Finlay McCulloch, Author at Braelangwell Lodge

22
Apr 24
0

Week of the 15th April

Tags : #flyfishing #flyonly Braelangwell Salmon Salmon fishing Scotland spring fishing

With 1ft 3 on the gauge, expectations were high on Monday morning and the Arkwright party were out on the river at the back of 6 in the morning. It was a good job because all 4 salmon were caught before 9 am. 4 more were lost with 2 of them just coming to the net.

Thomas Arkwright landed 2 with Jack Cooke-Hurle and Jake Warman landing one each. All 4 were from the Morail.

It’s a mystery why nothing else was caught because Gruinards opposite landed 4 and lost 3 during the day!!

Despite good water the next few days were quiet until Thomas Arkwright landed an 8lber from the Morail on Friday.

On Saturday Thomas landed our first salmon from above the Morail falls from the Field weighing 8lb. The water temperature was 44.5F

I understand Gruinards landed 9 salmon for the week, Dounie 5, Cornhill 4 and Gledfield 7. We don’t know what was caught on Invercarron.

25
Sep 23
0

Week of the 18th September

Tags : #atlanticsalmon #catchandrelease #flyfishing #flyonly Braelangwell Fishing Kyle of Sutherland Salmon fishing Scotland

The week started with 2ft on the gauge and a drop in water temperature to 53f dropping down to 48f on Saturday morning. The water was unsettled and rising on 4 of the 6 days but we managed 13 salmon and 5 grilse for the week. All the fish were taken on sink tips.

Stuart Walker caught the biggest at 36.5″ so, about 17lb and was top rod with 4. we also had 2 first fish. Archie Raffan caught an 8lber from Gruinards run on a Kyley and Roger Drayton caught an 8lber from Gardners.

18 salmon is a very good week but the party fished hard for that fishing before breakfast and till 7pm most days. It is a good indication that there are not as many fish in the system. The party have the record week for the beat which was 49 under similar conditions.

23
Aug 23
0

Update

Tags : #atlanticsalmon #flyfishing #rivercarronsutherland Braelangwell Kyle of Sutherland Salmon fishing Scotland

Sorry for the lack of updates.

We finally got some water in July which produced some good fishing.

The week of the 3rd of July produced 4 grilse and 2 salmon for the Cameron party. The water ran between 9 inches and minus 6.

The week of the 9th produced 17 to the Howieson party including 11 to Fen Howieson. The river was quite unsettled during the week running between 7ft and 0. A good number of sea trout made an appearance. Fen landed the biggest, at 3lb and sea liced from the Bank pool. We counted up at the end of the week and 15 fish were also lost for the week.

The Dawson party landed 15 in the week of the 16th with at least another 15 lost. The river was running between 3ft and 0.

The river dropped away the week of the 23rd resulting in just the one fish for the week. Harry Jenkins caught a sea sliced 4lber from Judges. The river was below 0 all week

The week of the 30th July also produced one. Angus Griffiths caught a 5lber in the Washerwoman.

The river rose a bit on the week of the 6th and the Arkwright party landed 2.

On the week of the 13th, with the river running between 1ft and minus 6 the Birts party had high hopes but we were disappointed to just land 4. Charlie Hughs did catch his first fish though, a fish roughly 6.5lb from the Boat pool.

16
Jul 23
0

Week of the 9th of July

Tags : #atlanticsalmon #flyfishing Braelangwell Kyle of Sutherland Salmon Salmon fishing Scotland

Well, we certainly got the rain we have been looking for. It was unsettled, to say the least with water heights between 3ft to 3 inches to 7.5ft during the week. 7 salmon 9 grilse and 5 sea trout were landed. 15 fish were also lost a good number of these were just before landing.

On the 11th Fen Howieson got us off the mark with a 10lb salmon from the Morail with 2ft 3 on the gauge.

The 12th was the best day with 8 in the book, 7 of them to Fen Howieson and 1 to Chris Plank. With 2ft 6 on the gauge, 3 came from the Morail and the others came from Frenchmans, Millers, Burnmouth, Kennel run and Boat. Fen lost 3 other fish from Kennel run and Gardners run.

On the 13th the river was running at 3 inches and 4 were landed, Bob Barclay caught a 6lber from the neck of the Washerwoman, Chris Plank caught a grilse from Lower Craigs and Fen Howieson had 2, one from Charlies and the other from Rock. He also had a sea trout of 3lb from Bank. Fen hooked a big fish in Bank which after cruising around for a while decided to go out the tail of the pool and down the Gruinards side of the island when it then threw the hook.

On the 14 with 0″ on the gauge, Harry McCombie landed 2, one from the neck of the Washerwoman on his 4th cast and one from the head of Contractors on his 2nd cast.

On the 15th Chris Plank caught a 2lb grilse from Millers with 5ft on the gauge. The day started with over 7ft on the gauge, it dropped to 3ft 6 but we had some huge thunderstorms resulting in a rising river late afternoon.

It was really good to see Bob Barclay and Harry McCombie after a gap of around 10 years. Harry at 81 walked the whole of the bottom beat every day.

12
Jul 23
0

Week if the 2nd of July

Tags : #atlanticsalmon #flyfishing #flyonly Braelangwell Fishing Kyle of Sutherland Salmon Salmon fishing Scotland

The Cameron party landed two salmon and four grilse for their week after we had some very much welcomed rain. We had the best and most consistent water since the second week of March. Unbelievably, it was the first week this season that we fished the top beat with decent water.

