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2006 Season Report
Who could have predicted a season with salmon catches outnumbering trout? But a combination of conditions and guests produced exactly that, with an astonishing 285 salmon & grilse to our guests! So 2006 goes down as another good year, but again the early trout fishing was disappointing, spoilt by unsettled weather; and again July was dry, delaying our main grilse runs.
We didn’t need to wait until August for our first salmon though, as we experienced one of the best spring runs for many years on the Alness, with some excellent fish caught in May and June. Our April salmon fishing was also fairly successful with some superb springers caught on both the Conon and Carron.
The July heat wave reached the far north and spoiled both trout and salmon fishing, and there was a noticeable lack of trout fishermen for the rest of the season. Rain at the beginning of August produced the first big grilse run, and from then on the fishing improved. Of course there were some quiet periods, but there was frequent rain and a series of spates. Ambient water levels rose slowly and the fishing just got better and better. You can have too much of a good thing though and a succession of rising spates culminated in 2 huge spates in October, the second one resulting in serious damage to infrastructure and bringing the season to an early close.
It was a fantastic season for novices with 26 anglers catching their first salmon! – Regrettably too many to mention in the fishing reports that follow, so I’ve chosen to publish a ‘role of honour’. Two highlights stand out – a first salmon for Phoebe D, just 10 years old; and a salmon for Johnny Lillis on his first ever cast.
First Salmon 2006
Dave Gouldin
Duncan Watson
Phoebe D (10)
Thomas St. Lawrence(13)
Johnny Lillis (14)
Rupert Miles
Andrew Goodge
Mark Littman
Peter Nielsen
Sam Keith (12)
Terry Young
Tom Carver
Penny Gibson
Chris Brotherton
Christina Currie
Richard Ziebart
Graham Clarke
Garry Lockhart
Magnus Cattan
John Bournes
Chris Venus
Nick Jacobs
Phillip Sharnock
Matthew Eminson
Harry Duncombe
James Eminson
River Alness
The Alness fished well in the spring for brown trout, and we had a couple of personal bests including trout of 1½ lbs to Helen Arridge from Beat 2 and this fish of 2¼ lbs from Beat 1 to Stuart Forsyth.
The Alness is not renowned for its spring salmon fishing, but we saw encouraging signs of a good spring run this year despite very few salmon anglers visiting through most of May and June.
We had 4 spring salmon to our rods in May and 5 in June. The first fish of the season was an 8lb fish from Beat 6 to Fraser Smith from Nairn on May 20th, though a fish of about 10 lbs was lost at the net on the 18th.
Another 2 fish were lost on the 25th but Andrew Maisey from Bath caught his first springer a couple of days later on Beat 6, a superb heavily sea-liced fish of 9½lbs.
Richard Munro Ferguson landed 2 of 10lbs and 12lbs from Beat 6 on the 29th fishing the Novar rods and another brace on the 30th from Beat 5 of 10lbs and 8lbs while fishing SalmonQuest's rods.
The total for Novar in May and June was 12 fish, but as many were lost and we continued to catch the odd springer throughout the season including an 18lb fish in September, suggesting that this was one of the best spring runs of salmon on the Alness for many years.
Persistent light rain from the 20th to 22nd June resulted in a good rise in water levels and the first grilse of the season was caught on Beat 6 on the 24th. Spring tides around this time seemed to encourage a number of grilse into the river and Bernard Stebbing from Winchester fishing Beat 6 on the 30th witnessed a run of grilse, catching one of 4lbs from the Miller's Pool.
The Alness catchment along with most Highland rivers experienced no appreciable rainfall at all in July with the result that for most of the month the river was running at or below 'summer low'. A few grilse crept through the low water in the second half of the month and a couple of fish were hooked and lost, but no salmon landed.
Sea trout were not held back by the low water, and there were a number caught in night time forays including 3 to me from Beat 5 on the 11th. Stuart Forsyth from Aberdeen caught his first sea trout of 2¼ lbs also from Beat 5 on the 13th, and Mike Tyler had another on the 25th, also losing a grilse.
A spate on the 1st/2nd August brought the heat wave to an end, and another on the 20th ensured excellent water levels and fishing conditions for most of the month. Both spates produced good runs of grilse, and fresh fish were entering the river daily throughout the month. Our guests recorded 66 salmon & grilse for the month. Amongst the successful anglers were the Phillips party from Herefordshire with 15 fish for their week to 3 rods, and a number of individuals catching their very first salmon: Duncan Watson from Newcastle, Phoebe D (just 10 years old) from Surrey; and a fish on his first ever cast (!) for Johnny Lillis (14) from Shropshire.
