River Dee Fishing Reports 2010

[ken@fishdee]

Last updated: Wednesday 3rd February

The river opened on Monday 1st February which was very cold and overcast with snow flurries following on from a heavy snowfall the previous evening. Dawn saw many anglers assembling on Deeside to fish for a prized Dee Springer with some planning visit the opening ceremony at The Milton of Crathes. There were over 250 people attending the opening ceremony where the ceremonial cast was performed by Billy Connolly who had just arrived hot foot from a one month stint at the Apollo Theatre in London. As always Billy Connolly captivated the public and was highly entertaining both inside the Marquee, and on the river bank for the television cameras and media.

Billy Connolly entertaining as always and so friendly with guests

Honours for first salmon of the season, and winner of a salmon fishing rod prize, kindly donated by Sharpes, went to Mrs Jean Marshall who had a 12 lb fish from the Bridge pool at Ballogie. Jean was presented with her prize yesterday and a photograph is on the FishDee website fishing reports page. There was also a special prize for heaviest fish on opening day which was kindly donated by www.theghilliesflybox.com that specialise in producing salmon flies for the Dee. The prize was one by visiting regular angler Mr Tony Black who caught 3 fish on opening day with the biggest scaling 15 lbs. There have been over 30 new salmon landed over the first 2 days of the season along with many Kelts.

Tom and Jean Marshall with Jean being presented with her prize by Ken Reid

The water levels are ideal with the river height running between 6 inches and 2 ft above summer level on river gauges and very clear. There have been catches reported by Jim Fisher and John Fyfe from Middle Blackhall, The Ritchie brothers have been successful at Cairnton and Tony Black and colleagues have done well at Little Blackhall & Inchmarlo. I hope to provide a comprehensive over view on Monday but it i*s nice to resume writing duties and wish all anglers & ghillies the best of luck for the season and tight lines. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, February 2010

Tony Riley with a 15 lb Springer from Tilbouries

Jim Fisher with a fine Springer from Middle Blackhall

Prospects

The River is currently running clear with levels between 6 inches and 2 feet above summer level according to river gauges with no grue coming down, there has been some marginal ice but that has disappeared. The forecast suggests an increase in temperature later in the week so we may see a lift in rier levels.

John Fyfe with another fine Springer from Middle Blackhall

Tactics indicate utilising well sunk flies in the pools where salmon may be encountered and may respond to a slowly moving fly. Now recommending patterns to use is like suggesting what type of bread you should eat-we all have our favourites. Traditionally Black flies with yellow and silver are popular as are the Willie Gunn pattern and variants, in 2-3 inch copper or brass tube flies. For anglers who use traditional waddington flies they may want to give "Intruder" type flies a swim-details can be found about this type of fly by using google on the internet. The Tungsten Monkey fly fished "on the swing" is also a potential catcher of fish.

I suspect that new spring fish are likely to be found on beats from Banchory down to Aberdeen with the Lower beats possibly having the best of the action, however there should be a enough fish distributed between Banchory and Aboyne to give an angler a chance of the prized Dee Springer.The River Dee Conservation Code is in place for 2010 and details are on the Fishdee website. Tight lines to all anglers & Ghillies for the 2010 season and ensure you fill in the Fish of the month forms available to download from FishDee in case you land a big Dee Springer.Please forward any details of catches to me at ken@riverdee.org as I will be delighted to share the news of any Springers landed with our readers.Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, February 2010

Tony Black being presented with his prize for biggest opening day fish by Ken Reid

Assembled anglers,tackle dealers, tackle manufacturers, fishing agents gather on the opening night to sample the Dee Dram which was delivered to the Stag Hotel in Banchory.All having a great fun night and discussing catches almost touching 7,200 salmon last season.

Both myself and the Clerk to the River Dee Board Mr Alastair Hume were able to have a chat with Mr Billy Connolly and to share some stories and tell him about our work.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Prospects

The River level has risen over the last few days following a recent rise in temperatures with local snow melting and some persistent drizzle. The levels on FishDee are running between 10 inches to 3 foot on the gauges. The water temperature has risen to 4 degrees Celsius which is significantly warmer than last week’s 1-2 degrees Celsius. The weather forecast is indicating predominantly cloudy skies with some wintry showers. The winds will be from the north and east which generally bring snow at this time of year but there are no heavy snowfalls indicated.

There are fish spread out through the system with pockets of fish being reported running along with the odd kelt leaping erratically from time to time. With the water temperatures warming up the fish should be less stiff and will perhaps move a bit to the fly. It’s important to get the fly well down though when the water is cold. Always remember to consult your Ghillie about what flies to use and what lies to concentrate on. The Dee Ghillies have excellent knowledge of their beats and will do their best to put you onto fish. If you do not have the services of the Ghillie to rely on for advice then you may wish to try tube flies fished slowly and deeply.

Graeme Arthur with a nice lunchtime Springer from Crathes

Patterns of choice may be Willie Gunn’s, Posh Tosh, Eternal Optimist, or for something different try a Snaelda pattern. Jim Fearn had fish on a Pink Snaelda last week! Full sinking lines or shooting heads will be the order of the day with shortish leaders. It is also worth trying a monkey tube fished deep and you can also try stripping it slowly during the warmest time of day.
I suspect that new spring fish are likely to be found on beats from Banchory down to Aberdeen with the Lower beats possibly having the best of the action in the first week, however there should be a enough fish well distributed throughout the system to give an angler a chance of the prized Dee Springer. The River Dee Conservation Code is in place for 2010 and details are on the FishDee website. Tight lines to all anglers & Ghillies for the 2010 season and ensure you fill in the Fish of the month forms available to download from FishDee in case you land a big Dee Springer. Please forward any details of catches to me at ken@riverdee.org as I will be delighted to share the news of any Springer’s landed with our readers. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, February 2010

Recent Catches

The opening week has seen 60 Springer’s reported to 24 lbs which is a reasonable start given how cold the conditions were for the hardy anglers out pitting their wits against the salmon. There is no doubt sport was difficult with the water being so cold. The rise in river levels towards the end of the week has suppressed catches somewhat and hopefully we shall see a larger number caught for the following week-time will tell. I was delighted to be able to visit many anglers during opening week and I am grateful to all for inviting me to join them for the numerous dinners I attended. All anglers were so enthusiastic about being back on our wonderful river fishing again and it’s good to hear so many compliments about the quality of service from the accommodation providers and local hostelries.

The catches were distributed from Kingcausie to Lower Dess with most taken on fly and the odd one by spinner. There were a couple over 20 lbs taken during the week with the biggest landed at Invery at 24lbs. I was grateful for a visit from Ghillie Karl Revel today who provided the following report . “ Colin Harvey from Ryall in Worcestershire has been a regular visitor to the Dee at Invery since 1993. A former 3 time winner of the CLA casting championship who is both an elegant angler and tier of lovely flies. His skills were rewarded on Friday 5th February when he caught a Springer that was 40 inches long in the Birkwood pool which is estimated at 24 lbs. This beautiful sea liced hen, his biggest Dee salmon took one of his own black and yellow flies tied with a green pearlised body. The fish was the icing on the cake which saw him accompanied by his friend Austin Todd and Ghillie Jim Turnbull. Colin caught his 200th Dee salmon, a 15 lber from the Pantoch pool on the Tuesday, which his fishing diary will record as his 255th day of fishing on the Dee. What an average!
With two other fish of 12 lbs and 17 lbs Colin certainly had a week to remember. Proprietor Jeff Viner and his wife Roni added to the weeks total with one Springer each at 16 lbs and 7 lbs. As a pioneer of catch and release he is justifiably proud of his effort to return every fish he has caught safely to the river.

Top angler & Murthly Ghillie Tony Black with a Springer from Little Blackhall. Tony was again top rod on opening day on the Dee this year with 3 Salmon on the new prototype guideline shooting head.

There were other catches reported with Graeme Arthur and Richard Thomas successful at Crathes. Jean Marshall had the first fish on opening day which saw Jean presented with a 15 foot Sharpe’s fly rod donated by the company. Top angler on opening week was once again Murthly’s Tony Black who had 5 in 2 days at Little Blackhall with Terry Paton and Martin Hayward. Tony received a prize of a box of tube flies from www.theghilliesflybox.com and tied by Ghillie Sean Stanton from Ballogie. So well done to all anglers and please remember to drop me a line and let me share your anecdotes and pictures with our readers. You can write to me as always at ken@riverdee.org The River Dee Conservation Code is in place for 2010 and details are on the FishDee website. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, February 2010

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

The cold water of winter has taken its toll on the few anglers out on the river. The river has been lightly fished and returns are quite low; but given the winter conditions it is no surprise the fish are quite unresponsive with water temperatures so low. Beats have reported 48 Springers to 18 lbs with the lower beats seeing some sport. It is a pity there are not more rods out on the lower beats as there are prime Springers about. Top beats were Altries and Crathes this week and congratulations go to Ghillies Kevin Fleming and Cleeve Cowie who have managed to get their fishermen some fine February Springers.

