The week began with the treat of heavy which arrived late on Monday and into Tuesday. By Wednesday the river peaked at 20 inches on the Halkirk gauge, thankfully it settled quickly with fish not taking long to come on the take. Following this, catches continued to be strong resulting in our best week of the season with 76 salmon and grilse landed. The fishing was improved not only by the rise in water levels, but also a drop in both air and water temperatures due to a cold northerly wind, this brought water temperatures down to its lowest  in three months. 

Colin Sommerville and his team of rods, including Craig Ramsay, Colin Lowson, Charles Mullins and Graham Wilson  had an outstanding week landing well over twenty between them. The Parramore Party also enjoyed a productive week also landing over twenty. Mark Parramore and Mark Miller shared ten. While Stuart Nicholson, Alister Lee, Tom Carter and Laurént Barre all caught. Special mention goes to the ladies of the party who caught their first Thurso salmon, Liz Lee and Eileen Henderson. Vicki Jagger landed one from beat 9, Francis Sandison had three and Matias Stocker landed seven in two days.

The catches over the last six days have been long overdue demonstrating the significant impact of favourable conditions. While a good number of the salmon landed have been coloured there was still a notable number of cleaner fish amongst them that have been clearly hanging about the estuary for a number of weeks.

Tight Lines next week.