September was another excellent month with our guests recording a total of 77 salmon & grilse. Water levels at the start of the month were only a few inches above summer low, but the fishing was still good with 22 fish caught by Gary Macdonald’s party of 4 rods who returned 18 of them. The Paradigm party had some success at last with Mark Littman from Bucks and Peter Neilsen from Norway catching their first salmon - both with 5lb grilse. Small spates on the 15th, 21st, 25th and 30th kept the river at a good height for the second half of the month allowing free movement of fish into the upper beats and nearly all visiting anglers caught fish. Amongst these were 3 fish for Jennifer Parker on the 14th, a first salmon for Sam Keith, aged 12 from Stirlingshire who went on to catch 2 more, and a 15lbs salmon for Steve Lingard from Yorkshire.
October started and ended with 2 huge spates on the 2nd and 26th and in between was a period of frequent heavy rainfall, producing a succession of smaller spates and high water conditions for most of the month. The spate of the 26th was the highest seen since at least 1989, resulting in widespread flooding locally. Although a few days were lost at the end of the season, particularly on the lower beats, fresh fish entered the river throughout the month and the fishing was generally excellent.
103 salmon & grilse were caught to our rods in October including 15 ‘first salmon’! Amongst the ‘first timers’, a number caught more than one fish: Terry Young from London (4), Chris Brotherton from Hampshire (3), Nick Jacobs from London (4), Philip Sharnock from Kent (2), Matthew Eminson from Suffolk (2) and also Magnus Cattan from London (2) and Garry Lockhart from Hampshire (4) both on my salmon fishing course.
John Currie’s party staying at Braemoray at the beginning of the month and fishing the Millcraig rods had their best week ever with 22 fish including a first salmon for Christina Currie. There were a number of double figure fish caught during October including fish of 11lbs to Michael Hodge from Essex, 10½lbs to Alastair Gibson from Bath and a personal best of 14lbs to Mike Allen from Tain caught on the 31st in continued high water conditions – a fitting end to the season.
Overall it has been a remarkable year. The total catch return for the Novar beats was 395 salmon & grilse. Included in this total is a fantastic 256 fish to our rods of which 67% were returned!
Loch Eye
As last year April and early May were spoiled by cold weather and strong northerly and north-easterly winds, and once again on more than one occasion we were left looking for somewhere else to fish. The cold weather generally kept the fish down and the best fishing was often in the evenings. A local had a brownie of 5¼ lbs one evening, but sadly not to our boat.
The fishing picked up mid-May though the weather remained changeable; the olive hatches were poor and the trout reluctant to come to the surface. Davy Brand caught 9 trout including 5 of 1½ to 2¼ lbs on the 16th, Andrew Maisey had this cracker of 2¾ lbs on the 25th, and I had 7 up to 1½ lbs on the 31st.
June saw some better hatches and catches, but the fish were still not keen to rise freely. I had 4 good trout up to 2½ lbs on the 5th, and Davy Brand had 7 including 1 of 3¼ lbs and 3 between 2 & 2½ lbs on the 14th. I had 5 more up to 2¼ lbs on the 19th and Carl Hales caught 5 fish all +/- 1½ lbs on the 20th. Davy Brand was back at it with 13 on the 28th, but the next day we were on the water again with Alan Drury’s WWW team and the fishing was dour producing only 4 fish to 2 boats.
Things picked up a little for the Millbridge Group in early July with 16 fish for their day up to 1¼ lbs in size. Graham Clarke missed a fish of 3lb+ just as we set out from the moorings, and lost another good fish of 2lb+ later, shortly after the immortal cry of ‘It’s a long way from there to the barbecue!’ echoed from the other boat.
We only returned to Loch Eye a couple of times after that as the heat wave took hold and interest switched to the river.
Loch Bad a’ Bhathaich
Loch Bad a’ Bhathaich was under fished in 2007. Jim & Caroline Henderson had an early outing in mid-May and caught 11 brownies in 2 days with 6 of them over the pound mark.
Mr Ennis from Inverness had 7 trout for his visit in early June, and the Millbridge team had 9 on their day in early July, but generally the fishing was dour on the days we fished there this season, and the loch was hardly fished from mid-July onwards.
Other
Stuart Forsyth and I made our annual trip to Caithness in early May and had some good fishing on Lochs Watten and Toftingall. We fared best on Watten in the evening to buzzer hatches with 12 fish, of which about half were over 1lb, but nothing of any great size.
On Toftingall, Stuart showed me up by catching 9 fish to my 4, mostly on nymphs. Again nothing huge, but some beautifully marked fish with several in the 1 to 1¼ lb range.
Amongst those successful in catching their first trout this year were: Penny Gibson from Bath, Douglas Grant from Brussels, Will Sharpe from Essex, David Cameron (no!) from Sussex and Alec Ross (a local!).
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