Finavon Castle Bulletin

These bulletin blogs represent news about Finavon and the South Esk, and my views as a riparian owner. They are not the views of any other organisation, nor are they designed to promote the interests of any individual or organisation other than Finavon Castle Water and factors affecting the fishery.  Tony Andrews

After heavy rain last Friday the river came up quickly and flooded the woods at Indies and Bogardo, no doubt spreading more Himalayan balsam seeds in the process. A tricky few days followed with high and turgid water, but a lot of fish, both salmon and sea trout, showing in all the pools but only one caught each day. Our visiting rods saw action, with fish pulling but not hooking, and a few salmon lost.

This photo is of the lower section of Melgund Pool, which has some well placed lie boulders in the tail and about 30 yards above. It looks perfect for holding salmon in high or medium water. Apart from one pile of boulders, it offers a reasonably easy wade. I recommend this part of the highly productive Melgund Pool for an autumn salmon. Melgund is in fact quite a long pool, of similar dimensions to House Pool, and just as likely a pool to catch salmon and sea trout.

I fished Marcus House Pool late in the afternoon on Tuesday, but the water was too high and fast for a pool that is at its best in a medium river height. Later on I fished down Frank’s Stream, which again was pretty big, and caught a lovely silver 9lbs salmon at the head of the pool. I also caught a lively four pound sea trout in the tail of Indies Pool, which at that water height is a pool of genuine scale, inviting you to open your shoulders and cast a long line right across the fan-shaped tail towards the jumble of accumulated flotsam at the top of Merrinwood. There were quite a few salmon showing in the run just above the right bank overhanging willow that marks the main boulder feature and holding spot of Indies Pool.

This photo is of the main stem of the South Esk just below Braedownie in Glen Clova. This section of the River provides spawning and excellent juvenile habitat for salmon and sea trout. People who fish the middle river of the South Esk often forget how many miles of river there is above the confluence of the S Esk and Prosen, just downstream of Cortachy Castle. Salmon are caught by Kirriemuir Angling Club members and anglers from the Glen Clova Hotel. The meandering and silty river in the flood plain of the glen provides good holding water for salmon throughout the summer and autumn.

Overnight on Tuesday the river dropped quietly to a much more manageable level and the water cleared. Fishing at 0700 on Milton Beat I saw a number of fish, especially in Willows, but, as in the previous two days, the fishing was dour and I moved nothing. However, late in the afternoon I had a report from Moray that he had landed a pristine 12lb fish in that magic place in the Red Brae that I described in the last bulletin. An hour later I caught another of exactly the same size in Frank’s Stream just below the willow groyne, a beautiful deep & sea-liced autumn salmon: bright silver and firm fleshed.

If the river continues to drop slowly, and the occasional shower provides freshets to keep the chemical signals bringing in more fresh salmon, the fishing should improve considerably during the rest of the week.  The totals for Finavon Castle Water for the 2011 season are 114 salmon and 95 sea trout, which, if October comes up to its normal productivity, should see us with over 150 salmon for the season, and perhaps just over 100 sea trout.

The beats are now fully booked for the rest of the 2011 season.

TA

These bulletin blogs represent news about Finavon and the South Esk, and my views as a riparian owner. They are not the views of any other organisation, nor are they designed to promote the interests of any individual or organisation other than Finavon Castle Water and factors affecting the fishery.  Tony Andrews

The weather turned really foul today (16/9) and, as I write this, there’s a howling gale and heavy rain which has been building all day. Andrew Robertson and I fished both Milton and Bogardo Beats today. We saw plenty of fish but caught nothing, despite some hefty pulls from salmon in Bridge Pool and Marcus House Pool. Our impression, having observed fish splashing around on both beats, is that there are plenty of fish, especially in the Boat Pool. The river hasn’t started to rise yet, although it undoubtedly will later on, and conditions have been just about perfect with slightly tinged water still fining down after the spate we had earlier in the week. Salmon are still running, and there is a good percentage of fresh fish in all the pools, but, so typical of September, really hard to catch.

This is the head of Flats in a good September spate (13/9/2011). A place to catch a spring salmon or apply your best fieldcraft to winkle out a sea trout at dusk in low water. Flats is a nice variety feature of Milton Beat.

Earlier in the week we had some good fish to 12lbs, and I caught a coloured cock of about 9lbs in that perfect spot in Red Brae, just where the current deflects into the middle of the river at the end of the Wall. There really are few more alluring pools than Red Brae when the level of the river is lipping the lowest part of the Wall. Wading on fine gravel from the left bank (N) and casting your fly across into dark water under the Wall , and with the current drawing it steadily across the  pool that becomes clearer and shallower closer to the north bank, is a fine fly fishing experience. One thing I have always felt about this pool is that it holds salmon in nearly every month of the year. I always look for an early season fish there, and in the records are some lovely fish in the high teens of lbs caught in late February and March. It can be awesome in a spate (see photo with this blog). I remember a number of occasions when there was a shoal of fish in the lie at the end of the Wall and two or three were caught before it went quiet again. In the pools descriptions of this website I recognise the importance of the Red Brae, but also what an awkward and capricious pool it can be. Some would call it dour, but Red Brae can be generous, and catching a salmon in that totally peaceful place is pure magic!

