I was recently kindly invited to fish a private beat on the North Esk by my good friend and very experienced angler Alan at the end of July. Needing absolutely no persuasion I jumped at the chance to fish two days at the end of the week. The river had risen substantially earlier in the week and Alan and Stuart who is also a very experienced salmon fisher had landed some beautiful salmon, grilse and sea trout examples of which can be seen below.

Some cracking fish for Alan earlier in the week

Upon arrival and after a great walk through of each beat and the various pools I couldn’t wait to get a line out the next day and also give a new LOOP outfit purchased during lock down a first outing. However when Alan indicated that it would be a 4.00am start this rocked me somewhat – was he serious?

After a 4.00am start, as can be seen I did connect albeit briefly with one of the locals during first early shift but alas it didn’t stick after charging towards me. Hearing my curses and seeing my disappointment Alan did try to console me by saying that this running towards you trait was what they had been doing all week! One bonus was that the fish had taken one of my ‘fledgling’ gold bodied cascades that I had tied during the close season.

Unfortunately fish proved more difficult to tempt in the falling water despite each pool being absolutely full of fish. I have never that I can recall seen so many fish in a river but despite repeated efforts during early and evening sessions they did not appear to be tempted by various patterns or spinners. Alan did say that this was common when the river height had dropped to low levels. Upon reflection, as always, perhaps it may have been worth pulling a large sunray or hitch across their nose may have produced a reaction or even a big ugly muddler!

What a truly wonderful few days on this beautiful iconic river.

Thank you Alan and Stuart for your kind invitation, advice and tips so freely shared and I look forward to hopefully being able to fish this stunning water once more.