Cornhill beat week beginning September 7th
15/09/2026
Week beginning September 7th.
Mon 7th. Started off with the river at 11 inch and dropping i never saw a fish all day but managed to hook and play a grilse briefly in the Raven pool.
Tue 8th. Very heavy rain yesterday evening and overnight saw the river rise very quickly this morning to approx 5 ft in early evening it very briefly steadied before rapidly rising again to approx 6.1/2 feet, No fishing was done today.
Wed 9th. A big drop in the water level overnight and this morning the gauge was showing 2 foot. Allan Donaldson landed a 7lb Salmon in the McKenzie stream, and followed up with an 8 lb Salmon in the McKenzie pool, Alan also lost a couple of grilse that were on very briefly in the same two pools. Nothing was seen in the morning and all the activity was in the afternoon and about half a dozen fish were seen.
Thur 10th. Did not fish till lunch time when water level was 1ft 4 inch. Allan Donaldson landed a 5lb grilse in the Lairds cast, and also lost a salmon in the same pool that was on for a little while before it threw the hook.
Fri 11th. River level today started out at 9 inch still pretty quiet just 2 or 3 seen all day Allan Donaldson landed an 8lb Salmon in the Lairds cast.
Sat 12th. Water level today 7 1/2″ inch. I Fished three hours in the morning nothing caught or touched it was very quiet and i saw nothing at all.
Its been a very difficult season with just over two weeks of this season remaining, hard going for the angler but difficult challenging and worrying times for the poor salmon itself. The beat managed to hit 50 Salmon /Grilse for the season the 8lb Salmon Allan caught in the McKenzie pool on Wed 9th was number fifty, and at the end of this week the seasons total is 52. In these difficult and worrying times i think that Is a pretty good show. At the beginning of this week i would have been really pleased with one or a couple of fish knowing the way its been this season, I only fished approx 4 days so four landed and four lost is a pretty good outcome.
Weeks total 4 = Salmon 3 Grilse 1.
7lb salmon caught in McKenzie stream
The 7lb Salmon caught in the McKenzie stream just looked a bit unusual as soon as i saw it general shape. shortish head very snub nose, shortish gill covers slightly roundish shape, tadpole shape see other photos of the fish caught only approx 1lb heavier and one approx 2lbs lighter. Short fins, freyed fins, small misshapen adipose fin, and completely missing pelvic fin. reminded me of approx 20 years ago up river we scale sampled fish to distinguish Salmon from Grilse and we found some farmed fish a few were quite obvious just by looking at them, i have seen a lot of salmon personally and you notice subtle differences i have seen a few others over the years. And as an end note latest info and surveys suggest 20% of Scottish Salmon contain farmed fish D N A. more later
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Cornhill beat week beginning August 31st
08/09/2026
Week beginning 31st August John Maginnis & party.
Mon 31st Aug. Water level today 1ft 9 inch.
Tue 1st Sept. This morning the river level at 9 inch late afternoon began to rise and reached approx 1ft 9 inch.
Wed 2nd. River at 10 inch.
Thur 3rd. River at 1ft 3 inch.
Fri 4th. River at 9 inch rising in late afternoon
Sat 5th. River 1ft 11inch dropping all day.
Weeks total 0
Cornhill beat week beginning August 24th
30/08/2026
Week beginning August 24th.
Mon 24th. Water level 3.3/4″ inch. Low water all week. The beat was not fished at all.
Tue 25th. Water level 2.1/2″ inch.
Wed 26th. Water level 1.1/2″ inch.
Thu 27th. Water level 1″ inch.
Fri 28th. Water level 1/2″ inch.
Sat 29th. Water level 1″ inch.
Weeks total 0
Cornhill beat week beginning August 17th
23/08/2026
Week beginning August 17th.
Mon 17th. River level today 5 Inch. the beat was fished in the morning, and absolutely nothing was touched or even seen.
