We ended the week with 18 fish and plenty of optimism as we head towards the end of April and into May next week. Catches were generally consistent with two or three each day but there was a growing feeling that some more productive days would not be far away and Saturday would be proof of this with five fish caught. The catches were also well spread out with liced springers coming from beat 2 and beat 13 and with fish being seen across most beats daily it certainly seems like there are better numbers in the system compared to a few weeks ago. 

The week started with a continuation of the bitterly cold northerly winds which has been a near-constant feature since late March, thankfully a long overdue change in wind direction came on Friday evening to southerly.
It did not take too long for the first fish of the week to be caught with Stuart Dawson landing a 12-lb fresh fish from the Mill stream on beat 2 by 9.45am. Trevor Smith also had one on Monday from beat 12 which tipped the scales at 16-pounds, Trevor would get a second later in the week from beat 9. Matthew Morony had his first Thurso salmon from Beat 3.

David Mercer and Scott Latimer had three each for their week. Ian McDonald at 86 years young had two in two days, James Kay had one at 14-lb from beat 8, Adrian Winchester, Ian Dalton, Mike Firth and Chris Clarke all adding to the total. And a final Mention goes to Malcolm Dutchman-Smith, one of the most experienced rods that visits the Thurso landed an 11-pounder from the Cupboard pool on beat 8.

Spring finally seems to be taking hold with colourful gorse and primroses covering the braes on the lower beats, and the sounds of lambs, curlews and oystercatchers echo around the river, it has taken its time but winter seems to be a distant memory.   

Tight lines next week.