2005 Season Report
Overall, 2005 was another good season for our guests, though the early trout season was disappointing compared to recent years, spoilt by unsettled weather. Late spring saw an improvement in both the weather and trout catches and from mid-June to mid-August we experienced warm, settled weather with little or no rain which although welcomed by many, produced low water conditions on the river, delaying our main grilse runs - a trend experienced throughout the Highlands.
From mid-August rain became more regular and background river levels increased with more frequent spates. Salmon & grilse catches improved as the season progressed, and catches were spectacular in late September and early October.
Early April is usually the start of our wild game fishing here, and we anticipated some great trout fishing to early hatches of buzzers and olives on the lochs as we had experienced in recent years. Strong north and north-east winds prevailed however, and on several occasions we were blown off the lochs.
In May & June we made three excursions to Caithness and another to the limestone lochs of Durness. In between we fished the river and local lochs for brown trout with Loch Bad a’ Bhathaich and Loch Eye generally producing the best fishing.
As in past years, from early July our focus switched to the River Alness and salmon fishing, and the trout fishing was largely ignored which is a pity, as the lochs can fish well throughout the season.
So overall it was a good season on the Alness for experienced salmon fishermen and novices alike. Guests on our ‘Learn to Salmon Fish’ courses or custom breaks were again largely successful with 12 anglers catching their first salmon.
River Alness
The upper beats of the Alness fished well for trout in May and June, the best bags being 12 brownies to 1lb for Andrew Scott Paul and Simon Dixon on May 30th and 9 to 1¼ lbs for Luke Scott Paul a few days later predominantly on downstream wets.
The first sea trout of the season went to Mile Allen of Tain on the 4th June, a fish of 2½ lbs from Beat 6, but there was very little night-time sea trout fishing done in the prime part of the season which unfortunately was another missed opportunity.
No rain at all in the latter part of June and early July meant low water deterring the grilse from entering the river. Released water produced a good run of grilse through Beat 6 on July 14th though. Jamie Stenhouse (13) from Ayrshire caught 2 grilse, both 5½ lbs in weight, and satisfied with his success, he allowed his 11-year old sister Sophie a few casts, who within minutes had hooked and landed her first grilse of 4 lbs! Another release at the end of the month produced 3 more grilse to our rods also from Beat 6.
Despite low water conditions for most of August, grilse continued to enter the river. There was a large build-up of fish below the town of Alness which were reluctant to move upstream. Small numbers of grilse steadily crept through the lower beats, and Hannu Nasi from Finland had his first grilse from Raven’s Rock on Beat 5 on the 2nd, and 4 grilse were caught to our rods on Beat 6 on the 4th. During the
Run-off from the Blackwater tributary produced a welcome and productive spate on the 1st of the month. Malcolm Watson from Newcastle caught his first ever grilse of 6¼ lbs, and Peter Waghorn from Kent caught his first 3 grilse to 7½ lbs all from Beat 6. Commiserations to Malcolm’s son Duncan, who lost 2 fish; either of which would have been his first. After the initial rise and drop off, loch reserves provided levels of 2 to 3 inches above summer low for the following fortnight.
A second significant spate on the 14th and regular showers throughout the latter half of the month kept water levels at 6 to 8 inches above summer low and steady fishing conditions. During the 3rd week of the month, David Makgill-Crichton from Stirling caught 5 salmon to 9½ lbs,and Mrs Elizabeth Blest from Dorset had 2 fish including one of 8 lbs from the Ferry Pool on Beat 1. Steve Lingard from Yorkshire had 5 fish the following week (all returned) including a 14 lbs hen fish from the Miller’s Pool on the 29th. The same week saw Alastair MacIntosh from Edinburgh catch 4, Peter Ford from Suffolk 3 and Ken Smyth from Cornwall 2. In all, our guests caught 35 salmon and grilse for the month.
Frequent showers at theend of September and heavy rain in early October produced some spectacular fishing conditions for the last 2 weeks of the season with 54 salmon & grilse falling to TroutQuest’s rods across all beats. During the first week, Peter Hukins and Nick Fitzgerald from Kent had 6 and 4 fish for their week
The same week saw John Currie’s party staying at Braemoray fishing the Millcraig rods. They had 10 fish for the week including 4 for Michael Hodge and 3 for Alan Wreathall.
