19 September 2021 News/Editorial
Some say there are very few fish being caught because the river is full of salmon of a non taking variety, genetically predisposed not to take your fly. Others say we are all fishing at the wrong time, and that if you go out in the late evenings, you will not only see many more fish, you will catch more. There are doubtless other theories, equally outlandish as to why the scores are low (fewer than 180 last week). Drought and low water has more credibility, but even that does not excuse the lowest beats which are catching very little, when in previous iterations of the same conditions in other years, those same beats have had bonanzas.
The truth, the one thing that for some reason many folk like to avoid, is that since about mid August, very few fresh salmon and grilse have come into the river. In other words, what you are seeing jump are old river fish, and we all know the longer they are in fresh water, the harder they are to catch. It is a truth as ancient as time, or at least as old as we ridiculous humans have been trying to tempt them to an unwelcome fate, with nothing but a few coloured feathers on a bent pin.
After a “smaller than last year” run of late spring and summer fish (which saved the day in 2020), we are now past 1st September when the autumn salmon and grilse should come in. But will they?
As for next week, it has rained a bit, but inevitably not enough, and from mid week it will become more autumnal, cooler, wet and windy. There could still be some good fishing weeks to come as the air cools, the old fish come on to take and we have some rises in water levels to get them upstream.
The operative word is “could”.
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Last Thursday I spent a very happy afternoon fishing the great River Awe in Argyllshire, “great” because although barely 4 miles long, it has a record of exceptionally large fish.
Extraordinarily, two of the very select band of those who have ever caught two salmon over 50 lbs performed their feats on the River Awe. Major Huntington caught a 56lber in 1921 and a 52lber in 1930. Mr HG Thornton caught his 56lber in 1923 (having landed a 42lber a few days earlier), and then a 51lber in late April 1934.
My claim to fame is that I finished my afternoon in the lovely Stone Pool where Mr Thornton managed to stop his 56lber from hurtling downstream, and successfully landed it. Amazingly his 51lber took just 40 minutes to land.
Sadly, after the advent of the hydro dam, finished in 1965, the Awe has never been quite the same. It still has some big fish, not as big, but considering its size and “big fish“ history, one fears that something truly unique has been lost forever.
I never saw a salmon, but the pools were lovely to fish and I could not have had a more enjoyable few hours. I was on the south bank fishing the ½ mile or so just below the dam; the score for that beat for the year so far is just 25 salmon caught. My charming guide/ghillie, Andrew, said that in all his many years on the Awe, and his father before him, there had never been so few fish.
Sounds familiar.
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On 15th September 1969 I caught 14 salmon at Upper Pavilion on a small fly and floating line, after nearly not bothering to go out. There were fish there but the river was low and warm, and they would not take, nothing had been caught for weeks.
I had not spotted that on the night of the 14th/15th, there had been a hard frost. Nothing else had changed. It brought the fish on to take.
Does that too sound familiar? Er, no. 52 years later the chances of having a frost in mid-September are only marginally above zero. I wonder why?
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