This is Red Brae in this week’s spate. The main current rushes along the Wall and continues to erode the red brae itself. At this height the pool is nearly unfishable except for a patch of calmer water close the the left bank downstream of the end of the Wall.

So where are we with this strange fishing season? A summary of catches might describe it as “good spring salmon, very few grilse, consistent MSW salmon catches throughout, and a river with a massive stock by early September”. In terms of the weather one might say, “good early season levels, followed by a late spring drought and then incessant rain and fluctuating levels”. So what does this tell us? I think there is not much doubt that this has been a good year for MSW salmon, with some big fish among them. The condition of these fish has been generally good, with the early season salmon in quite exceptionally good condition. Later in the season some MSW salmon have been less well nourished but, in my inexpert view, nothing to worry about. There have, as I say, been few grilse, and some of them very small and a few pitifully thin.

This is the view looking upstream from Red Brae hut during this week’s spate. the pool in the foreground is Craigo Stream, which doesn’t fish at all in a spate, but it can be a fine low water cast.

As far as the South Esk sea trout are concerned I believe that high water levels prevented them shoaling in the pools, as they tend to do in a normal summer. For example, we never saw really big shoals of school sea trout averaging 2lbs 8oz in the main pools, although for a brief period there were groups of sea trout in Indies, Melgund, Haughs and Boat Pool/Willows. My guess, and that’s what it is, but at least it is based on regular observation, is that the sea trout stocks of the South Esk are healthy, sustainable, but certainly not in the upper range of historical abundance. Condition of individual sea trout has been generally excellent, indicating that the fish we saw had access to good feeding at sea. As far as the restraint that George Pullar has exercised in returning net caught sea trout (for a compensation payment) this will undoubtedly have helped maintain the stocks at a sustainable level. Conservation of sea trout has been widely supported by anglers returning fish alive to the river. One last point on sea trout is that September has seen a late flurry of catches at Kinnaird and Finavon. While these fish may have dropped downriver after the main run in June and July, I think it more likely that these are genuine late-running sea trout. That is a tendency which should help spread the spawning stock throughout the catchment, because many of these late sea trout may choose to spawn in the main stem of the river, for example, in the gravel of Willows and Indies Pools.

My apologies to FCW blog readers for the erratic posting in recent weeks. We have now solved the problem by updating the software.

TA

These bulletin blogs represent news about Finavon and the South Esk, and my views as a riparian owner. They are not the views of any other organisation, nor are they designed to promote the interests of any individual or organisation other than Finavon Castle Water and factors affecting the fishery.  Tony Andrews

We caught 8 salmon and 8 sea trout last week. The late flurry of sea trout catches is not unusual and these fish are in general well advanced in their readiness to spawn, which normally happens in October & November.

On Saturday, after a day and a night of rain, some of it torrential, the river came up and only started to drop away in the early hours of Sunday morning. That gave Moray time to fish Milton Beat in the late afternoon on Saturday, where he caught three sea trout and saw a pod of very big fresh salmon running through and rolling their backs above the surface of the water in Willows and Volcano. He estimated all four to be in the late teens or early twenties of lbs.

This is the sort of autumn salmon that was commonplace in the early decades of the twentieth century. The model of this 32 lbs salmon was made from carved wood by Mallochs of Perth. It was caught on the Cumberland Eden at Crosby in November 1903 by my great-grandfather, Edwin Hough. I have always imagined that the gene that made me a fisherman came from him! I hope that we may see the occasional fish like this one at Finavon in the next two or three years. Indications are that our MSW salmon that feed in the Greenland fjords are accessing an abundance of prey species that could give us some big fish, by which I mean 25lbs+.

The appearance of big MSW salmon confirms the predictions made by scientists that fish that feed in the productive, nutrient-rich waters of the Irminger and Labrador seas, could become larger. Numerical abundance is another matter because of the simple logic that the longer salmon remain at sea, fewer will return. The corollary unfortunately is that the one sea winter fish – grilse -do not travel as far as their MSW siblings and extended family members, and the feeding areas they use, mainly in the nutrient ‘patchy’ eastern Atlantic, fail to provide them with the food they need to achieve the condition of salmon using the western Atlantic feeding areas. I can’t help wondering how many of these half-starved grilse never make it back home, but, weakened by lack of food they are open to disease, predation and inability to meet the challenge of the long swim home. It doesn’t surprise me that those that do make it back – the survivors – often look like kelts, rather than well conditioned fish bound for the spawning redds.

Maybe someone will catch a ‘big fish’ at Finavon this autumn. Here’s hoping!

TA