Heavy rain on the 10th set things up nicely for the final week. A dropping spate on the 11th produced ideal conditions and a run of fish through the lower beats. Phillip Martin caught a pristine sea-liced grilse of 5½ lbs and Tim Martin a good salmon of 10 lbs, while I had 6 fish for the day all from Beat 5. Overnight rain raised water levels further to a point that only a few pools were fishable, but Julian Dale fishing for the very first time caught 2 grilse the next day from the same beat. Good fishing continued through to the 15th as water levels dropped, with fish spread evenly amongst local anglers.
Total catch returns for the Novar beats of the River Alness was 263 salmon and grilse - another excellent year despite the late grilse runs.TroutQuest’s own rods recorded a fantastic 111 salmon and grilse for the season and a further 14 fell to our guests fishing other rods on the Alness or other local rivers.
During the brood stock fishing in November, we caught 26 more salmon though these are not included in any returns. The highlight was a first salmon for Dorothy Maxwell from Inverness who’s previous fly fishing experience had been only a couple of trout fishing lessons on the lochan! In all, 63 hen and 26 cock fish were caught, which should produce around 217,000 fry for planting in the spring.
Loch Eye
Al lour early season attempts to fish Loch Eye were thwarted by cold weather and strong northerly and north-easterly winds which either made for very difficult fishing conditions or blew us off the loch completely! The cold weather kept the fish down, and locals pronounced it the worst start to the season in memory.
May was a little better, but the weather remained unsettled for the first half of the month with regular gales and sleet and hail squalls! The usual
The fishing continued to be tough in June though there were a few better catches. Mike James and Ian Calvert had 16 to 1¼ lbs on the 4th. I had 6 of a similar size on the 8th, and the following day Roger Tanner from Argyll caught his first wild brownie on the loch.
The WWW team (don’t ask what it stands for!) who had historically fished with fellow guide Bob Brighton (now moved to New Zealand lucky chap) visited in late June and had a difficult day, though we finally found some fish feeding on fry in the shallows late on. Phil Worsley from Bradford had a trout of 2 lbs, bettered 15 minutes later by Ken Sedgecock from Chelmsford who caught a fish of 2lbs 10oz.
Loch Bad a’ Bhathaich
Loch Bad a’ Bhathaich fished well all season, and the average quality of the fish was even better than previous years though we didn’t land any monsters. I did manage to snatch a dabbler out of the mouth of a fish of about 3 lbs though, so they are there!
The WWW team had 11 fish at the end of June up to 1½ lbs, and Bad a’ B was also the location for their best fish presentation won by Ken Cocksedge for his Loch Eye brownie.
Neil Cargill and Allan McLeod from Arbroath (thanks for the smokies!) had a good day at the end of the month with 9 fish to 1lbs 6oz.
Steve Mitchell from Perthshire and his fishing partner braved the evening midges, fishing 2 evenings in early July catching 29 brownies to 1¼ lbs on CDC buzzers and emergers.
Later in the month Bob Serafin from Colorado and Jim Miller from Chicago tried their hand at fishing for Scottish brownies and caught 4 between 1lb and 1½ lbs. We had a few other visits to Bad a’ B later in the season, but the catches weren’t spectacular.
Other
Doug Gardner had 14 brown trout to 1½ lbs from the banks of Loch Shin in 2 visits in late April, and during the same visit picked up some good quality rainbow trout to 4½ lbs from Rothiemurcus Fishery. In a return visit in September he had rainbows to 5lbs from Rothiemurcus and one from Stoneyfield Lochs of 6 lbs.
It was the same story a week later when I returned with Tony Wheatcroft and Mike Allen. Blown off Loch Watten we resorted to bank fishing on the Loch of Yarrows where we picked up 14 trout up to 1lb on nymphs.
The following week Steyn Botha and I went to Durness to fish the limestone lochs. More challenging fishing, but the highlight was a 3 pounder from Loch Borralie for Steyn. Exactly how it was caught will remain our secret!
