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Mid Summer Freshets

Sunday, July 20th, 2014

STEADY CATCHES OF SALMON & SEA TROUT IN AN AWKWARD SEASON FOR THE ANGLER

I have been away on the West Coast in Argyll while the 2014 catches at FCW have moved up to 43 salmon and 64 sea trout.

Compared with catches at this time of year in the 1980s and 1990s, these catch numbers do not amount to much, but they are still reasonable and compare quite well with most other beats on the Esks.

Exif_JPEG_PICTURE

There have continued to be fresh-run MSW salmon – the most recent a 15lbs salmon from Willows – and the condition of our sea trout continues to be excellent.

TA

Posted in Fishing Report, Salmon, Sea Trout | Comments Off on Mid Summer Freshets

LATE JUNE SEA TROUT REPORT

Monday, June 30th, 2014

END OF JUNE. ARE THERE MORE SEA TROUT TO COME?

We have been tickling away all week with one or two sea trout each night, after the six we caught on Monday. There are sea trout in all the pools, but not many.

I am interested to see whether the main run is yet to come because, by any measure, this has been a strange year with warm water from the beginning of the season and sufficient water in the  river to allow sea trout and salmon to swim upstream without any problem.

fishers down the Flats

This photo was taken from the suspension bridge at the tail of Casdtle Stream, just above Red Brae. You are looking upstream towards the Flats where there are two peopole fishing.

Conditions at night are now perfect for the night angler. If there were shoals in the main pools we would probably be catching them in good numbers, but those shoals, as far as we have observed, are only intermittently present.

I remember a night in 1988 when I ‘found’ a shoal of sea trout in the tail of Tyndals Pool at about 0200 and caught seven of them before the dawn came. I had not seen those fish lying on the gravel in daylight. It is possible that they had arrived during the hours of dusk ness (there’s no darkness in June in Scotland) but I think not. That shoal of sea trout in my opinion had been there all the time, just lying quietly in the quiet tail of Tyndals.

Which just goes to show that sea trout are mysterious and secretive fish that keep themselves to themselves, and normally are very difficult to spot.
Postscript written at 0630 on 30 June 2014

THE RIVER DROPS AND WE ARE IN THE DOLDRUMS
As the South Esk falls away to its summer low level the movement of migratory fish into and within the catchment has declined.
As always with our little river, we now need rain to freshen up the system and encourage new fish, fresh from the sea, to enter the river.
Until that happens I suspect all will be very quiet.
I see that some rain is forecast for later in the week. By then we will be needing it badly.
The season to date at FCW has seen 37 salmon (biggest 16lbs) and 46 sea trout (biggest 5lbs) recorded.
TA

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A red letter day for a young fly fisherman

Sunday, April 13th, 2014
Spring salmon at FCW
One of the things about April on the South Esk is that new fish entering the river do so in ‘penny packets’, taking the opportunity of a rise in water temp, or some extra water, or a high tide, or a combination of those events.
Douglas and Calum Dunsmuir at Indies Hut
Calum and Douglas Dunsmuir at the Indires Hut at the start of their successful day on Indies Beat on the 12th of April 2014.
When a small run of fish do enter the river – the ‘penny packet ‘ – their speed as they swim upriver is influenced by the amount and temperature of the water. If the nights are cold and frosty, having the effect of lowering the water temp, the migration upriver will, more than likely, be slowed down. Conversely, if the water temp rises with sunshine in the days and mild, cloud covered nights, the likelihood is that salmon will keep moving quickly upstream.
The result of these stop/start, temperature-influenced movements of fish is that sometimes pools can have fish in them, while on other occasions the pools are empty. Combine that situation with bright, brassy days when salmon are disinclined to take the fly, and the result is that the going gets hard for the fly fisherman, who can spend many fruitless hours fishing without sight or feel of a fish.
Calum Dunsmuir with his 10lbs salmon (2)
Calum Dunsmuir with his first salmon. The fish was caught on a Sunray Shadow in Tollmuir Pool on the 12th of April 2014.
But not always….. Just as I finished writing that last sentence I got a call from Doug Dunsmuir, who is fishing Indies Beat today, telling me that he had caught a 14lbs salmon in Melgund Pool and his 12 year-old son, Calum, a 10lbs salmon in Tollmuir Pool. That was Calum’s first salmon! He caught it on a Sunray Shadow fished deep.
Congratulations to the Dunsmuir father & son team!
Pictures of both fish to follow in a later post. That is how it has been at FCW, after a flurry of activity with four fish caught and released on Thursday, followed by two days of nothing at all – and then a big surprise for two determined anglers. Such is salmon fishing!
TA

Posted in Fishing Report, River Report, Salmon | Comments Off on A red letter day for a young fly fisherman

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