II
On the River Earn at Comrie
On 14th May, 1992 I received a telephone call from Mr Lovat Fraser, secretary of the Comrie Angling Club, inviting me to join as an associate member. I wasted no time in posting off my £95 cheque for the year’s subscription.
The River Earn flows eastwards from Loch Earn to join the Tay estuary south of Perth. It is swollen by several tributaries on its way, the most notable being the Water of Ruchill, which is one of the few tributaries unaffected by either hydro-electric schemes or water extraction.
An attractive medium sized river, the Earn offers trout, grayling, sea trout and salmon fishing throughout its length, some through fishing clubs like those in Crieff and Comrie. While the salmon run on the Earn occurs mainly in September and October, the sea trout are worth pursuing from April onwards, although numbers, particularly of sea trout, aren’t what they were in the early eighties.
After nearly ten years spent fishing the River Endrick, the Earn was a whole new ball game, offering the exciting prospect of night fishing for sea trout from April through to August, with May to July normally presenting the best opportunities.
The Earn was in character very different from the Endrick. Even in its upper reaches here at Comrie, it was a larger river with a stronger flow, and a variety of pools where sea trout might be caught on the night fly, with no need for maggots. Proper fly fishing!
The Comrie Angling Club manages the fishing on the River Earn above and below Comrie, with the best of the sea trout fishing on the lower pools. The club also controls the fishing on much of the River Ruchill, a major Earn tributary, in Glen Artney.
The club fishings are available through local and associate membership or by day and weekly permits. The fishing potential may be judged from the following club records, showing catches of salmon, grilse and sea trout from 2008 to 2016.
Comrie Angling Club Catch Returns 2008 to 2016
| 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | |
| Salmon | 80 | 64 | 83 | 69 | 49 | 36 | 21 | 59 | 72 |
| Grilse | 30 | 26 | 17 | 23 | 32 | 14 | 3 | 23 | 16 |
| Sea Trout | 40 | 88 | 44 | 68 | 70 | 28 | 42 | 70 | 31 |
My first Earn sea trout of 1992 came on the night of Wednesday 20th May:
Arriving at 10 p.m. I found the river running low and clear. A run of fish had been reported as early as April in higher water, but the level had since dropped and had been running at summer level for the past two weeks, as the Hydro station at Dalchonzie, a few miles upriver from Comrie, had not been generating water. The club has several lovely sea trout pools below Comrie and it was here that I made a start to my Earn season. A reasonably mild night was forecast, with temperatures set to remain above 8°C. Full cloud cover promised to keep temperatures up, but with it came the threat of heavy thundery rain showers, which arrived at midnight and continued throughout the rest of the night. I began at the head of the Milton Burn pool.
After only half a dozen casts, I hooked a sea trout. It had taken the size 8 Mallard and Silver, with claret hackle. It proved a very lively fish, making one strong run across to the far side of the pool and leaping out of the water several times. After a fairly short yet dramatic fight I managed to beach it successfully. I hadn’t brought a net. A lovely sea trout of 2¾lb, gleaming like newly minted silver, my first from the Comrie club water. I fished on till midnight with no further touches, giving up when the lightning was getting too close for comfort. A fellow angler I met on the river tonight has had one sea trout per night over the last few nights, and has lost a few more. The Earn certainly seems to be well worth fishing from April onwards, even as far upstream as Comrie.
I fished again on the night of Monday 25th May:
A mild calm evening, with a clear hazy sky, followed thunder earlier in the day. I again began on the Milton Burn Pool shortly after 10 p.m., taking a sea trout at 10.30pm on a size 8 Mallard, Claret and Silver, the tail fly fished on a cast of two on a floating line. A lovely fresh fish of exactly three pounds, in beautiful condition, beached after three or four strong runs and acrobatic leaps. These early-season Earn sea trout are the brightest, freshest fish I’ve caught in a long time – very strong, hard fighting fish. While driving home over the moor well after midnight, I was stopped again by the same WPC as last week, enquiring what I was up to at such a late hour – an occupational hazard for sea trout fishermen I suppose.
