In common with most the other Earn beats Crieff had a reasonable year albeit that the back end run didn't come in until after the season had closed and it was encouraging to see the river absolutely stuffed with fish in Nov and Dec as that can only board well for the future. This year's catch returns were down on last year's exceptional ones but the overall trend since 2000 is for a slight increase in the number of both salmon and sea trout as can be seen from the graph; although, there is a long way to go to get back to the numbers in the 1960s and 70s.
The beginning of the year saw the river in serious flood and running at a higher level than most of us can every recall. As a reminder here are some pictures of the better known places on the club water taken on 5 Jan 05.
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| Lennoch Pool | Wire Pool | Templemill Bridge |
The river opening ceremony took place at Dornoch on Feb 1st. It was one of the best opening days that anyone could remember; warm sunshine and blue skies. At one point today the temperature reached 12oc. There was an excellent turn out with nearly 60 people marching from the road. The first fish of the season, a nicely mended kelt, fell to Country Member George Paterson from Denny. In addition to the usual bottle of whisky for the fish he was also the first recipient of a new trophy kindly donated in memory of Peter Baird. The river continued to run medium-high for the remainder of the month.
From the beginning of March the river level continued to drop away and by the 13th was at a summer low and there were some anxious days as we wondered if last year would repeat itself. The river was in fact so low and slow that it froze at the margins for some days. By the 10th Mar the river was still running at 0.4m which was not surprising given the fact that there had not been any rain or snow since the beginning of the season. The trout season opened on the 15th with heavy rain and the river on the rise: that was an exact repeat of the previous year. The first fresh fish was taken on the 21st by the treasurer, John Paterson, spinning on the Drummond Castle water and over the next few days a good run of sea trout in the 2-3lb range ran through. Thereafter the month was quiet.
Early April saw the river in spate and whilst it dropped off later in the month there was not much sport to be had. The Hydro generated during the third week and fish were seen running hard all week. The water remained cold for much on the month but during the last week things suddenly came alive with several fish being taken, the best was 121/2lb (returned - pic: the first two weeks of June continued in the same vein with the best fish at 15lb (returned). There was no appreciable rain after the third weekend in Jun until virtually the end of Aug and consequently no salmon reported until the last week although sea trout continued to be caught albeit in lower numbers than one might have expected and many anglers did not venture out at all. A few grilse was reported at the end of Aug and then the weather dried up again and all went quiet until the end of the month when heavy rain brought up a run of fish in the 4-8lb range. Andy Murray of the House of Hardy again ran his Casting Clinic during Sep and about two dozen people benefited from an excellent day's free tuition: it's well worth attending so keep a look out for the date next year. The number of fish picked up in Oct as one would expect but many of the fish were in the 4-12lb range. There were a couple of notable exceptions with a 21lb fish taken on the fly and a 22lb one on some form of lure. As I said at the beginning of this review, the main run came in during Nov and early Dec and the river was absolutely alive with salmon.
The heaviest salmon that I know of taken on the club water this year was 22lb; there were a number reported in the 10-15lb range. As I said in last year's review: irrespective of the number of fish running it is incumbent upon us all to return a high proportion of what we catch. Certainly 50% should be everyone's minimum target. Following the Tay lead we should also all aim to return our first spring fish (those caught up to 1 May) and a good percentage thereafter.
In the absence of stocking there remains a good head of brown trout in the river with the odd fish over 2lb being taken although they are notoriously difficult to tempt and the best reported this year was one well over 4lb taken (and returned) on the fly.
Drummond Loch
The loch fished well from the opening of the season until July when it clouded with algae. Later fishing was difficult because of calm, bright conditions. In April 200 brown trout averaging 1lb were stocked; an unknown were caught this year, for an average of 1.72lb. Several anglers had over wintered fish around the 21/2lb mark and at least a couple of fish at 3lb+ were returned. There remains a good head of fish in the loch ready for next season and, as an experiment, these were augmented by a further 200 8-10 inch stocked fish in Sep. It will be interesting to see how they grow on and if they survive the winter cormorants. Tickets will no longer be available from Strathearn Tyres and from next season may be purchased from Boyds News Agents in King Street - further details will appear on the Drummond Loch page before the season opens.
Thank you to those that sent in pictures/catch reports. The news page is only of value if it is regularly updated and that relies on you passing on information. Email or send fish reports, photos and other news to Peter MacDonald