The last month of our 2023 Spring Season,

Over the last six years, May has always been a great month to target the last of the Spring Salmon. If we have a good April on the Whiteadder, and good numbers of fish are in the system and we get rain early May this can provide incredible Sport. On the other hand if the river is low like last year, this can make sport very slow and challenging, especially if the water is clear and the bright sun is making an appearance.

Obviously this April was a record month for us so we were keeping our hopes high for May. The month began with a good height of water and we landed 5 fish in the first week. Martin Hopkins landing a lovely 10Ib fish in the Pig Pool and clement from France who landed three fish with us over two days. These fish once again falling victim to a 1/2″ willie gun tube. James Hopkins, Martins brother had a chance of four fish over a few days but was very unlucky and didn’t land a single one. I guess thats why they call it Fishing and not Catching.

We had a new client from America book a few days with us while he was over in the UK on Business. His Name was Paul and he had never targeted Spring Salmon but was a avid trout fisherman back in the States so knew how to fish. He had a super first day, Landing a lovely 9IB salmon in the gorge then another Salmon in the Roe Pot a few hours later! Two Spring Salmon on his first day, truly amazing and a great achievement. Well done Paul.

The river then began to drop mid may and made fishing conditions very difficult. We can still catch fish when the river is low and clear but it means fishing very small flies, dead drifting and in most cases sight fishing to these incredible fish. We managed to go on and land three Salmon in the last week of May. One noticeable fish was landed by John Mathews who has since booked a few more trips with us. He landed this fish in the Hurly Burly’s and it was his first ever Spring Salmon on the fly. It made a great account for itself on the single handed fly rod and john was smiling from ear to ear.

We ended our Spring Season with 35 Salmon. Which is our best spring for many seasons and up there with one of the best performing stretches in the UK when comparing it to some of the top stretches on the Tweed, Tay, Dee & Spey.

I was a very happy man with our result this Spring and our diary for next Spring shows this, with only a handful of dates left for March April & May.

At the time of writing this, 8/6/23 the Whiteadder is un fishable and running below .30 on the gauge. All we can do is pray for rain to improve conditions for not only Fishing but for the fish to run the System. On a positive note, we have started our Sea trout fishing on the Till and the season has started off great. Warm nights and low water is the recipe for some great Sea trout Fishing. June and July has always been our favourite months for Sea Trout. With a booked night session diary for the next three weeks hopefully we can catch some memorable fish to make it worthy for a Sea Trout Blog in July.

Thanks once again for the continued Support and Tightlines to all our customers and friends out fishing over the next few months.

James Armstrong- Owner & Head Guide/ Chasing Fins