Bright..
..Sunshine dominated the weather this week, and as such the fishing was on the slow side. The sea trout have arrived in both the North and South Esk and the fishing for these lovely fish will pick up over the next few weeks, even at the beginning of this week more have been caught so we will have to save that for next week’s report. Even though spring run salmon are tailing off just now a few are still making their way into our rivers. The summer run and grilse are still a month away at least and so are the long hazy days. As I said at the beginning the bright sunshine did slow the fishing down, still 7 salmon and a brace of sea trout have been caught. I know, not exactly setting the world alight with the numbers caught, but the salmon are holding in the deeper darker pools. If you are an early bird, you will see them holding in the tails of the pools in the early mornings and moving away into the pools as the days progress. Balmakewan had 3 salmon for their week, Andy Aikmen had a brace which is very good going! The rest of the North Esk beats at about one each. Stracathro regular Gary Chambers had the beats only salmon on a Willie Gunn tube. I am sure that we will be hearing more from Gary over the coming weeks as an avid fisher of sea trout, he will be out practising the dark art of night time fishing. The weights are steady 8lbs through to 11lbs and all very clean the odd one with sea lice. It seems that the fresher fish are the talking, and the residents are holding fast. The South Esk is picking away slowly, a few of the syndicate beats have caught one or two salmon and the odd sea trout. Finavon Castle Water and Inshewan had a very quiet week with nothing to report, though a few fish have been lost, apparently coming to the fly short. Not quite sure why this is?
The Week Ahead.
Looking at the forecast for the coming week the first half looks fine, the second not so good with yellow warnings of rain. So before the rain, floating lines and long leaders with small dark flies’ will be the order of the day on both the rivers. Once the rivers start to drop after the rain, a small slow to intermediate tip with a size 12 fly with a spot of colour. Stoats Tails, Cascade, Green Butt and let’s not forget a Collie Dog. A small point of interest, did you know that the Collie Dog is one of the oldest Scottish salmon flies? Anyway, I digress, I feel that it might well be a week of two halves and you will have to watch the rivers and fish accordingly.
Tight Lines.
North Esk
Kinnaber. 1 salmom 10lbs.
Gallery. 1 salmon 10lbs, 1 sea trout 2lbs.
Balmakewan. 3 salmon up to 11lbs.
Pert. 1 salmon up to 9lbs, 1 sea trout 3.5lbs
Stracathro. 1 salmon 8lbs
South Esk
No returns.
Total 7 salmon, 2 sea trout
Grand Total 9
If anyone has caught a salmon or Sea Trout within the North or South Esk and would like to share please get in touch.
Photographs (top to bottom)
Inshewan, South Esk.
Photographs 2,3. Andy Aikmen with his salmon from Balmakewan.
3rd Salmon from Balmakewan.
Lastly I should say thank you to the gillies and guests who send the photographs to me, with out them the report would not be complete and certainly not as colourful!!
