I am delighted to report that the later half of the season was a dramatic improvement on the start. Large numbers of Grilse were caught through out Scotland with some records being set on Rivers such as the Thurso. In August alone the river landed over 600 fish, mostly Grilse but fantastic sport was had on all the beats.

Sadly for me I arrived in September when the water levels had dropped away and the fish had gone dour. Although the fishing wasnt at its peak we had great fun on my first trip to the river and in my 3 days managed to land 3 small Grilse. Some of our party did a lot better fishing Sunray shadows in the lower beats.

I returned from Thurso to fish the remaining 3 days of the week on the Findhorn. The river levels were really low and we caught nothing for the first 2 days but then following a small rise on Friday night Rory Forteath landed a 9lb and Ian Walls had a Grilse, all on the Sunray.

In August we took a few of our clients to the Junction on the River Tweed. I have never seen the river looking better with a good water levels and good clarity. As always its such a pleasure fishing at Junction with Billy Jack and Gavin being superb Ghillies and great company. We all hooked fish and quite a few were landed during our 3 days. Geoffrey Mitchell landed a lovely fresh Grilse whilst fishing with Gavin.

The two Ghillies seamed especially keen to assist with casting work when the wives and girlfriends of our clients joined us on the last day!

Thanks to them both for all their efforts. We also had some great sport with the Sea Trout, Rowland and Hugh who work at Gamefish had a cracking evening landing 4 fish. Hugh landed the best at 8.5lb

I had a 3 day visit to the Glenfurness beat of the River Findhorn in late August. The river was very low on arrival but flutuated during the following two days. There were runs of Grilse moving through the beat although they were modest in number. Clive Williamson pictured here landed a slightly coloured 6lb just after this photo was taken and I had 4 for my 3 days. The Glenfurness beats are among the most productive on the lovely river Findhorn but a certain level of fitness are required.

The River Dee had a fantastic time from late July until the close of the season. Park recovered fantastically from a very poor early season. In August they landed 242 whilst the average is in the 50's. September was also excellent with 285 landed. I was lucky enough to fish for a couple of days in both months and had a truly memorable time.
In August I was fishing with my good pal Ian Neale and his lovely wife Lady Barbara. I had a red hot time and landed 11 Salmon in 3 days and lost a really large fish. The water was high and the fish were running in waves. There is a pool at Park called Jetty which was heaving with fish but they wouldn't look at a thing, further downstream the pool becomes a long glide called Ash Tree and although there were only a small number of fish showing I dragged my bewildered body down to the pool and promptly landed 4 in an hour! It was great to see the river with such numbers of bright silver fish crashing around everywhere and the smiles on the Ghillies faces were a pleasure to witness.

It was then on to the River Spey at Delfur to fish the last day of the Spey season. Delfur is on of the most superb beats on the river and I was delighted to get the chance to fish it again. Although it was very low it was absolutely stuffed with fish any many of them bars of silver. I landed a lovely bright fish before lunch and then landed this lunker just before close of play. We guessed the fish to be around 20lb and after a terrific fight he was safely returned.

The following trip to fish the last 2 days of the season was again first class. We arrived after another big rise in water which had me worried that the fish would of pushed through. Not the case at all, as I climbed out of the car Willie Muir waltzed past me having landed his second and lost a monster from the Cellar pool. As I proceeded to tackle up he promptly landed his third!

The runs of large silver fish were quite incredible and I grassed 9 in two days. Durris Stream more resembled fish soup than river with fish leaping through out the pool. If you didn't see 3 or 4 fish in the air you felt it had gone quiet, in some ways it can be more frustrating seeing them everywhere and not hooking them than fishing a river with hardly a sign of a fish.

On the Green Banks pool which is a fast and for the Dee quite a deep piece of water I resorted to a very fast sinking line when the fish went quiet one afternoon and landed 3 to 15lb, not your typical way of catching Dee fish but it goes to prove that a change in tactics can be very successful. I tailed a cracking fish of about 18lb for Ian Neale who changed tactics whilst fishing the Lower Kirks pool. Instead of going deep he went the reverse and slowly retrieved a small sunray shadow just subsurface and was rewarded with this beautiful fish.