Catches
The returns for the 2007 fishing season submitted to the Board showed an overall catch of 4,281 Salmon and Grilse (3,268 in 2006) and 593 Sea Trout (922 in 2006).
Click here to view graphs of recent catches and 10 year average.
Beat that...
Mrs Morison's 61 pounder wasn't weighed until 24-hours after it was caught and so some weight was certainly lost. Mr Harper, who attended to the catch, reckoned on a weight loss of 'a pound or two'.
Mrs Morison, a Stewart from Laithers - proud of her connection with Mary Queen of Scots - lived in a splendid mansion at Mountblairy where shooting and fishing parties were the order of the day.
On the day of her 'big catch', Mrs Morison had already caught other sizable fish - two of 16lb each. She wrote to her friend Lt. Col. W. Keith reporting the drama: 'I rushed down put my hands in his gills and dragged him up onto the bank. He looked enormous lying there - a huge male fish, well hooked but a beautiful shape and coloured. I had no idea what a prize he was. We sent him to Aberdeen to get a cast made'.
Charles Middleton was the Morison's chauffeur and although he was only 11-years-old when the big fish was caught he remembers the excitement.; 'The fish was enormous. They had to get a horse and cart to take it back from the river. It was smoked and we all got a piece'
56 lbs Salmon
Featured in The Illustrated London News on 11th November 1922 and is also in the 'Doomsday Book of Giant Salmon' by Fred Buller, this fish was caught by Colonel A.E Scott on 31st October 1920 with a size 1/0 'Brittania' fly. This large fish was 50'' long with a girth of 29''. The beat on which it was caught is not known.
Another record ??.
A 10 lbs 2 oz brown trout caught by John Sheard of Keith in May 2005 on the River Isla - he also caught a 4 lbs brown trout during the summer. The larger fish could be a record brown trout caught in a river ( as opposed to a still water ). The stomach contents were full of fresh water shrimp and gravel and no sign of it turning"ferrox" (cannibal).