2004 Season Report
The 2004 season really was a season of two halves. We experienced tremendous trout fishing in the early part of season from April through June, but then as we turned to the salmon fishing continued good weather produced low water conditions on the river. The rains finally came in mid-August though and from then on every time the water levels started to drop after one spate, the rains would come and the river would rise again producing good salmon fishing conditions.
The season started for us properly in April, with some great trout fishing to early hatches of buzzers and olives on the lochs. In May and June we went on excursions to Caithness to fish Loch Watten, and Assynt to fish the Mayfly hatch. In between we fished local lochs and the River Alness for trout with great results. Our ‘Learn to Fly Fish’ weekend courses in June and July were successful with most students catching their first trout. The ladies were particularly successful, and this turned out to be a trend throughout the season, whether fishing for trout or salmon.
From early July our attention switched to the River Alness and salmon and grilse. Our July guests generally had a hard time of it for salmon, but when they switched to brown and sea trout, they enjoyed much more success. Once the rains came in August though it was a different story and the trout fishing was largely ignored which was a pity as the trout fishing can be good throughout the summer months. We had a number of guests visit us for ‘Learn to Salmon Fish’ short breaks or for one of our formal courses which we ran in September and October. Our guests on a 3 day or longer ‘Learn to Salmon Fish’ course or break enjoyed a success rate of 73% in terms of catching their first salmon. Given the stories we’ve all heard of people returning to Scotland year after year to catch their first salmon, this was a remarkable success rate!
The highlight of the season for me though has to be my son Richard’s first salmon, a 10lb cock fish caught during the broodstock fishing just 4 days before he became a teenager.
River Alness
Although a number of grilse entered the river in early July, conditions were poor. Rowland and Nigel Robinson turned to sea trout fishing with some success, and in all we had 7 sea trout during the month, the largest 2½lbs, though Rob Mason lost something much bigger in the middle of one night! Some good olive hatches provided some additional relief producing good trout fishing on the lower beats, Richard Crossland catching 5 over 1lb in a few hours on Upper Beat 4.
In August the rains did come though, producing 23 salmon and grilse to our rods. The Phillips party from Herefordshire had 9 fish for the week: David Wells had 5 including one of 10 lbs, Roger Phillips 3 and Patrick Ramage a grilse and a sea trout. Novice Barry Toovey from Argyll visiting on a ‘Learn to Fly Fish’ break the same week, managed to notch up his first trout and first salmon in the same day!
Water levels dropped in the first week of September and we were given unseasonal weather with cloudless skies and temperatures up to 27 deg C. Despite this Rodney and Jennifer Parker both landed grilse during their stay.
The next week saw the arrival of the Callander party who enjoyed some great sport in some very high water. David Makgill-Crichton had 4 fish including 2 of around 10 lbs, and Lady Keith had 2. Several other fish got away that week.
Brian Kentish, Tom Webb, Peter Ford and Roger Luckin were the next anglers to arrive. Brian had 8 fish in 4 days including 2 fish touching 10 lbs. Tom had 6 fish including 5 grilse off of Beat 2 in the one day. Peter and Roger both had 2 fish each bringing the total for September to 33 fish for our rods.
October kicked off with another salmon course, and the river a raging torrent. Mike Allen from Tain had his first ever salmon of 5½lbs from the Otter, and Alasdare Lambert from Middlesex caught his first 2 from Lower Beat 3. Alasdare’s first fish is a story worth mentioning. Abandoned temporarily by his instructor and guide(!), he hooked an 8½ lb cock fish in Dalreoch Falls. Unable to control the fish in the high water he had to follow it out of the pool and downstream, eventually beaching it unaided in Shingle Bend – quite an achievement! Unfortunately Ed Lammer from California hooked up twice, but was unable to land either fish, the second uncontrollable in the high water exiting the Ace pool into the rapids below.
The same week saw John Currie’s party staying at Braemoray but fishing the Millcraig rods. They had 10 fish for the week including 5 for Michael Hodge and 4 for John. The last week of the season was harder as water levels fell. Despite this, we had one last success for a first time salmon fisher with a 5½ lb grilse for Lee Rand visiting from Middlesex .
The brood stock fishing was delayed until November as we can no longer use ‘malachite green’ essential for keeping salmon in good condition in captivity over long periods of time. In total 54 hens and 18 cock fish were caught (this ratio works for fish at least). The stripping program produced around 190,000 fry for planting in the spring. This is roughly double the number of previous years, as the hatchery has been upgraded and now has a higher capacity. With the exceptional natural stocks this year you may want to make early bookings for 2008!
