The perfect family holiday house in beautiful, unspoilt surroundings
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Strath Carron is arguably one of the finest and most unspoiled valleys in the Highlands offering endless opportunities for those with an artistic flare. There is superb walking on the hills with an abundance of bird and animal life, fabulous unspoilt beaches within short driving distance as well as near access to 8 golf courses including Championship Courses at Royal Dornoch, Brora and Nairn.
The Sykes party landed 2 salmon and 2 grilse for their week. Again the forecast was rain but bar some water at the start of the week it never really materialised.
On the 3rd Paul Chambers caught a 5lber from Gruinards run and Sarah Daniell caught a 7lber from the Washerwoman.
On the 4th Sarah Daniell had another fish at 7lb from Lower Craigs and Toby Buckler caught a 5lber from Ronnie's.
Prawns and beef last night.
The Aspbury party landed 7 salmon/grilse and a sea trout for their week
The water temperature dropped to 54f on the Monday when three were landed. Simon Marriott caught two, one from Washerwoman and one from Upper Craigs. Chris Beharrell also landed one from the Washerwoman.
On Tuesday we had a rise in water to plus 3". Simon Marriott caught a 5lber from Bank and Alexandra Aspbury caught her first salmon at 7lb from the Washerwoman.
On Wednesday the river was down to minus 3 and Simon Marriott caught an 11lber from Contractors
On Friday we were back down to minus 6" but Chris Beharrell managed an 8lber from Contractors first thing in the morning.
The tenant farmer has put up new signs along the whole beat telling us that dogs must be kept on a lead at all times including several beside our signs. We are 100% behind him on this matter and fishing tenants must comply with this. Dogs can be left in the lodge kennels or other arrangements will have to be made for them..
The Birts party caught 2 grilse last week on the back of two very small rises of water.
On the 13th David Hughes caught 1 from Keepers on a black Allys shrimp fished on a dropper
On the 17th Charles Birts caught a grilse in Millers on a Munro killer. Both days the river was at minus 9"
We have water today but it's dirty
Millers all ready for the back end fishing. It can be the best pool on the beat after a flood from now on.
Week of the 6th July
The Howieson party caught two salmon and four grilse for their week
On the 9th Fen caught a grilse in Kennel run and then a 15lber in Field. Alison Baker also caught a grilse from Burnmouth.
On the 11th Alison Baker caught a lovely 16lber from the Washerwoman.
On Saturday the river was down to minus 6 but the grilse were still going through the beat and Alison caught two. One came from the Washerwoman and one from Gardners run. Both on a Sunray shadow.
A good number of fish were lost during the week.
Cracking 16lb salmon from the Washerwoman today to Alison Baker this morning
Three salmon landed today from Burnmouth, Field and Kennel run. Four more were lost.
We had good water all week peaking at about 5ft on Friday night with the water temperature between 49f and 56f.
We had another good week with 6 salmon, 10 grilse and 4 sea trout landed.
Tim Clarke got us off the mark on Monday with a 10lber from the Washerwoman and Jemima Grande caught a grilse in Ronnies on a hitched 10 silver stoat on Tuesday.
On Thursday the river was up to 1ft 6 and 7 were landed. Lydia White landed her first fish from the Morail , a salmon of 7lb followed by a grilse later in the day. Jim Browne, Eliza Wood, Jos Clarke and Angus Griffiths had a grilse each from the Morail and Jemima Grande caught a 15lber from the Washerwoman.
On Friday off the back of a 5ft spate 6 were landed. First thing the river was running at 2ft 3 but quickly dropped back. Tim Clarke caught a grilse in Contractors, Rollo Grande caught a 6lber in Frenchmans and another at 6lb in Lower Craigs. Jos Clarke caught a 6lber in Lower Craigs and both Finlay and Lydia caught a grilse each in the Morail.
Only 1 grilse was caught on Saturday, a 4lb fish from Morail after dinner to Tim Clarke.
Again we had another week with as many lost as were caught. As I've said before, these fish are not just on and off they have been played and just drop off. It is encouraging how many fish we are seeing especially on Friday when fish between 3 and 7lb were showing from Kennel run to well below the tail of Gardners which was as far as we went. I suspect they were right down through to the Boat pool because Jim was on the other side with a couple of guests concentrating on Little Rock to Boat.
Week of the 30th June
We had good water all week peaking at about 5ft on Friday night with the water temperature between 49f and 56f.
Jim Browne's party had a good week with 6 salmon, 10 grilse and 4 sea trout landed.
