Week beginning September 26th. Hamish McFarlane & party.
Mon 26th. The last five days of the season started off with the water level running at 7 inch by 15.00hrs it had risen to 1ft 3 inch Allan Donaldson landed a 6lb grilse in the Lairds cast, Allan also lost a salmon in the March pool.
Tue. 27th. We started out with 2ft 4 inch on the gauge, the river continued to rise all day and peaked at 15.30 at approx 3ft 7 inch by 17.00 it had dropped back to approx 3ft 2 inch Allan Donaldson landed a 5lb grilse in the Gledfield pool.
Wed 28th. The water level stayed pretty steady for most of the day at 1ft 4 to 1ft 3 inch Allan Donaldson landed a couple in the McKenzie stream at 11lbs and 5lbs and followed up with a 4lb grilse in the Lairds cast Allan also very briefly had a salmon on in the McGregor pool. All the activity was in the morning as the afternoon was pretty much back to the way it has been much of the time very quiet.
Thur 29th. Alf Gamblin and Innes Rankin fishing today as guests of Hamish, the river level was 11.5 inches similar to yesterday fish were seen and their was a bit of activity in the morning the afternoon was once again very quiet.
Fri 30th. The last day of the season started off with the river running at 8.5 inch the light rain soon became very heavy and by 10.30 it was torrential at times. this was destined to put the river up very quickly to a very big river. Allan Donaldson was delighted to land a 6lb grilse in the Little falls pool the grilse came up and took a Collie dog on the surface during a particularly heavy batter of rain a great way and a great place to round off and end the season. as soon as i landed it i headed for home the season over for me. , subsequently the river rose to a big river very very quickly as can be see in the photo of the sepa chart.
Total 6
Week beginning September 19th
Mon 19th. The water level at 09.00 was 1ft 2 inches i fished the morning and managed to get a very fresh sea liced 6lb grilse in the McKenzie stream i also pulled one in in the Lairds cast, it was still very quiet i only saw two fish showing all morning.
I came back at 16.45 the river was dropping and was now showing 11.5 inch, I landed a 5lb and a 4lb grilse and very briefly had a hold of another a salmon of approx 10lbs all in McKenzie pool.
Thursday 22nd. The water dropped off over the next coupe of days and i did not wet a line till today when the water gauge was showing 8.5 inch i landed a 5lb grilse in the Lairds cast. again very few fish were showing although their was a little bit of activity over a 15 minute period in the McGregor pool a bunch of running fish moving through, the water dropped again and ended on Friday with water level 5.75 inch.
I am beginning to see red squirrels in various places in the beat now since late July
so hopefully they will stay and establish themselves up and down the beat.
Total 4
Week beginning September 12th Douglas Chalmers & party.
We had little bits of water and a couple of days we had what is normally reasonable water 11 inch and 9 inch. Over the week and the beat was not fished hard a couple of salmon were pulled and a couple moved to the fly but nothing at all was landed. Very few salmon were seen as is the norm, of those that were seen mainly grilse a few were very fresh fish.
Week beginning September 5th John McGinnis & party.
The very heavy rain at times since Sunday morning and the odd rumble of thunder did not do much to the water level as the wind was coming in from the east, it put it up to about 7 inch by Tuesday but the rain was pretty constant and heavy at times and put the river up on Wednesday to 4ft, we then had Thursday 1ft 6, Friday 1ft 6 rising to 2ft, Saturday 1ft 3 inch and dropping, had we had the rain from the west the river would have been un fishably high the first three days.
Thurs 8th. Andrew Brodie caught a 10lb salmon in the McKenzie Stream, John McGinnis landed a 7lb salmon in the Raven pool.
Fri. 9th. P. Kidd landed an 8lb salmon in the McKenzie pool.
Sat 10th. One fish landed today P. Kidd landed a 5lb Grilse in the McKenzie stream.
Total 4