After a fairly wet June, it was always likely that some fish would now be up at Smithston. Although a couple of rods had ventured out, the beat was lightly fished in general. However, on Wednesday 18th June, Committee Member Mark Colman finally broke our duck with a very nice fresh fish of 32″ estimated at 14lb.
Conditions had been good – overcast with the river running at 1’3″ or so after a good rise in the water earlier in the week. A couple of fish were briefly hooked and lost on the Middle Beat, before success came at Salmon Lies in the early evening. The fish was hooked in the faster water towards the head of the pool, and initially ran upstream into the rapids above the pool before turning fast and speeding down to the tail leaving a lot of slack line to be handlined in quickly. The fish remained on fortuitously, and jumped twice before running hard again downstream. Realising he had a very decent fresh fish on light tackle, Mark decided to let it run out the pool down into Ailsa Craig rather than risk a break. It took 40-50 yards of line while Mark was clambering over the stones between the two pools and was trying to go further down towards Roe Deer when it was eventually turned round at the tail of Ailsa Craig after a lot of sidestrain was put on it. A couple of minutes of hard pressure was put on, and the fish eventually rolled on its side and was netted after a great battle. The hook fell out in the net! The fish was measured in the net in the water and returned safely after a few minutes recovery. The successful fly was a self tied long tailed Cascade with jungle cock wings on size 10 double.
