For the first time this season, it felt like all the stars finally aligned for the Thurso over the past six days, decent overheads for the most part along with a significant lift in river levels mid-week gave us a total of 39 for the week, more than doubling the catch for the previous three weeks. With 20 inches on the gauge on Wednesday fresh fish began to run in from the sea which confirmed that salmon had begun to gather in the estuary over the past few weeks due to unseasonably warm weather and dropping river levels.  

John Graham didn't hang about on Monday morning taking one from the rock pool on beat 9 in his first few casts, John would add a further two to his tally for the week. Toby Andersson had four, Local rods Ronnie Plowman and Hugo Ross had two each, Sigi Hummelsberger, Tim Graham, John Goodman and Chris Adcock all adding two fish a piece to the total. 

We also had a few firsts this week. Finn McCarthy caught his first from the Thurso on beat 3 and followed this up with a further two. Nick Freeman had his first Atlantic salmon on Friday from beat 13 and a second on Saturday from Loch More. Mark Czerniakiewicz from Inverness also had his first taste of the river and was rewarded with a fresh run salmon from beat 2. John Stephens had the final fish of the week late on Saturday night from beat 9.

All the fish this week were in the 8-16 pound class and the first grilse is still to be caught despite a good few being seen and hooked. With further periods of unsettled weather and below-average temperatures prospects for next week look a little rosier than seven days ago.
Tight lines next week.