The total catch returns for the Novar beats was 315 salmon and grilse. I believe this is the highest catch since 1988.
TroutQuest’s own rods recorded a fantastic 77 salmon and grilse for the season and a further 10 fell to our guests at Braemoray fishing other rods. During the brood stock fishing in November, we landed 21 more salmon though these are not included in either the Estate’s or our returns.
Loch Eye
Stuart Forsyth from Aberdeen and I fished Loch Eye in mid May in a big wave (2 drogues) and had 16 brown trout averaging over 1lb with 2 fish over 2lbs. Later in the month Donald Beaton and I had 33 trout in 2 days averaging well over the 1lb mark.
Other lucky anglers to catch fish over 2 lbs included Luke Scott Paul from Yorkshire (2½ lbs - his personal best), and Mike Wellington from London. Also of note, Philip Sharnock caught 11 trout to 1½ lbs mainly on damsel nymphs during his visit in early July.
Once the salmon fishing got going in earnest it was hard to take time out to visit Loch Eye, but we did make one visit in mid-August which produced 11 fish averaging around the pound mark to pennels and buzzers.
As last year we saw one or two larger fish of ~ 4lbs jump during the course of the season, but our best this year was 2¾ lbs – still there’s next year!
Loch Bad a’ Bhathaich
Loch Bad a’ Bhathaich fished well all season except when there was a flat calm, though I think I now have a strategy for catching fish under these conditions – we’ll see next season.
There was one other situation though that occurred in May when the fishing was impossible. We arrived to see a good rise on the water and we hastily set up our rods. When we got to the water, we saw a few heather beetles in the boat and noticed some more on the water. By the time we were out in the middle of the loch ready to start our first drift, it became apparent that there were beetles everywhere, and that the fish had stopped rising, satiated. When we counted the number of beetles per sq. m. and did the maths, we came up with an estimate of 18 million on the loch! We blanked.
The quality of the water and of the trout on Bad a’ Bhathaich is outstanding, and most anglers that gave it a try were not disappointed with their day’s fishing.
Colin Cameron from Glasgow and Duncan Taylor from Elgin fished Bad a’Bhathaich for one day in June and another in September catching a total of 15 fish to 1½ lbs. Douglas and Roddy Wynn from Edinburgh had 13 fish for their day in July, and hats off to Stewart and Jock Perrie from Glasgow who after just one day of tuition went out on the loch on their own and caught 3 fish.
The best brown trout of the season from Bad a’ Bhathaich was caught by Scott Macfarlane from Hampshire in June, with a fish of 2lbs 1oz.
Other
Kris Kent and Mike Allen both from Tain were my guests for an excursion to Assynt in June. We fished Lochs Urigill, Veyatie and Cam over 3 days of wild weather. No fish of any great size were caught, but the mayfly hatches which were light but prolonged, produced great sport in spectacular scenery. 43 fish over ½ lb in weight were brought to the boat (plus many smaller), and 1 arctic char. Nearly all were caught on Grey Wulffs and Mayfly Nymphs.
Early on in the season, we fished Loch Meig in Strathconon a number of times. The buzzer fishing from both boat and bank was excellent producing a number of fish over the pound, and a best fish of 2 lbs to Luke Scott Paul.
This year we used a combination of the Novar Lochan and Stoneyfield Lochs Trout Fishery to teach and to deliver our ‘Learn to Fly Fish’ weekend breaks. The lochan continued to provide good nymph and buzzer fishing and is an excellent environment to teach fly fishing. Stoneyfield provided a change of scenery, a chance to try other tactics, and the opportunity of larger fish, though nearly everything we caught was regulation ‘stockie’ size.
Amongst those successful in catching their first trout at one of these locations were: Sheena Clark, Antony Gardner, Karen Hobbs, and Mike Allen all from Ross-shire, Will and Thomas Rees and Max Phillips from Berkshire, Siân Evans from Llanelli, Kate Harris from Elgin (who showed up all the locals by catching 3 trout at Stoneyfield on a yellow humpy!), Stewart Perrie from Glasgow, Barry & Martin Chaston from Sussex, Anthony Timlin from Yorkshire, Bernie and Nick Christie from Sunderland, Barry Toovey from Argyll and Nick Crossland from Lancashire.
All in all it was an excellent trout fishing season constrained only by the switch of effort to salmon fishing.
