Well unsurprisingly no fish reported on opening day  with conditions as they were.  River starting to drop now in all areas and with several dry days forecast  next week is looking more promising in a few days time on upper-middle beats.

A bit more on the Usk poaching incident'

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/local-hubs/mid-wales/2022/03/02/salmon-fisher-prosecution-sounds-clear-message

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                                RIVER SPEY.

Been lucky enough to fish a few of the big rivers in Scotland but the one with the best memories are those from the Spey.  My then employer Mr Robinson just happened to know the owner of the Delfur beat on the river Spey.  He was Sir Dennis Mountain, head of Eagle Star Insurance who owned the beat.  We had a regular week in September towards the end of the season.

If you could design a salmon beat it would in my mind be similar to Delfur with its wide range of pools.  Still remember some of them such as Sourden, Hollybush,Beaufort and Two Stones.  The beat Gillie back then was Willie Main who exerted total control over everyone ,no matter who they were.   Two of his sons were gillies there then, one in particular named Cyril.   It was a five rod beat as I recall and was usually full of fish.  One week I recall produced 128 fish for the rods but another week just 12.   The latter was not because of no fish as they showed themselves alright but they just would not take anything and the stock of fish was spectacular.   A frost was recommended to get them on the take  we were told.

I recall one day fishing down Two Stones with Dr Stephen Marsh Smith who used to come on the trip too and fish were showing everywhere. Not sure I recall if he caught anything but if he did it was only one.   Back at the hut at lunchtime I approached Willie and said, “Hell Willie there must be a couple of hundred fish in Two Stones”.   He shook his head and smiled.  “Nay lad”he said, “more like two thousand”    He was not joking either and on reflection he was probably right.

By this time in September many of the fish were by no means fresh but even so they were all picked up by a van in the late afternoon and taken to the smokery.