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
Yesterday the weather was fine at Finavon, but in the hills there must have been a downpour because at about 1900 the river rose by two and a half feet, and it was still rising as dusk fell. Salmon and grilse were splashing around all over the place, especially in Milton Beat’s Willows and Boat Pool. The water is rather peaty with blobs of foam from organic material washed out by the rain, but the water is surprisingly clean, despite what was obviously a pretty violent rain storm with resulting floating debris and leaves in the water.
Monday could be very interesting…
This photograph of a harbour seal in Willows on Milton Beat at Finavon was taken by Derek Strachan in October 2008. Willows Pool is about 12 miles from the high water mark at Dun. To get to Finavon this seal had to swim upstream and traverse two substantial dykes, one at Kinnaird and the other at Kintrockat. I am sure that seals do this regularly in their pusuit of the South Esk’s abundant autumn run of salmon, but this is the first time we have photographed one. I have mixed feelings about seeing this particular wild animal here. Part of me delights in seeing a wild sea mammal in our pools, while the fisherman in me reflects on the mayhem this predatory creature must have caused in the confines of this small river. On balance, with some reservations, I was pleased to see it. 2008 was a record year for catches of salmon at Finavon and, by all acounts, it was a good spawning year. I doubt this seal did irrevocable damage, but I wouldn’t want such visits repeated too often!
We had eight salmon and grilse and a sea trout during the day (3/9). The main feature of the day was the number of fish showing in all the main pools. You often hear the expression “the river was stuffed with fish”, usually in fishing hut banter at the end of the day. While I would baulk at that term, what can be said with a degree of certainty is that the South Esk has had a good year in terms of its spawning escapement (fish, mainly females, on their way to the gravels and cobbles of the upper river to make their redds and deposit their eggs). My friend Colin Gibb and I have observed this year’s runs of salmon and grilse in the South Esk in the context of our long experience of the River. We share over 80 years of experience of observing the river and agree that there have been good runs of salmon from March onwards., and that the spring run was possibly the best we have seen for many years.
Cock Sea Trout
The sea trout are a bit of an enigma because, as I have mentioned in earlier blogs, these fish had superb water to encourage them to run through the system into their spawning burns. My guess is that the bulk of the sea trout run was safely ensconced in these little tributaries by the third week in July. It is therefore not a year to lament the collapse of our sea trout stocks because they were mostly unavailable to the angler. The sea trout that have been caught (80 of them so far at FCW) have been in superb condition – veritable little suckling pigs some of them!