Despite river levels still being very good, fish were very reluctant to take during the week due to poor atmospherics. Having spoken with someone from the South Esk this afternoon, I was informed that they have been encountering the same problem. However, fish were taken from both the Private Beat and Beat One during the course of the week with significant numbers of grilse being seen. In an earlier offering I spoke of the Leather family who had returned to ‘The Thurso’ after missing out for several years. This afternoon, Mr Michael Leather, who is fishing the main river this week, dropped by to tell me that back in 1959 he caught his first ever Thurso salmon on the Mill Stream on Beat 9 on a ‘Green Highlander’. This afternoon Mr Leather caught and returned a Sea Liced 13 pounder in the Mill Stream on a ‘Green Highlander’. This could not have happened to a nicer man!