooking and landing a 6lb grilse.
Sat 6th. Water level today 1ft 10 inch quite a number of salmon were seen today which makes a welcome change.
Weeks total 1 Salmon & 1 Grilse
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Week beginning June 24th Ian Patterson & party.
Mon 24th. the entire week the water level stayed very low and on Wednesday 26th Ian managed to tempt a 4 lb grilse in the Raven pool with the water level at just 2 inches well done Ian.
Sat 29th. Friday night heavy rain put the water level up to 10 inches, Allan Donaldson landed a 4lb grilse in the Little falls pool.
Weeks Total 2 Grilse
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Week beginning June 17th. Miss Jane Pilling & party.
Mon.17th. The weekn started out with the river level running at 1ft 5inch. Jane Pilling landed a cracking salmon weighing in at 17lbs, in the Wall pool, a really super acheivement as Jane is 92 years young.
Tue 18th. Bill Cottle landed a 12lb salmon in the Lairds cast
Wed.19th. Water height 1ft 3 inch. Jane pilling again landing a really nice salmon of 13lbs in the McKenzie pool a nice brace of fish for Jane two salmon weighing in at 30lbs .
Thur 20th. River height 9 inch.
Fri 21st. The river level dropping back with 6 inch showing on the gauge.
Sat 22nd. The river down to 4 inch.
Weeks total. 3 Salmon
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Week beginning June 10th Ian & Shelley Neville.
Mon 10th. This week started off with the water level running at 1ft 2 inch, Ian Neville caught a 12lb salmon in the McGregor pool. Ian had earlier lost a decent fish in the March pool.
Tue 11th. This morning 1 foot on the gauge, Shelley Neville also had success in the McGregor pool by landing a10lb Salmon.
Wed 12th. River showing 8 inch
Thur 13th. River down again to 5 inch today, Ian & Shelley both rose fish in the Little falls pool.
Fri 14th. Water level 5 inches, Ian Neville landed a 5 lb grilse in the Little falls pool.
Sat 15th. Heavy rain overnight put the river up to 1ft 10inch Ian & Shelley fished till lunch time.
Weeks total 3. Salmon 2 Grilse 1
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Week beginning June 3rd Wyrley Birch & party.
Mon 3rd. The river level today was back down to just 1 inch.
Tue 4th. In late afternoon the river began to rise, and for the rest of the week the river ran basically at very good water levels for the rest of the week. However it could have done with less of the level bumping up and down quite so quickly, Wednesday 1ft 8 inch rising, Thursday1ft 7 inch, Friday 1ft 3 inch, Saturday 2ft 6 inch steady then rising again.
Week ended blank
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Week beginning May 27th Bryan Alexander & party.
Mon 27th. We started out this week once again with very low water conditions with just 2.5 inch showing on the gauge.
Tues 28th. The river was up to exactly 1 foot on the gauge after some heavy rain last night, it did not help to get a fish on the bank as it was pretty dour and very quiet.
Wed 28th The river ran off pretty quick leaving us with 5 inch today a salmon was seen showing in Little falls shows how bad its been when you comment on a salmon being seen ! later in the day James Clark landed a 6lb Salmon in the Little falls pool, and that was the sum total of action for the week. It certainly was not the best specimen of a salmon i have seen but as they say they all count as one. In fact the beat was not fished again for the rest of the week as the water dropped away.
Thur 29th. 3.5 Inch.
Fri 30th. 3 Inch.
Sat June. 1st. 1.5 inch.
Weeks total. 1 Grilse.
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Week beginning May 20th. Ruaraidh MacMillan & party.
Mon 20th. The very low water conditions continued over the weekend and into this week
the water gauge was sitting on the 0″ Zero and stayed that way till Thursday it was understandable that the beat was not fished during this period.
