With conditions still on the low side it looked like last week was going to be hard going, sport was indeed very patchy for some and non existent for others. Almost 30 fish were reported including 3 off the Association water from the usual suspects. The highlight was a 22 pounder on 3 above to Borrobol rods who finished with 7 for the week. Heavy rain on Friday/Saturday filled the lower catchment and raised levels to over 1ft. This spoiled most of Saturday but may have encouraged some good sport on the upper beats late on.

The week ahead should be good if the run gathers pace and the Association water will fish nicely.
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I had a cast on the Brora last week which only provided 3 fish from the lower river for the whole week. Unfortunately the river lost its water very quickly and few fish were running. Andy Sutherland and Vince Kaney had a fish each from the South bank and another was taken from the North all on the Monday.

There have been substantial some works done to the lower river over the winter and 2 nice new pools have been constructed, unfortunately one of them at the cost of another. The rocky Grilse streams below the Pot pool have been rearranged into one very fishy looking lengthened pool. The legendary Madman pool has also been worked on and this is where it looks like things have gone badly wrong in my opinion. The rather non descript Surprise pool which flows from the madman runoff has been improved by having its shallow bed and large rocks dug out, this pool is now much longer and deeper and will offer a much improved cast for the angler. The problem lies in what has seemingly happened to achieve this, the tail of the Madman pool has been been flattened, its as if the plug has been pulled out!, the water normally retained in this pool has dropped by about 1ft and rocks, ledges and lies never seen before are high and dry. A real shame, the pool has lost all its capacity and depth. For those of you who know the pool, here is a pic of it now with a good 7” on the guage, it is not a pretty sight and as a regular Brora angler I will be writing to the river Brora River Board on the subject and I would advise others to do the same, the tail of the Madman pool needs reinstated.

The Surprise run has been moved way over to the North bank and this has drained the life out of the Madman pool.

An early start captured on Monday morning looking back East to Portgower.