06/07/2012 - North Esk

Time - 1500-1530
Weather - Mild, light drizzle
Water - About +20cm
Where - Telford's above & below
Method - Size 3 mepp
Total - 0

With a lot of rain due I managed a brief half hour with the river still up, but at a nice level between spates. The only two pools fished were above and below Telford's Bridge. I had plenty taps and a couple that were briefly on before escaping. I seem to be missing a high number of bites at the moment which is annoying, nothing I have as yet put my finger on.

Interest was quite frequent with most taps in no bigger than about 8 inches, apart from one decent take in the bottom pool, although it was at distance and in the current, so it's strength may have been inflated somewhat but it may have been as super massive as 12 inches or so.

Excellent (although not perfect*) river level data is available here and its where I've taken the displayed graphs from. The top graph shows the first spate which arrived after heavy rain on Wednesday. The second graph shows an even bigger spate beginning early on Saturday morning.

Note the graph's automatically re-calibrate their displayed scale (vertical axis) up or down depending on current levels. Due to the difference in scale it might not appear at first glance that these two graph's show connected data. But the first graph shows from 0-45cm while the second graph shows from 0-100cm. Their time scales also overlap, or to put another way, are not consecutive. I hope that is all clear.

I had a look at the Esk today at 11.15 and it had obviously risen again. I looked again at 3pm and reckon it had fallen about 12-18 inches. There has been almost constant light drizzle, but nowhere near the strength of downpour I heard through the night. The lower graph shows up until 1pm today, I'll probably update this in the next day or two as the data updates.

* I prefer the way data is displayed on websites such as Fishpal.com e.g. Tay at Kenmore. As well as data from the last 24 hours, they also show aggregate levels from the last 28 days and further still, the year so far. This allows you to build up a better picture of water levels throughout the year.

I can't find it now, but data for the Tummel used to amuse me. As its deep within our hydroelectric system its flow is completely controlled by releases from the dam. The graph would flatline for a few hours at say 10cms, then rise vertically to 75 cms, flatline there for a few hours, then plummet vertically again back down to say 35 cms. This repeated its pattern showing a very peculiar change of level that must play havoc with fish in the system (not to mention any anglers unbeknowingly wading into the path of a sudden and unannounced rise.