2011 Report

The opening day  ( January 11^th)  saw those  in attendance  piped across Halkirk Bridge by John MacRae and on to the Comlifoot Pool where Dar Sutherland ( ex Superintendent) invited Dougie Reid to cast the first fly of the new season.  After the ceremony, Anglers dispersed to their various beats and, although the first fresh fish was elusive, a lot of well mended Kelts were taken. The first fish of the season was taken from beat nine on the last day of January. Thereafter, until the beginning of May catches were slow but consistent.  The low water of the early part of the season was finally replaced by excellent condition from mid-May onward and the catches continued to reflect this until the end of the season.  The grilse were again very late in arriving and in fewer numbers than normal. Although the final total of over 2,000 fish was down on the previous year, it was still the second best on record.

From mid April, for around one month, we began to witness a huge migration of smolts.

There were no reports of any kind of pollution but there was one case of Saprolegnia  ( stress induced condition) when we had a ten day period of overnight frosts and extremely high daytime temperatures.

Because there were so many fish in the system it was decided to “mothball” the Hatchery for the year and allow Mother Nature to take care of things.  A video of the fish on the redds will be appearing on this site very shortly.