2012 Report

The first fly of the Season was cast by Pat Quinn in to the Comlifoot Pool on beat four on a frosty morning on January 11th. Due to fairly high water, fishing activity was fairly limited during much of January and it was not until late February that the first fish was taken from beat four. Catches continued to be slow during March but, with the onset of more settled weather and continued good water levels, fishing took off from late April and continued throughout the season which also saw us enjoy our best ever June return. The grilse run was inconsistent in both it`s timing and numbers but they were, in the main, very healthy little chaps The season ended with 2,269 fish being taken from beats two to beat thirteen.

Although the Hatchery was “mothballed” during the back end of 2011 we identified phenomenal numbers of fish on the redds prompting us to make a DVD of the event.

Around April 20th 2012 very good numbers of smolts were identified migrating seaward and this continued though to the end of May. A smaller migration took place in the latter part of August.

During this past weekend ( 22-23 Nov) we visited many of the known spawning areas and found huge numbers of fish on the redds which has to bode well for the future. Again this year, the decision has been made not to use the Hatchery.

There was a minor problem with the ditch that feeds in to the the Mill Stream on beat two which was attended by SEPA. It appeared to be a small escape from a sceptic tank at Buckies. Other than this there have been no reports of pollution.

There has been no evidence of any kind of disease within the fish stocks.

Two major repairs had to be carried out on beat eleven where heavy water coupled with an ice flow caused damage to the Stems on the Stall Pool and the Fence Pool. Both have been repaired and produced many fish in the latter part of the season