Upper Blackhall

John Malleson and his family and friends were fishing with us this week. Due to a rise in water on Tuesday they got into some fish on the following couple of days.

Edward Malleson was top gun with a salmon and a grilse. Mike Eliot did well to get a seatrout and a grilse, while 13 year old George Malleson did very well to catch his first ever salmon. A lovely 10lb fish from the Upper Ferroch.

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Congratulations George. 

It was day rods this week and because of the low water and very high air and water temperatures we were lightly fished and by midweek we decided to stop fishing until things cool down.

There are prospects of a rise in the water this coming week as there are thunder showers forecasted.

It was Annabelle and Ed Willis who hosted this weeks party and it was a family affair and it was Mike Willis who did the business catching a grilse in the upper ferroch and the next day getting another nice fresh one in the corner pool.The conditions were low water and warm days so the family made the most of the surrounding area with hill walks, barbecue and swimming and enjoying the countryside.

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It was Caroline Wells who hosted this weeks party and it was a family affair with all the children, her sister, mother, sister in law and step aunt all included and they all had a great time down by the river. Frances Sutton was the only one to land a fish a lovely fresh 3lb seatrout from the corner pool on Wednesday afternoon 🎣

On Saturday evening Ally Ker came for a cast and caught a very fresh grilse and lost another from the corner pool 🎣

It was day rods this week and due to the very high air and water temperatures along with very low water heights we were lightly fished. On Wednesday Jim Lomax came and fished and caught a nice grilse in the upper ferroch at 6 o'clock in the morning on a size 14 crathie 👏🎣

There has been quite a bit of overnight rain and the river is rising at the top so hopefully this will bring on the grilse run.

It was Anthony and Emma Bird who hosted this weeks party along with their family and friends. It was very hard going with air temperatures in the high seventies, water temperatures in the high sixties and two inches on the gauge.

They did manage to get a couple of fish on but none were landed and looking at the forecast, it looks like it could be hot again this coming week.

Photo: looking upstream in the lower Ferroch with low water!

It was Richard and Anne Agnew who hosted this weeks party and along with their friends they had an enjoyable week. Although they fished hard and had quite a few takes, pulls and fish on and off nothing was landed.

It was a week of low water and very warm sunny days and it looks like it could continue like that for most of next week.

It was day rods this week and first to catch anything was John Bannerman who had 2 seatrout midweek 🎣🎣

On Friday Alan Hutcheon came and caught a nice 10 lb fish in the corner pool and his daughter Jane had a good seatrout in the same pool in the evening 🎣🎣

On Saturday Murray Smith came with his dad, and it was his dad Jim who caught his first ever salmon a few minutes after starting in the ferroch, a lovely 5lb sea liced grilse netted by son Murray. 👏👊🎣

A few minutes later Murray went up to the corner pool and caught a lovely 14 lb salmon 🎣 and Jim had his second salmon ever a nice 8lber from the  same pool 🎣 Murray also had a couple of sea trout, so a great day for father and son and also a good week for us 👊👌

It was Simon and Deborah Mitchell who hosted this weeks party and it got off to a good start on Monday morning when Mr Iain Mitchell caught a lovely fresh grilse in the corner pool whithin a few minutes of starting 🎣

On Friday night through Saturday we had the #fishdee24 hour fishathon and well done to all the participants who caught a grilse and four sea trout🎣👏 between them on our beat and thank you to Alan Hutcheon who ghillied for them overnight.

Photo: a large shoal of fry in our Corner pool

Gary Price and his friends were fishing with us this week and although the conditions were against us with low water and very warm sunny days they did well to catch an 11lb salmon and three sea trout between them.

It doesn’t look like there is much rain in the immediate future so I think conditions will be much the same this coming week.

It was John and Issi Bannerman with there friends, Graham and Jan Robertson who were fishing this week. Although they lost a couple of good salmon they managed to land six very good sea trout most of them around the four pound mark 🎣🎣🎣🎣🎣🎣

The conditions were quite hard with low water and bright sunshine most days but they put in the hours fishing well into the night 👏

This party have been coming to us for around twenty years now and it is always a pleasure to have them with good fun and great laughs.

It was Andrew and Sarah Kennedy who hosted this weeks party and it got off to a good start when Tom Blenkin caught a lovely fresh grilse in the tail of Sandys on Monday morning 🎣👏

Apart from a lost fish in the Upper Ferroch, nothing else was caught. The week finished with cloudless blue skies and with the cuckoo calling and the wild cranesbill in profusion on the banks of the Grey Mare. And the lupins looking lovely at the Ferrochs the riverside has never looked better.

It was day rods this week and apart from a pull or two nothing was recorded. Although we did see a few fish, it has been a very poor spring. On a positive note however, we have seen a slightly better smolt count moving downstream than we have in the previous few years so let’s hope they will return in good numbers as grilse next year and salmon in a couple of sea winters 🤞

Photo: Lupins in the Upper Ferroch 🌱

t was Paul Cabrol and his friends Carl and Kevin who were fishing this week. They have been coming to us for a good few years now and fished hard and well, but apart from Kevin hooking a couple of good fish in the Corner pool, nothing was recorded.