Monday 15th June:
I fished from midnight till half past two with the river very low, at summer level. Again it was a mild night, with a clear sky and a full moon eventually rising behind some useful cloud. A fellow fisher had a sea trout of two pounds from the Springboard stream, a long narrow pool with some considerable depth under the trees on the left bank.
I followed this with a 1lb grayling from the same spot around 1.30 a.m. I then moved back upstream and waded across the Little Arc stream to fish down through the Big Arc pool above from the left bank and was delighted, just before half past two, to hook a sea trout of 2lb 7oz in the very tail of the pool, handlining a little to keep the fly moving – again a very lively fish, more often out of the water than in, caught on a size 10 Mallard and Silver, with yellow hackle. A very good sea trout, though not quite as fresh as the earlier fish.
Monday 20th July:
I began at midnight on the tail of the Big Arc pool and by 1 a.m. I had caught two sea trout, one on a size 10 Mallard, Yellow and Silver, the second on a size 8 long-shank Mallard, Claret and Silver, handlining with a medium paced figure of eight to keep the flies on the move. Both fish were 1½ pounds in weight but very thin, almost kelt-like, and not as fresh as the earlier fish. These fish I think had just moved into the Big Arc from the pools below. They were taken during or between heavy showers but recent rain has had little or no effect on the river level. The inch or so we have had over the past fortnight has been insufficient for a spate.
In addition to joining the Comrie Angling Club, I had also become a member of the Allan Water Angling Improvement Association, which gave me more than ten miles of trout, salmon and sea trout fishing on Allan Water between Greenloaning and Bridge of Allan. My 1992 fishing time was therefore divided three ways among the waters of the Endrick, Earn and Allan. I was spoilt for choice and enjoyed good days and nights on all three. Much time was spent exploring new water, which I have found, over the years and to this day, one of the most enjoyable aspects of sea trout fishing, meeting the challenges presented by new stretches of river; finding taking places in unfamiliar pools; adapting to ever-changing conditions of water and weather throughout the short summer season. But catch rates inevitably suffer.
I spent much less time on the Endrick that year, preferring to explore the many miles of new fishing available to me. Early season nights were spent on the Earn, while later in the year the Allan presented excellent opportunities for salmon on a falling spate. The resulting tally for the season was 4 sea trout (7¾lb) from the River Endrick; 5 salmon (27lb) from the River Allan; 5 sea trout (11lb) and 2 salmon (10½lb) from the Comrie Club water on the Rivers Earn and Ruchill. Although I fished the Endrick very little, my impression, confirmed by the LLAIA catch reports (see earlier graph of Endrick sea trout catches in Chapter 1), was of a continuing decline in sea trout numbers on the Loch Lomond system.
In January, 1993, I received an unexpected, but most welcome, invitation to join Crieff Angling Club as a country member, at a cost of £125, including a £20 joining fee. I had expected to have to wait a few more years. The club managed the fishing on several miles of the River Earn above and below Crieff, which offered the prospect of some excellent sea trout night fishing. I reluctantly resigned from LLAIA due to the increasing cost of membership and the continuing decline in the quality of the sea trout fishing on the Endrick. The end of an era, filled with fond memories of countless nights spent in the good company of familiar fellow fanatics, and the occasional unforgettable night’s fishing.
But now I had access to many miles of the Rivers Earn and Allan. I was particularly looking forward to fishing the Crieff water for sea trout from May onwards, to which I will return in a wee while. But first a short detour to Allan Water, which also offered an attractive prospect, for trout and sea trout as well as salmon. In 1993, for example, the Allan Water Angling Improvement Association recorded catches of 480 salmon, 340 sea trout and 1461 brown trout, figures which were fairly typical from the late eighties onwards, reflecting ongoing improvements in the water quality and habitat of the river. Unsurprisingly, there was at that time a substantial waiting list for membership, which incurred an annual fee of only £35 for local members and £40 for country members.
First edition printed hardback copies of SEA TROUT NIGHTS may be purchased at Coch-y-Bonddu Books