David Adamson with fine Springer from Park

I do hope angers will take advantage of the availability on the lower beats as there are fish to be caught. The banks and roads are clear of snow and the river is running clear and cold. I had some fishers on the river on Upper Drum & Lower Durris this week and they had an enjoyable time with Jim Paton. One of our rods , Mr David Gordon turned up at lunchtime on Monday and had a fine sea liced Springer within an hour of starting fishing. What a fine specimen it was at 9lbs and in fantastic condition. Dave commented “For the record the fish took at 1430, on a intermediate line with a 10
foot slow sink tip. The fly was a 2 inch cascade tube. The fish gave a very good account of itself before being expertly tailed by David Reid. It was in sparkling condition with about 10 long tailed sea-lice on its back. After a couple of very quick photos it was returned and very quickly swam strongly off.”

Dave Gordons sea liced Springer

There were other catches reported to me by Hardy casting academy instructor Jim Fisher at Ballogie – a fine fish of 16 lbs. Jim Coates reported a fresh 9lb fish. And I was delighted to receive a picture from Stuart Yeats who managed the fishing at Blairs with a very fresh 15 lb fish. So well done to all successful anglers and please remember to drop me a line and let me share your anecdotes and pictures with our readers. You can write to me as always at ken@riverdee.org-remember the River Dee Conservation Code is in place for 2010 and details are on the FishDee website. There are rods available on the river due to the cold winter so please take advantage of the rods available and come and fish the River Dee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, February 2010

Prospects

Fishermen who are seeking the highly coveted prize of a Dee Springer this week will be watching the river levels and weather forecast closely. As of Sunday evening we have had a relatively milder day than of late with rainfall falling steadily today. We also have High Tides of 4.3 metres forecast for Tuesday which coinciding with higher and slightly warmer water will hopefully encourage a new run of fish. Altries, a lovely lower river beat had 5 fish on Friday and has been very lightly fished so it shows there is potential for sport for those venturing out.

Stuart Yeats Cracking Springer

The weather forecast is in line with last week suggesting some cloudy days with light winds and overnight frosts. There may be some rain or sleet showers and hill snow higher up the valley. There is a good reservoir of snow at the top of the catchment and this augurs well for spring fishing providing we don’t get a “warm spell” where the snow melts rapidly. As you would expect at this time of year you need to fish deep and slow. Sunk lines are the order of the day and the best taking times will be around lunchtime when the river and air temperatures are at their highest. If you have the services of a Ghillie to advise you then please ensure you heed their wise advise. The River Dee Ghillies know their water and will give you the best advice on how to catch the prized Dee Springer if they are in your pools. There are a few Kelts about and please treat them with care as some of them will make it back to sea and will return to the river again to spawn.

Some final pieces of information of note which I hope you will find of interest. Firstly the Dee Dram whisky is being delivered this week to the valley. George Strachan of Aboyne has a delivery of 100 cases arriving on Thursday so please make sure you order some. You can now order on line by going to The Dee Dram to place an order or by visiting Georges shops and the Stag Hotel in Banchory where they have stocks. This initiative is so important in helping raise funds for the River Dee Trust and helping restore the river to its former glory. The fish of the month award is up for grabs with a fine prize from our sponsors available for the biggest 2010 salmon caught. It is a hard struggle to find the winning fish but what a superb achievement it is to win the accolade. Finally I would like to finish by reporting that well known Ghillie Archie Hay from Crathie is in hospital and sadly is quite poorly. We extend our best wishes to him and his family and hope he has a speedy recovery and will be back holding court at “McLaren” with his many guests enjoying the fabulous fishing and surroundings. Tight lines to all who are fishing, and to those that are thinking about it well please come and fish and enjoy Deeside’s hospitality. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, February 2010

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Not a lot of action to report this week sadly as winter tightened its grip on Deeside, and if you will excuse the pun, conditions were gruesome at times with practically 3 days lost due to ice floes and grue coming down river. The forecast from the met office last Sunday did not suggest the conditions that we saw during the week. As it was there were a few fish reported and there were many crack anglers on Deeside who tried their best and deserve credit for their perseverance. As it was some departed early, and who could blame them, and some just relaxed on the beats and visited some of the local hostelries. I was delighted to have a number of anglers visit on Saturday and over coffee we watched some fishing videos and chatted for a few hours.

I received some reports and am as always very grateful to anglers who drop me a line or two. Firstly Mr Jim Fisher very kindly found time to drop me a line about a recent catch at Ballogie and commented ‘It was a good afternoon. Walking up to the top of my allocated beat (The Slips) after lunch, I spotted a fish moving in the Middle Slip. I decided to cover it from the bank there and then and the fish took immediately. A very fresh small Springer landed and safely returned. Time 2.45pm. Shortly afterwards I had another solid pull to the Black & Yellow tube fly & this turned out to be a beautifully shaped Springer. Sean the Ghillie arrived in time to put the tape measure on it at 34" long by 18"girth and to take scale samples before the fish swam away strongly. Estimated weight 16lbs. Time 3.10pm. Suddenly my day seemed a lot brighter.

Jim Fisher of the Hardy Casting Academy with fine Springer

I also received a nice report from Greig Thomson from Salmo Fishings who wrote ‘Day 1 - We arrived at Park North on Monday to be greeted by Keith and a river running at 19” and clear, which is always a welcome sight in Feb. My first port of call on Monday was the Durris on beat 4. I fished down with an intermediate and fast sink tip to below the wires only to briefly hook up with a Kelt. I did not see many fish in the Durris but saw plenty of fish below on beat 5 down to the ash tree which is fairly usual early on.

In the afternoon I had beat 2. I must interject at this point and mention as Keith pointed out to me that a lot of the gravel has shifted on the beats over the winter which is now making some of the pools even better to fish. This was very obvious on beat 2 at the upper kirks and the bottom of the long pool where in the afternoon I took half a dozen Kelts or so including one of 15lb which was very well mended, for a moment I thought it might be the real thing. – Alas it was not to be so ended the day without the goal yet very happy. My fishing partner Cohn O’Dea took a fresh fish of about 7lb on beat 3 in the afternoon at the Greenbank, this certainly provided encouragement for the next day.

Greig Thomson with his prized Dee salmon

Day 2 – Couple of inches of snow overnight has brought the water temperature down on Deeside as well as the water level up by a few inches. In the morning I was on beat 3 which was looking marvellous. Now although I did not catch any that morning, I did see a fresh fish heading upstream which was very encouraging for the afternoon. After an early lunch I headed to the Durris again and then house pool on beat 4 with my S1/2 shooting head with a 10 foot fast tip teamed up with a Sunray tied on to a 3” weighted tube. I took 2 Kelts rapidly and then another an hour later. By this point I was starting to think about the warmth of home as it was sleeting heavily and very cold along with fading light. Keith come along to keep me company for a while and after only 5 minutes of him being there the line went tight and I was into a fish, no sooner than it was on it come off – now I was really ready for home, wet, cold and hungry! Keith drove off to speak to another one of the guys just up the road whilst I kept on fishing down the house pool. Within minutes my line went tight and there was a big splash on the surface the next thing I know I am right down to my backing! This was the real thing! 10 minutes later down at the cellar I landed my first fresh fish of the season, a 13lb bar of silver much to my pleasure! It goes without saying that Park is my favourite place to fish on the Dee as I just can’t keep away! The beat itself, the quality of the pools and the expertise of Keith, Bert & Charlie make this beat a must for any serious salmon fisher out there! I am now counting the days until March!

You can write to me as always at ken@riverdee.org - remember the River Dee Conservation Code is in place for 2010 and details are on the FishDee website. There are rods available over the next few weeks on the river due to the cold winter so please take advantage of the rods available and come and fish the River Dee. I do expect the run to get underway when the river warms up and it could be a good march. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, February 2010

Prospects

I would love to write and predict that prospects for the forthcoming week are promising but it would be wrong to do so. We are experiencing the severest winter for many a long year and the conditions are not going to improve over the next week. I have checked Netweather, Metcheck, the Met Office and BBC weather today. We are going to see a continuation of the extreme cold with day temps rising to around freezing or just over and falling back at night to well below zero. There is a good chance that we shall see further snowfalls from Thursday to Saturday too. There is a possibility that the river will remain grued up all week making conditions virtually impossible.

