The rain from the previous weekend left the river in fine order on Monday with the gauge in Halkirk reading a very welcoming 18 inches, loch More was still a few feet from full but that would change on Tuesday after further torrential rain pushed loch more over the top of the dam and raising river levels to 27 inches on Wednesday afternoon. 

This rise left the lower river unsettled on Wednesday which was reflected in the catches, by Thursday morning the whole river was back in fine fettle. Meteorological autumn began on Friday but anyone would be forgiven for thinking that summer had returned with high pressure giving a mix of light winds and clear skies and a marked difference in air temperatures with Saturday topping out at 23'c.

Whilst a number of Thurso regulars put multiple fish in the book this week we had a number of successful new anglers who deserve a mention. 

Robert Bull and John Miller enjoyed their first experience of the river taking eight in three days, Tim Brown had his first ever salmon, an 18-pounder from beat 9, David Montgomery had a brace from beat 2, Guy Russel and Charlie Sutherland had a fish each from beat 3, Lawrence Callcut and Angus McGregor also had a fish each. Last but not least Shelley Neville caught her first Thurso salmon from beat 9 and quickly followed this up with her second an hour later. Well done to everyone who had fish this week.

We are starting to see the subtle changes that comes as we move from summer to autumn, the nights are getting longer and cooler, summer visitors such as the osprey and sand martins have left, the first of the geese arrived earlier this week, the trees are losing there bright green plumage and many of the salmon in the river are are losing the bright silver sheen as their bodies slowly change as the edge closer to spawning the next generation of salmon in November.

Tight lines next week