Latest Catches
We aim to provide weekly fishing reports for the River Alness on this page throughout the main salmon season from July. We can only report what we know about though, so if you catch a salmon or grilse, sea-trout or quality brown trout on the River Alness, on any of the Novar, Kildermorie, Ardross Castle or Alness Angling Club waters, then e-mail us and we will include it in our catch reports: catches@salmonquest.co.uk
If you've a good photo of your catch that you want to share then please attach it. Photos should be in JPEG format and less than 1 MB in size, preferably 400-600 KB. We will edit it for publishing on the web.
Week Ending 02/08/08
Water levels at the beginning of the week were just 1-1.5" above summer low. Prolonged light rain on Thursday evening and overnight through to Friday morning eventually produced a spate through the Blackwater on Friday night reaching about 13" above summer low, though the water level fell away quickly. Very little rain fell in the Loch Morie catchment. In all 13 fish were caught during the week on the Novar beats. Andrew Monaghan and Mark Taylor both caught grilse before the rise in water level, but most of the fish caught were on the Saturday. Mark’s fish was his first salmon, a 5 lbs grilse from Beat 6 and he caught his second on the Saturday from Beat 5 where his fishing companion Phil Jenkins also notched his first fish, a 4lbs grilse.
Phil Jenkins
Week Ending 26/07/08
Background water levels fell away from + 3" at the beginning of the week to + 1" by Friday. Despite the low water levels grilse entered the lower part of the river in significant numbers, but they were unable to pass the weir in Alness. A freshet released on Friday raised the water level by 5" allowing the fish passage, and they quickly ran through dispersing through the length of the river becoming hard to find. There was little angling effort on the Novar beats and no fish were caught.
Week Ending 19/07/08
Weather forecasts looked good for the week, but they were hopelessly wrong, and the heavy rain forecast never materialised, just drizzle and a few light showers. Base water levels were at 1.5 to 2" above summer low, and the river did rise at the end of the week, but only by 1.5 in, not enough to get any fish moving. Just 2 salmon were caught on the Novar beats, but these included a first salmon for Giuseppi Orsi from Milan (a 4lb grilse from Beat 6), and a 9lb salmon to Mike Allen from Tain caught on Beat 5 on the Saturday. There was also a first sea trout for Harry Lees-Buckley caught at night on Beat 4. Rain is needed, but the forecast is for fine weather.
Week Ending 12/07/08
Hopes of a return to early grilse runs were short lived, though there was a run of grilse through the lower beats on the Tuesday. Despite a small rise in the river level to plus 6" on the 8th, just 2 salmon were caught for the week including a 9lb fish to Alaster Robertson from Beat 3 on the Tuesday, and 2 sea trout, one to Jamie Stenhouse the other to Alex Hook.
Week Ending 05/07/08
Water levels were low at just 1 to 2” above summer low all week, and with no visiting anglers the fishing was largely ignored by the seasonal lets with the result that there were no catches on the Novar Beats.
June 2008
There was almost no rain locally and throughout the Northern Highlands for most of May and the first 3 weeks of June, and like all rivers (with the exception of those with hydro-electric schemes on them), water levels were at or below normal summer lows for most of this period, with the result that there were very few fish entering the river.
Rain finally came on the 22nd and there was a good but short lived spate of 2½ ft on the 23rd producing a good run of both spring salmon and grilse through the Novar beats. Peter McAllister caught 4 on Beat 5 on the Monday, all grilse between 5 and 6½ lbs. 3 more grilse were caught during the week, the last on the Saturday a grilse of 6½ lbs caught by John Cameron from Dingwall in Topham’s Pot, Beat 3.
A fish was also lost on Beat 2, showing that salmon & grilse had taken advantage of the conditions with some running through to the upper beats and probably through to Loch Morie also.
