Grilse Arrival

Well - its still raining, and as I speak the River is holding a good height and is eminently fishable. To some it looks to be in full spate, but with the vagaries of the river system, whilst the top of the River ( White and Black Rivers) are thundering down about 4 ft above what they have been for some time, with Loch Arienas acting as a header tank ( did I tell you that the White & Black Rivers combined actually flow backwards into Arienas when in full spate ), the lower river where the best pools are to be found, reaches a level and more or less stays there.

Anyway, I braved firstly a foul upstream wind, then midges then rain and fished the River yesterday afternoon on the Top Beat, then on the Middle Beat in the evening. As stated, the River was at a perfect height, a tad coloured, but eminently fishable. I had the 13ft double hander rigged up ( with regret as in the wind the single hander would have been less cumbersome) and fished all day with a fly designed and tied by my mate Sandy Davidson from Aberdeen - the Sandy Special - a yellow/black fox fur creation with a silver body ( bit like a bloody butcher with yellow in ).

I wont bore you with poetic prose or wax lyrical about the esoteric qualities of casting and fly presentation though - suffice it to say that the fish are now indeed in the river in numbers, and I netted two lovely grilse, peas in a pod about 5/6 lb. Both were taken on the top Beat in Half Crown and Corner pools respectively. Also as is usual in fairly high water, both were taken in the margins as they were hugging the nearside bank.

A couple of hours in the evening on Middle beat produced a couple of nice sea trout, but sadly no salmon. I think the reason for this is that being only a mile from the sea, the fish had passed through this beat as it was low tide at the time. Nice sea trout though - here's the one I kept about 3lb

Moving backwards a bit - I took the kids/grand kids ( definitely a bad move for my sanity and my wallet !! ) and my son in law John to the Moy show on Friday. I was so looking forward to this as I had missed the Scone show whilst in hospital, and was a wee bit disappointed. There appeared to be fewer trade stands than normal, certainly fewer gun and fishing stands, and I therefore did not get the things I wanted ( new scope for stalking rifle and decent bipod for same ). Ran into some old friends though - Mr Bennet from Scottish field ( remember his mate with the 9lb sea trout ), Ken who used to be the local Policeman and who is now suffering from culture shock near Inverness where he is based, Peter Anderson who never seems to age and one or two old worthies that I come across either on the bank, up the hill or at the shows.

We had a reasonable time, Kids drained the wallet etc - I was though was sadly disappointed when I picked up a sea reel at one of the stands - The owner said worth £160 give it to you for £130 - no sale as I have seen this reel for sale in a reputable dealers for £65 !!! You get some bargains at the shows. Unfortunately you also get some rip off merchants.

Teresa is taking the kids away for a couple of days - now what shall I do with myself ? - no guesses necessary !