Finavon Castle Bulletin

These bulletin blogs represent news about Finavon and the South Esk, and my views as a riparian owner. They are not the views of any other organisation, nor are they designed to promote the interests of any individual or organisation other than Finavon Castle Water and factors affecting the fishery.  Tony Andrews

It is great to see sea trout in the river in better numbers than for some years. Cortachy, about 6 miles upstream of Finavon, has been catching lots of sea trout, and every one of them of course passed through Finavon’s pools. But high water has meant that the big shoals have moved upriver. At Inshewan (3 miles upriver) Colin Gibb tells me that there are also good numbers of fish, both salmon and sea trout.

We are now awaiting the arrival of the grilse, hoping that the nets don’t take too many of them before good numbers can get upriver. We are still catching the odd salmon and, with a mid July total of 33 salmon and 64 sea trout we are ready to welcome in the summer and autumn salmon and grilse.

We were told by the BBC that this was going to be a long hot summer. So far it has  been a cool rather damp one. If the water continues to flow at a good level into August and September we can expect to see good numbers of fish. Here’s hoping!

Deep Wading Upper Boat Pool

These bulletin blogs represent news about Finavon and the South Esk, and my views as a riparian owner. They are not the views of any other organisation, nor are they designed to promote the interests of any individual or organisation other than Finavon Castle Water and factors affecting the fishery.  Tony Andrews

Last week saw 10 salmon and 2 sea trout caught at Finavon. As is normal before the end of May, Milton Beat fished best, but fish were seen and caught on all four beats. The sea trout were in exceptionally good condition, and we had three salmon over 10lbs.

As I write this bulletin on the 24th of May, the river is running down after a long period of high water. Restrictions on killing sea trout and salmon end on the 31st of May, but we will be asking our rods to continue returning fish until the end of June. This is because of the widespread concern about spring salmon stocks and the continuing low numbers of sea trout.

Prospects for the coming week, beginning on 25th May are good, and it will be interesting to see if the sea trout continue to show in Finavon’s pools. If we get more water we should also see more late-running spring salmon.

Beeches Pool from the Aqueduct - Milton Beat