August runs of salmon & grilse on the Alness were the best for many years, and the catches have been spectacular. 183 fish were landed on the Novar beats, the highest since 1985. Water levels were good for most of the month, with spates on the 1st, 11th, 17th & 24th. The second week was the most productive with localised downpours producing perfect water levels of between +1ft and +1ft 8in for 3 days, resulting in 85 fish landed for the week, 30 of them on the ‘Glorious 12th’!

A staggering 19 anglers landed their first salmon during August. Amongst them were Steve Ballard, Carl Stacey, Jamie Stuart, Chris Bright, Zelda Marshall, Stuart Kennedy, Simon Galante (15), Connor Bryant (15), Harriet Galante, Julia Hailes, Chris Kelting & Laura Duncombe. There were also 13 anglers who caught 3 or more fish in a day: Charles Stevenson (3) on the 4th; Rupert Nicholson (4) on the 7th, Graham Clayton (8!) on the 11th; John Currie (4), Colin Bray (3), Zac Barrat (5), Nick Munro Ferguson (4), Angus Walton (4), all on the 12th; Brian Carr (3) on the 13th; Chris Bright (3), Alan Shearer (3) & Malcolm Fisher (3) all on the 17th; 4 more for Malcolm Fisher on the 21st; and 3 for Tim Noest on the 27th.

Most fish caught in August were grilse in the 3½ lbs to 6 lbs range, but there were also good numbers of summer salmon; the best 15lbs and 13lbs caught by Nick Munro Ferguson and Rosemarie Bray respectively. A memorable month on Novar for so many anglers!

Nick Munro Ferguson

The grilse runs on the Alness were the earliest for many years, with good numbers of fish arriving from the 5th and running throughout the month. Water levels were good for most of July, with spates on the 15th & 21st and numerous other small rises throughout the month. Due to the grilse arriving later and later in previous years, this year’s early appearance caught everyone out and there were few visiting anglers to take advantage of the conditions, greatly reducing the potential rod catch. 34 fish were landed off the Novar beats, the best July return since 2002, but this could easily have been 2 to 3 times higher with more fishing effort.

Amongst the successful anglers, there were 2 first salmon caught: Lawrence Broadly caught a 6lbs grilse on the 5th, and Ian Gibson from Dorset landed a 4lbs grilse on the 14th. Ian’s first salmon came at the age of 83, proving you are never too old…!

After an extremely dry May, there was relief at last in June, which although also mainly dry, delivered one good spate of +2ft on the 9th. This was the first real opportunity for spring fish to run the river, and it appeared that the fish took advantage of the good water, and the majority of the spring run entered the river in a concentrated period of a few days, and raced through to the upper beats and Loch Morie.

11 fish were caught on the Novar beats between the 10th & 14th June including 10 springers; all double-figure fish. Of these, 9 were caught on the upper beats and only one on the lower beats. Jackie Smart fared best, catching 4 springers from Beat 2 on the 10th ranging from 10 to 15lbs. Nick Munro Ferguson had a 14lbs fish from Beat 6 on the 12th, and there was also a 5lbs grilse caught on Beat 5 by Mrs Byng.

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The total catch return for the Novar Fishings for the 2009 season is 395 salmon & grilse - another excellent year! This brings our 5-year average for the period up to and including 2009 up to 377. The Catch Returns section has been updated with new tables & graphs showing catches by month, and catch & release statistics.

A new 2009 photo gallery has been added to this site. In addition lots of new photos of pools have been added to the individual beat description pages.

It was a mild and wet month on the Alness with a total of 7 spates. Catches were excellent with over 170 salmon & grilse landed, the last sea-liced fish caught on the 26th.

The first and last weeks of the month produced the biggest spates and the best catches. Grabbing the accolades in the first week were Nick FitzGerald and Peter Hukins who between them landed 23 fish, both achieving a Novar Fishings Grand Slam, catching at least one fish off each of the six rotating beats during the week – outstanding! Other anglers achieving success that week included Mike Allen from Tain and Andrew Dunn from Evanton who had 3 apiece for their day on Beat 1, John Cameron from Dingwall and Alan Shearer from Orkney shared 9 fish for their 4 days, Roger Evans’ party had 8 fish and Sam and Adam Hatfield also shared 8 fish.

In the second week, Ronald Munro Ferguson accounted for 4 in one day, and Tom Jardine landed 3 for his 2 days of fishing. Wayne Ranhosky from the US caught 3 for his week including a fish of around 11 lbs. The third week was also relatively quiet, the highlight being a first salmon for Stefan Trobos from Austria who quickly claimed his second and third!

In the last week, 7 anglers managed to land 3 or more fish in a day. Amongst them, Graham Shepherd from Wick had 4 fish including a sea-liced grilse weighing in at 5lbs from Beat 6 and later in the week also landed a 14lbs coloured cock fish. Graham’s fishing partner Sandip Datta caught 3 fish from Beat 5, David Hook from Gloucestershire caught 3 from Beat 4 and local Paul Houlden caught 4 fish from Beat 2.

There were also 7 ‘first salmon’ caught on Novar. Congratulations go to Chris Phillips, Andrew Monaghan, Tara Hurn, Mel Scott from Portugal, August Smidth (age 9) from Denmark, and Stefan Trobos and Paul Lorenz from Austria.

Early counts suggest the total catch for the Novar beats for 2009 to be around 390.
 

The Novar beats recorded 94 salmon & grilse in September, which although a good total, was a little lower than catches for the past few years. Although there were spates at the beginning and end of the month, there was no appreciable rainfall in the catchment between the 5th and 28th and consequently the fishing for much of the month was slow.

Ironically, the two most successful anglers caught their fish in the slower weeks. Andrew Goodge topped the catches with 8 fish during the second week, only missing out on Beat 5, and Mick Spencer from London caught 7 fish during the third week, all on a Collie Dog variant.

Seven anglers managed to land their ‘first salmon’ on the Novar beats during the month - James Parker, Anne Parker and husband Roddy Neilson, Tim Allen, Bill Little, Jim Henderson and ‘Paulie’ Collins.
 

Overall August  was a good month on Novar with 105 salmon & grilse caught. The month started slowly however and catches grew week by week. This was partly as a result of better water in the second half of the month, with small spates on the 15th and 20th and a full spate on the 28th, but it did also appear that the main grilse runs were a little later than in recent years, a trend observed throughout Scotland.

Amongst the more successful visiting anglers, during the third week Nick Foster-Brown from Hertfordshire caught 7 fish up to 8 lbs for his week and Jimmy Keogh from Ireland caught 5 grilse for his 5 days fishing. In the last week of the month John Cameron from Dingwall and Alan Shearer from Orkney caught 5 apiece for their 3 days fishing, and Derwent Campbell caught 3 including a 13 lbs salmon on the 29th which took 35 minutes to land in high water.

Derwent Campbell

There were also 7 ‘first salmon’ caught during the month – Felicity Campbell, Ian Talbot, Vicky Talbot, Brian Lindley, Chris Casey, Andrew Gibbons and Toby Mathers all notched their first fish.