River Tay - Newtyle 22/4/16
It was mid-April and we had heard that sea liced fish were being regularly caught from Loch Tay. This was no surprise as Tay springers often run hard, especially when the water temperature begins to rise. Catches on the Tay itself had been decent and we felt that the best chance of catching a fish would be on the middle river. Traditionally, the Middle Tay starts to fish well from early April onwards. It is at this time of year that the fish running the River Tummel begin to appear in greater numbers. We decided to give our good friend Andy Gunn, Head Ghillie, on the Newtyle beat a call, to see what conditions were like. Andy was enthusiastic as always and said that there had been fish caught from the beat in recent days and the prospects were looking good. We, therefore, had no hesitation in booking the boat for the day.
A sparkling start to the morning
Monday morning dawned bright and crisp. There was a hint of frost in the air as we set off in the car. The sun shone brightly from the backdrop of a sparkling blue sky. We were greeted by a great throng of enthusiasm on arriving at the beat, which is common at most fishing huts on a Monday morning. The beat was fully booked. It was great to chat to our fellow anglers whilst enjoying a hot cup of coffee. A party from Wales had come to fish the beat for three days and the banter with the Welsh lads was good. Andy suggested that we started the morning by harling at the top of the beat, as he had a hunch that the Ferry pool could produce that Monday morning fish. With Andy’s two canine companions on board, we headed upstream in the boat.
The views from the boat were stunning and with the sun beating down, the Newtyle beat looked a picture. Andy felt that it would be best to concentrate our efforts on areas where we were most likely to intercept running fish and the neck of the Ferry pool was definitely one of those spots. The beauty about the neck of the Ferry pool is that there is only one deep channel through which the fish can run. If we covered the channel with different lures from the boat, we would have as good a chance as any of getting the rod bent.
Man's best friend keeping an eye out for the silver tourist on the way up to the Ferry pool
The Ferry pool was looking in tiptop condition and the run flowing into it was mouth watering. We decided to fish three rods. The two rods on either side of the boat were set up with a pink and pearly Tomic and a green and yellow Kynoch Killer. The rod at the back of the boat had a green and silver Vision 110 on it and was fished on a long line. Before we even had a chance to get all three rods out my wife announced which two of the three rods would be hers in the event of a fish taking. Personally, I did not think this was very sporting or democratic of her but I suppose when your husband is consistently catching more fish than you, it can become a bit unpalatable!
By now it was beginning to cloud over and a chilly easterly wind had developed. Upstream, we could see the majestic bridge at Dunkeld spanning across the river. It was great to chat to Andy on how his season had gone so far. He explained that river levels were finally beginning to drop and things were shaping up nicely for the remainder of the spring ahead. We covered every inch of the Ferry pool, combing it thoroughly with the three lures. We did not even see a fish let alone get a tug. Andy suggested that we made a quick lure change and then cover the same water again. This seemed logical to me, as it was clear that the fish had been running hard in the past few days and all we needed was a pod of springers to come through and for one of them to intercept our lures.
We decided to persist with the pink and pearly Tomic because it is such a good spring lure but change the yellow and green Kynoch Killer, to one which was black and gold in colour. I decided to change the Vision 110 to my favourite Western Clown. I don’t think Andy was too impressed with this but I was determined to prove him wrong.
Looking upstream towards the neck of the Ferry pool
We motored back up to the head of the Ferry pool and started harling again. Andy, kind man that he is decided to share his mid-morning snack with us, which consisted of some dairylee dunkers. I thought this was very charitable of him! It was now feeling really chilly in the strengthening easterly wind. The low cloud that often accompanies an easterly wind had started to produce some drizzle. What a contrast to how the morning had started. I could see my wife watching the rods intently just waiting to pounce! Unfortunately, a rod did not buckle and we went back to the hut at lunchtime empty handed.
All our spirits were lifted at lunchtime with the news that a cracking sixteen-pound spring salmon had been landed in the Stepps pool. This gave us a renewed sense of optimism for the afternoon ahead. It was great chatting to our Welsh friends over lunch about how the fishing had been in Wales over the past few seasons. Indeed, tales of the big welsh sea trout our friends regularly caught made me feel a bit jealous.
