The photos below were taken on the 2nd of March 2018 during the period of cold weather entitled “The Beast from the East”! Salmon are now starting to appear in the North Esk at Kinnaber and Morphie. To the best of my knowledge no fish have yet been caught in the South Esk.
I am anticipating a run of MSW spring salmon because there will now be a huge reservoir of snow and ice in the Glens, which should ensure that we have water into late April or even May. More importantly however, there is evidence of increasing numbers of MSW salmon feeding in the western Atlantic Ocean, and some of those fish will be swimming towards the South Esk right now!
While it has certainly been cold with large amounts of snow, I have not recorded temperatures much below -3C during the whole period. Further South the temperatures have been more extreme.
This is Willows on 3 March 2018.
Hard to believe this is the tranquil pool where big shoals of sea trout lie up through the summer months.
Beneath the ice there may be a few salmon kelts remaining from the spawning of the winter 2017/18.
The next event in terms of fish migration will be the arrival of our spring salmon, sometime in the next two months.
But first there has to be a thaw, followed by good clean and cold water from the hills to draw spring salmon into the river. TA