Highland Sojourn ~ Day 3: First day on the Findhorn
Findhorn River Log
Up at 6 this morning and wandered over to Costa for a good cup of coffee before the day got started. Met Ian and David at the parking spot at 9 and we drove down to the fishing hut to get our gear sorted out.
While we were there I met a father and son from Germany who are fishing with Ian for the next few days. We got to talking about salmon fishing back home. Turns out they troll the Baltic Sea using downriggers and planer boards—pretty much the same setup we use chasing Kamloops rainbows in Idaho. Only difference is they favor spoons, while we tend to run bucktail flies and plugs. Always interesting how fishermen end up solving the same problems in different corners of the world.
We started the morning on the upper beat, beginning at Pallamore, then working our way upstream to Soldiers, where a 20-plus-pound fish had been lost yesterday. That story was still hanging in the air when we stepped into the pool.
The river is in beautiful shape right now—perfect height and a nice steady push of water. Fish were showing throughout the day, which always keeps the spirits up.
From there we fished Roe Hillock before heading back to the hut for lunch around 1.
In the afternoon David and I moved down to the lower beat and worked through several pools—Garden, Ronan, and another one further downstream whose name escapes me at the moment.
No fish hooked today, but the river feels alive and the conditions couldn’t be better. Feels like it’s only a matter of time.
One conclusion from the day: I’m not overly impressed with my new 14-foot Loomis Spey rod. The action feels a bit slow for my casting style and I never quite got comfortable with it. Tomorrow I’ll switch things up and fish one of David’s rods.
One of the highlights of the day, though, was getting a bit of coaching from David on my casting. In a lot of ways Spey casting reminds me of the golf swing—there’s a mix of technique and rhythm to it, and when those two things come together just right the whole motion feels smooth and effortless.
Wrapped things up this evening and headed back to the Ramnee Hotel for dinner. Now settled in for the night and looking forward to another go at it tomorrow.
