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England & Wales
THE Border Esk experienced some high water after heavy rainfall during May, with occasional periods of low levels too. Early salmon and sea-trout were in short supply, and overall fishing pressure has been light. At Buccleuch Estates fishing at Irvine House, regular John Murray landed a cracking fresh-run 21lb salmon. He also caught and released a 10lb salmon. Both fish fell to Flying Cs, with the big fish taking a red one. Another angler to catch a salmon was Chris Barker from Langholm with a 12-pounder also caught spinning at the Locking Posts on the Tower Beat. As of now, the Esk has received more water, and anglers will be expecting appreciable runs of sea-trout and salmon to enter the river.
Anglers fishing the Esk and Liddel Angling Club waters saw fish at times, although levels were often too high. During more settled conditions, a few got lucky. Matt Beattie landed a fresh-run 3lb sea-trout, and a further fish of 4lb was caught on the BELAC fishing. Martin Coulthard lost a heavy fish in Burn Stream, and there were reports of salmon being caught above and below Canonbie.
At Burnfoot, Alan Pellow caught an excellent 20lb salmon on a home-tied Cascade while fishing the Hog Wash. Alan Wright landed a 10lb salmon on May 20 on fly, fishing the lower end of the Boxes. On the same day, with the river at a low level and odd fish showing in the pools, Dan Winstanley caught a 15lb salmon on the fly while fishing the Boxes.
In the last week in May, one of the club’s members caught six sea-trout on small Dark Flies fished in the streamier runs.
After all the rises in water, June and July should see good numbers of sea-trout and salmon running upstream, with night fishers likely to be out when levels settle and things warm up.
The Liddle and Lyne tributaries have also seen high water levels, with prospects of sea-trout and salmon runs looking good if water persists.
BLAGDON LAKE: After a somewhat slow start for boats on Blagdon over the last couple of weeks, there have been some great catches. I have transferred several of my bookings for guided trips to Blagdon as the trout are feeding on the surface so well. There have been huge hatches of buzzers – both large black and green ones and masses of smaller nondescript buzzers. This, coupled with some decent hatches of damselflies on warmer days, has encouraged the fish to feed.
Most of the action for boat anglers has been at Top End, but Bristol Water’s policy of spreading the stocking round the lake has meant fish are starting to show up in other areas such as Butcombe. I have stuck with dry-flies for all of my trips, but most anglers are catching on buzzers, Diawl Bachs, and pheasant
