Monday, July 19, 2010

PITLOCHRY ANGLING CLUB


News: Saturday 17th July 2010

Salmon total: 95

Ladder count: 2525

Largest salmon: 20lbs

Salmon News

Last Monday Mike Ross had some fun on Ruanruarie as fish which had been bottled up in the loch ran up river on the back of a small rise in water. He ended up with a seatrout but had several plucks and pulls from the running fish. On Wednesday Graeme Stewart had a 4lbs sea trout off Sawmill and our first official grilse...a 2lbs fish off Lower Tummel and Barry Ward got a similar sized grilse, on Ruanruarie, on Saturday.Tom Leitch also got his Tummel season going with a nice 9lbs fish off Sawmill.Tom also photographed a large 2ft lamprey on Pitlochry bank. This specimen was dead but Donnie Whiteford had reported seeing a similar sized eel swimming past him a week ago.

Ross Gardiner wrote: It is not just salmon and sea trout that run the Tay and Tummel to spawn. There are also some sea lampreys. These are eel like fish of 1 to 4 lb in weight with suckers. They run up river in June and the first half of July and construct large spawning nests by moving stones which they are attached to with their suckers with the help of water currents. Anglers sometimes see the lampreys spawning or swimming by, or notice the nests. Occasionally they may inadvertently be foul hooked by anglers too. They all die after spawning and the dying or dead lamprey kelts may also be come across. The lamprey larvae spend several years in burrows in silt feeding on detritus before heading down to the sea to prey on other fish using their rasping suckers. They don't successfully get all the way up the fish ladder at Pitlochry Dam but may sometimes be seen in the lower pools of the ladder in June and early July, either swimming or resting attached to the ladder walls by their suckers.

On Monday, after a decent overnight rise of 2ft, Donnie Whiteford got PAC’s first fish off Essangael beat on the River Garry taking a 9lbs fish and losing a couple of others. Jim Kennedy had a cast on Pitlochry bank and took a fresh 4.5lbs grilse and Philip Banks also took a 4.5lbs grilse in really nice water, the likes of which we haven’t seen for months.Fishing on Loch Faskally yesterday, club member Lukas Cwik took a really good pike 100cm long and weighing 8kgs. Lukas also took a smaller one which made for a successful outing.

On Tuesday,with the water level holding nicely, Donnie Whiteford lost what he described as a really big fish off Pitlochry bank and Saul Mackay had a couple of grilse on....and then off. Later in the evening Donnie took a nice 3lbs seatrout off Pitlochry bank.

On Wednesday, with water beginning to rise, Donnie Whiteford was successful again with a 3lbs grilse off Portnacraig bank on a Calvin Shrimp and today, proving that you have to be on the water to catch salmon, Donnie took 3 fish off the Portnacraig Pitlochry beat. A 3lbs grilse came from Portnacraig bank followed by two liced fish off Pitlochry at 7lbs and 3lbs. Very well done indeed.