Tue 18th. Water level today up to 1ft 9 inch after heavy rain last night, Allan Donaldson landed a 6lb Grilse in the McKenzie stream this one was very fresh and sea liced. In the afternoon Allan followed up landing a 7lb Salmon in the McKenzie pool, Allan pulled another in the McKenzie stream, and lost another in the Lairds cast it was very briefly on and off again. It was very quiet only two salmon were seen all day.
Wed 19th. The river was running at 10″ inch.
Thur 20th. Water level was 1 ft
Fri 21st. Today the beat was fished in the morning and the water level was 1ft 6 inch, and dropped to 1ft 4 inch at 12 30. Allan Donaldson landed a 6lb Grilse in the Clump pool. This morning was very quiet i saw absolutely nothing showing.
Sat 22nd The beat was not fished today. The fishing this season has been really very hard going and now there is only 5 weeks of this 2026 fishing season to go. There are a lot of very worrying statistics and reports coming from various areas concerning this seasons salmon fishing, and no doubt this will be a big topic for discussion after this season ends.
Weeks total 3. Salmon1 Grilse 2
Cornhill beat week beginning August 10th
17/08/2026
Week beginning August 10th D Lumsden.
Mon 10th. Water level 9″ inch.
Tue 11th. Water level 6″ inch.
Wed 12th. Water level 4″ inch.
Thur 13th. Water level 3″ inch.
Fri 14th. Water level 4″inch.
Sat 15th. Water level 4″inch.
Weeks total 0
Cornhill beat week beginning August 3rd
09/08/2026
Week beginning August 3rd.
Mon 3rd. This week once again started out with the river running very low at just 1 Inch.
Tue 4th. River down to just 1/2″inch on the gauge. Heavy rain forecast will see if we get it. we had very little rain down at the bottom of the river but we must have had a lot of rain out in the mountains at the top of the glen. the river rose very quickly around 15.00hrs to approx 3ft 3″inch and was very dirty, it then rose again around midnight to over 7ft. Some of the rain was absolutely torrential.
Wed 5th. River dropping and the water still quite dirty before rising again in early evening to a big level again approx 6 ft.
Thur 6th. Quite a number of grilse seen today mostly coloured fish the odd Salmon and with most of the activity in the morning.
Fri 7th. The river down and steady at 1ft steady all day at 1 foot so must have had rain up in mountains to keep the river up and steady as it should have dropped around 3 inch. Allan Donaldson landed a 5lb Grilse in the McKenzie stream, Allan also pulled a couple of fish and had another very briefly on and off again.
Sat 8th. River up again overnight showing 1ft 9 inch on the gauge, Allan fished the morning and was pleased to land a 7 lb Salmon in the Clump pool, Allan also lost a Salmon in the Gledfield Run, however it was pretty quiet only one grilse seen.
Weeks total 2 = Salmon 1 Grilse 1
Cornhill beat week beginning July 27th.
02/08/2026
Week beginning July 27th.
Mon 27th. Yet another week starting out with the River at a low level when i got to river this morning at 09.00 hrs there was 3″ inch on the water gauge. The only reason i went over was to see if i could see any movement of Salmon & Grilse in the pools as last night Sunday and in the early hours of this morning the river bumped up again very briefly from 1″inch to approx 4.5″, coinciding with high tide at approx 02.00 hrs but as i said it was already down to 3 inch and dropping.
I fished for two and a half hours and saw disappointingly absolutely nothing show but i was delighted to land a very plump fresh 5lb Grilse in the Little falls pool in the first run through the pool, it broke the surface to take a hitched fly beautifully.
Tues 28th. Water level 1 inch.
Wed 29th. River stayed low for the rest of the week basically averaging about 1 .5 inch the odd time bumping up a few inches over night. So for the rest of the week i got on with my monthly strimming of the river banks.
Thur 30th. Disappointing that as i moved down the beat strimming i never saw a single fish move.
Sat 1st. River level 2 inch.
weeks total 1 Grilse
Cornhill beat week beginning July20th.
28/07/2026
Week beginning July 20th.
Mon 20th. This week started out with the river showing its bare bones and even lower with the water gauge showing Minus — 1″. 5 Inch .