The river gauges are currently showing between 8 inches and 13 inches above summer level however that will drop back over the next few days as frost bites deeper and locks in the water that will come from the tributaries. The maritime influence is indicating high tides rising from 3.6 metres to 4.2 metres which usually would encourage fish to come into the river. Given the current conditions I don’t expect to hear of many fish coming into the river until conditions improve. I think your best catch of the week is a nice bottle of the Dee Dram whisky which is available from The Stag in Banchory, The Kincardine O’ Neil post office and George Strachans shops in Aboyne, Ballater and Braemar. It might be a useful diversion for a few hours if fishing isn’t possible. Profits from this venture go to the River Dee Trust and will help the conservation and restoration work in progress for the river. It all helps significantly so please support this initiative and enjoy a fine dram.

There are anglers coming to Deeside and I know of quite a few Scandinavian visitors arriving for a week’s fishing. If you are able to get a line out then perhaps a sunk fly fished deep and slow or perhaps a Devon minnow in the deep dubs might illicit a response. At this time of year any prospects will be around 12-2 pm – given the conditions , though sitting in the hut with a warming dram and chatting with your expert Ghillie can be an enjoyable way to relax and enjoy being on the river side. It is difficult for Ghillies to stand and watch anglers fishing when the conditions are so cold so spare a thought for them. There are rods available over the next few weeks on the river due to the cold winter so please take advantage of the rods available and come and fish the River Dee. I do expect the run to get underway when the river warms up and it could be a good march. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, February 2010

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Following on from my midweek report there was an increase in temperatures that was sufficient to reduce the grue coming downstream from Friday afternoon. As a result some brave and hardy anglers ventured into the river and fished. Some were rewarded with fresh fish for their efforts, which was good news as it looked like the river was heading for a blank week due to the conditions. There were 15 fish to 21 lbs reported from lower and middle river beats and it was nice to hear of success. It was reported that visiting angler Gavin Ramsay caught a nice fish at Commonty which was pleasing as he had been looking forward to his trip to Deeside and had real concerns about the conditions at the time. I am sure he is glad he came to Deeside and caught his super Springer.

I was delighted to receive an e-mail from Ghillie Sean Stanton who advised ‘Just a note about the catches last week. We had a visiting Ghillie from the River Conon, Fraser Smith who works for the Brahan Beats. Fraser is also the inventor of the "Smiths Shrimp", a fly that we do particularly well on. Fraser caught all three fish from Carlogie using a 1" Brass Smiths Shrimp tube. We had water temperatures of -0.5 and were totally amazed that we caught anything! Tom and Jean Marshall had a group on Norwegians over for the whole week. After sitting in their cottage for most of the week watching the ice flow past them, they were rewarded by an extremely good end to the week, which culminated in a 21lber from Lower Gannets. It goes to show that as long as you have a fly in the water, there is always a chance.’ As always good advice from Sean who is a very popular and experienced Ghillie managing the productive Ballogie and Carlogie beats.

I was fortunate to meet up with Jim Coates from Whyte and Mackay just as he landed a fine 11 lb Springer at Bakebare at Park. Jim had travelled up to Deeside to fish and deliver some much needed fishing tackle to me. Jim managed to lure his fish on one of his designs affectionately named the Donkey Fly. The picture is on the fishing reports page of FishDee. And as I write I have just been notified that River Dee Board and Trust Chairman Mr Ian Scott has landed a nice fresh fish at Aboyne Castle so no doubt both he and Ghillie Alec Coutts will have plenty to celebrate today. Hopefully they will toast this success with the Dee Dram whisky. Talking about the Dee Dram I should advise that the first main delivery has been received and has been despatched, with new stocks arriving soon. It has had a tremendously successful launch and many thanks to all the Deeside community and anglers for supporting this worthy initiative.

Jims nice Springer from Park caught on the Donkey fly he created

You can write to me as always at ken@riverdee.org - remember the River Dee Conservation Code is in place for 2010 and details are on the FishDee website. There are rods available over the next few weeks on the river due to the cold winter so please take advantage of the rods available and come and fish the River Dee. I do hope the spring run gets underway when the river warms up and it could be a good March. Tight lines to all anglers fishing this week. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, March 2010

Prospects

It’s tricky to predict how the week will go as the forecasters are predicting some extremely hard frosts over the next few nights before a weak weather front moves over the region. It may see a recurrence of grue in the river, but it is hoped the bright sun will help shift this if it appears in the mornings. Winds shouldn’t represent much of a problem but the glare from the low sun could be strong so remember to wear sunglasses. It is important to wrap up well as the water is extremely cold and please ensure you have a change of clothes just in case of an accidental tumble into the river.

The river heights are ideal for spring fishing and the snow levels bode well for the coming weeks and months. Please heed the wise advice from your Ghillie, if you have one, as they can very often make the difference between success and failure whilst you endeavour to catch a prized Dee spring salmon. If you do not have the services of a Ghillie to call on then it is wise to fish with a tube fly, 2-3 inches long, deep and slowly to get the fly right on the fishes nose. Choice of patterns could include the gold bodied Willie Gunn, Black and Yellow, Ally’s Shrimp with the Tungsten monkey another potential provider of a take from a fresh fish.

There are many Scandinavian visitors in Deeside just now and it is always a pleasure to welcome them to the valley as they do contribute significantly to the local economy in what is a quiet time of the year for many businesses. I always enjoy meeting them and discussing tactics as they have developed different methods of fly fishing with their temple dog flies, shooting heads and underhand casting rods. They are enthusiastic bunches who do like to get out and about into the community in the evenings and know how to enjoy themselves.

You can write to me as always at ken@riverdee.org - remember the River Dee Conservation Code is in place for 2010 and details are on the FishDee website. There are rods available over the next few weeks on the river due to the cold winter so please take advantage of the rods available and come and fish the River Dee. I do hope the spring run gets underway when the river warms up and it could be a good March. Tight lines to all anglers fishing this week. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, March 2010

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

This was a week of 2 halves with the first part of the week seeing the continuation of freezing conditions that very much restricted angling activity on the river. There were many visitors to Deeside who gamely battled away and endeavoured to catch a prized Dee Springer and all credit to the anglers and Ghillies for working so hard during this difficult period. On Friday there was a very welcome increase in air temperatures which seemed to bring the best out of the anglers as catches really accelerated strongly on the Friday and Saturday culminating with the capture of a tremendous 25 lb salmon on a Glen Tanar beat. The ice and grue that had hindered activity was disappearing fast opening up the river to anglers. What a pleasure it was to hear the river was performing and allowing visitors a glimpse of the exciting spring salmon fishing the river can provide.

Catches were spread out throughout the catchment with Lower Blackhall taking the plaudits for top beat followed closely by Upper Drum & Lower Durris, Invery and Tilbouries. Visitors Crawford and Ross Maclean enjoyed fine sport at Waterside catching 25lb and 14 lb salmon. I hope to have more details for the next report about the big fish. Regular Dee fisher Jim Brunton from Drumoak was successful and commented ‘Thanks Ken, this was a most welcome first fish of the season. I was a little bit downhearted when someone caught a 25lb fish in the pool above ‘Jocky Fyfe’ at Waterside in the morning and 2 people had caught springers in the pools just below me around lunchtime. I changed over from an intermediate with sink tip to a full sinking line at around 3.30 and to a black and yellow 1 1/2” tube. At around 4pm in Symonds I got a lovely take from a 31inch /10lb clean fish. I laid this out on the snow for a nice picture with the rod and wading staff but my camera phone did not capture it (very inexperienced in photographing fish obviously). Needless to say George and I celebrated with a wee dram.’ Well done Jim and George for persevering and finally succeeding.

Reid Hagelin who brings parties of anglers to Deeside annually reported that David Hedblad and Magnus Gustafson both caught 2 apiece from Middle & Little Blackhall beats. He also reported that Inga Riska caught his first ever Dee Springer at Inchmarlo on Friday within 30 minutes of starting fishing in the afternoon. Tony Smith was successful at Invery, as was John Sumner and an angler in the Jonathon Hicks party. Invery Ghillie Karl Revel called me on Friday evening to advise that 4 fish were caught that day and that there appeared to be fresh fish running at dusk. This was a promising development and good sport was to continue the next day. This may herald the start of a good run of Springers into the river and hopefully good sport will continue to develop for all anglers and Ghillies.

