The thing about the South Esk is that it is not quite a spate river, but is nevertheless hugely affected by precipitation, whether that is melting snow stored in the corries of the hills of Glen Clova, or just rainfall. Mid April is perhaps a bit early for all but a few small snow drifts to have melted, but that is explainable by the unseasonal warmth we had last week, and of course the lack of rainfall. Because the River has no loch to act as a reservoir, and because it is a small river of only 50 miles in length, it tends to react quickly to dry weather. That is the situation now, and in these conditions any angler will tell you that the chances of persuading a salmon to take a fly diminish rapidly.
However, a feature of 2011 at Finavon has been sightings of fresh salmon from early March. This is something that did not happen in previous decades because in those days the dams at Kintrockat and Kinnaird were temperature barriers, in the latter case impeding migration massively, and in the former simply slowing the fish down. I remember back in the 1970s that fresh salmon could be caught in the Red Brae Pool at Kintrockat in early March. So, even before improvements had been done to Kinnaird (height two and a half metres) by the civil engineer Colin Carnie (see photo below) the occasional salmon did get through into the middle river. This year there have been many such fish and, as I write this blog on the 13th of April, and having just returned home after a walk along the banks of the Finavon Castle Water, I can say with complete confidence that there are at this very moment at least 50 fresh spring salmon in Finavon’s pools. Quite a lot have already gone through to Inshewan and the beats above, and we have caught and returned 14 at Finavon. Yesterday Moray Macfarlane caught a 7lbs salmon in the Tollmuir Pool in bright sunshine and others were seen in the same pool and in Marcus House Pool below.
Colin Carnie fishing the best lie – the end of the wall – in FCW’s famous Red Brae Pool on Castle Beat
Good fishing at Inshewan and the first sea trout of 2011 seen (& one lost) Colin Gibb at Inshewan reported 10 fish caught on his beats and lots of fish showing in the Castle Hill with new fish arriving all the time. He also said that many salmon have gone through into the upper river, and that sea trout have been seen in Inshewan’s Garden Pool. It is therefore quite a surprise that Cortachy and Downie Park are only reporting one salmon to date. Their time will certainly come, but it is odd that with a run of spring salmon “as good as we have seen since the 1960s” (Colin Gibb’s opinion) more salmon have not been caught in the superb pools above Inshewan. With the best fish of 16lbs and fish flashing in the usual places at Inshewan, I expect the catch there to increase as soon as we get some fresh water. With the tides being rather dull in the last few days and starting to build up to springs we should see an influx of fresh salmon in the last two weeks before the Usan nets start operating on the 1st of May. What I can say is that every night there is a flurry of activity as new fish pass through Finavon’s pools on their journey upriver. These salmon are invariably sea liced and in a hurry to get upstream. Some linger at Finavon, but the numbers of fish that do so will diminish as the water temperature rises.
If we get water, the next fortnight should produce fish in reasonable numbers. If rain doesn’t come, no matter how many rods fish the pools, only the occasional fish will be caught, although I am in no doubt that many will be seen.
TA 13/4/2011