April on the Tay

The problem with turning up to fish on the River Tay in the spring is that the fishing has been so poor in recent years I find it difficult to raise any sense of optimism and, believe me, I am an optimist.

No matter, it's good to practice my casting. On the Monday morning I had been fishing just 20 minutes at a place they call the "little shot" - an old netting spot - on the Benchill beat of the Upper Scone fishings, when I had the strongest of pulls on the fly.

I had run a Black Frances through the pool on an intermediate line with a fast-sinking tip, and had just changed the fly to a Temple Dog.

I retraced my steps on the bank and, after about three or four casts, hooked in to a salmon. Could it have been the same fish? Unfortunately I lost it after two or three minutes, but it was a reminder that I shouldn't have been so complacent. Fish were running and, although they weren't stopping, there was always the chance of a take.

On the Tuesday it rained heavily, leaving the water coloured for much of Wednesday. On the Thursday I was fishing the Cawnpore pool just opposite Stanley Mills when a fish took my fly just three or four yards from the bank. It was not a big fish, about 8 lbs, but it stripped off a lot of line before I beached it and returned it, having left my landing net at home.

On the Saturday morning I hooked in to another a little further down the same bank but this too, came off after a couple of minutes. I noticed that the landed fish was lightly hooked. These were fast running fish, hitting the fly from behind, not turning on it in the classic take.

Our group had six fish for the week, not great but a hell of a lot better than some recent years when the return has been one or two or none at all. Had all the lost fish held we would have been in double figures.

It was satisfying too, that the bank outfished the harling boats, with four coming from the bank, three on "flying C" spinners. I was the only one fishing fly but it fished just as well as the spinners. In fact I would argue that it fished better because it fishes a little more slowly.

It's too early to be optimistic about the Tay but the spring runs do seem to be improving gradually. It will be interesting to compare this with the Dee in a week's time.

Another big Scottish salmon

Did you see the report that a 40+ pounds salmon had been caught on the River Dee last week at Banchory? It was caught on the Lower Blackhall beat a few miles east of Potarch Bridge pictured here.

The measured length, according to its captor, Nick Craigs, was 53 inches, pointing to an extremely large fish. He has made a relatively conservative estimate on weight of 42 pounds (still the fish of a lifetime, for sure, but nowhere near as big as the claimed length would suggest).

If you look at the Sturdy Scale for calculating the weight of salmon, a 42 pound fish equates to a length of 46 ins. Against the measure of 53 ins is the hallowed weight of 64 pounds. I say hallowed, of course, because this was the weight of the British record salmon caught by Georgina Ballantine in 1922.

Poor Mr Craigs. Unlike the giant salmon caught by Donald Milne on the Ness last October, there were no other witnesses to this catch. No photographs either. And here we are with yet another measure that would appear to challenge the British record.

It should be noted that a 64 pound fish would indeed have been a record of sorts because the Dee is fly only and Miss Ballantine's fish was hooked using the harling method. A fly caught fish of this size really is in exclusive company. Only six (three in Scotland, one in England and two in Norway)of 64 lb and above are listed in Fred Buller's authoritative book, The Domesday Book of Giant Salmon. Why didn't any of these secure the British record, you may ask? It's all to do with authentication.

Poor Mr Craigs. For the rest of his life he must live with questions about that fish, not least those he will ask of himself. How carefully did he make his measure? Could there have been a teensy weency slip up, some nagging doubt? If not, why be so conservative? As he says in his account it was dusk when he landed the fish.

If I were him I would say to hell with the naysayers. I have caught a few big fish (by big here I'm talking closer to the 20 lb mark) and lost one or two larger ones when fishing alone. I know what they were. Today they are nothing but memories. But what memories. This one will be his great memory - something for the grandchildren. The fish itself was returned (in line with Dee fishing policy) to breed yet more big fish.

There are going to be many more stories such as this in the coming year or so. the bigger fish are coming back, I have no doubt. We are unlikely to see the Ballantine record broken for the simple reason that more and more anglers, like Mr Craigs, are returning their catch and that has to be a good thing. Let's leave the record talk and the disputes to the bar room and congratulate those who fulfill the dream of every salmon angler.