River Eden

On the middle river today with Robert who had done coarse and sea fishing before, but was a complete novice at game fishing. The river there was in very good order, with clear water and dropping as the day wore on, a warm wind, we even saw an Osprey. 

Talk about a fast learner, within half an hour of arriving he had his first ever salmon, played, landed and released!

We then went on to fly fishing with the single handed rod, with the Double Spey mastered in minutes, we tied a small nymph, and this happened! A real nice brown trout almost two pounds, played, landed and also released.

We had some fun and a good natter. If only everyday was like this!

River Eden

During September, we have had many rises of water on the Eden due to the unusual wet climate, I have had to cancel more than half the days on the river this month due to this, than I should have normally. There are fish running, but not the numbers of salmon that we are used to seeing at this time of year. Next week is the acid test for this, as we generally get the big autumn run near the equinox period, the big question is, have we had the runs of fish early, or are they just running later like the grilse have this year? We will have to wait and see.

The water temperature was at one point 18oC and now has dropped to 13oC, it really needs to be lower for the time of year. The water is fining down nicely at present and we just need a longer dry spell now for it to come good again, fingers crossed.

For those of you who are concerned about the numbers of fish-eating birds, the saw bills on our rivers and the numbers of parr or potential trout and salmon they are consuming, you need to have a look at this site and do your thing -  http://www.cormorantwatch.org/ 

What will come of the data in years to come, I do not know, but I do know that if we do nothing, nothing will change!

River Eden

With all these heavy rain showers coming off the Atlantic, there is no surprise that the Eden along with all the other west coast rivers has risen somewhat, three meters yesterday! Although we expect this amount of rain around the equinox, it will not do any harm at this point (apart from curtail the fishing for a few days) as the river was in need of a bit of a flush. I think it will be now somewhere near the weekend before it will be anywhere near fly fish-able on the lower river, weather permitting.

This is a very good friend of mine David who was up with me last week and did a great job of catching two salmon off the lower river.