On the 3rd David Kleeman landed a grilse with long tail sea lice from the tail of the Morail. We went straight to Kennel run where he had another two grilse on briefly.

Two salmon and a grilse were landed on Wednesday. David Kleeman landed a fresh grilse in Kennel run, Graham Wilson caught a 10lber from Field and Lizzie Blair caught a 8lber from Upper Craigs.

On the 7th 2two grilse were landed David Kleeman landed his 3rd fish of the week from Kennel run. Another fresh 5lber and Iain Mackie caught a fresh 4lber from the Washerwoman at 10pm.

04
Jul 23
0

Week of the 25th of June

Tags : #atlanticsalmon #catchandrelease #flyfishing #flyonly Braelangwell Fishing Kyle of Sutherland Salmon Salmon fishing Scotland Sutherland

Yet again the rain missed us until Thursday, giving us a lift in water for Friday.

After the river settled we caught 2 from Lower Craigs. Georgia Browne caught a 10 lb salmon on a cascade variant then Rollo Grandy caught a 8lber shortly afterwards.

28
Jun 23
0

Week of the 18th June

Tags : #atlanticsalmon #flyfishing Braelangwell Kyle of Sutherland Salmon Salmon fishing

The Sykes party landed 7 and a sea trout after we had a brief rise in water. As usual, the forecast was wrong after predicting a lot more.

On Monday with minus 10″ on the gauge, Jonathan Sykes landed a grilse from the neck of the Morail after dinner.

The rise of water came on Tuesday night. Before breakfast with 6″ on the gauge, Simon Hearn caught a 10lber from Lower Craigs. Jaimie Corke landed a 13lber from the Morail along with a 1.5lb sea trout. Tom Richardson flew north for a days fishing in memory of his father Tubs and fittingly landed 2 salmon from Lower Craigs at 8 and 7lb.

On Thursday the water was back down to minus 6″ but Jimmy Royds landed a 7lb salmon from the Washerwoman before breakfast. Later in the morning, Jonathan Sykes landed an 11lb salmon from the neck of the Morail.

06
Jun 23
0

Spring round-up

Tags : #flyfishing #springfishing Fishing Kyle of Sutherland Salmon Salmon fishing Scotland

Our spring has been dominated by low water and fewer fish than usual. In the 10 weeks that the lodge has been let we have had 7 weeks with little or no water which has really skewed the returns. We thought there would be a good spring when on the week of the 26th March at least 17 salmon were landed below us. With the water being cold the fish didn’t seem keen to run and we ended the week blank. That was our only blank week which is amazing considering the low water. The water temperature rose quickly letting the fish run straight through us and the first salmon were seen at the Glencalvie falls on the 6th of April a full month earlier than most years.

We landed 23 salmon to the end of May well down on the 61 landed last year. The last fish of the spring was landed by Jonathan Sykes, a cracker at 18lb from the neck of the Morail on a Silver stoat micro conehead. On the 1st of June, Rob Sloss managed to tempt a salmon from the neck of Millers which was good going considering the water was off the bottom of the gauge

On the upside, the first three weeks of May saw fish running steadily through the beat. Bow waves of fish were seen moving through pools during the day and fish going over the Morail falls were really encouraging considering reports from elsewhere. This seemed to peak in the third week. We saw fish on the bottom beat in the morning, the top beat in the afternoon then sealiced fish were being caught at Glencalvie in the evening.

23
May 23
0

Week of the 14th of May

Tags : #catchandrelease #flyfishing #flyonly #springfishing #springsalmon Braelangwell Kyle of Sutherland Salmon Salmon fishing Scotland

Again the forecast was wrong, so we had very little water for the week except for a small rise midweek.

Despite the low water fish were seen running in various places. On the 17th Jonty Goodchild caught 2, 1 from the neck of the Washerwoman and 1 from the Rock. Both on a quarter-inch tungsten red Francis weighing 10 and 12lb.

On the 18th Peter Jones caught an 11lb salmon from the Washerwoman and Tim Cross caught an 8lber from the Rock. ” other fish were lost.

Gruinards caught 4 with a further 3 from Glencalvie. Most of the fish were fresh if not sea liced.

16
May 23
0

Week of the 8th May

Tags : #flyfishing #flyonly #springfishing #springsalmon Braelangwell Fishing Kyle of Sutherland Salmon fishing Scotland

Yet again we were forecast rain but yet again it didn’t materialise.

On the 8th with minus 11″ on the gauge, Rick Verbeeten landed a 7lb salmon from the Washerwoman on a 10 Red Ally.

The river came up on the 11th and was very dirty. At 5 am it was 9 inches dropping to -4″ by 7.30 pm. 5 salmon were caught, all from the Morail.

Dave Barnfield started the ball rolling with the first grilse of the season at 6.30am. Roger Brackpool caught an 11lb salmon just before lunch carrying long tail lice. Between 5.15pm and 7.15pm Dave Barnfield, Alan Lutman and Dave Bell caught 1 each. This was Dave Bells first salmon at 9lb. All were returned safely.

Throughout the week salmon were seen running with bow waves appearing in various pools along with them going over the Morail falls and the falls at the Steps pool on Amat which was encouraging.