I had a lovely salmon this morning off the wood crib of the Courtfield beat which took me a good 15 minutes to land. I had put on a new mepps fying c silver spoon with black lettering salmon red and unfortunately did’nt have my pliers to remove the barbs and one of the hooks. So I had to land the fish and was lucky to get the hooks out without causing any bleeding but it took a while. After the event it is’nt very good to say this but it brought it home to me how important it is for the fish not to have the barbs on and also that third hook.

I measured this fish against my rod but and it was just over 32 inches. I told Katie on the phone that I thought it was 12 to 13 lbs a bit bigger than the last one caught Wyebank. She pointed out that that one was 15lbs. As I was able to release that fish without removing it I think I probably over estimated its size. Today’s fish was in good fresh condition, no sea lice and I reckon the conversion to about 13lbs is good.

By 12.30 the water was colouring up badly with bloom. The Wyebank is keeping reasonably clear and I fished it yesterday evening with no success with a cascade. Today I fished the spinner slower and deeper as the rocks are now so covered in blanket weed that the spinner is less at risk of getting stuck in them as it catches the soft blanket weed first.

Yesterday’s rise of 4-5 inches is disappearing already but it should have brought some new fish up from the lower beats.