Andy felt that we should cover the lower part of the beat in the afternoon. He wanted to persist with the tactic of harling in areas where we were most likely to come across running fish and who was I to argue? We decided to continue with the same lures and harl the Stepps pool first.
The tail of the Stepps pool
The Stepps is a classic Middle Tay pool. It has a nice gravel bottom on one side, which gradually shelves away into a deep channel. There is a good narrow run at the head of the pool, which makes it an ideal ambush point for any running fish. The tail of the pool is split in two by an Island and the fish usually travel up one side of the river though a gap which is barely twenty feet wide.
The wind had began to drop and it was feeling milder now. We were then greeted by one of the most spectacular sights any angler could hope to witness. Above us, an Osprey was hovering. It must have only recently made it’s long migration over to Scotland. It looked majestic in the air beating its wings gracefully. Both my wife and I felt really privileged to witness such a stunning bird. We continued harling down the far side of the Stepps pool. Peering over the side of the boat, I could almost see every stone on the river riverbed, through the crystal clear water. By now it was mid-afternoon and spirits were beginning to sag a little due to the lack of action. However, I managed to put a smile on everyone’s face by handing out three Wispa chocolate bars that I had stolen from Andy’s secret chocolate drawer in the hut. Andy was delighted at the fact that I was handing out chocolate but little did he know, they were his!
After enjoying what tasted like the best bar of chocolate in the world (because it belonged to Andy) we decided to have a final lure change. Andy had a plan. He wanted to cover the deep narrow channel at the tail of the pool. The channel was no more than twenty feet wide and only three feet deep. It initially did feel a bit leftfield to me but to humour him I went along with his plan! We decided to change all our lures to ones, which were shallow running, due to the depth of water. We decided to opt for two Rapalas and a Vision X120. We started harling again, moving back and forth, covering the deep channel at the tail of the pool. We were having a heated debate about where in Scotland the best place was to go on a sea trout fishing holiday, when without warning, the rod at the back of the boat buckled and nearly shot into the river. Fortunately, for me, it was not one of the rods that my wife had made claim to at the start of the day. I picked up the rod maintaining strain on the fish. Initially, the fish did not do much. Indeed, the fish just started swimming towards me as the boat was steered moved to the bank. At one point the fish appeared to be so placid that I thought it was a trout. My wife and Andy managed to get the other lines in and Andy expertly steered the boat into the bank and dropped anchor. It was at that point all the fun and games started. The fish obviously did not find the shallow water appealing. It surged off downstream stripping line from the reel at will. I quickly realised that this was no trout. The fish then cart wheeled out of the water and there was no mistaking the bright silver flank of a Tay springer.
Heart stopping moments during the fight
I managed to gain some control over the fish but this did not last long as it decided to run upstream. It was slowly but purposefully pulling line from the reel and this was in spite of the drag being set quite tightly. I managed to turn the fish and it started coming back towards the boat rapidly. By now Andy had the net ready and was just waiting for his opportunity. I managed to get the head of the fish up as it came closer to the boat. It rolled tantalisingly on the surface of the water and I could see the hook hanging perilously from it’s mouth. I steered the fish towards the net and Andy made no mistake.
The sea liced fish weighed just over ten pounds and was in excellent condition. It had taken an 11cm shallow running blue and silver Rapala. After a quick photograph, the fish was released unharmed, to carry on with it’s journey upstream.
We were all delighted, even my wife, dare I say it. Well, at least I think she was! Andy had called it right; concentrating on areas where we were most likely to encounter running fish had clearly paid off. It was now just after five, so we decided to call it a day. Back at the hut, it was good to hear that some of the other anglers fishing the beat had seen fish. The sun was now coming out again as the sky overhead was turning from a pale grey to a brighter blue. We saw the Osprey swooping down into the water in the distance; hopefully, it was going to be as lucky as we were.
The unlucky fish, with the lucky angler!
On the way home both my wife and I reflected on what had been a special day. We had seen the Osprey for the first time this season, enjoyed eating some of Andy’s dairylee dunkers and caught a nice springer. Best of all was that I had found Andy Gunn’s secret chocolate drawer in the Newtyle hut and stolen his Wispas, without him even knowing. Now that’s an achievement to be proud off!