Post by storlaks on Aug 5, 2007 9:07:32 GMT
Well chaps, not had much chance to input lately, but thought I'd share this with you all since it's my PB ST and I was actually salmon fishing at the time......and I'm still reliving the moment. ;D
Location : A beat on the River Doon.
Date : Sat 28th July, 10pm
Fly : Red devil 0.5in copper tube.
Line: Floating
After having had a 12lb salmon the day before on another beat I was invited to fish a beat further downstream. I had gone down just after lunch but seen nor touched nothing. I decided to wait until dusk. The water was still running 4in about summer level after a big spate on the Thursday.
I parked the car and started to walk down the beat. Unfortunately I wasn't alone in my thinking about last hour. 2 guys were in before me fishing the best pool. I said my hello and after being told nothing had been seen I decided to walk down and fish the bottom 2 pools. It would be 9.30 when I started. Nothing touched in the first pool. The bottom pool is on a sharp corner and not easiest to fish the fly. Fished through the main part of the pool.....nothing. It was 10pm and I thinking about packing up. Couple more cast at the tail.....BANG! At this moment I'm still thinking salmon or grilse. The fight was fierce and the fish must have jumped at least 8 times and almost took me out the pool, down to the next beat twice, but I managed to stay in touch and work him back up. I'm still thinking salmon. After 10-15mins of hard work I had him on his side and close to the gravel. Up it came onto the shingle and then I realised this was no salmon. Even in the fading light I could see the big square tail and the many spots below the lateral line. What a fish!
As I went to unhook I then realised the the fish had engulfed the fly and it was right down it's throat. I tried but failed to unhook without bleeding and unfortunately it had to be killed. It was a cock fish, which wasn't so bad, but nevertheless it would have been better to see such a great fish swiim away, especially on the Doon, where ST like this are like hens teeth.
Still shaking I walked back up the beat to the car. No knowing what size the fish was, I decided to pop into my friends house on the way back to Ayr. He confirmed it was a ST and we then proceeded to weigh it. 10.2lbs
He said it maybe the best ST from the Doon in 20years, but I'm not sure about that. Still a great fish.
We decided we should take scales and send them off to our local biologist at Auchincruive.
Next day I filleted the fish to share amongst family and friends.
On Monday morning I got a phone call from one of my friends who was given a couple of steaks from this fish. He had cooked the steaks on Sunday night and was half way through his dinner when he crunched on something hard. It was a pellet. This had a number on it and was obviously a tracking device which had been inplanted in the fish during it's early years in a hatchery.
Now this was interesting because the Doon don't rear sea-trout and they definately don't inplant pellets or tagging devices. This was obviously not a Doon sea-trout, so where was it from??
Next night I had a call to say that the fish originated from Wester Ross. I'm still not exacltly sure what river but it was certainly way off course when it popped up in the R. Doon. I will hopefully get full details back from the lab in Pitlochry which will clarify all.
Sorry for rabbiting on but thought it was an interesting story.
Location : A beat on the River Doon.
Date : Sat 28th July, 10pm
Fly : Red devil 0.5in copper tube.
Line: Floating
After having had a 12lb salmon the day before on another beat I was invited to fish a beat further downstream. I had gone down just after lunch but seen nor touched nothing. I decided to wait until dusk. The water was still running 4in about summer level after a big spate on the Thursday.
I parked the car and started to walk down the beat. Unfortunately I wasn't alone in my thinking about last hour. 2 guys were in before me fishing the best pool. I said my hello and after being told nothing had been seen I decided to walk down and fish the bottom 2 pools. It would be 9.30 when I started. Nothing touched in the first pool. The bottom pool is on a sharp corner and not easiest to fish the fly. Fished through the main part of the pool.....nothing. It was 10pm and I thinking about packing up. Couple more cast at the tail.....BANG! At this moment I'm still thinking salmon or grilse. The fight was fierce and the fish must have jumped at least 8 times and almost took me out the pool, down to the next beat twice, but I managed to stay in touch and work him back up. I'm still thinking salmon. After 10-15mins of hard work I had him on his side and close to the gravel. Up it came onto the shingle and then I realised this was no salmon. Even in the fading light I could see the big square tail and the many spots below the lateral line. What a fish!
As I went to unhook I then realised the the fish had engulfed the fly and it was right down it's throat. I tried but failed to unhook without bleeding and unfortunately it had to be killed. It was a cock fish, which wasn't so bad, but nevertheless it would have been better to see such a great fish swiim away, especially on the Doon, where ST like this are like hens teeth.
Still shaking I walked back up the beat to the car. No knowing what size the fish was, I decided to pop into my friends house on the way back to Ayr. He confirmed it was a ST and we then proceeded to weigh it. 10.2lbs
He said it maybe the best ST from the Doon in 20years, but I'm not sure about that. Still a great fish.We decided we should take scales and send them off to our local biologist at Auchincruive.
Next day I filleted the fish to share amongst family and friends.
On Monday morning I got a phone call from one of my friends who was given a couple of steaks from this fish. He had cooked the steaks on Sunday night and was half way through his dinner when he crunched on something hard. It was a pellet. This had a number on it and was obviously a tracking device which had been inplanted in the fish during it's early years in a hatchery.
Now this was interesting because the Doon don't rear sea-trout and they definately don't inplant pellets or tagging devices. This was obviously not a Doon sea-trout, so where was it from??
Next night I had a call to say that the fish originated from Wester Ross. I'm still not exacltly sure what river but it was certainly way off course when it popped up in the R. Doon. I will hopefully get full details back from the lab in Pitlochry which will clarify all.
Sorry for rabbiting on but thought it was an interesting story.
They are quite a migratory fish - over here in Ireland we get a lot of decent sized sea trout in Strangford Lough, you get some in the local rivers but not as many as you would think. It seems these are not local fish with many people thinking that they are actually Welsh fish 