Latest Catches
 We aim to provide weekly fishing reports for the River Alness on this page throughout the main salmon season from July. If you catch a salmon, sea-trout or quality brown trout on any of the Alness fishings, then e-mail us the details via the enquiries page and we will include it in our catch reports.
The index provides access to weekly catch reports since July 2009. Click on the links below to read the fishing reports for earlier seasons.
Novar 03/10/09by Novar Fishings Manager - 15:43 on 04 October 2009Autumn Leaves On The Line
After over 3 weeks without rain, the dry spell finally broke on Monday night with a resultant rise of 10 in on the Tuesday. There seemed to be no significant run of fish into the river and disappointingly the fishing continued to be tough. Prolonged rain on Friday and Saturday resulted in a bigger spate on Saturday reaching + 2ft, and peaking this morning (Sunday) at 1.25 m (+ 2ft 9in). As the water rose, fish did start to move, but then ‘tucked in’ when the water got too high. Ordinarily this would have produced good catches but fishing was severely hampered by gale force winds gusting to 60 mph and a large fall of leaves, which made the beats virtually unfishable. 19 salmon and grilse are currently known to have been caught on the Novar beats for the week, including one 'first salmon'.
Terry Young from London topped the catches with 4 fish for his 5 days, all to an orange and black brass tube, and fishing buddy ‘Paulie’ Collins caught his first fish on Wednesday from Beat 5. The only anglers known to have caught on Saturday were Alan Morrison from Edinburgh who landed 2 salmon of 10 lbs and 7 lbs from Beat 4, the smaller of which was a fresh fish, and Derrick Jones from Devon with a 7 lbs fish from Beat 2.
The water level is currently at approx + 2ft 6in above summer low, but this will drop quickly initially, so should be at around + 1ft 8in to 2ft for the start of the week. Sink tips and brass/copper tubes of 1.5 to 2 inches will be required! There is more rain in the forecast for later in the week, but regardless water levels will be good all week. Conditions should be perfect over the next few days and combined with spring tides will hopefully result in a run of fresh fish.
06/10/09 p.s. thanks to Rob Mason who reported 'dozens of fish' running Beat 6 on Tuesday, but 'untouchable' - activity can vary daily across the beats, and although we're on the river daily, it always takes a few days after the end of the week to get all the reports in and to get the full picture.
BTW, for those wondering whether the big spate produced a run of fresh fish and good catches - Yes!, at least 25 fish caught on Monday and Tuesday and fresh fish seen running yesterday, though the water was up again today(!) and for the most part the fish have stopped running and taken cover for the moment. See next week's report for more details.
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