So much promise; so little rain........

We all know there is an annoying little man (and it will be a man) who decides whether you will be lucky on the day you go fishing. In his hands lies the power to turn the rain on, to keep the wind out of the east, to keep the mist off the hills and generally to give you a chance to catch a fish. What motivates this little man I do not know, but clearly the vast majority of the  sixty-eight anglers  who fished at Stracathro in April have annoyed him greatly. The wind stayed in the east and north, the nights were bitterly cold, there was exactly 12 mm rain in the first three weeks of the month. When he did relent and the wind went round to a more favourable direction, he produced wall to wall sunshine just to show clearly in the gin clear water, every rock.

It was not for the lack of effort or of skill. We had experts from Scotland, Norway, from Finland, from Sweden; we had local experts, including a week of national land agents; so little success.

The fish were there, not in great numbers but sufficient to pull the anglers away from the fire, or away from sunbathing.

As usual there is one party which does well. Gary Chambers with companions fished for two days (on the 1st and on the 29th) and caught five salmon.

Clearly Gary prays to the right god.

There has to be a special mention though of Peter Murchie (below) with his 18lber, and our good friend Kim Thorsen from Norway whose enthusiasm and skill was rewarded earlier in the month.