Tue 21st. Water level Minus — 1″ inch.
Wed 22nd. Water level Minus — 1/2″ inch.
Thur 23rd. Water level Zero — 0″ inch.
Fri 24th. Water level 1/2″ inch.
Sat 25th. Water level 1/2″ inch at approx 20.00 hrs the river bumped up quickly to about 3″ inch.
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Cornhill beat week beginning July 13th.
20/07/2026
Week beginning July 13th.
Mon 13th. Once again we started out another week with the river low at 3.1/2″ inch and destined to get much lower with no rain in the foreseeable future.
Wed 15th. Water level 1″ inch.
Fri 17th. Water level now showing Zero 0″inch on the water gauge after long periods of bright sunshine and blue skies the river will drop further.
Sat 18th. The river level today got to Minus — 1/2″ inch.
The beat was not fished.
The worst aspect of the warm summer weather is the non stop bull shit about man made Global Warming. We had all the Hysteria about the hole in the Ozone layer 30 years ago now not a mention about it since years i guess the hole must have healed up.
We are now just going to to all die in a heatwave the government just love hyping it all up one news item actually said the the most harmful thing for humans in a heatwave is the HEAT ! Just waiting on the Doctors and nurses out dancing again like they did during THE COVID SCAMDEMIC.
I am quite aware of the coming and unavoidable ” Catastrophic Tree Die Back Event ” coming later in the year. I just call it Autumn.
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Cornhill beat week beginning July 6th.
16/07/2026
Week beginning July 6th James England & party.
Mon 6th. The river was up and running at 3ft 4 inch this morning after heavy rain yesterday and overnight. A couple of Grilse and a Salmon were lost but unfortunately nothing was landed.
Tue 7th. A good height today 1ft 10″inch fish were seen in a few pools particularly the Gledfield pool which is encouraging as they have been loathe to show so far this season.
Wed 8th. Water level 11″ inch
Thur 9th. Water level 6″inch very quiet nothing at all seen
Fri 10th. Water level 5 inch very quiet nothing at all seen
Sat 11th Heavy rain last night put the river up to a good height of 1foot Charlie Cameron caught a 4lb grilse in the McKenzie pool and that turned out to be the only catch of the week.
WEEKS TOTAL 1 Grilse.
Cornhill beat week beginning June 29th
Week beginning June 29th.
The river was low all week down around the 2 inch mark, I was back at the strimming again so i got on with that and interestingly or i should say disappointingly i never saw a fish show anywhere as i progressed down the river.
Fri 3rd July. Heavy rain overnight put river up to 1ft i had to carry strimmer out from whirl pool to the Carron bridge, easier than carrying all the way up the beat again. So i took my rod no other gear i had enough to carry I tried the Raven pool literally second cast hooked and managed to land a fresh sea liced 4lb grilse. so i was delighted a little bit of luck right place at right time i was pretty knackered but the Grilse made the walk out to the bridge a little bit lighter.
Weeks total 1 Grilse
Cornhill beat week beginning 22nd June
01/07/2026
Week beginning June 15th. Ian Patterson & party.
Mon 22nd. The week started off with the river level very low at minus — 2 inch and would stay at this level till around midnight thursday when it shot up to approx 5 ft 6″ inch
Tue 23rd. Minus 2″ inch
Wed 24th. Minus 2″ inch
Thur 25th. Minus “2 inch
Fri 26th. We had the most spectacular thunder and lightening storm last night that lasted from about 20.00hrs through till about 03. 00hrs of this morning Friday, it was pretty much continuous, a truly magnificent light show with rain heavy at times and thunder and lightening coming through from south of Ullapool I have never seen anything like it ever.
Sat 27th. As can be seen on the SEPA water level data the water level peaked and dropped back quickly so much so that on Saturday the river was down to 1ft 1 inch. Ian had to leave on the Friday and said for me to fish on the Saturday. I managed to land a 6lb Grilse in the Little falls , the first Grilse off the beat this season,Allan hooked another very briefly on off in the Lairds cast.
Weeks total 1 Grilse