Salmon Fishing at Braelangwell Lodge, Scotland
The Sykes party have had the best week of the season so far with 20 salmon/grilse and 7 sea trout in the book. Top rods were Jonathan Sykes and Jaimie Corke with 5 each, Jonathan caught the biggest at 15lb from Millers. There was only the one grilse on Saturday which was caught by Liliana from the neck of the Morail after dinner.
All the fish were returned.
Friday saw minus 5 dropping to minus 8 with a water temp doen to 51f. 4 salmon, 3 grilse and 2 sea trout were caught. Jonathan Sykes had a 15lber from Millers, Jaimie Corke had 2 grilse from the Washerwoman and 1 from the Morail on his 60th birthday too. Andy MacInnes had a salmon from Charlie’s and a grilse from Gardners run. He also lost a 20lb plus fish from Keepers run after an hours fight. Jim Arkell caught a 10lber from the Morail. We are now on 19 salmon/grilse for the week plus 6 sea trout.
Wednesday morning was dead on the top beat except for an 8lb fish from Frenchmans to Jaimmie Corke. The afternoon started slow but we ended up with 7 for the day. Liliana Sykes caught a sea-liced 14lber from the rock pool, Jonathan Sykes had a 10lber from Millers and a 3lb grilse fromnthe Morail, clare MacInnes caught 2 from the morail and Mark Butler had a 4lber from the Morail.
Jonathan Sykes also had a 15lber from Millers this morning before breakfast.
Jonathan Sykes got the ball rolling with a 12lber in the Morail at 11pm on Monday night not bad with minus 14″ on the gauge. The water came up to 2ft 9 on Tuesday morning, when it settled and cleared Andy MacInnes caught the first Grilse of the season in the Boat weighing 4lb. Jaimmie Corke, and Mark Butler both caught 10lbers in the Morail then after dinner Jonathan Sykes caught a 6lb salmon in the fishing for sea trout.
There must have been a big landslide upstream with the runoff from the thunderstorm last night. The river rose one and a half feet in no time but is back down to minus 11 now.
We had an average spring at Braelangwell. The weather was cold but not bitterly cold. Because of this the fish were not quick to come upstream from the bottom beats.We had a brief warm spell mid April and on the 14th Peter Crawfurd, who knows the river well, caught the first two salmon off the top beat, one in Keepers and one in Smooth. It was the 23rd of May before we caught another fish on the top beat, from Otter of all places !!
The biggest fish of the spring was 17lb, caught by Jon Dearing from the Shepherds. There was a distinct lack of multi sea winter fish this year. Maybe they are just late…..
Gerald Franklin caught the first fish of the season from the Washerwoman on the 15th of March. We ended up with three for March, 17 for April and 37 for May with an average weight of just under 9lb. Top rod for the spring was Jonty Goodchild with 8 to his rod. The best week was Jonty’s with 19 salmon in the book.
Every fish that was caught was successfully returned. Now that we try and return the salmon as quickly as possible, one thing Finlay gets asked when a salmon gets away without been in the net is “what counts as being caught” is it touching the nylon, touching the fish etc but the best one this year has to be, “does it count because he touched it with his face as he fell in on top of it whilst netting it”? !!!!! 
On Monday morning we had 3 inches on the gauge and four salmon were caught. Richard Buckley had a 9lber in Frenchmans. Jon Dearing caught three, one in Otter, where we never catch fish, one in Tree and a cracking 17lber in Shepherds. The river dropped all week but Jon Dearing picked off three more, one in the Rock on Tuesday, one in Pigeon rock on Thursday and one in the Rock on Saturday. The 17lber is the biggest salmon so far this year on Braelangwell.
The week started off with very low water but promised the rain came on Thursday. By late afternoon the river started rising and Lucy Bardwell caught a 13.5lb salmon in the Washerwoman.
On Friday morning the river had dropped back to minus 3. Before breakfast Fen Howieson caught 3 salmon in the Morail, 2 of them were on his first 2 casts !! It went quiet after that until Paddy Miller caught a salmon in Frenchmans.
On Saturday, the river was at 6 inches but rose on and off until late afternoon. 3 salmon were caught, Fen had 1 in Frenchmans, Nicky Griffiths and Paddy Miller both had one in the Morail. Nicky caught hers with about 9 inches on the gauge and Paddy at 1ft 9. There cannot be many rivers that consistently catch salmon on a rising river.
