Following Rab Neeson's account of his salmon, which I'm told was caught on a Flying-C, I was contacted by that other seasoned salmon angler, Tom Bell, who landed a 4 pound grilse on a Mourne Gold in the same general area. This news of course whetted my appetite to have another attempt at a salmon on home turf, and so I set off this morning with the river still in good order.
I fished downstream for an hour or so until I came to a deep pool which requires wading to get to and isn't often visited but has to be a good lie. I drifted an Ally's Shrimp into it and as the retrieve started the fly had such a strong take I thought it must be a small salmon. The fish put up a spirited fight and as it turned on the surface I caught the flash of an iridescent pink stripe on the flank. "Surely not", I thought. When it came to the net there was no doubt - a Rainbow! "You don't belong here", I chided as I took a couple of quick snaps. Then I remembered some rumours of Rainbows being caught on the Braid a couple of years ago. Now Rainbows have never deliberately been introduced into the river but they are stocked in a couple of small reservoirs in the Antrim Hills called the Quoile Dams and these have a connection to the Braid via the River Artoges tributary. I suspect that the odd fish washes down after a spate.
So, I continue my habit of catching everything on salmon flies - except salmon. But at least I can still bore people at parties with tales of Rainbow Trout being caught where they shouldn't be.
This is the interloper in question. Note the Ally's Shrimp on lower right obligingly ejected into the net.
Hope you dispatched it and did not release it back into the river as they are very dominant feeders eating eggs and smolts