Tim Clarke got us off the mark on Monday with a 10lber from the Washerwoman and Jemima Grande caught a grilse in Ronnies on a hitched 10 silver stoat on Tuesday.
On Thursday the river was up to 1ft 6 and 7 were landed. Lydia White landed her first fish from the Morail , a salmon of 7lb followed by a grilse later in the day. Jim Browne, Eliza Wood, Jos Clarke and Angus Griffiths had a grilse each from the Morail and Jemima Grande caught a 15lber from the Washerwoman.
On Friday off the back of a 5ft spate 6 were landed. First thing the river was running at 2ft 3 but quickly dropped back. Tim Clarke caught a grilse in Contractors, Rollo Grande caught a 6lber in Frenchmans and another at 6lb in Lower Craigs. Jos Clarke caught a 6lber in Lower Craigs and both Finlay and Lydia caught a grilse each in the Morail.
Only 1 grilse was caught on Saturday, a 4lb fish from Morail after dinner to Tim Clarke.
Again we had another week with as many lost as were caught. As I've said before, these fish are not just on and off they have been played and just drop off. It is encouraging how many fish we are seeing especially on Friday when fish between 3 and 7lb were showing from Kennel run to well below the tail of Gardners which was as far as we went. I suspect they were right down through to the Boat pool because Jim was on the other side with a couple of guests concentrating on Little Rock to Boat.
6 salmon/ grilse landed yesterday off the back of a spate of around 5ft. Encouragingly we saw reasonable numbers of fish in the 3 to 7lb class all the way from Kennel run to the tail of Gardners in the afternoon. There were fish showing in the Morail too but they weren't really interested. We did catch on the top beat in the afternoon when the river dropped back to 9 inches.
We wended up with 7 salmon/grilse yesterday before the river rose from 1ft 6 to 5ft in the evening.
We have had 34 salmon and 5 grilse for June. This is the best June since 2015 when we caught 38 salmon and 8 grilse.
This year we did have low water in May. The average weight of the salmon was 12lb
Week of the 23rd June
The week started with low water and fishing was light until the river rose quickly on Friday morning which I posted on social media.
Richard Haworth caught a 5lb fish from the tail of the Morail in the early evening followed by a sea trout of about 2lb.
On Saturday Angus Griffiths landed a cracking salmon of 17lb from Lower Craigs and a grilse from Millers. In the early evening, Ian Wilkinson landed 2 salmon of 7lb from the Morail and Dr James Robertson had a 2lb sea trout. 5 other sea trout were landed over the two days.
Week of the 17th June
We had some high water over the weekend so we had high hopes on Monday.
With the water down to 9 inches, the host, Jonathan Sykes landed three before breakfast from the Morail going on to land six for the day. Four came from the Morail and two from behind the rock in Millers. The biggest at 18lb from the Morail. Andy MacInnes also caught one from behind the rock in Millers at 10lb.
Simon Hearn caught an 18lber from the Morail and Mark Butler had a grilse of 4lb, also from the Morail.
On the 18th with 11 inches on the gauge, Simon Hearn had a 10lber from Lower Craigs, Andy MacInnes caught a 14lber from Bank and Liliana Sykes caught a lovely 12lber from the tail of Contractors which tried to go out the tail of the pool twice.
On the 9th with 3 inches on the gauge, Jonathan Sykes caught a lovely fresh salmon of 20lb from Kennel run.
11 sea trout were also landed for the week, some fishing the Morail late in the evening.
We also lost around 17 salmon during the week. I have never seen as many fish lost. Having landed 11 and lost 7 myself this year I am at a loss to explain why. I’m sure someone will tell me when I post this !!
We don’t know the total catch from the river for the week but three rods on Amat had twenty four between Monday and Tuesday and Dounie had 7. The other beats also had some big fish. We traditionally had the big fish arrive in May. Are they running later now?
Fantastic meal from Angus last night. Haggis and black pudding bonbons in the drawing room which everyone raved about followed by Surf and turf. The rib of beef was longhorn.
Last week the Burge party caught 8 salmon and 5 sea trout.
Mike Burge had 3 at 15lb, 15lb and 14lb from Bank, Field and Washerwoman.
Paul Birch had 5. 2 at 10lb, 2 at 9lb and 1 at 8lb.
John Knott had the best sea trout at 3lb from the Morail.
We ended the day yesterday with 9 salmon landed including a 18lber to Jonathan Sykes. A bigger fish was lost in Gruinards run.
We hear they had 10 or 11 to one beat on Amat. A big fish was lost on Amat and another on Dounie.
7 salmon landed and 7 lost this morning.
