A Little Quiet
Things are a little quiet on the rivers just now as far as fishing goes, however those on the river say there are plenty of fish about. One event that did slow and stop fishing all together was the heavy rain on Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th which brought heavy siltation to both rivers, but more on that later.
Only 9 salmon and 4 sea trout were caught in the two weeks of fishing from the 1st of May. Gary Chambers had a lovely salmon from the Upper Junction at Stracathro N.E, and Scott Morris had a salmon from Canterland N.E caught on a Red Francis. Last week no salmon were reported caught at all. Three Sea Trout were caught; one at Kinnaber N.E on a Collie Dog and two at Finavon Castle Water S.E. The South Esk did slightly better than the North Esk, taking into consideration it was unfishable for two days because of slit and rain. I know that Inshewan did not fish the week of the 8th of May at all. It is promising that the sea trout are starting to show, which is great news for those that love pursuing them, and that the smolt run seems to have been very good this year. A great effort has been put into smolt shepherding with ghilles keeping the saw bills on the move with gas guns up a down the rivers. Well done to all those involved and keep up the good work, our salmon and sea trout need all the help they can get. On to the 10th and 11th of last week. Monsoon like cloud bursts within areas of the catchment caused a huge amount of run off from agriculture and forestry on both the North and South Esk, though anywhere above the Luther Water on the North Esk seemed to fare better. The Luther on late Wednesday afternoon was running thick with silt, so fishing below was a write–off for the next day. Adult salmon and sea trout can cope with high amounts of silt for a short time, but parr and invertebrates unfortunately do not, with reports of dead parr and invertebrates being found in the margins. Sadly, SEPA’s rules are not strong enough to prevent this happening again. The same happened on the South Esk on Thursday 11th May with a 6-inch mud slide going down the road at Cortachy then straight into the South Esk. This sort of behaviour cannot go on and the Scottish Government and SEPA need to pull their proverbial fingers out!! Thankfully, the fungus Saprolegnia does not appear to be affecting salmon and sea trout badly this year, certainly compared with previous years. Let’s hope this continues!
Note: If any of the angling clubs or anyone else has anything to report on the North or South Esk, please get in touch via email with your catches and stories. The more we can showcase the catches on our rivers, the better.
Thank you.
Week Ahead
Right now, we have got that out of the way onto fishing. The weather has at last warmed up. This means many things in fishing, or it is supposed to. Salmon should be keener to take the fly, sea trout are starting to come into the river and for those trout fisherman the Hawthorns are in full swing. I like to fish mobile flies and fish quickly. As I am sure you have gathered, I am a big fan of the Collie Dog, different from a Sunray as it is tied to an aluminium tube so therefore it sits a little deeper. Fish them fast with a downstream mend, cast square across and strip them back, equally good for salmon and sea trout. If the salmon fishing is slow make sure you take a trout rod with you as well. Keep an eye open for a hatch around mid-day, large olives and Iron Blues. Also, Hawthorns which are the worst fliers and end up on the surface making an easy meal for trout.
A good read on ” Fish Handling: Good Practice Tips” Click on the Link below.
https://blog.fishpal.com/2023/03/15/good-practice-tips-fish-handling/
Tight Lines.
North Esk.
Kinnaber. 1 Salmon 8lbs, 1 Sea Trout 4lbs
Canterland. 1 Salmon 8lbs
Stracathro. 1 Salmon 8 lbs
Total 3 Salmon, 1 Sea Trout
South Esk
Kinnaird Middle. 1 Sea Trout 3lbs
Finavon Castle Water. 3 Salmon largest 9lbs, 2 Sea Trout largest 3lbs
Inshewan. 2 Salmon largest 10lbs
Cortachy. 1 Salmon 7lbs
Total 6 Salmon, 3 Sea Trout
Grand Total. Salmon 9 Sea Trout 4
Photographs (top to bottom)
Gary Chambers at Stracathro N.E.
Scott Morris at Canterland N.E.
3&4 A lovely Sea Trout from Kinnaber on a Collie Dog.
The Luther coming into the North Esk at Balmakewan, you can see how dirty the Luther is.
South Esk at Cortachy for the bridge.
Cleaning up the mud slide at Cortachy just before the bridge.
Lastly I should say thank you to the ghillies and guests who send the photographs to me, with out them the report would not be complete and certainly not as colourful!!