Thur 23rd. The forecast for a tremendous amount of rain over late Wednesday and Thursday did not materialise and we basically missed out however we had enough rain to put the river up to 6 inch on thursday morning it continued to rise slowly reaching 1ft 2 inch in early afternoon. In the morning Scott Ramsay lost a good fish almost at the net in the March pool estimated at 12lb to 14lb. In the Afternoon Scott Ramsay landed an 11lb Salmon in the Little falls pool
Friday 24th. The water level was 9 inch and dropping, a few fish were seen but it was really pretty quiet.
Sat 25th. Water level at 5.5 inch and dropping, Bright and sunny and once again pretty quiet. On Thursday we had small run of very small Salmon / Grilse these fish come in every year and appear anytime between end of first week in May to about third week in may approx, they run straight up river as far as they can often arriving in Glencalvie falls the same day. They usually are very loathe to take a fly so intent are they in getting up river.
Weeks total 1 Salmon
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Hamish McFarlane & party.
Mon 13th. The river was running at 11 inch at 08 00 hrs this morning and was dropping back. Yesterday the river was on its bare bones showing just 1 inch on the gauge, But a thunderstorm in the very early hours of last night put the river up very rapidly. Allan Donaldson managed to tempt a 10lb salmon in the McGregor pool a nice strong fish that gave a very good account of its self, I suppose a kind of bonus fish. And that was it as the sport for the week dried up as the river did.
Tue 14th. Alf Gamblin and Stephen Urquart fish in a low and rapidly decreasing river just 4.5 inch on the gauge at the start of the day, nothing was seen or touched.
Wed 15th & Thur 16th. Water levels 3.5 inch & 2 inch The beat was not fished on both days.
Fri 17th. Alf Gamblin was back up from Inverness and brought a friend Malcolm Macrae, really just for a day out and to show him the beat as the river now was even lower down to just 1 inch.
Sat 18th. River level 0 ” Zero on the water gauge.
Total for the Week 1
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Week beginning May 6th.
Mon 6th. The week started with the water gauge showing just 3 inches.
Absolutely nothing to report over the week as the water level continued to drop and by Saturday there was just 1 inch showing on the water gauge.
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Week Beginning April 29th. Andrew Sayer & party.
Mon 29th. We start off this week with the water level showing 8 inches on the gauge, In the morning Jane Sayer had very bad luck when she played a salmon for a few minutes before it threw the hook. Shortly after Andrew Sayer landed a sea liced 10lb Salmon in the Little falls pool, Andrew did exceptionally well getting down the beat to the pools and fishing let alone playing the salmon as Andrew had major surgery less than three weeks ago. I was on hand to net the fish for him, Well done Andrew.
Tue 30th. Exactly the same water level today, Jane Sayer landed a lovely sea liced salmon in Little falls pool this one carrying long tailed sea lice. In the afternoon Celia Temple also had success in the Little falls pool connecting with another 10 lb Salmon. This one decided quite early on to go downstream which does not happen to often and involves a pretty heart stopping scramble down stream through the whitewater, fortunately it was landed in the Gledfield pool.
Wed 1st May. The river down to 6 inch, one salmon was lost today in the McGregor pool, and a few more salmon were seen, This was not a lot more its more an indicator of just how few Salmon have been showing for most of the season so far.
Thur 2nd. Water level 5.5 inch, The rest of the week was quiet and the river dropped away progressively the odd fish was seen
Fri 3rd. Water height 4.5 inch. Saturday 4th. Water height 4 inch.
Weeks total 3 Salmon
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Week beginning April 22nd Allan Donaldson & party.
Mon 22nd. The week started off with the River running at 9 inches It was a very quiet day with very few salmon showing. Allan Donaldson got things of the mark landing a lovely 10 lb salmon in the Little falls pool. Allan also lost a salmon in the McGregor pool. In the afternoon Ian Bissett lost a Salmon in the McKenzie pool.
Tue 23rd. The water level today exactly the same as yesterday 9 inches, Ian Bissett moved a couple of salmon to the fly and Allan moved a fish and pulled another.
