River Leven.
‘Return’ of the Spring Salmon.
The landing of the first spring salmon of season 2013 was reported on Saturday, 30th of March. The fish, weighing 9lbs, was caught on the fly at the tail end of the Street Run by John Low. It was quickly photographed and returned to the river, indeed a very sporting gesture. John has just recently returned to the Leven after several years absence. Well done sir!
Photographs of the fish have still to reach us, but it’s capture has been verified. It took this Willie Gunn variant brass tube fly.
The first spring salmon last year was fly caught at Stuckie Bridge……also on Easter Saturday! What are the odds of that happening?
Needless to say the word has spread on the system like wildfire….
with a few hardy souls braving the cold easterly wind to wet a line…
Where there’s one there’s bound to be more……..
Loch Lomond.
Only a few Loch boatmen ventured out over the holiday weekend. The bailiffs reported seeing less than a dozen craft each day. Still very cold on the water, but the news of the first spring salmon will encourage a few more anglers out of hibernation.
Next month should see spring fish begin to enter the Loch in numbers. The bank holiday weekends at the beginning and end of May usually produce salmon and big sea trout to boats on the troll. After the cold winter, it’ll probably be a while before the water warms up sufficiently to please fly fishers.
Due to the lack of rain recently the Loch is very low, much lower than some have seen for years. So if you do head out, be mindful that underwater hazards that don’t normally pose a problem will be much nearer to the surface. We all know that high water isn’t good for the Loch boatman’s cause, so at least when the heavy rains do come it’ll take a bit longer for the Loch to fill up…………
JR
Contact Reports at : reports@lochlomondangling.com
