Hello Campers
What can I say - health problems ( again ), Credit crunch, ( teach me to put all my savings in one basket !! ), poaching, and worse of all, a very, very poor season on the River Aline - all this have meant that I have not been at the keyboard for some considerable time. That said, its the start of the new season, and I am definitely back.
First - a review of last season - in a few words, the Spey was excellent and after talking to Willie the Ghillie recently, can only get better this year. The Aline - moderately crap I am afraid. The sum total of salmon landed was about 16, and if there were any sea trout of note landed, I did not hear about them. The lochs however were a different story - Arienas continues to produce some very , very big brownies ( biggest last year 12 lb ), and the hill lochs all fished very well throughout the season.
In Detail.
You will have read about the June week on the Spey which was one of my best ever. The week in July was not quite as spectacular, but good nevertheless. The party at various stages throughout the week consisted of myself, my son Cammy, Mr Williams from Welsh wales, my mate Sandy the inventor of the Sandy Special, James Turner who appears to be running the Bank of Scotland all on his own ( must find out how much of a bonus he got ! ), and for the first three days, Scott, Joe and Bob from Geordie land. 6 fish were landed in the week - not a great return, but then the temperatures were in the 80's and the river was very low. A couple of sea trout were also landed, and Bob and Joe got their first Spey salmon.
Cameron started his schooling in Spey casting, and here he is above with a nice wee grilse about 5lb that I took on a size 14 Tosh !! Oh - and the school - restricted to only 2 this year as I was somewhat immobile, but both left with a good level of expertise in Spey casting and salmon fly fishing.
As for the River Aline, what can I say - no rain from April through to August meant that none of the usual early big sea trout appeared - though the seals at the mouth were having a field day. A similar situation for the salmon - what ones there were before any rain just couldn't get up, and if it wasn't the seals, the low oxygen in the water killed quite a few off. The odd one was picked up here and there ( and sadly retained by some of the Estate guests ). Until October however the Fishmorvern total was Zilch !!
The last week in the season changed matters however as I got the chance to wet a line myself, and to our great pleasure, Cameron got his first salmon on the fly - nothing spectacular, but his smile said it all.
Yes, I know, not the cleanest of fish, but after the time it took him to land it it was all but a goner in any case - one for the smoker that we all enjoyed.
The lochs meanwhile provided most of my sport, and myself, Cameron and my mate Brian spent many an evening drifting down the south side of Arienas. Some flat calms put the fish off on occasion, but when the wind got up, the sport was excellent with either the Clan chief on the top, or the old favourite the silver invicta on the point taking the majority of the fish. We also had a couple of evenings on Doire na marst near the end of the season, and again, sport was great. My total for the season stood at about 35, all brownies, the biggest being about 7lb when I was out with another good friend Chris.
The end of the season saw us concentrating on the stalking - firstly a week by John the son in law and I with the chainsaws clearing the rides and finding clearings that we never knew existed, and then on to the Stags, followed by the hinds. A few guests got good beasts, but John and I got most of them. Total till the end of the hinds in Mid Feb was 5 stags and 13 hinds - funnily enough very few roes (4) , but I am sure they will be there somewhere. We also built a new larder, and have developed about 210 different ways of cooking and serving venison !!! Bad storms over the winter have brought down quite a few trees, so it will be out with the saws again soon, and then trying to find those elusive roes.
Now for this year :-
Only one rod left on the Spey - 1st week in June if anyone's interested.
I have decided not top take the lease on the River Aline this year for a variety of reasons - rods will still however be available through FISHMORVERN as I will book them as and when required.
I am still available as Ghillie or tutor and will still run fly fishing courses on the Aline and on the lochs.
I will be leasing rods on the lochs so service there as normal.
CAMRACH is being overhauled as we speak and will be back in the water for sea fishing by Easter
Stalking will hopefully be expanding this year, and I have put out feelers to get the shooting rights on more local land.
Oh, and something new - I have just acquired access to land south of Edinburgh, and with a nephew will be putting some pheasants down.
That's all for now folks, and whilst I must apologise for the long delay in updating matters, FISHMORVERN is still very much alive and we look forward to seeing friends old and new in the forthcoming year.
With my very best wishes to all
