Salmon Season 2017 " The Laune River ".

 Looking upwards from Beat 1 to the Lake, the water was at medium height and running clear ideal for the fly but as I was only doing a very fast session I only brought the spinning rod and a few Flying C spinners just in case the ever elusive Springer was about. As I said last year I wasn't going to fish Beat 1 this year so after taking a few photo's of the water levels at the different Beats  I ventured down river to do some fishing.

                                                           Beat 1 looking downstream

                                                               Good water clarity.

                             
                                             Looking upstream from the Bridge to Beat 1

                                                       Looking downstream to Beat 2

     
                                                       Upstream from Beaufort Bridge

                                               Downstream from Beaufort Bridge Beat 3

                                            Johnsons Beat Laune anglers Salmon Fishery

                                                  Looking upstream from Johnsons Beat

Moving downstream I decided to start my short fishing session on the lower river and was surprised to find that it had changed so dramatically over the last few years with many of the good pools filled up with gravel and now just long shallow glides taking their place. I started fishing with a size 4 Black / Silver flying C but had to downsize to a size 3 due to the water being so shallow, moving up along the river I found a nice quiet bit of water at the end of a narrow deep run and quickly changed back to a size 4 spinner to get depth in the narrow channel and within a few casts I hit a nice fish but it came off after a few rolls. It was a nice Kelt probably around 6 lbs and very well mended and clean, fishing the pool I hit and caught a few nice spent sea trout and brownies which i quickly released. I had to stop fishing this area because the fish were packed tight and any time the spinner came down a trout hit it and there was no chance of a salmon with so many hungry trout around. I have fished the Laune for many years and was surprised to see a pod of spent salmon numbering 7 or 8 strong heading down river very fast along the shallow water being lead by a big male fish, the big fish had a few white marks but was in great condition and at the speed they were travelling would have been down in the tidal area in less than an hour. As i was only out for a couple of hours the darkness soon arrived and I had to stop fishing but with very mild weather it was a nice introduction to my 2017 salmon season, normally I'm fighting storms or snow etc. I was also testing my old waders for leaks but luckily for now my feet are dry, nothing worse than cold wet feet. The moment we get some heavy rain to bring the river up by a few feet then we can expect to see some fresh fish moving in  (fingers crossed). Here are a few photo's of some of the sea trout I caught and released.

 
                                                               The Lower Laune river