Ladder count: 140
Largest salmon: 18lbs
John Kane with a 20lbs fish off Pitlochry bank
On Monday,last week, we had a very good day with six fish coming off. Starting on Pitlochry bank Steve Watt took two fish(11lbs and 8lbs) and lost a third. Moving over to Portnacraig after lunch Steve took another two,this time at 8lbs and 10lbs. Jim Kennedy also took his first Tummel fish of the season, a 10lbs fish off Pitlochry bank and Jimmy Ross opened his Tummel season with a 7lbs fish,late on in the evening, off Portnacraig bank.
On Thursday Steve Watt got another one. This time fishing on Sawmill he took a 9lbs fish then lost another larger fish. His fishing guest,William McAdam, also got his season going with an 8lbs fish, both came to the fly and today Jimmy Ross took a lovely fish of 17lbs off Sawmill.Also today, Sandy Watson took a 7lbs fish off Pitlochry bank.
On Friday afternoon the counter rose from 78 to 138 which suggests that the fish had,indeed, been held up for a few days and are on their way again.
On Saturday Innes Smith got his season going with a long-tailed liced fish of 9lbs off Sawmill.
Yesterday, despite continuing low water, Neil Tong had success with a 6lbs fish off Pitlochry bank and Dave Stewart had one at 10lbs off Portnacraig bank.
Today Jim Kennedy continued his good run with a 6lbs fish off Pitlochry bank on a Carron Shrimp. Graeme Stewart did even better on Sawmill. Graeme managed to get himself “Sawmilled” in one day by taking fish of 10lbs and 13lbs. Well done Graeme....trout fishing for the rest of the week,unfortunately!
The counter at the ladder is going to be re-set as SSE have had to do some essential maintenance work on clearing debris from the ladder. This has caused some unusual figures to appear so once the work is finished the counter will be put back to the correct figure.
So far this season all fish,bar one, have come to the fly and all have been returned which is a great effort by all anglers.
Remember up until the end of May it is “fly only” on Portnacraig Pitlochry. Big fish are a distinct possibility,over the next month, so please tackle up accordingly so that if you are lucky enough to get into a MSW salmon it can be brought to the bank in good time thus ensuring it has the very best chance of recovering quickly.