Although it was a disappointing week for them they hope to be back next year and for me it was a week of good company and good laughs, there’s more to fishing than catching fish.

Photo: Sandpipers nest at the Green Spout

It was Bob Milne and his family who were with us this week and while the rest of the family explored the area Bob fished the beat.

Very few fish were seen but on Thursday Bob caught a lovely fresh 3lb seatrout in the Upper Ferroch and that was the catch for the week. It was however, a very pleasant week with good crack and a good laugh.

It was day rods this week and on Tuesday, Jordie came up in the evening and caught a lovely fresh 3lb seatrout from the Corner pool.

On Saturday, Richard Adam came and was delighted to catch an 8lb salmon from the corner pool on his Sir Richard fly. Almost a year to the day when he caught a slightly bigger fish from the same pool and the same lie and the same fly.

It was Pontus Gunlycke and his clients from Sweden who were fishing this week and it started well on Monday when Torbjorn Wellrath (the brew master) caught a lovely fresh 10lb fish in the green spout in the afternoon after losing a bigger fish in the corner in the morning.

The rest of the week was disappointing as apart from the odd pull nothing else was landed.

The wild flowers on the riverbank are starting to bloom with the wood anemone, ladies smock and primroses looking lovely

It was Pontus Gunlycke and his clients from Sweden who were fishing this week most of whom have been before, all are experienced fishermen but nothing was caught.

It was a warm sunny week with the water slowly dropping off although it was quite cold in the mornings.

The sand martins came bang on time on Monday the 18th. In the 30 odd years I have been here there has only been three or four times they haven’t arrived on that date.

It was Pontus Gunlycke and his friends from Sweden who were fishing with us this week and although they were all very experienced fishermen who fished long and hard nothing was caught.

Pontus will have a different party this next week so let’s hope they have more luck.

It is slowly warming up and the sand martins should be arriving with us this week if they are true to form.

It was day rods this week and although they all fished long and diligently nothing was caught on our beat and nearly all the fish that were caught were well above us which means they must be travelling through.

The weather is supposed to warm up a bit this coming week and hopefully the wind will move round to the south instead of the cold north east wind we have had lately.

This coming week is the start of three weeks of our Scandinavian friends so we hope they have some success as we know they all fish long and hard.

We had Raymond Edge and his friends fishing for the first three days this week and although they fished hard nothing was caught but they had an enjoyable time.

The rest of the week was lightly fished with no luck.

There is a change in the weather over the next few days which might put the river up enough to tempt some fish to run.

It was our friends from Denmark who were with us this week and Henrik and Lotte Larsen hosted the party. Henrik has been coming to us for some years now and along with his friends they stay in our accommodation and fish our beat along with another two beats further upstream and the team caught six springers with three of them coming from Upper Blackhall.

The first fish of the week for us was caught by Per Norgaard, a lovely 11lber from the grey mare on Thursday morning with Torben Fyhring getting a 12lber in the Big Girnal an hour later.

On Friday morning Henrik got a nice fresh fish in the Upper Ferroch of around 6lb so a very good week for us.

Well after the high water last weekend I was hoping for a good run of fish entering the system but we didn’t connect with anything, in saying that we were very lightly fished so I expect there were a few fish sneaked past us.

We have our first lot of Scandinavians coming this week so I know they will put in the hours and let’s hope they have some success.The grey wagtails have arrived back with us,I always like to see them they are such lovely little birds.

John Hartley and his friends were fishing for the last three days of the week. They were the successful bidders for the the days we donated to the river trust last year but because of covid they were deferred until this year.

They are all experienced fishermen and fished long and hard. Paul Stanley was rewarded with a nice fresh spring fish on his last run down the corner pool on Friday after losing a fish in the green spout in the morning.

There has been some large skeins of geese heading north to their nesting grounds, spring will soon be here.

Well the weather played a big part this week as far as fishing was concerned with the first few day being reasonable good. However, by Thursday the wind had got up and Friday we had heavy snow all day.

Saturday was a lovely clear sunny day but very cold with no fish to be seen. Hopefully it will warm up in the coming weeks.

For the first three days of the week it was Charles Weatherly and his friends who were fishing. Charles was the highest bidder for the days we donated to the river trust and although they were all experienced fishermen only kelts were caught.

The rest of the week produced nothing but there has been a considerable rise of water over the weekend so we might have some luck this coming week of which there is day rod availability.

The season started on Tuesday and this first week was hosted by Peter Scarrott and although conditions were good, on the first day the whole river drew a blank. 

On Wednesday Nick Craigs landed our first springer of the season, a lovely fresh 7lb fish from the Corner Pool.

Conditions continued to be good for the rest of the week but no more fish were caught.