Inge Riska with salmon at Inchmarlo

You can write to me as always at ken@riverdee.org where I will endeavour to report any catches, stories and anecdotes. There are rods available over the next few weeks on the river due to the cold winter so please take advantage of the rods available and come and fish the River Dee. I do hope the spring run is now very much underway and it could be a good March with the conditions looking promising. As always tight lines to all anglers fishing this week. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, March 2010

Prospects

I hope I am not tempting fate but following the dramatic improvement in catches at the end of the week I do hope the upturn continues at pace. We look to be set fair for a productive week as the weather forecast is looking most promising and the river levels are ideal for fishing. Currently the SEPA gauges are running between 8 inches and 1 foot 11 inches with water temperatures rising over the last few days encouraging fish to come in from the sea.

Mr Maclean with salmon from GlenTanar

The weather forecasters on the sites I use are suggesting fairly settled high pressure with light winds and air temperature maxima of 8 degrees Celsius for the week with overnight lows around minus 2 degrees. This should ensure we don’t have any sudden high water conditions but a regular top up of the river levels daily. There may be a weak cold towards the end of the week which may bring some rain / sleet and lower temperatures marginally. For the Ghillies on the river this will be most welcome after enduring the worst cold snap for decades.

Talking about our super Ghillies it is very important to listen to the advice they will provide as they will do their best as always to put you onto a taking fish. They know their beats intimately and they will advise the best lines, flies and techniques to adopt to provide you with a chance of sport. If you don’t have the services of a Ghillie to call on it may be advantageous to use intermediate lines perhaps with a sink tip. Short leaders are useful as they allow the fly to turn over well when casting and allow the fly to dig in and sink. The popular fly patterns at this time of the year may include a Willie Gunn tube fly or Tosh, Bottle tube Monkey and Ally’s shrimp patterns. The Scandinavian visitors utilise temple dog patterns and when fish are seen running Sunray Shadow flies fished near the surface.

You can write to me as always at ken@riverdee.org - remember the River Dee Conservation Code is in place for 2010 and details are on the FishDee website. There are rods available over the next few weeks on the river due to the cold winter so please take advantage of the many rods available and come and fish the River Dee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, March 2010

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

This was a frustrating week for anglers on Deeside with rivers rising and falling and then increasing significantly at the end of the week putting the brakes on catches. FishDee beats reported 51 salmon and 2 sea trout for the week with Park, Invery and Middle Drum taking the top 3 spots for catches. Catches were reported from Ardoe at the bottom of the river to Craigendinnie and Birse.

Shane Christie from Middle Drum reported that John Buchan had fish to 15 lbs on an ice maiden tube fly and Stan Crook had fish on his own tied Dozem pattern. They are regular visitors to the beat from England and know the water well. Shane reported seeing a few fish throughout the week and commented that 2 of the fish were sea liced however there do appear to be fish hanging around and not in any hurry to move upriver. It’s a pity that there were not as many rods fishing on the lower beats as no doubt Altries and Kingcaussie would be doing very well. If you haven’t fished these beats then they are worth visiting at this time of year as they should hold stocks of fresh fish given the cold prevailing water conditions.

Keith Cromar from Park reported that David Parkin and Ian Scruton had 2 fish each and that Phil Burn, Bill Gracie and Tony Black had fish too. It was interesting to hear that Bill Gracie had his fish on a size 6 dressed fly fished on a floater with 10 foot sink tip. Reid Hagelin reported that anglers fishing the beats he books had fish to 16 lbs with Hasse and Jan taking honours for heaviest fish and most fish. Invery had a productive week with regular Dee visitor Jim Fisher scoring again and Thursday saw really good sport with 7 fish reported for the day so well done to Ghillie Jim Turnbull and his anglers for doing well.

I would be grateful if anglers would forward pictures of their catches for FishDee and remind anglers that there is a fish of the month award from Whyte and Mackay for heaviest fish of the month so please report your catches to me if you think they may be in with a chance of winning. You can write to me as always at ken@riverdee.org where I will endeavour to report any catches, stories and anecdotes. There are rods available over the next few weeks on the river due to the cold winter so please take advantage of the rods available and come and fish the River Dee. As always tight lines to all anglers fishing this week. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, March 2010

Prospects

The river gauges as I write are showing heights from 2ft 1 inch at Mar Lodge to 4ft 11 inches at Park with all the tributaries running high with snow melt and rainfall from a heavy fall last night. I am pleased to hear of catches this morning from a few beats up to Dinnet. The river temperature is around 2 degrees Celsius which is cold and it is hoped it will rise to 5-6 degrees by the end of the week and really get the fish on the move. We all hope to see a good run of new fish coming into the river and fingers crossed this happens this week. The maritime influence shows spring tides rising to 4.2 metres on Wednesday falling back to 3.9 metres on Sunday. Hopefully high river levels and Spring tides will trigger some real action throughout the catchment albeit I expect the lower beats will do well if they have enough anglers out fishing.

The weather forecast looks reasonable with air temperature maxima forecast at 10 degrees Celsius and minima of 0 degrees Celsius over night at the early part of the week. A series of weather fronts are forecast which will bring frequent rain shower and gusty winds at times with heavy rain forecast for Friday. The wind direction is predominately westerly or south westerly which may result in continued snow melt and high river levels with the skies frequently overcast. All in all the conditions look quite reasonable for a week’s spring fishing and fingers crossed the river levels will not get too high.

It’s been a trying time for our Ghillies of late trying their best to help anglers succeed in difficult conditions and I would urge anglers to remain positive and listen carefully to the advice they provide. They are experts on their beats and will give you the best advice they can to help you catch a prized Dee Springer. If you are not fishing this week with a Ghillie then you may be faced with a dilemma of fly fishing or spinning due to high river levels. If you are fishing fly then a good sunk line will probably need to be utilised, perhaps an s2/s3 or s3/s4 shooting head or Skagit line with T14/t17 tip, depending on the beat fished. Fish a good strong leader as there may be some big new fish arriving, with a bright tube fly such as the Cascade or Park Shrimp, Ice Maiden and always have a go with the gold bodied Willie Gunn it usually does well for Springers. If you choose to spin and the beat rules permit this then perhaps a Blair’s spoon, Yellow belly Devon minnow or Gold Toby fished as deep as possible may come up trumps for you. Remember the River Dee conservation code is in place and please ensure you give the fly a really good try before spinning a pool.

Why not celebrate your catch with a fine Dalmore Dee Dram as this fine single malt whisky is currently available throughout the valley in George Strachan’s stores, as well as the Kincardine O’Neil Post Office and the Stag Hotel in Banchory to buy. More and more of the local hotels and bars are supporting this conservation fundraising initiative for the River Dee Trust so please pop into a local pub if you are out and about and meet the friendly people of Deeside who are delighted to see visitors in the valley. Can you please write to me with news of your catches as news has been thin on the ground so far this season to ken@riverdee.org There are rods available over the next few weeks on the river due to the cold winter so please take advantage of the many rods available and come and fish the River Dee I am hopeful sport will really start to take off and would like to hear of your angling successes. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, March 2010 for your Dee Dram go to The Dee Dram

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

I was concerned last week that we may see high water levels and my fears were realised. The River levels were high for most of the week with snowmelt which peaked at Park at 10 ft on Thursday. Catches were reasonable when anglers had reasonable levels and 43 fish were reported on the Tuesday and Wednesday and there were another 13 fish reported over the other days of the week which shows how fickle sport can be when conditions are against the fisherman.

It was pleasing to hear that lower beats were starting to see fish and given the river levels I was not surprised to see Lower Crathes and Upper Durris reporting the highest catches for the week closely followed by Park. These beats I think of as barometer beats in the Spring which normally see reasonable catches if the fish are there in any numbers. I received an e mail from Mark Bird who was fishing with colleagues at Park who commented ‘As promised a couple of photos from our trip to Park. Richard Miller landed the cream of the crop, a beautiful 20lber out of the Durris, David Saunders with a 12lber from the Cellar and myself with a bonnie 7lber also from the Cellar. We had to be away sharp at 5pm on the Wednesday to catch our flights and at 4.45 I hooked a cracker in the high teens at Park Inn. After 10 minutes hard fight I was getting a bit concerned about the time and applied a bit too much pressure and unfortunately the leader went and my prize slipped away a few feet from the shore. Many thanks to Keith Cromar and Paul in the house, who made our trip to Park so memorable.’ The 20lb fish that Richard Miller caught is on the FishDee website and is his first Dee Salmon.

