Archive for June, 2013

In the doldrums

Thursday, June 27th, 2013

These bulletin blogs represent news about Finavon and the South Esk, and my views as a riparian owner. While I may digress at times to write about other places, these 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

Despite our optimism, not much has happened since my last blog. There are one or two salmon in the pools – left-overs from the spring run. There are also little ‘packages’ of fresh sea trout dribbling upriver each night, but not very many and they are reluctant to take the fly.

William Wells and the Scottish Oak team are now well into their routine of maintaining paths and dealing with invasives in support of Tillhill Forestry, who are in the middle of their fourth year of intensive spraying of giant hogweed. The four FCW beats look great, in spite of the considerable flood damage done during the winter. We just need some fish!

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Willows at sea trout time. The angler in the photo is silhouetted against the sky and probably scaring the sea trout shoal in the pool. This pool fishes well after dark in these conditions.

The River itself is in good ply, if a bit on the low side. There are fish in the river, but not many. Rain is forecast for Friday and the tides are big. That combination should see a difference in fish populating Finavon’s pools, but you never know.

Simon Walter, our web designer, had a nice 8lbs fish from beeches on Monday and salmon and sea trout are lying in the shadow of the aqueduct.

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The pool in the photo is called ‘Harry’s Bar’ and is an exceptional pool for a salmon or sea trout in low water. The pool is only 25 yards long but, because of its position at the head of Melgund Pool, there are many fish that creep up from the deep water and lie in comfort in the streamy flow of Harry’s Bar.

If you haven’t already done so, you might like to visit Finavon Castle Water’s FACEBOOK pages for conversations and some trifling observations. I hope my next report will be more fishy!

TA

 

Grey ghosts at Finavon

Saturday, June 22nd, 2013

These bulletin blogs represent news about Finavon and the South Esk, and my views as a riparian owner. While I may digress at times to write about other places, these 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

As June draws to a close each year, and spring flows diminish to summer low river levels, I start to peer into the quiet pools on Milton Beat, such as Tyndals, Willows and the Boat Pool, looking for our first sea trout.

The photos below were all taken in the low summer water of late June and show some of the best sea trout pools at Finavon.

Martin Busk nets a sea trout in Tyndals: June 2009 Red Brae Wall Tail Flats Volcano low Copy of Flow into Craigo Willows in June

The photo immediately above shows our top sea trout pool, Willows, at a perfect height for night fishing. It is easy to understand how important it is to keep a low profile and make as little noise as possible to avoid disturbing the shoals of sea trout.

Yesterday, for the first time this year, I spotted a small shoal of sea trout at the head of the Boat Pool. These early fish are hard to see because they are fresh in from the sea, bright silver and very well camouflaged. But there they are in about 4′ of water, lying quite close together alongside one of the old lie boulders positioned by the old Colonel (Colonel Greenhill-Gardyne who died in 1953). These early outriders of the main sea trout run appear, as if by magic. Yesterday they arrived. The day before that the pool was empty. Like a roe buck at dusk appearing on the edge of a wood, these elusive fish return to fresh water from their coastal habitats, as if they have never been away. They are most welcome, both as our reassurance that life continues, despite the clumsy damage we inflict on river and coast, and of course as our quarry.

This is a ‘late year’, as everyone has been saying. As is so often in the natural world, the season is now catching up. We have had a period of tremendous growth over the last two weeks. The trees are all in full leaf. Early summer wildflowers are in their full glory. Seed pods are starting to show. Grasses are at the zenith of their annual growth. Swallows are on the wing eighteen hours each day, intercepting their insect feasts. Fledglings are stumbling into flight and, amidst all of this, the grey ghosts have arrived!

Next week we will start to catch sea trout. It will be interesting to see how strong the 2013 migration of these fish turns out. It is still early days, but the next two weeks will reveal all….

The late Peter Ward fishing the head of IndiesPool from the South side.

The late Peter Ward fishing the head of Indies Pool from the South side.

As I write this on Saturday morning, with the Lions about to engage with the Wallabies in Brisbane, a faint drizzle has stated to fall. A cool wind, overcast sky and sea trout arriving in Finavon’s pools. This is our Scottish summer. The biscuit landscapes of southern Europe, with their unrelenting sun and daytime temperatures of 28C can keep me going for a week, but late June in Angus, with its promise of natural events and harvests, reaches parts of me that no Italian mediaeval hilltop village can ever get close to!

More about fishing in my next blog.

TA

Are Ospreys telling us something?

Wednesday, June 12th, 2013

These bulletin blogs represent news about Finavon and the South Esk, and my views as a riparian owner. While I may digress at times to write about other places, these 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

The arrival of ospreys above the South Esk at Finavon may be announcing the arrival of our 2013 sea trout run. I say “may” only because I try to avoid putting a human slant on the behaviour of natural species. But it does seem that healthy ospreys, no doubt feeding their young somewhere nearby, will be looking for food and the arrival of sea trout averaging more than 2lbs seems just too good to miss.

Here they are:

crow mobbing osprey

A crow mobbing an osprey at Finavon.

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Osprey at Finavon above Indies Pool.

Two Ospreys

Lousy pictures but lovely birds. Two ospreys at Finavon.

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The most competent of sea trout fishers!

I hope that my next blog may announce our first sea trout of 2013. Malcolm Taylor had a brief contact with a fresh sea trout of about 3lbs earlier in the week, which is the closest anyone has yet got to catching one this season.

TA on 12/6