Allan managed to tempt a salmon of approx 9lbs in The McKenzie stream that cleared the water by about a foot to take the fly, But other than that the salmon were loathe to take the fly and again it was very quiet with just the very odd fish showing.
Wed 24th. The river down to 7.5 inch very quiet I did not fish again till Saturday when we had a little rise in water. Ian Bissett fished pretty hard over Wednesday but to no avail .
Thur 25th The river down today 7 inch Colin More fished but again very quiet with little activity
Fri 26th Water down again to just 6.5 inch and quiet on the fishing front and bitterly cold with sleet and hailstones !
Sat 27th Some overnight rain saw the river up to 10 inches Alan McLennan landed a lovey 12lb salmon in the McKenzie pool with his few last casts of the day, so well done Alan and his trip back up to Halkirk would be all the pleasenter with that end to the day.
Weeks Total 3 Salmon
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Week beginning April 15th 16th & 17th for three days Iain Burr & Joe Polson.
Mon 15th The water level started off today at 2ft. and dropped steadily, it was very quiet with few fish being seen.
Tue 16th. Water level approx 1ft 10 inch.
Wed 17th. The water level today in the afternoon was 1 ft Joe Polson landed a nice fresh sea liced 7 lb Salmon in the McKenzie pool, i managed to get a couple of nice photos of Joe with his fish a nice reward for them as they both fished and tried hard for their three days on the beat.
Thur 18th. The water level showed 1ft on the gauge Allan Donaldson landed a 9lb Salmon in the Lairds cast. and followed up in the afternoon with an 8lb Salmon in the McKenzie pool,
Fri 19th. The river level went up overnight to 2ft 3 inch and dropped fairly quickly, Allan Donaldson landed a 7 lb in Gledfield pool in the early part of the morning i saw about three fish show around then but after 10.00 saw nothing and touched nothing all day which makes for a long day.
Sat 20th. Was speaking to Jim Gilmour who was ghillieing at Gruinards this week was saying if my memory serves me correctly up to Friday night Gruinards had 9 Salmon Braelangwell 7 Salmon Dounie 5 Salmon all three of these beats fishing 4 rods.
Cornhill 4 Salmon, and Gledfield 7 Salmon both these beats fishing 2 rods. Apparently they were not seeing many fish at all showing except for some activity in the Moral pool at times.
Total 4 Salmon
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Week beginning April 8th. Colin Campbell and party.
Mon 8th. We started out this week with 1ft 5 inch showing on the gauge it was very quiet and very few salmon were seen.
Tue 9th. The water height today was 1 ft Hilary Campbell caught an 8 lb Salmon in the Clump pool The salmon was carrying a few sea lice.
Wed 10th. River level today 1ft 2 inch dropping slowly at first and again very few salmon being seen.
Thur 11th. This morning the river was running at 2ft 7 inch and dropping quickly, In the afternoon with the river running at approx 1ft 10 inch Colin Scott landed a 6 lb Salmon in the Clump pool, and Mary Nicholson caught a 7lb salmon in the Gledfield pool.
Fri 12th. The river level 1ft and it was again quiet on the Salmon front with gale force winds for most of the day which became very blustery
Sat 13th. The water height in morning was 11inch by lunch time it had went up to 1ft we had horrible very strong winds that increased as the day went on and were gale force by early afternoon. Just before lunch Mary Nicholson had a very exciting brief bit of activity losing a good sized salmon of 9 or 10 lbs that was briefly on and showed before it threw the hook, Mary then moved a fish twice in the three casts before it went quiet again.
Over the week a pretty quiet week 3 Salmon landed, 3 lost and two others pulled. Saturday morning their were more fish showing, not in great numbers but encouraging.
Weeks total 3
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Week beginning April 1st Graeme McPherson and party
Wed 3rd. At the start of the day we had a big river the river was up and showing approx 3ft 6 inch on the gauge, Ernie Mackay landed an 8lb Salmon in the Gledfield pool.