Richard Miller with a beautiful 20 lb Springer-his first Dee salmon

Visiting Scandinavian anglers were made welcome on their annual pilgrimage to Deeside and the group fishing with Reid Hagelin reported 22 for their visit last week. With a visitor from Denmark landing a 20 lb fish from Carlogie and I hope to receive details and images this week of this fish. As always the group finished their week with successful anglers receiving prizes from Reid Hagelin. It has been a tough 3 weeks for Reid Hagelins group as the conditions have been very much against them, but that is salmon fishing. There are no guarantees for sport which is why the Spring salmon is so highly prized by all anglers. Can you please write to me with news of your catches as news has been thin on the ground so far this season to ken@riverdee.org There are rods available over the next few weeks on the river due to the cold winter so please take advantage of the many rods available and come and fish the River Dee I am hopeful sport will really start to take off and would like to hear of your angling successes. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, March 2010

Prospects

As I speculated last week and suggested that if river levels don’t get too high then we would see good sport then I shall suggest the same this week. As I write this report the river heights on the Sepa gauges are from 1ft 1 inch to 2 ft 8 inches which is an ideal fishing height. I walked some of the riverside yesterday and saw the river running high and clear so I am optimistic about sport this week. If all goes to plan we should have the best weeks sport of the season. There is no doubt that there are fish moving through the beats as anglers have reported this to me.

We should see the bulk of the sport in the lower and middle river beats but there will be fish spread out the length of the river. I expect the top spring beats to do well and fingers crossed for all the Ghillies who have been patiently waiting an improvement in river conditions. Talking about Ghillies then it is important to heed their wise advise about methods and tactics when visiting your beat. Our Dee Ghillies know the moods of the river intimately and are usually able to provide the best advice as to what to use and where you may encounter your prized Dee Springer. If you don’t have the services of a Ghillie to call on then you should persevere with sinking lines, shortish leaders and tube flies of 1-3 inches. Patterns of choice may include the Gold Willie Gunn, Posh Tosh, Eternal optimist and variants of the Monkey fly. If fish are seen running then perhaps a Sunray Shadow fished close to the surface may provide some sport.

The weather forecast for the week looks reasonable and provided we don’t get too much rain and snow melt then the river should fish well all week. There is rain forecast for the later part of the week which could put the brakes on sport if it is too heavy. Air temperature maxima will be in the 10-12 degrees Celsius range and overnight lows will reach -1 degrees Celsius. The winds may be a feature this week with winds forecast to gust quite strongly at times and shifting from a southerly direction to an easterly one. The maritime influence sees tides rising from 3.7 metres to 4.2 metres and this may encourage Springer’s to come pouring in from the sea. One of our respected river Ghillies suggested a few weeks ago to me that this week should be really good so I am sure he will as always provide solid advice. Can you please write to me with news of your catches as news has been thin on the ground so far this season to ken@riverdee.org There are rods available over the next few weeks on the river due to the cold winter so please take advantage of the many rods available and come and fish the River Dee I am hopeful sport will really start to take off and would like to hear of your angling successes. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, March 2010

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

It’s nice to start a report by advising that catches last week were considerably the highest by far this season with 131 salmon reported. The weather improved with daytime temperatures encouraging new fish to run the river in reasonable numbers and sport was enjoyed from Altries to Cambus O’May. There seems to be a reasonable number of fish around the Banchory area which perhaps have been held back by cold water and high river levels. This is seen by the reported catches with Park reporting 14, Invery 13, Lower Blackhall with 12 Little Blackhall reporting 10-other notable catches were Kincardine with 11 and Ballogie/Carlogie with 10. So well done to the Ghillies and anglers for doing well with persistent high water levels and tricky winds to contend with.

Fish of the week was reported by Keith Cromar at Park who wrote “Hi Ken, please find photos of a beautiful Dee Springer caught this morning at Park. The angler is local man Mr Ken Rothwell from Peterculter, it was his third cast of the day when the fish took his fly, it was "The Dee Fox" invented and tied by local fly tyer Phil Glendenning. It was caught on the Jetties at the top of beat 5. The fish measured 38" long with a 21" girth weighed in at 26lb.Having seen some big fish this week it was nice for someone to hook into a big fella. Regards Keith” Earlier in the week Jim Coates had a fish on for twenty minutes that he and Keith had estimated to be over 30 lbs. The fish after a lengthy struggle took off down river and came off 500 yards downstream from where it was hooked.

Keith Rothwells fine springer

I was grateful to receive pictures from John Milne and Charlie Robertson of fine Dee Springers which will hopefully be on the FishDee website over the next few days. I received further correspondence from Colin Hewitt who I met during the week with regular Dee angler Steve Hogg, Colin commented about his e-mail entitled Cole Porter “No doubt you are confused by the title of this e-mail, but I thought it quite apt, as he wrote "It's Dee-lightful, It's Dee-licious, it's Dee-lovely" - which pretty much sums up how good a time I had fishing the river for the first time. Lovely fly water - runs, glides, shallows, deeps, features. Two fish in two days, despite a rise in water, a few beers and some good chat, what more could a reasonable guy ask for. I definitely plan to visit again and many thanks for the DVD of the Varzuga - I had a quick swatch and it does look good fun. I have attached a "happy camper" photo - this after it got out the net in the water, jumped out the net and got back into the water whilst on the back, with me holding it by the nylon to get it back. Keith needs a bigger net! Thanks again Colin Hewitt”

Colin Hewitt

I was delighted to receive correspondence from John Carmichael who is a long term regular Dee angler who advised “Dear Ken, We have just completed our 30th annual spring week on the Upper Dee where we had far more snow melt water than usual. Our proprietor (Edward Humphrey) generously presented a bottle of the ‘Dee Dram’ to be opened only after the first fish of the season was caught. To our surprise and delight this was achieved by 10.30am with a 7lb. winter fish, so the delights of the Dee Dram were soon thoroughly tested by all! The fish we caught had all been in a while, under the ice no doubt, and were the pinkish hue we associate with these ‘Christmas’ fish. Scale reading of one 6 year old 3+3 fish confirmed this. On Friday while watching the 6 foot plus flood go by I saw a splash grabbed my rod and covered the spot with a large fly and was rewarded with a ‘take’ and though it was a bright sea trout kelt, see photo, it was a surprise in the conditions! Though catches have changed over the 30 years we always enjoy Deeside, the company of our ghillies and the quality and variety of these Dee pools. Regards, John Carmichael”

John Milne with a Dee Springer just ready to be released

I am delighted to receive your correspondence to share with our readers so can you please write to me with news of your catches to ken@riverdee.org There are rods available over the next few weeks on the river due to the cold winter so please take advantage of the many rods available and come and fish the River Dee I am hopeful sport will really start to take off and would like to hear of your angling successes. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, March 2010

Prospects

Just when we thought we had seen the back of this winter the forecasters are predicting winter will have one final kiss to deliver to Deeside. And a smacker it is forecast to be with heavy snowfalls predicted for higher ground with as much of a foot of new spring snow. How this will impact on the fishing remains to be seen as it coincides with really high spring tides. To get into the detail sees the forecast for the Banchory area suggesting air temperatures forecast to reach a maximum of 5 degrees Celsius on Monday and then to fall overnight and stay for the rest of the fishing week in the 1-3 degree Celsius range. Accompanying these cold air temperatures will be frequent sleet and snow showers, with some heavy and prolonged. Another feature of the week will be frequent strong and blustery winds which will come from northerly and westerly directions. This is more like early February weather than late March however it is safe to predict that Easter Sunday will not be a barbecue one.

Charlie Robertson with a nice fish at Lower Blackhall

River levels are currently running at 1 ft 2 inches to 2 ft 10 inches on the Sepa gauges, which is a good level for fishing. Perhaps this cold weather will ensure we don’t get a huge amount of snowmelt and ensure steady river levels throughout the week but it depends on how wet the land is during the week. We may see some rises during the week but the good news is we have Spring tides peaking at 4.4 metres on Wednesday dropping back to 3.8 metres at the weekend. This may encourage a further run of fresh fish with hopefully some more big fish. Some Ghillies have reported seeing some really big fish last week so we may have some exciting news to report next week. River temperatures are around 3 degrees Celsius and if they end up warmer than air temperatures we may see sport slow down- I do hope this is not the case.

Now to get the best out of the river you need to have the best advice available and our crack Ghillies up and down the valley are the men to provide this to you. It’s important to heed their wise counsel as they know the moods of the river and where the salmon are likely to be lying on their beat. If you do not have the services of a Ghillie to call on then please use normal spring tactics of sunken lines, short sturdy leaders and a tube fly on the business end. Patterns to fish with confidence are Gold Willie Gunn, Posh Tosh, Park Shrimp and the ever popular Tungsten Monkey fly. I heard of an angler losing a fish recently by trying to rush a fish to the bank to meet a flight schedule. Spring fish are dogged scrappers and will try their hardest to elude capture and release so patience is vital in playing a fish. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, March 2010

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Last week saw winter tenaciously closing its grip on Scotland again, with combinations of rain, wind and snow. For those who battled through atrocious road conditions and the physical demands of the weather conditions the River saw improving rod catches through the week. An example of this would be the two brothers, Henrik and Benjamin Fredriksen, who chose the Dee as the destination for their first visit to Scotland in search of the elusive spring salmon. After enduring terrible weather conditions on Middle Drum they were both rewarded with salmon, the best Henrik's 12lbs sea-liced fish.

