We have had a very promising start to the 2026 season, helped by a couple of good rises in the water so far in June. 4 salmon have been landed to date, with another couple lost. The best fish has been a cracker of 20lb from Polnessan Pool. One fish was very
Our original rental syndicate offering 1 named day per week throughout the season is now fully rodded. Due to the success of this, and continued expressions of interest, we have been able to set up a second syndicate. We do not have sufficient spare capacity to operate this all season, due to
Every year we usually get one or two fish at or just over the 20lb mark at Smithston, sometimes a few....however the biggest fish in recent years has been around 21lb or so....until now..... The daughter of one of our members landed this huge 'crocodile' of a cock fish from McSevenies last
One of our veteran and experienced rods, Richard Bellamy sent us this stirring tale, which is reproduced in full below.....for those of you who know Smithston, it is almost impossible to comprehend how a fish can be followed from the Lang Pool to the Hut Pool.... "On Friday (19th September) the water
It's been quite a challenging season - we had a few nice fish in late June and early July, but since then it's been quite hard work. August was down a fair bit on most recent years, partly down to lack of water and warm sunny weather for much of the month.
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
There is now only one vacancy in our rental syndicate for 2025, for a Wednesday rod. The cost is £400 for the season. For further details, please contact us via this website or email us at .
October started quietly, with a continuation of the prolonged dry spell and sunny days which we saw for much of September. This made fishing challenging, and only the odd fish being caught, although it has to be said that fishing effort for part of the month was relatively light again . However,
The beat was hardly fished in the first week of September, as water levels dropped and sunny and warmer weather prevailed. However, a brief spate on 8/9 September changed things, and 8 salmon were caught in the second week, as the river dropped steadily all week. Again, fishing effort was light, with
We have had 28 salmon and grilse for August, the highest total since 2014, which is very encouraging. We would undoubtedly have had quite a few more if the river had been fishable more often; we lost at least six days to high water, and it was marginal on several more. Additionally,