It is fair to say that for September, that most of the beats fished well for most of the time, with some good running waters, only interrupted by the occasional dirty flood. For some reason , Tower & Hollows suffered a brief lull in proceedings for a couple of days, with fish seeming to travel on the extra mile up to Irvine House before settling to the take. Tower & Hollows have excellent holding pools, but then nature can be unpredictable.
Good catches were reported from the permit beats, although because many season ticket returns are not made until the end of season, numbers reported are merely an indication. Septembers combined Esk & Liddle Fishery total of salmon caught easily topped the 100 mark and that's only the fish we have heard about so far. Many were grilse, but some big fish were also landed including a 19lb hen (returned ) by annual French visitor Antione Machinal from the Langholm Beat and a 22 lb salmon caught by P. Longstaff on Canonbie Beat.
Fishing the tranquil beauty of Low Liddle Beat, George Potts landed 4 salmon to 10lbs within a couple of days of taking out his permit. Alan Marsden also landed a grilse from Low Liddle at Ha Pool. Simon Lester landed his first ever salmon, a grilse of 4 1/2lbs up at Langholm, where R. Masterton had a grilse from the Trough and Colin Reid also had a 12 pounder from Todd Holes. Cyril Gaskell caught 4 salmon at Tommys pool Canonbie and Paul Thompson of Durham also landed an 8 1/2 lb salmon there on orange and gold tube fly. Mike Phillips of Penrith had a good scrap with a 6lb grilse in the fast waters of ' The Hush' at Canonbie ,returning the fish which was lured on Cascade shrimp fly. Peter Morley of Leeds also landed a nice 6lb grilse at Canonbie.
On Tower & Hollows beats , John Ellis landed a fresh grilse from Locking Posts and Alastair Duncan had a brace of grilse to 7lbs from Plane Trees & Shortsholm.
At Irvine house , John Richardson landed a fit 13lb salmon on fly from Boat Pool, where B. Telford caught a 10 pounder on spinner. Hilary Gostelow-Drury returned a grilse caught on spinner, by which means Bill Elliott also had a fish. Mick Benson landed 3 grilse in a day as did S. Abbot. Stephen Moore also caught a grilse on fly from Boat Pool.
A bumper two days was had by Peter Smith, landing 5 salmon from Mid Irvine followed by another 3 to 13 lbs the following day !
R. Morris, Brenda Coates and Vic Buckton all had silver grilse from Skelly Hole.
Many salmon were landed on Willow & Cauldron beats some of which are as follows,- Joe Lazenby a brace to 11lbs plus another brace subsequently , sea liced.
Husband & wife team Judith and Andrew Fryer a fresh grilse apiece to 6 3/4lbs both on shrimp fly. Glyn Maddock battered by strong winds lifted a 6 pounder on the spinning rod. Steve Gould landed 3 to 15 lbs , Paul Hurst a brace to 9 lbs, Mark Williamson 3 in a day to 12 1/2 lbs and likewise D. Laidler. Annual visitor from the south , Peter Robinson had a bumper week with 5 salmon to 14 lbs and friend John Barr also with 7 ish to 6 1/2lbs.
As October came, Esk & Liddle are still good & steady in height and colour. Fish are coming in a plenty and hopefully, falling waters will drop them in to settle nicely.
Iain Bell (fishery office 013873 81951) has asked for any anglers still holding on to Sea trout research samples to forward them for analysis and He would also like to thank all those fishers who have helped for their valuable assistance.
Catch returns for the permit beats should also be submitted by 15th November please, to address below:
Iain Bell L.M.I.F.M.
Esk and Liddle Fishery Office
Buccleuch Sporting
Ewesbank
Langholm
Dumfriesshire
DG13 0ND
Tel: 013873 81951