Park topped the catches reported on FishDee, with a total of 19 fish to 20lbs. The catches on Park were aided and abetted by none other than Ken Reid, who managed to get his Dee tally off the mark. Ken's party also included Lawrie Hickman, Matt Hayes and Jim Coates who contributed to the beat's reported catch of 10 for Friday, up to 20lb.

Just as noticeable on the recent catches were the five fish caught at Headinch and Cambus O'May on Saturday from the party led by Paul Angel. With beats from above Aboyne reporting catches every day last week the high water levels and slow but steady increase in water temperatures are encouraging fish to disperse throughout the catchment.

Gareth Headland fishing at Carlogie must also be congratulated for landing a fine example of a Dee Springer, with an estimated weight of 22lb. The fish was caught on a home tied fly, Frede’s Nightmare, which also accounted for most of the fish caught on that beat for the week.

Finally all on Deeside wish Lars Terkildsen, and his party of 25 enthusiastic and capable anglers from Sweden and Denmark, a safe journey home and we look forward to seeing them all again soon.

Ken will be back next week, no doubt regaling us all with tales of fish caught and lost from his few days on Carlogie. As ever all contributions to this column are greatly welcomed and please email Ken at ken@riverdee.org or telephone him at the River Office on 01339 880411.

© Copyright FishDee Ltd, April 2010.



Beat catches reported
(week ending 3rd April)
SALMON & GRILSE: Altries and Lower Drum 1, Middle Drum 3, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 4, Tilbouries 4, Park 19, Lower Crathes and W Durris 6, Knappach 1, Crathes 3, Invery 5, Lower Blackhall 6, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 2, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 2, Woodend 1, Commonty 1, Ballogie 2, Borrowston 1, Kincardine 4, Carlogie 5, Lower Dess 2, Upper Dess 2, Birse 2, Aboyne Water 3, Aboyne Castle 1, Craigendinnie 4, Waterside and Ferrar 4, Dinnet 4, Deecastle 3, Headinch and Cambus O'May 5, Birkhall 1.
Total: 102 Largest: Carlogie 22lbs
SEA TROUT: Altries and Lower Drum 2, Park 2, Invery 2, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Kincardine 2.
Total: 9 Largest: Altries and Lower Drum 4lbs
TROUT: None reported

Prospects

The first full week of April looks like being milder than of late, but this also brings along a forecast for the start of the week of heavy rain, wind and a likely thaw of some snow. This means that we are likely to get sudden increases in river heights and anglers should take care when wading and only do so when sure of their footing.

From Wednesday onwards the weather is due to calm down with forecast for reasonable spring days for Aberdeenshire, which means a combination of fair weather with the odd shower. With such changeable conditions it pays to heed the advice of the ghillie, as they can often make the difference between catching a fish or not.

The upside to the high water conditions and improving water temperatures means that fish should now becoming well dispersed throughout the catchment. Tight lines for the coming week, and if you would like to share stories or anecdotes on tactics then please contact Ken Reid at ken@riverdee.org.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches


The river fished well when fishing was possible, however a couple of days were effectively lost due to a large flood at the early part of the week. There were 118 salmon and 6 sea trout reported with salmon to 21 lbs recorded.The distribution of fish cathes was pleasing as fish were reported from Middle Drum in the lower river right up to Crathie near Braemar at the top of the valley. Again the bulk of the sport was reported in the lower beats with Park and Lower Crathes taking pole position, Invery and Little Blackahll were close runners up and Commonty and Birse came in joint third place for the week.There was a crack team of anglers from Scandinavia fishing with Mattias Helde at Birse, Commonty and a non-FishDee beat, and they had good catches from all the beats they fished.It is very pleasing to hear of the visiting anglers to Deeside having good sport and it makes for an enjoyable evening when they gather to celebrate their excellent days sport.No doubt their Ghillies provided them with sound advice as always.

I was delighted to receive an e-mail from a fishing friend Donnie Whiteford who managed to visit Invery for a few days and he did very well catching 3 fish, he commented.'Hi Ken. I have attached a photo of a fish I had on Friday while fishing Invery. I go by the Sturdy scale when estimating the weight of springers and this one would be around 21lbs.It was caught on a floating line with a tip and an orange monkey-type fly which served me well on the Tummel last spring. I had 2 on Thursday at 7 and 11 lbs.Hope your season is going well'. Donnie is an excellent experienced angler who works extremely hard to get his fish, and often succeeds when others give up. Another acquaintance Ross Macdoanld got in touch with me following an invitation to fish for a day at Carlogie. Ross commented 'Ken, thanks for the invitation to fish at the beautiful Carlogie beat this week as your guest. Despite the high water I managed to winkle one out of the Boat Pool- exactly where Head Ghillie Sean Stanton said I would get one. Sean's enthusiasm and knowledge made for another great day out on the Dee. He also ties a mean fly!! tight lines'.

I was grateful to receive news from Edward Humphrey who adivsed that reglar visitor Julia O'Hagen caught her first Dee springer at 8 lbs while fishing with Colin Espie at the Dee Castle beat, part of Glen Tanar fishings.I also received an e-mal from an excited Colin Mathieson who remarked 'At last I can finally relax now as I eventually achieved my goal by completing the set target of catching salmon from all the big four rivers Tay,Spey,Tweed and Dee. I got off the mark by booking my 3rd ever visit to Park South where I managed to connect with my first Dee salmon, a beautiful 6lb sea-liced springer from the Durris Stream on a Park Shrimp cone head witnessed by gillie Charlie Yates, fished on a Rio AFS outbound 7 i.p.s around 10.45am, just before the river started to rise. I also managed to connect with a very well mended kelt around 8lbs and lost a double figured spring fish to a black and yellow monkey that same evening when the water decided to some what settle a little. My fellow angler Matthew Brownisky had several offers but never managed to intercept with any his offers not due to lack of fresh fish been seen on the beat . I would also like to take the time to thank yourself and Ian Scott for making us very welcoming at lunch time and by offering a dram or two on catching my fish, and more importantly the great job the River Dee team are doing in enhancement of the River Dee, what a great job use are doing keep up the good work ! p.s cant wait to come back.Many thanks Colin Mathieson'

I am delighted to receive your correspondence to share with our readers so can you please write to me with news of your catches to ken@riverdee.org There are rods available over the next few weeks on the river due to the cold winter so please take advantage of the many rods available and come and fish the River Dee I am hopeful sport will really start to take off and would like to hear of your angling successes. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, March 2010



Beat catches reported
(week ending 10th April)
SALMON & GRILSE: Middle Drum 3, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 4, Tilbouries 2, Park 12, Lower Crathes and W Durris 12, Knappach 1, Crathes 1, Invery 10, Lower Blackhall 7, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 10, Middle Blackhall 2, Cairnton 5, Commonty 9, Sluie 3, Ballogie 1, Borrowston 1, Kincardine 7, Carlogie 2, Lower Dess 2, Upper Dess 1, Birse 9, Aboyne Water 5, Craigendinnie 2, Waterside and Ferrar 2, Deecastle 4, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 3, Crathie 1.
Total: 122 Largest: Invery 21lbs
SEA TROUT: Middle Drum 2, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 1, Lower Crathes and W Durris 2, Lower Blackhall 1.
Total: 6 Largest: Middle Drum 4lbs
TROUT: None reported



Prospects



With a kind looking weather forecast and rising water temperatures this week, we should see some cracking sport reported providing the fish get on the move.I have just received a phone call from a very excited Reid Hagelin who's arrived with more anglers. He has been fishing for an hour and a half has had 3 fish to 25 lbs and lost 2 others.In line with other observations reported to me when fish arrive in beats they get hooked, and some landed and then they move on.The sport is dependent on fish arriving in beats whilst running. Now to the weather forecast in a bit more detail, winds are forcast to be light and variable with the predominant influence seeing them come from the north or east.Air temperature Maxima is in the region of 15 degrees celsius with minima in the region of 4 degrees. There will be variable amonts of cloud cover as the high pressure establishes and this will be useful if its present in the afternoon sessions preventing the sun shining directly downstream. What rainfall there is shall be very localised and minimal, so we should not see any dramatic spate conditions like last week. There should be a continuance of snow melt from the Cairngorms providing a top up of river levels daily but not adversely.And to finish this section I can advise that water temperatures in the banchory area are in the region of 6 degrees celsius and may rise to 8-10 degrees this week.