Thur 4th. The river was down to 2ft 3 inch Ernie Mackay landed a 9lb sea liced salmon in the Clump pool.
Fri 5th. One salmon was lost in the McGregor pool.
Sat 6th. We started out with a big river which was steadilly rising Ernie Mackay managed to get his hat trick by landing a 6lb sea liced salmon in the Gledfield pool before it really began to rise quickly to approx 6ft.
Salmon were seen on the Wed, Thur, Fri, in particular but not in any great numbers and the activity mainly confined to a few pools, a couple of other salmon were briefly hooked.
Total 3 Salmon
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Week beginning March 25th Alison Galloway & party
Mon, Tue, Wed. The river level was running between 8.5 inch and 10inch approx,
Fri 29th. Water level up to a good height today 1ft 10 inch
Sat 30th. Again very good water height today at 2ft 2 inch
The week ended Blank
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Week beginning March 18th. Jamie Hammond & party.
Mon 18th. The week got off to a start with the water level showing 11 inch on the gauge and a salmon on the bank, Jamie Hammond landed an 8lb sea liced salmon in the Raven pool.
Tues 19th. Water level today 8 inch.
Wed 20th. Water level 1ft 2 inch.
Thur 21st.
Fri 22nd. Water level 1ft5 inch we had frequent heavy showers of rain with the odd shower of sleet with very strong gusty west winds bordering on gale force by mid afternoon.
Sat 23rd. The heavy over night rain put the river up and at 10.30 the river level was 3ft 8 inch, it basically bumped up and down for the next 3 hours by early afternoon the river was still showing 3ft 8 inch with the approx 3 hour delay in reaching Cornhill.
Thankfully the gale force winds had subsided to a strong westerly but it was bitterly cold, No fishing was done.
Total 1
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Week beginning March 11th John McGinnis & party.
Mon 11th. The water level was 6 inches.
Tue 12th. Similar condition as yesterday 6 inches on the gauge with a stiff east wind.
Wed 13th March. The water level this morning was 7inch but the river began to rise in early afternoon, it went up to just over 1 foot by 17.00 hrs.
Thurs 14th. The water level down to 8.5 inch.
Friday 15th. The river went well up over night to approx 4ft 3 inch it began to steady about 10.00 and began dropping back.
Sat 16th. The water level dropped a lot over night to 1ft 5 inch again the wind swung back round into the east.
The week ended blank.
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Week beginning March 4th Dr John Anthony & party.
Mon 4th. The water height for the start of this week was at a reasonable level of 1ft 3 inch by Wednesday it was down to 10 inch, we had a pretty stiff cold east wind most of the week particularly from Wednesday onwards, The river continued to drop and by Friday there was just 6 inches showing on the gauge, nothing was touched during the week.
The week ended blank
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Week Beginning February 19th.
Not much to report, we had a week of very changeable weather with the river height on Monday running at 2ft Tuesday 1ft 9 dropping it dropped but was basically running at a reasonable fishing height for the rest of the week reaching 1 ft on Saturday.
Mon 19th. I fished with Graeme McPherson Monday and Tuesday mornings but nothing was touched.
Thur 22rd. I fished on Thursday afternoon river running at 1ft 5 inch I managed to catch a really beautiful 4lb Brown trout in absolutely superb condition in the McKenzie pool, I thought it was a salmon when it first took the fly.
Fri 23rd. I had a day up on the upper Brora fishing with Calum Beattie & Jim Gilmour we were fishing courtesy of Willie Sutherland, it was a bitterly cold day and we gave it a good going over but nothing was touched.
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First salmon of the 2024 season on River Carron caught on Cornhill
Friday 16th February The river level was 3ft 7 inch which is a pretty big river, Fishing the Gledfield pool at 10.20 in the morning Allan Donaldson landed a lovely sea liced springer of approx 8lbs.
