Victory to the Tummel salmon but Harelaw fishery what a broonie

The fishing season has started pretty well for me. The downside has been two visits to the Tummel for the salmon. On the 1st occasion I fished the Pitlochry Angling club beat at the dam. The weather was poor, the river too high and fit only for spinning. In the afternoon I had a fish on for about 15 minutes before it inexplicably slipped the hook and back to safety. The take was a non affair, I thought I had actually just snagged on the bottom until suddenly the reel was spinning as fast as it could go as the salmon headed downstream back towards Dunkeld. I even got a friction burn on my hand trying to slow it down. Still good to get the heart rate up. The heavy rain continued overnight which washed out my visit to Upper Farleyer as the Tay had burst its banks and was too dangerous to go near. Bummer as I lost my money without fishing, aide memoire, do not book via Fishpal!!!

My 2nd visit to the Tummel saw me fish West Haugh. Catches had been low all over the river this week and it was not helped by the very low level of the water. Turns out they had shut off the flow from Faskally to do some repair work to the dam and the the fish ladder. During the day I saw half a dozen salmon move but no takers until near the end of the session, I was now thinking beer rather than salmon. I spotted some movement going through the fast water at the Sawmill beat and decided to try my luck. I was on the wrong bank to fly fish so resorted to spinning. After 5 minutes a new lure snagged on the bottom due to the lowish water and had to be cut, there goes another tenner after a just a few casts, the 3rd lost lure that day. I changed to a Payo lure which is a lure that swims closer to the surface so hopefully avoid the rocks below. After a few casts, bang what a hit, the line tightened, rod up and immediately a big dark salmon surged out of the river. No fresh run bar of silver this one but a salmon that had been in the water for a while. It aimed for the sky, twisted and plunged back into the water. Immediately the line went slack and the salmon was off the hook and had won again, but at least I got close. As both fish were going to be returned anyway no harm done but it would have been nice to get the photo.
Apart from that it has been a good trout season capped with a cracking visit to Harelaw Fishery last week. Once again it was a cold breezy day with a good chop to the water. The morning came and went without any of the 5 of us touching a fish. We stopped for lunch in the boat and thankfully started to see fish move. I decided dry flies were the way forward this afternoon. A standard dark dry hackled fly up top with an olive F midge and a black F midge on the droppers. After a short time a rainbow tried to drown the top fly. Soon after the gape appeared to the stationery top fly with a huge roll and tight lines. I saw the belly colour and thought of a good brownie. Down it went and stayed for a few minutes reinforcing my view of a brownie. After a good tussle it was landed and I was delighted, easily the best brown trout of my short fishing career. We didn't have a big enough weigh net but our conservative estimate is around 5lbs but possibly more, you can have your own view. It was returned safely to grow even bigger.

My best broonie ever

The rest of the afternoon went well with 2 blues and a rainbow landed. 2 more rainbows and 1 blue lost. All  of these to either of the F Fly midges. My boating partner had blanked all day until I gave him a black midge F Fly. After 10 minutes he hooked and landed his only fish of the day. The F Fly midge has worked very well for me this year, long may it continue.

Harelaw broonie