Salmon Fishing at Braelangwell Lodge, Scotland
Sea lice numbers are running out of control in much of the industry for extended periods and failures by individual farms to operate with lice numbers below Scottish Government’s trigger levels are routine…..
The sun setting on what has been a frustrating fishing season for many rivers
Finally, the rain came but with it brought dirty water for two nearly 2 days. The water temp also dropped to around 50f for the week.
Monday was blank with the dirty water.
We had 2 on Tuesday, 1 to Johnny Cooke-Hurle from the Morail and 1 to Jake Warman from Millers.
On Wednesday we caught 2, 1 to Jeremy Dixon from Contractors and another to Jake Warman fromFrenchmans.
Thursday as the best day with 11. Jack Cooke-Hurle was top rod with 5, best 11lb from the Morail. Jake Warman caught 2, best 16lb from Burnmouth, Thomas Arkwright, Johnny Legge, Jeremy Dixon and Digger Cooke-Hurle all had 1 each.
On Friday we had 4. Jack Cooke-Hurle, Jake Warman, Thomas Arkwright and Johnny Legge all had 1 each, the best caught by Thomas at 15lb from Shepherds.
On Saturday we caught 2, 1 to Digger Cooke-Hurle from Burnmouth and 1 to Thomas Arkwright from the Morail at around 8pm.
The height was between 1ft 7 and minus 3. Perfect for this time of year.
Despite a brief rise in water the fish didn’t come on the take. It looks like we need a good flood and some cold weather to get them back on.
Rex Wilkinson, from the Gardner party caught all 5 fish for the week with an 8Lb salmon from Millers and a 7lber from Rock and grilse from Margaret’s, Rock and Morail.
The Savage party were also plagued by low water but after 10 plus years off from fishing Caroline Savage caught a grilse in Gardners.
The first week of the family fortnight was blank but the river wasn’t fished much which was the best thing to do when the river is low. The last thing the salmon need is to be relentlessly harrassed in low water conditions.
The second week brought a small rise then went up to 3ft later in the week. 8 salmon and 4 sea trout were landed with several more were lost.Olly Ward was top rod with 3.
If we had the rain that the forecasters kept promising in July we could have caught more salmon, but unfortunately we only had a couple of spells here and there.
Colonel Learoyd’s party caught 4 salmon and 2 grilse for their week including 2 to the host and 2 to Alec Lyell.
The Wingfield-Digby party also caught 4 for their week. They did well considering the water was low all week.
What more could you ask for – a little more water might have helped a bit – otherwise pure bliss
The Mackintosh part caught 1 Salmon, 7 grilse and 9 sea trout for their week.
The water level started off at minus 1 on the monday morning dropping to minus 11 through to Fridy when it rose to 1ft6. By Saturday night it was back to minus 6.
Simon Marriott was the top rod with 4 of the grilse and 2 sea trout, Robert Wicks caught 2 grilse and 2 sea trout, The host, Ian Mackintosh had a grilse and Finlay caught the salmon.
Saturday afternoon/evening was pretty much a write off with gale force wind.
We had low water all week at Braelangwell so the Sykes party did quite well with their total of 2 salmon 2 grilse and 2 sea trout.
Jaimie Corke got the party off the mark with a 3lb grilse from the Upper Washerwonan on Wednesday. On Thursday Liliana Sykes caught a 8lb salmon from the neck of Shepherds, by this time it was minus 14 on the gauge. On Saturday Mark Butler caught a grilse at the tail of Keepers then after dinner on the back of a slight rise Jonathan Sykes caught a salmon that was estimated to be around 25lb from just under the Morail falls which took him to the backing and ran down to the main body of the Morail.
The sea trout were caught after dinner with a lot of activity on the Monday night then it went quiet but the party did see a lot of them jumping the Morail falls on the Wednesday afternoon.
The Learoyd party caught 4 salmon, 2 grilse and 2 sea trout for their week at Braelangwell.
At the start of the week the water was at 6″ tailed off to minus 9″ by Saturday.Mr David Adams caught 2, best 8lb from the Lower Craigs, Colonel Roger Learoyd caught 2, best 11.5lb from Upper Craigs and Alec Lyell also had 2, best 11.5lb from Keepers.
