Finavon Castle Bulletin

It has been a strange year all over Scotland. In some rivers there have been record catches, with the Thurso having a cracking spring and the Lower Oykel with a record week of more than 250 salmon. Nearer home the North Esk counter showed over 3,600 fish migrating upriver in July, whilst the South Esk nets between Lunan Bay and Scurdie Ness report catches of two and three sea-winter salmon in excellent condition and an abundance of grilse, some of which are showing red vent syndrome (RVS) and some are underweight. One day (24th August) produced nearly 200 salmon for these nets, despite unfavourable conditions of a strong west wind.

In general it hasn’t been a bad year so far, although Finavon’s sea trout numbers (88 for the season to date) and salmon (43 to date) are less than they should be. My take on the early part of the season is that the spring run was developing really well until at the beginning of May the rain stopped and was followed by 7 weeks of drought. In these conditions 2SW salmon are not encouraged to enter the River, and many of this year’s May run of salmon was probably mopped up by the coastal nets. Also in conditions of drought no-one bothers to fish so angling effort fell away to zero at times. If the April river levels had been maintained throughout May I am in no doubt that we would have caught many more spring salmon. I say “no doubt” because I know that the South Esk coastal nets took somewhere between 600 and 800 2SW spring salmon in May: fish which couldn’t get into the river and were therefore unavailable to anglers. The point about the numbers of salmon caught by the nets, although it is tough for me as a fishery manager and angler to admit it, is that it shows that the South Esk is generating sufficient 2SW ‘spring populations’ smolts to produce a commercial (high value) catch.

Wildlife pond after 3 months

As far as sea trout are concerned we have seen lots, and caught a proportion of them. Up at Cortachy they have had a good year with 250+ sea trout caught (and mostly returned). A feature of this season, as in 2009, is the number of really big and well conditioned sea trout, including one of 8lbs caught by Derek Strachan in FCW’s Haughs Pool. In my view there is still a shortage of the school sea trout of 2-3 lbs . It is very encouraging to note that FCW fishers are returning all the big sea trout – the egg carriers – to the river. These experienced spawners, some as old as 10 years, are the basis of our sea trout stock. They represent the future of the South Esk as a top sea trout fishery, so please continue to look after them.

David's Treehouse opening

Prospects for September and October 2010. As I write this blog on 25th August, all the main pools have a head of both salmon and grilse and the sea trout are now way past their best, and some are almost black as they prepare for spawning in late September or October. Water levels are a bit up and down but we should expect at least a dozen fish each week until the end of the season, provided we don’t get another drought, which sometimes happens in the east of Scotland in the early autumn. The best thing that happens in the autmn is the arrival of the large 2SW salmon, sometimes up to 25lbs in weight.

During the summer we have completed work in David’s Wood, which provides the access route for Castle Beat. We now have a Treehouse fishing hut which we think may be a first for Scotland. we also have developed a very attractive wildlife pond on which groups of teal and mallard spend the night, not to mention frogs, damsel flies and a heron or two! I am including pictures of all these new developments with this blog.

Lower Red Brae

There are just a few days left for fishing Finavon’s beats in the 2010 season. Each beat now has its own hut and if you take it for the day you have the water entirely to yourself. Our rates are competitive, so why not give FCW a try? Contact me on colonsay@hotmail.com .

TA

Tollmuir Pool in June 2009

I won’t say the rain amounted to very much: it didn’t. But it was enough to bring down a dirty little freshet to clear away the accumulated algae and debris that had collected along the gravel edges of our parched river during the nine weeks of drought. We had about a foot of water which produced enough of a rise in the level to reach the top of the Red Brae wall. Perhaps the odd dipper’s nest was drowned by the unexpected arrival of so much water after the long drought.

Dr Martin Busk and his party from Kent arrived on Sunday and had five good sea trout on Monday, three of them during the day as the water dropped and cleared. On Tuesday the water dropped away all day long and now, on Wednesday morning, is back to low summer level. The difference between this week and last week, before the rain, is that the water temperature is lower, and the whole river is fresher and cleaner. More to the point, the pools, especially Indies and Willows, are holding good numbers of sea trout, some of which are in the 3lbs + category.

Last night Moray and I fished Tyndals, Willows and Volcano, and between the two of us accounted for three sea trout, all between 2lbs and 3.5lbs. Conditions were great with a clear river, still with a touch of peat (about the colour of a ten-year-old Macallan) and plenty of fresh sea trout in these pools. Not much was showing, but when they took the fly they did so with enthusiasm and were all well hooked. During the day Martin Busk’s party had a 2.5 lbs sea trout in the middle of Marcus House Pool. In the first two days of this week we have caught 9 sea trout, none of which was under 2.5lbs and at least two of which were 4lbs or more. Good sea trout: just like the South Esk I knew 25 years ago!

Reflecting on the season so far, it has been dominated by the low water of May and June, which put a full stop to the spring salmon fishing. But, encouraguingly, the sea trout have been running throughout the drought, usually in small ‘penny packet’ shoals, but nevertheless filling the major holding pools. As I write this on the 8th of July, we are seeing more sea trout than we have had at Finavon in early July for 5 or 6 years. Even more encouraging is the quality of these fish, which is generally excellent.

We now await the arrival of the grilse. George Pullar, who owns the netting rights south of the South Esk estuary near Montrose, tells me that the grilse have arrived earlier than in the last few years and that they are bigger (4-7lbs) and in better condition.  If we get more rain, and if another freshet coincides with the 3-day weekend ‘slap’ (lay-off) of the nets, then we should see grilse enter our pools, and make life really interesting!

TA

Postscript written on 10th July

The last few days have been frustrating for anglers on the Finavon water, not least because we have heard of a superb week’s total (until Friday) of 57 sea trout, including a cracking sea trout of 8lbs, from Downie Park and Cortachy, against FCW’s 14 sea trout for the week so far. There are, I think, various factors at play here: first, it should be remembered that all the sea trout in the six or seven miles of water of Airlie Estates and Downie Park have passed through Finavon within the last couple of weeks. Also, there is of course more fishing water there than at Finavon. Then, fishing effort (and dare I mention it? expertise) has been much greater at Cortachy with a dedicated group of night fisherman fishing through the nights; finally, there is no doubt, since the ‘easing’ of the main obstructions on the river (Kinnaird, Kintrockat and Craigeassie Dams), that the passage of fish through the river to the upper reaches has become much easier. In some ways this can benefit Finavon, especially in the early spring. But, once the water temperature is up and there is enough water in the river to encourage fish to run, the main beneficiary is the upper river. In my view this is great for the South Esk because it disperses the stock throughout the catchment and gets the salmon and sea trout close to the spawning areas in good time.

TA