Finavon Castle Bulletin

Over the weekend the level dropped and the water cleared. But it was cold and windy, with the surface of the quieter pools, such as Boat Pool and Willows, ruffled by the wind. During the morning not much happened despite the efforts of our local team of three rods covering all the major pools. During the afternoon the sun came out and the air temperature rose appreciably. Fish were seen, both kelts and fresh fish, including a big one in Tollmuir Pool. Then in mid afternoon Derek had a beauty from the very tail of Indies Pool: a 2SW fish in prime condition, indicating that wherever it had been feeding at sea had a plentiful supply of prey species, probably somewhere in the western Atlantic Ocean, west of the Irminger Sea.

Then, late in the afternoon, Derek Strachan had another fish, this time a 10lbs one from Pheasantry. We don’t think of this pool as a place to catch a spring salmon. Although it is a beautiful streamy pool, ideal for a sea trout at dusk or a grilse at dawn, we have (it seems wrongly) assumed that it lacks depth to hold fish in the lower water temperatures of March and April. I suspect the pool has been scoured and, as Bill Currie might have said, there are lots of “pots, scallops and scrapes” where the fish can lie untroubled by the force of the flow.

So, what started as a rather bleak early April day, ended with two more fish on the books, bringing the FCW total to date to 12. Here is another picture of the Pheasantry fish during the process of bringing it to the net.

Postscript. I walked down Milton Beat at dawn today and noted that the river had risen during the night. There is possibly some residual snow in the high corries. For Finavon this is an ideal scenario, with cold and clean water pouring off the hill to bring the fish into the river, but not too quickly, so they pause in the ‘plateaus’ between the streams of FCW. I hope to record more fish later today because the conditions are excellent. Sadly I will not be fishing myself, but I wish our local team ‘tight lines’.

TA on 5 April 2011

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

There was much more rain than was forecast, and the river rose at least two feet overnight on the 30th of March. The last day of the month saw the river big and dirty. Nonetheless, a few running fish were spotted on the 2 lower beats. The morning of the 1st of April began with some drizzle, but the river had dropped a few inches and cleared overnight. With the air temperature around 14C the water soon warmed up and fish started to appear in Willows and the Boat Pool on Milton Beat, which is by far the best beat at Finavon when the River is big.

An early morning fish of 10lbs with sea lice was reported from Haughs just below the Aqueduct and then later in the day another one from Frank’s Stream was caught by Andrew Lorimer. Conditions by the end of the day were nigh on perfect and, with black clouds lingering over the head of the catchment, there is little prospect of the level dropping drastically overnight. Provided there is not another spate I expect conditions to be ideal for a good turnout of our syndicate members tomorrow (2nd of April).

We now have caught ten beautiful spring salmon up to the 1st of April, and we have seen many more. This demonstrates a simple but oft forgotten truth wehich is that if the conditions are good (and the fish present!) you will catch a few. Talking to Colin Gibb at Inshewan the other day we agreed that there is already a good head of spring salmon in the pools of the two beats – Finavon and Inshewan – and, if the water levels remain good, there is every prospect of a productive April Month.

I heard today that Upper Kinnaird fished well at the end of March, so the run of spring fish is now benefitting the main lower and middle river beats.

TA 1/4/2011

Postscript. I walked the dogs down to the Red Brae at 7am and it was obvious that there had been some rain supplemented by snowmelt overnight. The result was a ‘clean’ spate (ie not muddy). We had 4 rods on the whole of FCW all day, but, apart from 3 or 4 kelts and a good number of running fish seen, there was nothing to show for their efforts. Milton Beat was the place with the best chance of a fish, but, alas, nothing. The river should drop away nicely over the rest of the weekend leaving Monday and Tuesday as days with a good chance of fish.

TA 1700 on 2/4/2011

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

Today the River had dropped back to the top of the Red Brae wall (on the webcam this shows some water coming over the armchair rock, and a good swirl on either side of it) and this meant that it was a perfect height for Tyndals Pool, which comes into its own after a spate as the water is dropping back. Today Tyndals was mine for the day. I decided the level was too high and the current too fierce to wade across at the top of the pool. Instead I decided to fish Willows through first, and then wade across at the top of that pool to the north bank and walk up the bank to the head of Tyndals. While fishing Willows I saw three fish, one of which was certainly a kelt, but, judging by their positions in the pool ( just off the point of the willows) I reckon the other two were fresh fish.

Encouraged by seeing fish I started at the Armchair Boulder at the head of Tyndals (the one you see on the webcam) and fished down the pool steadily, handlining the last few feet into the slack water on the north side of the main stream. Just below the ‘elbow’ there was a long draw and the reel spoke. After a brief but lively fight I netted and returned a bright little fish of about 7lbs. As I was starting to fish again a nice fresh fish showed in more-or-less the exact spot where I hooked my fish. I then moved on down the pool, fishing a Wetcel 2 and medium fast sinking leader with about 24″ of 12lbs polycarbon cast, and a size 6 double hook Yellow Torrish.

I fished the pool all the way down, past the two north bank groynes, and when I reached the dub at the very tail of the pool, with the fly swinging across the stream smoothly and at just the right speed and depth, it stopped and I tightened into a fish which for the first minute I was convinced was a kelt. I was soon to be convinced otherwise when the fish made a long run down into the Willows, ending in two lunging jumps and taking most of the backing off the reel. Big fish! It repeated the reel stripping runs three times more before gradually coming under control.

After a long struggle I netted the fish which, in terms of length (36″ approx) should have been 20lbs+. Unfortunately it had the most horrendous gash in its belly which had only partly healed, but sufficiently to indicate that the wound was probably received at sea. Although the fish had no sea lice, its general condition was just about OK, although it was probably 6-8lbs underweight as a result of its injury. I estimate its weight to be about 14lbs. Judging by the length and depth of the wound I would be surprised if the fish had not been severely curtailed in feeding after the predatory attack. I thought about killing the fish on the grounds that there was very little prospect of its surviving to November or December to spawn, but decided that there was sufficient doubt, despite its poor condition, to justify returning it to the river alive. I just hope that it makes it to the redds. This is the second fish we have caught this year at Finavon with severe damage almost certainly caused by sea mammals of one species or another.

The most encouraging thing about today was the number of other fish I saw on Milton Beat.

TA