Now to get the best out of the river you need to have the best advice available and our crack Ghillies up and down the valley are the men to provide this to you. It's important to heed their wise counsel as they know the moods of the river and where the salmon are likely to be lying on their beat. If you do not have the services of a Ghillie to call on then please use normal spring tactics of sink tip lines, shortish leaders and a tube fly or large dressed fly on the business end. Patterns to fish with confidence are Gold Willie Gunn, Posh Tosh, Park Shrimp and the ever popular Tungsten Monkey fly. Now that water temperatures are rising perhaps a sunray shadow fly stripped across the pool may provoke an aggressive take so try this on beats that allow it after giving conventional tactics a good try first.The spiining option finishes on many of the beats in a few days time and fly fishing becomes the tactic of choice for most Dee anglers. With fish running and temperatures rising lets hope the many visiting talented anglers enjoy a fabulous weeks sport.

After your day on the river please get out and visit the many hostelries on Deeside providing top quality food and drink. There are many friendly establishments that have a long history of looking after anglers.Why not celebrate your catch with a fine Dalmore Dee Dram as this fine single malt whisky is currently available throughout the valley in George Strachan's stores, as well as the Kincardine O'Neil Post Office and the Stag Hotel in Banchory to buy. More and more of the local hotels and bars are supporting this conservation fundraising initiative for the River Dee Trust so please pop into a local pub if you are out and about and meet the friendly people of Deeside who are delighted to see visitors in the valley. Can you please write to me with news of your catches, and pictures if you have some you want to see on FishDee to ken@riverdee.org Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, April 2010

 

[ken@fishdee]

PROSPECTS

The weather forecast is indicating a cold spell for a few days and this may suppress catches a little. We shall see air temperatures in the region of 6-10 degrees Celsius during the daylight hours with overnight frosts in the upper valley most nights. This may halt snow melt from the mountain top s so we should have steady water levels during the week. There will be variable wind conditions with some afternoons seeing breezy conditions which will make it feel cold when snow flurries or hail fall locally. The maritime influence indicates neap tides with high water forecast to drop from 3.9 metres to 3.5 metres however as the sea temperatures and river temperatures are very similar now fish should migrate feely into the River catchment. The beats around Banchory are enjoying most of the sport but its clear salmon are starting to migrate upriver to the upper catchment now in reasonable numbers albeit some beats are not seeing many fish.

Willie McLauchlan with a fresh Springer

At this time of the year anglers are changing from Tube flies to dressed doubles and some are using full floating lines and catching fish. To get the best out of the river you need listen carefully to our crack Gillies up and down the valley. It's important to heed their wise counsel as they know the moods of the river and where the salmon are likely to be lying on their beat. If you do not have the services of a Ghillie to call on then perhaps you could try full floating lines with polyleaders. Patterns to fish with confidence are Silver Stoats Tail, Posh Tosh, Park Shrimp and the ever popular Monkey fly. Now that water temperatures are rising perhaps a sunray shadow fly stripped across the pool may provoke an aggressive take, so try this on beats that allow it after giving conventional tactics a good try first. If you are looking for fishing you can book rods on line or perhaps call estates as many anglers will be unable to travel because of the current air travel embargo.

Another Big Dee Springer landed By Trevor Spence

After your day on the river please get out and visit the many hostelries on Deeside providing top quality food and drink. There are many friendly establishments that have a long history of looking after anglers. Why not celebrate your catch with a fine Dalmore Dee Dram as this fine single malt whisky is currently available throughout the valley in George Strachan's stores, as well as the Kincardine O'Neil Post Office and the Stag Hotel in Banchory to buy. More and more of the local hotels and bars are supporting this conservation fundraising initiative for the River Dee Trust so please pop into a local pub if you are out and about and meet the friendly people of Deeside who are delighted to see visitors in the valley. I was delighted to hear of an angler who arrived at the Glen Lui Hotel on Sunday night at 10.30 pm who was provided with a hot meal on arrival. Can you please write to me with news of your catches and pictures if you have some you want to see on FishDee to ken@riverdee.org Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, April 2010



Recent Catches


This was a big fish week on the River Dee with some anglers encountering some real hefty specimens throughout the catchment. The biggest fish reported was a fish caught by GlenTanar Estate Proprietor Michael Bruce who landed a fine salmon of 46 inches, conservatively estimated at 32 lbs. We spoke briefly on the phone following his dramatic encounter and Michael did extremely well to land this fish on his own. The previous evening a fish of 28 lbs was caught at Cambus O'May and I hope to receive pictures of this. This fish was landed by William Mclauchlan, photographed with scales taken, and these have been confirmed as a 3 sea winter fish by our biologist Lorraine Hawkins. There were other fish reported in excess of 20 lbs from a number of beats most days, including one landed by Mr Shepherdson at Dee Castle, and it shows there are groups of small and large salmon in the river. The total reported catch from FishDee beats was 166 salmon and 5 sea trout, with Park reporting 21 fish, followed closely by Lower Crathes with 20, Ballogie & Carlogie with 16, with Invery again reaching double figures so well done to all the successful anglers and Gillies.


Ian Laing with a nice Springer

I was delighted to receive an e-mail from regular Dee fisher Phillip Wood who commented 'Hi Ken, two weeks on the Dee over and now back home. Week 10 with a party of regulars and day guests on Waterside & Ferrar/Craigendinnie was difficult to say the least with the fluctuating water levels. However, two fish were landed with a couple of other brief contacts. Congratulations to Robert Stead who landed his first Dee Springer on his fifth springtime visit, a sweet fish of about 12 lbs. Bill Siddall also scored. Week 11 on Aboyne Castle started well on Monday with Bill Siddall and myself grassing a fish each in the 8 lb bracket. Hopes were high for a bumper week. I had several contacts but all came off during the next few days before we were into landing fish again, not seeing many fish show, but hearing the stories from the other beats. I managed two before noon on Friday, Bill also had one, and then we finished with 1 each on Saturday. A great week, although we didn't quite manage to get amongst the 'big uns', which are obviously about. A big 'thank you' to the three Gillies who have to put up with us. They are really great guys. Phillip'. I was also advised of another fine fish landed at Morven by visiting angler Mr Tony Smith who reported the fish, which measured 34.5 inches, was very fresh but didn’t have sea lice.

Willie Mclauchlan with a big Springer from Cambus 0'May

I am delighted to receive your correspondence to share with our readers so can you please write to me with news of your catches to ken@riverdee.org There may be rods available through beats as some visiting anglers are unable to come to Deeside due to the current embargo on air travel. Perhaps you can contact beats directly to establish if there is any availability. Some agents have anglers who are unable to fly home and have other anglers who are unable to come to Deeside. I am hopeful sport will continue to gather momentum during April following a slow start to the season caused by the weather. I would really like to hear of your angling successes so please write to me with your news to ken@riverdee.org. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, April 2010

 

[ken@fishdee]

Prospects

I have a feeling that this could be a productive week on Deeside with some crack teams of anglers visiting and arriving to find perfect conditions in many of the beats. I am receiving reports of fish running hard, with some beats having a lean time of it and others having really good numbers of salmon in their pools. Its also pleasing to report that the weather is warming up nicely and the swallows have returned and timed it perfectly to coincide with large hatches of March Browns etc. After a slow and difficult start to the fishing season due to the worst weather conditions for many, many years its pleasing to hear of fish moving upriver in good numbers. There seems to be a lot in the 6-8 lb range as well as fish in the high teens and in excess of 20 lbs. These prime silver sea liced fish really look magnificent and are at times maddeningly difficult to hook and land. I hope that the anglers fishing the river do well and take careful note of the air and river temperatures during the day and above all persevere.

The weather forecast is showing reasonable air temperatures until Saturday when they will fall back, however air temperature maxima during the week shall be around 14 degrees Celsius and overnight temperatures will drop to 7 degrees Celsius. The winds will be mostly from a westerly direction and may be blustery at times accompanied by spring showers, which may be heavy at times locally. There is even a possibility of spring snow next Sunday if forecasters have got their computer weather models accurate. Sunrise is around 5.30 am and sunset around 8.45 pm giving extended fishing hours and some anglers will be on the river early in the mornings now, where permitted, to catch the nocturnal running fish as they settle into their beat until they move on again. River levels are currently between 1 ft 3 inches to 1 ft 10 inches with potential for a little snow melt daily. The water clarity is first class and the water temperatures are around 6-7 degrees Celsius. The maritime influence indicates Spring tides with heights rising from 4.1 metres to 4.4 metres before falling back to 3.9 metres on Sunday.

