Monday morning offered our anglers a dropping and clearing river after a decent lift on Sunday, and with 19 inches on the Halkirk gauge expectations were high for a productive week, and it certainly did not disappoint with a final total of 93, our best week of the season. It was particularly encouraging to see a good spread of catches throughout the river. Beats like five and six that are often overlooked showed this week what they are capable of catching given the right conditions. 

We had a mix of regular a new faces on the river this week. Philip Pledger landed six on his fourth visit to us this year. Helgi Vetas and his team of rods from Norway excelled landing well over 20. Dia Gingell, Damian Roe and Tim Williams along with their ghillie Eddie Bremner also landed over 20. Brothers Derek and Tom Woodcock shared six. Fiona Bell-Irvine, Mark Newton and Johny Turnbull also adding to the total.

We also had a few first-time visitors to the river who enjoyed their visit. Neil Richardson had four in two days, Peter Wilton with five, including three in an hour from beat 3. Charles and Rosie Lowry had two each. Fiona Gibson and Etta Madocks-Wright also landing their first Thurso salmon.

Looking ahead, Loch More is only a few feet away from full, and with further rain forecast early next week we will have plenty of water to see the season out. While it was warm at times over the last six days it has been noticeably cooler at night. Our Summer visitors such as the osprey and sandmartins have departed and we are now seeing large numbers of geese arriving, a sure sign summer is all but gone.

Tight lines next week.