The two Bogardo Beat pools, Tollmuir Pool and Marcus House Pool, have received a lot of attention this winter. They both have the potential to be good salmon and grilse pools, and if the sea trout return in good numbers, I would expect to see them both offering excellent opportunities for night sea trout fishers.
Tollmuir Pool used to be called ‘Monica’s Stream’, but is now called ‘Tollmuir’ on account of its being close the the site of the old toll booth on the Aberdeen road (now the A90). The pool has all the characteristics needed for a top South Esk salmon pool. A great rippling neck to the pool, a really deep (8′ – 12′) dub and a long and gradually shallowing tail. This is a pool where travelling fish are likely to pause and a place for salmon to lie in drought conditions. It is an obvious holding pool. The squeeze formed by two rocky groynes plus the fan shaped tail under the overhanging left bank willows complete the pool which then runs into the Steps over a series of caulds made of rocks.
Marcus House Pool
Marcus House Pool is a good 200 yards in length with the main lies all along the left bank under the quarried boulders placed there as flood and erosion protection. House pool is a ‘taking’ pool, and a 17lbs salmon came from the neck of the pool in good water in the summer of 2009. The main part of the pool and the tail hold both salmon and sea trout. The night fishing for sea trout in the tail, as it slips into Breadalbane Pool, can be first class.
An arrangement has been made with Marcus Estate, who own the left bank, that House Pool will only be fished by Finavon rods from the right bank in return for which Finavon rods will no longer fish Breadalbane Pool from the right bank, leaving Marcus rods exclusive fishing of Breadalbane Pool from the left bank. This means that people fishing Finavon Castle Water must on no account cross the river to the Marcus side (North).
These two pools, Tollmuir and Marcus House, are more accessible to anglers, easier to fish, and have greater holding capacity than ever before. I look forward to seeing these benefits reflected in their catches.
We heard on the 23rd of December 2009 that our son, David, had died after falling while trekking in Malaysia. We have decided to build a Treehouse in his honour. Scotland’s first fishing hut in a tree! This project is something he and I discussed before he left on his travels on 18/3/2009. We will also put a track from the Aqueduct up to the Red Brae and, using the spoil to make the track good at the same time as digging a pond, we will make a wildlife pond that doubtless will attract many frogs. David loved frogs and ducks, and I’m sure the pond will be home to both species!
TA
Tollmuir Pool in October