The 2008 season goes down in my book as one of the most difficult we have ever had due to the continuous high water. But it also goes down as one of the best big fish years we have ever had too, with 6 fish over 20lbs and two 30s off the beat.

We began in earnest with my spring courses in March and the water already 1ft 10ins on the gage when I arrived. But continuous belts of heavy rain pushed her up over 3ft twice in the 10 days we were there and we never got down to our ideal height of 1ft 6ins at all. As a result most of the fish we saw, and we did see several, merely waived goodbye as they shot through the beat totally ignoring us!





The summer on the beat was yet again one of the wettest ever, but again we had hardly anyone bothering to fish. I am going to make a point of going up in July or August this coming season to look again at the potential for summer grilse and sea-trout, particularly if we get another July with such perfect water.

And indeed Steve and his friend Steve Gordon showed that there are fish about when they had a couple of days at the end of August and were rewarded with 2 spanking fresh fish in two days, one of 12 and one of 13lbs.

It was not until September 15th that we formally opened for our main season and with a perfect 1ft 6ins on the gage from the start, we leapt straight into action with 11 salmon and 2 sea trout in the first week.

The following week was not quite so good with the water ebbing back to just a few inches on the gage and new fish finding it harder to reach us, but we still managed 5 more including fish of 14 and 15lbs.

It was not until the 2nd of October when the next rains came and with it more fish including a cracking 18lb fish caught by Phillip Pugh. Steve said it must have been barely a day off the tide.

Ideally from then on we would have liked a nice lift of water every couple of weeks or so for the best conditions, but this first flood merely heralded what was to be our wettest autumn on record.

Four more floods of over 4ft followed in quick succession throughout October and one of which went over 6ft, another over 8. And as a result the big run that the lower beats had seen already in the system just ran on right through us.

Nevertheless by the end of October we had chalked up 38 fish as opposed to 30 by the same period in 2007.

At the end of the month I was rewarded with my high point of the season, when on October 30th my son Hugo (aged 11) caught his very first salmon on his first days fishing and then promptly got his first sea trout on the following day.

It was on the same day that I happened to make a chance remark to Steve just as we were finishing in the pouring rain, that the only place on the beat I had never even hooked a fish from was his favourite spot right in front of the hut. Inviting me to have a go, I had 3 casts and promptly caught this wonderful little grilse in what could barely have been 6inches of water.

But my dear brother should also get a mention as, over the years, he has been very unlucky never quite getting the conditions right or never being in the right place at the right time. But this year his luck finally came good landing 4 fish out of 7 fish hooked in three days, the first of which was our first 20 pounder of this year.

As October flooded into November we hoped for a long awaited drop in water and eventually as the frosts arrived so the levels did drop. But sadly I think after the large bulk of the run had already gone through and those that remained behind were mostly potted. But then towards the middle of the month, we began to pick up a few more of these fresh run grilse in the 6 to 8lb bracket.

It wasn’t until the end of the month that then with much lower water holding them back, the really big fish that do come in November finally reached us.

Derek Coles got the second of our 20 pounders. This was followed three days later by a whopping 30 pounder for Eddie McLellan (“Eddie the dig” to his friends) on the day we celebrated our beat annual Christmas dinner.

Meanwhile my efforts to get one of these lunkers were thwarted when I lost a fish of over 20lbs in Shaws one morning and a substantially bigger one in Bishops the same afternoon. Both fish were on for over 10 minutes, were seen to be well hooked, yet both threw the hook without any apparent reason at all!!!

And so it was left to Steve (the ghillie) to show us how it should be done yet again, and he did so with style landing fish of 25, 30 and 20, the latter two caught on the very last day out of the same lie. A cock and a hen, a fitting end to the season

As ever my thanks to everyone who has joined us on the beat this year. Congratulations to those that were successful and commiserations to those that suffered in the exceptional high water. But a particular thanks once again to Steve for managing to maintain his never ending enthusiasm under often difficult conditions and to Sandra, his wife, for her never ending stream of cakes for the hut.

Thanks also to Dawn and all her staff at the George who again worked so hard to look after most of our rods.

All that now remains for me to do is to wish Steve and Sandra, Dawn and her staff and everyone else who has a similar passion for this maddest of pastimes, a very happy Christmas. I do hope that despite the credit crunch we will see you all again next year.

Michael Evans

10th December 2008

P.S. Invitations to existing tenants to renew for 2009 will go out during the first week of January and as ever you will need to confirm your place with your deposit before 31st January. Those looking to get on should ring or drop me a line or e-mail to the office to get onto the first refusal list else await the publication of any available dates on this website on February 1st.

Upper Caberston 2005 Season

Upper Caberston 2006 Season

Upper Caberston 2007 Season