We started the week with a small lift in water levels, and with just short of five inches on the Halkirk gauge it quickly became apparent that there were a decent number of fish running, interestingly the majority of these were grilse. The fish certainly seemed interested during the first half of the week. As the week progressed the mercury rose with air temperatures as warm through the night as during the day, and the humidity was stifling, this put the fish into a bit of a slumber and increasingly difficult to tempt to a fly.

Tim Hawes had the first of the week with an older fish of 8lb from loch Beg, Momo Aoubia landed the largest of the week at 14lb from beat 9. Alan Hodgeson had two, one of 11lb and the first grilse of the year from beat 2 on Tuesday. Other catches included Pete Daniels 11lb, Henry Hunt 8lb, Eric Chollet 12lb, Bruce Clayton 9lb and Derek Smith with a 4lb grilse rounding off the catches. Other than the fish from Loch Beg the rest were fresh.

We now find ourselves in the main window for grilse arriving. While smaller in size they are tremendous fun and take little water to enter the system as was proven this week.

Tight lines next week.