The salmon fought well and gave a very good account of its self in the big water. Allan is delighted to land this one and get off the mark, The first Salmon off the Carron and the Kyle district rivers, Allan had the first salmon off the river last season 2023 landing a 7 pounder in Lairds cast on February 21st.
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SEASON 2023 UPDATE
Finally i have managed to get an update done of a breakdown of the catches at Cornhill, and how the season went in 2023 for myself. A bit of a delay in doing so as i have been really suffering with really bad back problems the last week of the fishing season it was causing me a bit of a problem, it came back with a vengence three weeks later and i had about three weeks of absolute agony.
The season got of to a good start reasonably early i managed to land a 7lb Springer in the Lairds cast on February 21st. this was the first salmon off the River Carron, at this point there was a complete absence of kelts as they appeared to be non existant after that the usual slow spring build up failed to materialise.
Around third week of March we saw a slight flurry of activity it was short lived before things settled back to a worrying trend, during this period Jamie Hammond was on Cornhill it was’nt easy Jamie had to work hard but was rewarded Jamie landed 5 salmon between 10lb & 7lbs to his own rod with a couple of losses. I fished the Gledfield beat opposite at the same time, and was pleased to land 5 salmon also with similar weights.
As the spring season progressed their was very little to get excited about and i can remember saying early on it was as poor a spring season as i had seen in 40 years fishing the Carron and definitely not all due to low water conditions.
The Summer and Grilse season took a little while to get going we again had prolonged periods of very low water down to approx minus – 2.5 inch which was no where near as dry as 2022 season. we had very erratic periods of water conditions very low rising to unfishably high and sometimes going unfishably high twice and sometimes three times in a week.
The week of 10th July was unlet but was only fishable three days,being unfishably high the other three, the first three days Monday to Wednesday the following week were also unlet,
I fished these six days and had a super time landing 21 fish 19 Grilse and 2 Salmon landing 9 in the first three days and 12 in the second three days, and also losing 9 others most losses during the first period i think due to the fish being really unsettled and running in periods between the big water i also had numerous pulls and snatches at the fly usually an indicator of running fish that are unsettled whilst briefly stopping.
Summer catches kept picking away but it was hard going and fish were noticably scarse at times and were loathe to show themselves. There was no noticeable back end run and the and the odd big fish that are usually in evidence were not their, or at least they did not show up before the season ended, the mainly uneventfull season just petered out.
This can be seen in the final totals, all in all the season ended up i suppose O K for a two rod beat we had a total of 62. for the season. Early on i feared it would be absolutely dissasterous which i mentioned to guests on more than one occasion, better being honest as the figures dont lie.
I am a bit of a pessimist which is quite good at times like this as things can only get better hopefully!
Cornhill catches season 2023
The catches in most productive pools were more evenly spread throughout the beat this season with the three most productive being Lairds cast, Raven, & McKenzie pools.
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My own 2023 season ended with myself taking a total of 49 fish 38 Grilse and 11 Salmon. which i am really delighted with as by early June i thought it would be absolutely terrible. One very small Grilse was taken in the Raven pool it was booked at 2lbs but had it been measured or weighed would i am sure been 1.75lbs or even ounces less, it unfortunately slipped out my hand before i could measure it.
LITTLE YOSHI WHO WAS ALSO NOT TO WELL FOR SHORT TIME WHEN I HAD BACK PROBLEMS AND WAS GOOD COMPANY AS USUAL
Although not a spectacular season it was great as usual being on the river with some great fun with great fishing pals.
SOME PALS BELOW EACH SEASON CREATES GREAT MEMORIES FOR THE FUTURE
Not a highlight but very welcome and enjoyable was during the last week of the season landing a couple of grilse on concsecutive days in Cormacks pool, up till then the only pool on the beat i had not landed a fish in.
i have never fished it much only probably 3 or four times in all the years as when it appeared to be in good ply a good few other more productive pools and casts are in condition. i must say i may not pass it quite so often from now on.
