River Findhorn Salmon Fishing Season Review 2016

This is my season review for 2016 — one of four archive posts where I’ve gathered together my fishing reports from earlier years on the River Findhorn. The week-by-week detail from those original reports is condensed here into a single record of the season: the conditions, the memorable fish, and the anglers who caught them.

An Early Start to Spring

The season opened on the Rivers Findhorn and Spey on February 11th, and we didn’t have long to wait. On February 22nd, Leslie Tyson was fishing Altyre Estate’s Lower Beat with the water at 1’2″ on the Forres gauge. He caught a cracking fresh spring salmon of around 18 lbs. from the Roan Pool on a black and yellow tube fly — the first reported fish caught and released from the River Findhorn that season, with six kelts added to his tally the same day.

March brought cold, sunny conditions with ample snow on the hills above the Findhorn and Spey catchments — always a good omen for the spring weeks ahead. On March 8th, Lukasz Materek hooked his first fresh fish of the year from Soldier’s Hole, a deep spring salmon of around 14 lbs. taken on a Tiger tail Snaelda fished on a sink tip line.

The Spey fished well too. David Tisdale’s party enjoyed a superb early spring week on Upper Arndilly from March 14th, landing five spring salmon between 7 lbs. and 16 lbs., most of them from the Heathery Isle Pool on Monkey and Willie Gunn tube flies.

Snow, Sea Lice and a Remarkable Late April

Late April saw winter return to the Highlands with a vengeance — heavy snow on high and low ground, driven by a bitterly cold northerly wind. Yet the fish kept coming. On April 27th, Lukasz Materek caught and released two fresh fish of 7–8 lbs. from the Roan Pool between snow showers.

Then came one of the finest spells of the whole season. On April 29th, Leslie Tyson took three sea-liced fish of 7–8 lbs. and a sea trout from the Roan Pool, and I added another of around 8 lbs. on a ½” Purple Cascade tube. On April 30th, with the river at a perfect 1’5″, eight fish were hooked and landed on Altyre Estate in a single day — including three to my own rod in around four hours, and a 14-pounder to Leslie on a Sunray Shadow just before dark. Eleven salmon and a sea trout for the week: spring fishing at its very best.

Low Water, Big Fish

May turned dry, and river levels fell right away. Hardy/Greys spent a week filming a promotional video on Altyre Estate, with fresh fish showing every day but proving hard to tempt. The most extraordinary moment came on May 17th, when Leslie Tyson hooked a very big fish in barely 3″ of water below Bertha Pool. It took him all the way down past the Darnaway Meads hut before the hooks fell out — both completely straightened. The biggest fish he had ever encountered.

A welcome lift in water on May 23rd gave us a memorable day on Glenferness Estate’s Mini Daltra beat, where Lukasz beached a beautiful sea-liced springer of around 10 lbs. from the Garden Pool — fish running hard straight through from the lower beats.

Summer Grilse on Every Tide

June fished superbly whenever the water allowed. Leslie Tyson had an amazing couple of hours after work on June 20th, releasing three fresh sea-liced fish of 6, 10 and 12 lbs. from Bertha’s and Roan Pools on a 1″ Ally Dog tube. The following day Dr. James Anderson landed a cracking 13-pounder from the Roan. And on June 25th, in brown and murky water on Glenferness that should have sent us home early, I hooked a fresh 11 lb. fish from the Garden Pool on a Purple Cascade — proof that it’s always worth a cast.

Through July and August the grilse ran in off every tide. One highlight was welcoming the Hardy family from Mauritius, whose two boys — aged eleven and thirteen — took to Spey casting wonderfully quickly and each hooked a fish in the Roan Pool during their very first morning.

A Dramatic Finish

Late August brought the lowest water of the summer — just 2″ on the Forres gauge — under hot, humid high pressure. When the rain finally arrived in early September, the river came alive. On September 3rd, Daryl Ewer hooked, landed and released a cracking fresh salmon of around 15 lbs. from the Roehillock Pool on a size 6 Gene Genie, followed shortly by a coloured cock fish of around 20 lbs. from the same pool. A fitting end to a season that gave us superb sport in everything from snowstorms to drought.

If reading this has you itching to swing a fly through these pools yourself, take a look at my guided salmon fishing days on the River Findhorn, or get in touch to talk about the season ahead.