April
April consisted of Easterly wind, snow and unseasonably warm weather in random order.
The Alston party caught 1 salmon for their week, a 7lber at 20.10pm on the Saturday night with a Collie on the surface in a bitterly east wind. Oscar Hedgecoe was standing on the gauge rock at the neck of the Morail when the fish took.
Colin Campbell’s party caught 2 for their week.
On the 12th Mary Nicholson caught 1 in the Morail on the back of a rise in water. In the afternoon there were fish showing all over the Morail and down into Kennel run before they disappeared over the falls. On the 13th Colin Campbell caught an 11lber in Gardners with 3 inches on the gauge.
The Arkwright party caught 1 for their week. Thomas Arkwright caught the 7lber from the Rock on the Monday afternoon. The weather warmed up and by Thursday the water temperature reached 57f !!
Last week the Gilmore party caught 4, 3 of them on Friday off a rise in water to 6 inches on our gauge. Alasdair Mackie caught 1 from the Morail at 8lb, Andrew Elder caught 1 in Gardners at 7lb and Bill Gilmore caught his from the Morail at 7lb.
On Saturday Alasdair Mackie caught 1 in Gardners weighing 7lb.
March started off well on the Carron with around 30 salmon off the river which was as good as anywhere in Scotland but with the water temperature being high for the spring the fish did not stop more than a day or two below the Morail falls. The fish could have gone over the Morail falls on the 21st of March and were then in the Glencalvie falls on the 5th of April. Most years that could be a month early.
