The month started with a dry, dull calm day and for the first week or so as the water level continued to slowly abate;
but this was all to change around the 8th when we were hit with torrential rain and a spate coming down the system that peaked at around the 20ft mark on the SEPA gauge up at our Cargill rod beat.
With the ground already saturated the river rose rapidly catching a lot of people out and there was some serious flooding across the country.
It continued to be a very wet month and bailing out boats seemed to be the order of the day. I think its safe to say now that a lot of our grassed areas that got a regular cut have had their final cut of the season, and any strimming and cutting now will be rougher areas that are just getting a general tidy up. The chainsaw was out a few times this month clearing up branches and big limbs that were down in the storms we had
and clearing up some of the big bits of driftwood that were left round about our boat and mooring line.
The water did fall away quickly over the next ten days to around the five feet mark before the rains returned and there was a quick spike in the river level again to around the fourteen-foot mark! Some frosty mornings soon slowed up the runoff into the system and the water level was back dropping away again.
We were seeing big numbers of Redwing appearing into the 2nd half of this month and the Dabchicks are back with us again on the estuary too. There are a lot more cormorants on the river after all the stormy weather and there are a few more seals about too.
The red squirrels have put in an appearance, and it is that time of the year again when we are seeing a lot more different fungi appearing amongst the leaf drop.
We had a dry last two days to the month that brought some welcomed respite from all the rain, and the river level was back under the 7foot mark and still dropping as October came to an end.
Our Cargill Beat ended the top beat on the Tay for the second year in a row with 305 Salmon for the season.
Dago