July has been an incredibly tough guiding month due to a lack of Rain and High temperatures. Not a good combination for Salmon Fishing.

It was the same story last year, June- September. Especially on the Whiteadder, we had a huge period of no rainfall and very hot Temperatures. Our stretch on the Whiteadder has certainly suffered the most. When levels drop to summer level and below (.25-.40) on the gauge we loose all the flow and the water is crystal clear. Your only chances are early mornings before the sun appears and the last hour or two before darkness once the temperatures drop. Its very difficult when it comes to our job, as we have clients travelling from all over the World to fish with us and when we are faced with conditions like this we have to think outside the box. We will always offer new dates to the client to give them the best chance. Something we are very proud with, as not many Salmon Fisheries and guiding Companies will do this, but if we can help, we will as this will pay off in the long run for us.

We have had a few noticeable catches despite conditions, picking our windows of opportunities with slight rises and temperature drops. Our good friend & client Chris Johnson has a superb few hours with us. Landing three Salmon and loosing two. One fish was very large which snapped him after a Superb fight in the Gorge Pool. All fish took a stripped Cascade which made some incredibly exciting and visual fishing.

We have spent a few nights down on the River Coquet targeting Sea trout landing fish up to 7 pounds just on the turn of darkness. We landed a lovely salmon of around 11 pounds on the Brinkburn stretch which took a silver stoats tail on a full floating line. Only a few casts later we landed a sea trout of around 4Ib. Our french team had a superb two evenings on the River Till with six sea trout to 6 pounds and one huge fish which was sadly lost at the net after a incredible battle. Stripped muddlers with a small black & silver single on the point seemed to be the killer combination.

At the time of writing this 5/8/24 Iv just been for a walk up to the Whiteadder and the river is desperately low. We are due rain at the end of the week so I am keeping my fingers crossed. Our August and September Guiding diary is fully booked so the sooner the rain arrives, the better and will hopefully give us some more superb fishing for all our clients.

I will look to update a Blog in September once august is out the way.

Best wishes & Tightlines

James Armstrong- Owner & Head Guide/ Chasing Fins