Good morning fishing
A good start to the morning with two salmon and a grilse landed to Jonathan Sykes. Four more fish were also lost.
The lift in water last week certainly seemed to bring in some decent fish with a good number weighing over 10 lb. Without knowing what was caught on Cornhill, Gledfield and Invercarron there were. 49 fish off the river. Including 28 to 3 rods on Amat which must have only had 1 beat let. I also hear there is availability there in the coming weeks.
Millers ready for the next time we have high water 🎣
Getting caught up with the strimming
Six salmon were landed yesterday, all over 10lb. All bar 1 on the bottom beat.
Week of the 2nd June
Firstly I'd like to address why Angus and I were fishing and where the tenants were.
The Birketts were hosting a big charity event back home at Rievaulx estate on Friday and therefore travelled home to oversee it on Thursday.
We had no water until Thursday when the river came up to 0” on the gauge dropping to minus 2”. 4 salmon were caught. I had a 9lb salmon on a sunray hitch in Keepers then two salmon at 9 and 10lb from the Morail slowly stripping an 8 Kyley across the good spots. I also had a sea trout of about 2.5lb and 1.5lb. I also lost a good fish after 5 minutes. Angus Griffiths caught a fish of about 12lb from Contractors. Angus also lost 1. I think it was in the Washerwoman.
Saturday saw the river rise to 1ft 6. 8 Salmon and the first grilse of the season were caught. 6 salmon were also lost, 5 of them leading them to where we land them in the Morail.
I landed 5 salmon from the tail of the Morail at 15, 14, 14, 10 and 7lb. I also landed the grilse in Kennel run. I lost the other fish in Kennel run, having played it for 5 minutes and having absolutely no control over it that time.
Angus caught 3 all from the tail of the Morail weighing 12, 10 and 8lb. He also lost the other 3.
I believe the opposition had 2 salmon from the Morail weighing about 15 and 17lb
We all know salmon are becoming more scarce and on a red-letter day like this I always try and get the tenants to take advantage of the conditions. Here is why. I stopped briefly for lunch but Angus kept fishing and he caught 2 fish. He went for his lunch when I got back and I caught 2 fish. If we’d both stopped we’d have been 4 fish down. Need I say more!!
Three salmon and a lovely sea trout so far today.
The river rose to around 0" on the gauge.
The first weighing about 9lb carrying long tail lice from Keepers on a hitched Sunray. The second from the Morail which was also sea liced caught on a Stripped Kyley as was the sea trout. Another slightly smaller one was also caught. The third was caught by Angus Griffiths from Contractors. More details to follow.
Angus served up a lovely meal in the lodge last night.
Fantastic Haggis and black pudding bonbons with a G&T
Followed by beef short ribs then roast lamb.
Trying to get on top of the strimming. It's needing done early this year.
Ardgay
Inverness
IV243BP
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Frenchmans all ready. Just add water now
Minu 9 to 1ft.6 on 4 minutes
Heading upstream
Kennel run. My favourite pool.
Earlier the river peaked about 2.83m before dropping. It's now rising again You can hear the rocks coming down the burn
Big water from the East too
7 fish to Fen Howieson today and one to Chris Plank. Another 6 or 7 lost.
@fenhowieson landed 7 and lost 3. @plankospics landed one. Several more were lost
Now then Fen Howieson Chris Plank
First proper water since April should have given the river a good flush out
It won't take long for this shingle to work its way downstream
The reason it's over a metre on the SEPA gauge. The thunderstorm just jumped more shingle in Burnmouth backing up the water in Millers
Fish moving into the tail of the Morail this morning. We have seen bow waves on several days this week with fish moving through
Scott Mackenzie trying out the new Mackenzie FX2 rod on @glencalvieestate @mackenzieflyfishing #fx2 #salmomfishing #flyfishing #springfishing
That's the biggest flood of the winter so far.
Gave the Morail the first run-through of the season between 12.45pm and 1pm just in case. Water temperature of 37.9f and 1ft7 all morning which is still a bit cold . In the spring you need to be fishing at lunchtime when the day is at its best. #springfishing #springsalmon
The ice is starting to break up this morning
That will be that then. 1.4m to 1.7m in less than 5 minutes and still rising fast
No sign of a stag just a few hinds
The river rose from minus 10" to 5ft 3 then down to 2ft yesterday which was the first water for a month. Alison Alston landed one salmon from Kennel run, lost another and had a couple of pulls there. 2 other fish were lost in the Morail. Below is a short video of a fish been released caught on an iPhone.
Seacot Cottage - self catering Scotland
High Street
