Salmonsense

RAIN, rain and more rain. It came at last this week after drought reduced the flow in many of our salmon rivers to a trickle, discouraging migratory fish coming in from the sea.

I noticed one beat on the Tay had nine salmon before the rains came and the levels started creeping up.

That’s not an unusual phenomenon.

Salmon have senses that we don’t have, and one of them gives them the ability to travel from their North Atlantic feeding grounds to the rivers where they were born a couple of years before.

Another one is the ability to detect air pressure.

I’ve seen this many times before. The rivers have been low. No fish have been coming into them for weeks, and suddenly shoals appear.

Their arrival coincides with a low pressure weather front moving in and the first real rain for weeks.

I very well recall on one occasion, the night before I was to go fishing, phoning up the ghillie, who advised me against visiting a droughtstricken beat .

But I told myself that I had paid for the day and really HE’S only 10 and but already James Milton has caught a rainbow trout the size of which grown-up anglers might never get near.

James, from Larbert, caught his monster from Loch Earn on a worm while fishing from a boat with his stepfather – and it was so big that it broke his net. His prize catch tipped the scales at 23lb. Congratulations, James, you will shortly be receiving details of your fantastic tackle prize courtesy of top UK tackle makers, Daiwa, our Fish of the Week sponsors. should go to at least give it a try. That’s what I did.

I headed for the low river in bright sunshine and, amazingly, caught nine beautiful silver salmon, each of them still bearing sea lice.

That night the heavens opened. And by Sunday evening the river was in full spate. The salmon knew it was coming.

For the second week running, though, weather conditions made things difficult for competitors fishing Heat 5 of the Scottish Club Championships at the Lake of Menteith.

Nevertheless, 90 fish were caught for 199lb 15oz, the biggest, an absolute belter, just under six pounds, caught by Billy Foster of Grizzlecats.

Top rod of the session by far was Neilston Fly Fisher’s Steven Leask who landed a fantastic bag of 14 fish weighing in at 28lb 6.2oz.

Steven’s catch helped his team to record the best club catch of the night, 20 fish for 42lb 0.5oz.

Rainbow Warriors A were second and Grizzlecats A third.

These three clubs now go through to the semis.

The top five anglers who will now fish the Champion of Champions final are: Steven Leask, Neilston FF, 14 fish for 28lb 6.2oz, Allan McLachlan, Stirling Castle, 7 fish for 14lb 2.7oz, John Kane, Rainbow Warriors, 7 fish for 13lb 9oz, Kenny Dickens, Grizzlecats, 6 fish for 12lb 11.8oz, and John Simpson, Rainbow Warriors, 6 fish for 12lb 7.7oz.