Ness

[tyneandrew]

Any news on how the Ness is doing after their bad summer last year?

[windcutter]

Spoke to a well known ness man today(bumped into him in paisley)who tells me it's picking up.dochfur had 20 last week and ness side around 15.I am up there for last 3 days of the month so will let you know what the score is then
cheers

[tyneandrew]

Thanks windcutter - interesting to get a feel on what is happening on different rivers at the moment

[fishingd0]

The fish arrived in numbers this week. At Ness Castle we have had 18 so far this week and lost as many. Things should improve on a daily basis.

[windcutter]

5 today off ness side,3grilse and 2 fuish,i'm on thurs /sat so will let you know more later

just in 6 for day,1 at last light

[fishingd0]

Good run of fish on the go. We had 13 on Ness Castle today loosing a further 7, for four rods.

A lot of fish holding in the beat. Things look good for the rest of the week.

[juniorspey]

gord, leave some for october!!!

[tombee]

If you want to check out Ness then take a look at this lonk to Highland News:

www.highland-news.co.uk/

[tombee]

Sorry, missed a wee bit off there.

Just go to the local sport link and then angling

Paper in hardcopy and online is available every Thursday

[tombee]

lonk = link

[robbie]

Mony thonks

[altmor]

Ness Side now fishing well. 45 fish for the week two weeks ago, and I was up for the last three days last week.

Tally for the week was 21, with the first couple of days only being fished lightly by two rods.

Water height for the most part last week was high and slightly rising (ending the week with 33in on the gauge).

Big run of fresh fish went through on Saturday pm - silver and licers. Our party had 10 for the day - nine in the afternoon.

Myself, ended up with 4 landed (3 returned), 2 lost at the net and a brief encounter with another for the 3 days.

Heaviest fish in the 10lb class - superb torpedoes and as said, majority clean with lice. Only a couple noted with swollen/red vents.

Even with water levels high, floaters with sinking braid leaders were doing the damage.

This one retained :



And a close-up of the "killer" fly :



Great sport as the fish are only 3 miles or so off the tide - you don't get much better than that.

Altmor.

[clydebuilt]

Lovely fish altmor, what was the flee?

[altmor]

Clydebuilt,

The fish were generally all like that - so clean and fit.

The flee - one I tie myself - basically a cascade with a red "target" tag in the middle of the lower holographic silver body and with jungle cock cheeks added.

Has proved deadly on the Awe and Ewe this season, and thought I'd give it a swim on the Ness. With 4 hits on day one - I kept it on for the next two days.

For "autumn fishing", I tie in a touch of copper to the body - just above the red tag - works well in Sept and Oct. This one was silver, red, silver though.

Cheers,

Altmor.

PS Red thread and clear varnish as opposed to the traditional Cascade (black) on the head. This fly size - No8.

[tombee]

The Highland News is reporting some very good catches on the Ness, especially on the Inverness association waters as well as other beats. www.highland-news.co.uk/news/categoryfront.php/id/112/Angling.html
Have had a few grilse myself lately, but I fish the tidal section just above Friar's Bridge.
Walking back home from the town centre (oops...City centre) today, crossing the "Wobbly" Bridge, between Friar's Bridge and Ness Bridge, I looked down at the water and saw a seal staring back at me. Got home and looking out my flat window...3 seals were sticking their heads out of the water .
Has anyone caught seal damaged fish?
There must be a way of controlling the seals. They must only come into the river to search out food....salmon (and trout). There must be a way of controlling them....I know they are protected ...but!

[altmor]

Thanks for the link Tombee,

Nice to see a mention in the Highland News. Had I known WG was on the beat above I'd have popped up to see him.

Re the seals - I've always thought a couple of submerged Orca dummies at the estury/ river mouth might help to stop seals entering the river. The visual deterent sending them back out to sea.

Trouble with the Ness and other such large rivers is the size of the esturies. That said the salmon will usually run a steady course through the estury into the rivers - so concentrating Orca on known fish lines might at least help, as it will be those same fish lines the seals follow.

Good point, something needs to be done to control them. No different to culling deer on the hill IMO.

Altmor.

[salmonshrimp]

The angling club has a website and I think, after a slow start, sport has been reasonably good all season with the odd pocket of fresh fish still coming in from the tide.
www.invernessanglingclub.co.uk