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A week that I would have expected to land one or two fish but we only managed a few kelts and it wasn't through lack of effort. Conditions were pretty good on the whole with the river dropping an inch or so each day and running gin clear. If the weather swings more to the west and things turned a bit softer I'm sure things will improve.

Cheers Brian

1. Cairnton gauge today at 1ft 4in.

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With the week almost divided between normal February fishing conditions and unseasonal April conditions Monday started off with the river at 2ft 3in and a lovely day. Lee Craig, a ghillie from Carham on the Tweed, was fishing Monday and he managed to catch a cracking 16 lber (pictured below) from the Malt Steep on an old Dee fly called the Ackroyd. Tuesday and Wednesday was more of the February conditions we are used to with only kelts landed. Thursday was another beautiful spring like day with Mark Blair, a ghillie from the Tay, landing a lovely 15 lber from the Grey Mare. (pictured below) Friday and Saturday looked almost a dead cert but only kelts landed. I saw my first Oyster Catchers of the season on Saturday, so perhaps spring is just around the corner.

Cheers, Brian.

1. Lee Craig, 16lber, Malt Steep

2. Mark Blair, 15lber, Grey Mare

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With the river sitting at 4ft 6in on Monday we did not catch anything however conditions weatherwise and riverwise improved during the rest of the week. We managed to catch one 8lber from Sandy Bay, which was badly seal marked, on Thursday. Plenty of good condition kelts were caught throughout the week which is a good sign for the river. With the forecast this week looking not too bad hopefully we will connect with a few spring fish.

Cheers Brian

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Hope you have all had a good winter and we wish you tight lines for 2013. On opening day with a good water height and no grue to contend with this year things were looking very favourable for an early spring fish. With a couple of baggots caught in the morning and a dozen kelts the hope of catching an opening day fish were fading but Michael Ritchie from Fraserburgh managed to hook and land a lovely 9 lber from the Colonel with his first cast after lunch and follwed up very quickly with a fish of similar size from the Lower Ferroch and that was the very pleasing tally for opening day. The following day quite surprisingly very few kelts landed but another 2 clean fish were landed, the biggest being a cracking 15 lber caught in Invercannie by Graeme Caton. (pictured below)

Cheers Brian

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On Monday 15th October, the last day of the season, after many attempts David Taylor managed to catch a 6lb cock fish from Lower Ferrochs. The water was a little bit on the high side at 3ft 2in but running crystal clear I was quite surprised we did not get a few more to add to the tally. However I am pleased to say that on my first season at Cairnton we caught 208 Salmon & Grilse and 16 Sea Trout. I have met some lovely parties in my first season and hope to see them back again next year.

p.s. – Keep checking on the Cairnton website through the winter months for the latest pictures and news from the beat.

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We started the week off with the river sitting at 11 inches on the Cairnton gauge and a hard frost in the morning but things quickly warmed up and what fish were there seemed to be a little bit more active. We managaed 1 fish from the Outer Colonel on Monday on a Red Francis tube and a Sea Trout from Invercannie on Wednesday, albeit 2 or 3 fish were hooked but lost. With the forecast for rain on Thursday evening and weather warnings in force we got the rise in water on Friday morning that we were not really needing as it rose to over 8 feet on the Cairnton gauge (picture below taken at 7 1/2 feet on the rise). Saturday it dropped back to 5 1/2 feet and was crystal clear which should have given us a reasonable chance with 1 or 2 seen but nothing taken. Maybe Monday will be a good finale.

Cheers Brian

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The river was sitting at 1ft 6in on Monday morning and within 5 minutes one of the rods had a fish of 12lbs from the Cottage which usually is the kiss of death (getting the fish so early), as it turned out it was, as we only managed 3 for the week. It was not without lack of effort however as we had a Swedish party who fished it very hard and one regular Cairnton rod who knows the water extremely well. He has been fishing the beat for years and could not understand why we were not catching more. The biggest fish of the week, 16lbs, was a lovely cock fish in it's autumn colours, caught by Mattias Helde in the Grey Mare (pictured below with his friend, Swedish casting champion Tellis Katsogiannos). With high pressure sitting on us and with the chance of a few frosts it will hopefully get them switched on.

Cheers Brian