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A very satisfying week with 7 Salmon and 8 Grilse landed. The best day was Friday when 6 were landed. During the week notable catches were Andy Ashcroft landing 2 Grilse and 2 fish to 13lb on Tuesday from the Middle Blackhall bank. All Andy's fish were on size 12 Ally's and very fresh or liced. Other notable catches were Andrew Morton landing not only his first ever fly caught salmon but Andrew managed to land his second too. Both were on a size 11 Cascade. John Shield from Durham on his first visit to Cairnton landed 2 salmon, one of 9lb in the Rockheads and one of 8lbs in the Grey Mare (picture below). We also had the Palmer family staying with us at Cairnton and they enjoyed a couple of days fishing where Luke Palmer hooked a fish in the Cottage and after seeing it a few times estimated it to be about 18lbs and as it was nearing being landed unfortunately for Luke it dropped off which was a shame as this would have been his biggest salmon. Luke's sister Josie, although being a very competent fisher did not manage to connect however the whole family hope to return next year.

Prospects for the coming week look reasonable as long as the river doesn't drop away too much and we keep a bit of cloud cover.

There is only 2 1/2 months of the fishing season left so please check FishDee for availability for your chance to have another cast. Please email sarah@cairntonestate.co.uk to enquire or book.

Cheers Brian

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A great week for us with 7 Salmon and 1 Grilse being landed. Monday was a great day for Gordon Robinson from the Royal Berkshire Shooting School who landed 3 liced fish on Cairnton bank, a 15lb and 3.5lb in the Middle Ferroch followed up by an 8lb er in the Malt Steep in the afternoon. Another two were landed, one 9lb er in the Grey Mare and another of 11lb in Sandy Bay, all were on size 8 Ally's Shrimp's. The days that followed were surprisingly quiet with the odd pull and a couple lost but John Lewis landed a nice 11lb er in the Rockheads, Middle Blackhall bank on Friday on a size 10 Willie Gunn. On Saturday Andy Ashcroft landed a lovely liced 9lb fish in the Grey Mare and Grahame Reid landed an 8lb licer in the same pool.

Prospects for the coming week are looking reasonable for a fish or two.

Cheers Brian

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This past week started off looking quite promising with the height at 1ft 4ins which suited most of the pools but it was Wednesday before we connected with anything which resulted in two Grilse being lost, one in the Cottage and one in the Long Jetty. Thursday was a blank albeit we did see one or two fish. Friday we saw quite a few fish in the morning when the river was sitting at 1ft 1ins which were probably getting the smell of the water that was to follow, going up to 9ft by 5pm but we managed a lovely long tailed liced Grilse on a size 11 Park Shrimp before the rise got underway. Saturday was looking really good with height sitting at 4ft 1in on Cairnton gauge, and although we did see a few fish they weren't interested.

Prospects for the coming week look favourable after the flood on Friday and the river dropping to a really nice fishable height.

Cheers Brian

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This past week looked fairly good for a fish or two with conditions quite favourable each day apart from Tuesday afternoon when thunder and lightning stopped play but I was happy with three fish for the week. Graham Reid landed a nice 7lb fish in Upper Ferroch, Cairnton bank, on Tuesday on a size 10 Cascade and on Thursday Alex Buchan from Sydney(Australia) landed a lovely fish of about 8lb in the Cottage, also on Cairnton bank, on a size 6 Cascade then on Saturday Andy Ashcroft landed a lovely liced Grilse of about 5lb in the Rockheads on a size 12 Ally's Shrimp on our Middle Blackhall bank.

Prospects for the rest of July should be good with the expected influx of Grilse to liven things up.

We have also started the grass/bank cutting and should hopefully have this finished in a couple of weeks.

Cheers Brian

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This week we had a party of regular fishers from Middle Blackhall, however this year they fancied a change and decided to stay and fish with us from the Cairnton side. Monday was looking very promising as the river had risen 10 inches overnight and was sitting at 1ft 8in on Cairnton gauge and running slightly peaty and although Mr & Mrs Tetley from Cornwall put in a very good early morning session nothing was landed however I did see an Osprey take a lovely fresh Sea Trout from the Colonel. The forecast for the next few days was to be very warm, with the odd thunderstorm, so early morning and evenings was going to be the best approach to adopt which the party did each day but only a couple of fish were hooked and lost through the week in the early mornings until Saturday which turned out to be the nicest of conditions for fishing, ie steady rain and lower temperature when Sarah Tetley, aka Mrs Saturday as she always lands a fish on a Saturday, hooked and landed a lovely 7lb fish in the Upper Ferrochs on a Triton Shrimp of her own tying. Thank goodness for Mrs Saturday as she saved the week.

Prospects for the coming week after a good rise over night and sitting at 2ft 5in today on the Cairnton gauge are promising and the forecast is looking good.

Cheers Brian

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Last week got off to a really good start with regular Cairnton rod, Colin Tait, landing a 9lb fresh fish in the Rock Heads and a 7lb sea liced fish in the Cottage. Both were on a size 12 Editor. Colin was wearing his Go-Pro camera at the time and you can view his 2 videos catching the fish by clicking on the following links.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfZz_7-QGkc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLWF0wv3W2o

Tuesday was a bit of a red letter day on the Sea Trout front with 6 being landed upto 3lbs. All were fresh and some sea liced and all caught on a variety of flies between 4 inched Sun Ray Shadows down to size 14 Stoat Tails. A few more were also lost. Wednesday seemed to be another day for the Seat Trout with 4 being landed to 3lbs, again on similar flies to the previous day. The latter half of the week seemed to be a bit quieter with just one Sea Trout being landed on Thursday and a couple of Seat Trout and Salmon being lost. So all in all not a bad week with 2 Salmon and 11 Sea Trout being landed.

Prospects for the coming week look not bad with the river sitting at 10 inches today with high pressure dominating the coming week so the early mornings and evenings will more than likely give the best chance.

Cheers Brian

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Last week saw the return of the Festing family and friends back to Cairnton and Middle Blackhall for their annual fishing trip which will probably amount to 30+ years fishing at Cairnton with some good years and some lean. This year happened to be a quiet one on the Salmon front with a Grilse of about 3.5lb landed in Invercannie on a size 12 Arndilly for Tim Buxton. Most of the weeks sport was with the very good class of Sea trout which are around at the moment with six being landed and a similar amount lost, all between 2.5lb and 4lb and pretty much spread through out the beat. So the party left this morning very happy and looking forward to coming back next year.

The coming week is looking quite promising with some rain forecast here and there, so hopefully we get a freshen up for our returning party headed up by Lee Craig, Head Ghille from Carham on the Tweed.

Cheers Brian

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