This is the time that more and more anglers will fish with smaller flies and longer lighter leaders and floating lines with poly leaders. The best advice is to listen to your beat gillie if you have the services of one to call upon. If you do not have a gillie to advise you then you may wish to consider fishing with Smiths Shrimp, Cascade or Park shrimp, Silver Stoats tail, Arndilly fancy, Logie, Munro's Killer and the ever popular Monkey fly. I hope to meet up with Ole Wisteler, editor in chief of Sportsfiskeren Magazine, who's over from Denmark to see what his team are using at Ballogie. It is important to fish hard as a run of fish could arrive at any time in your pool and perhaps be gone an hour or so later.

After your day on the river please get out and visit the many hostelries on Deeside providing top quality food and drink. There are many friendly establishments that have a long history of looking after anglers. Why not celebrate your catch with a fine Dalmore Dee Dram as this fine single malt whisky is currently available throughout the valley in George Strachan's stores, as well as the Kincardine O'Neil Post Office and the Stag Hotel in Banchory to buy. More and more of the local hotels and bars are supporting this conservation fundraising initiative for the River Dee Trust so please pop into a local pub if you are out and about and meet the friendly people of Deeside who are delighted to see visitors in the valley. Can you please write to me with news of your catches and pictures if you have some you want to see on FishDee to ken@riverdee.org Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, April 2010

Recent Catches

The week finished well and the FishDee beats have reported 155 salmon and 19 sea trout for the week with more late catches to be reported over the next few days. This is another good week for anglers fishing the Dee with some more really big fish reported being encountered. Top beat for the week was Ballogie with 16 fish, with the ever reliable Lower Crathes in runners up spot. Park, Dinnet, Waterside & Ferrar and Monaltrie & Lower Invercauld also reported steady catches. It is clear that there is a reasonable number of salmon in the catchment with fish from the bottom beats right through to the top beats now. There are increasing numbers of sea trout running now and this seems to coincide with the swallows returning annually.

I have received a few bits of correspondence this week which I would like to share with readers. First of all enthusiastic Ballogie gillie Sean Stanton reports 'Hi Ken, Just a quick note to let you know about last week - The Hemmings party had a great week at Ballogie, finishing up with 16 fish - the biggest fish was 16lbs, caught by Ernie Hemmings himself. Most fish were caught on Smiths Shrimp doubles and Black Francis flies. The vast majority were sea-liced fish. It was great to see fish in almost every pool. Cheers Sean' and Edward Humphrey wrote advising 'Morning Ken, An excellent week on the Dinnet/Deecastle beat with 15 fish caught off both banks. 8 were caught by Roger Ahlfors from Sweden who had managed to get across to the UK on one of the last flights out of Sweden 10 days ago, leaving behind his fishing companion Johan, who was then stuck behind the ash cloud and who could only watch the score rise on the website with gritted teeth. Johan was delighted for Rogers success which included a 20 pounder off Deecastle and 3 fish off Redbrae on the Dinnet bank in an hour of Saturday morning. Yours Edward'.

Nic Jepson's 24 lb Salmon

Reid Hagelin had yet another big party over on Deeside, albeit some were delayed in coming to Deeside due to the embargo on air travel. The visiting party fished the beautiful upper river beats including Birkhall, Abergeldie, Monaltrie & Lower Invercauld. Special mention must go to the gillies who worked very hard to help the anglers catch salmon. Nic Jepson positively enthused about the help provide by David Murray who chose the fly that enabled Nic to catch a cracking 24 lb fish from the Garden pool. Nic commented to me on Saturday at their dinner ' I went down the pool two times without a touch and he encouraged me to give it a try one more time and selected the small size 10 fly I should use. I was delighted to hook this fish, which is my biggest Atlantic salmon to date.' Another member of the party Sergey Sapronov, whom I met in January in Argentina fishing, did very well catching his first Dee salmon and had 3 to 15 lbs on his special design of flies. I will provide further update on this when I receive correspondence from him this week. Finally I should mention that Paul Devlin and Reid Hagelin both reported catches as well as some good golfing days ensuring a fun filled holiday in the upper valley. This week sees Morten Agnar and his wife Annette fishing and the always entertaining Morten wrote about his fishing experiences recently saying ' If I want to catch many salmon I go to Iceland, If I want a really big fish I stay in Norway, If I want the best fishing holiday I come to Deeside in Scotland. 'This confirms yet again what a tremendous holiday destination Deeside really is for visiting anglers and their families.

I should finish by mentioning that there are reports of a 32 lb salmon from Woodend, I have received no clear reports about this capture yet as the captor has not been in touch. I would stress that there is a fish of the month award from our sponsors Whyte & Mackay, the potential to win the Park Trophy for biggest River Dee fish and finally the Malloch trophy for the largest salmon caught in Scotland. Its is prudent to take a tape measure and camera with you in order to help verify captures of large fish. If possible remove a scale for analysis as we have a laboratory in the River Office to establish the life history of these fish. We were able to confirm the 28 lb fish captured at Cambus O'May was a 3 sea winter fish with 2 years in the river before smolting and going to sea. Its always a pleasure for readers to see images of large wild salmon that anglers have been fortunate to land. I am delighted to receive your correspondence to share with our readers so can you please write to me with news of your catches to ken@riverdee.org . I am hopeful sport will continue to gather momentum during April following a slow start to the season caused by the weather. I would really like to hear of your angling successes so please write to me with your news to ken@riverdee.org. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, April 2010

 

[ken@fishdee]

PROSPECTS FOR COMING WEEK

The weather seems somewhat reluctant to spring into summer and the long term forecast is indicating a coldish spell of weather for the month of May. Whilst this is not what most people hope for, it’s not a major hurdle for anglers to cope with; the anglers just have to wrap up appropriately. In closer detail for the coming week we have air temperature maxima forecast in the region of 7- 10 degrees Celsius with the potential for a touch of light ground frost some nights. The maritime influence is indicating tides will drop back from 3.9 metres to 3.3 metres. River levels are finally stabilising somewhat and the Sepa gauges are showing levels between 9 inches and 1 ft 6 inches. Last week’s fluctuating river levels did put a dampener on sport as fish never seem to settle in the lies in the pools and keep on the move. There will be patchy rain throughout the week with potential for hill snow and hail showers. They could be locally heavy but should not cause major disruption to the river levels. There will be cold northerly breezes but when the sun pops out it may feel more pleasant.

Now it’s really important to fish with the right equipment and listen to your Gillies advice. Our Gillies know the moods of the river and can give you the right advice that you need to hear when attempting to catch salmon and sea trout. I know we have many excellent anglers who fish our river and have caught many salmon on other rivers. Our Gillies will give you the best advice about what lines to use, what flies and methods to employ and crucially where the fish are located in the pools. Work as a team with them and you will hopefully get the rewards for your efforts. If you do not have the services of a Gillie to call on you will have to be patient, persevere and be prepared to adapt your tactics. I would suspect anglers will use intermediate lines or floating lines with sink tips, whether full Spey lines or shooting heads. Popular flies for the Dee right now are monkey flies, cascade or Park shrimp, and of course flies with black and yellow or black and blue patterns such as the Dee Fox or Dee Sheep.

A fine 21 lb Cock Fish from Ballogie-the weeks biggest fish

After your day on the river please get out and visit the many hostelries on Deeside providing top quality food and drink. There are many friendly establishments that have a long history of looking after anglers. Why not celebrate your catch with a fine Dalmore Dee Dram as this fine single malt whisky is currently available throughout the valley in George Strachan's stores, as well as the Kincardine O'Neil Post Office and the Stag Hotel in Banchory to buy. More and more of the local hotels and bars are supporting this conservation fundraising initiative for the River Dee Trust so please pop into a local pub if you are out and about and meet the friendly people of Deeside who are delighted to see visitors in the valley. Can you please write to me with news of your catches and pictures if you have some you want to see on FishDee to ken@riverdee.org Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, May 2010





LAST WEEK’s CATCHES

When I wrote last week that salmon could be maddeningly difficult to hook and land at times it came as no surprise to hear this echoing up and down the valley from Gillies and anglers. One well known Gillie remarked that this is quite common to have a spell in April where fish just don’t seem to want to seize the anglers fly with any conviction. I had a cast on Saturday and saw at least 60 salmon during the day but getting one to take the fly properly was another matter. Well this was a pattern that had been replicated all week throughout the week for many anglers fishing on Deeside. As it was there were 102 salmon landed to 21 lbs and 19 sea trout which have been reported so far from FishDee beats. Top beat for the week was Little Blackhall, which will have pleased proprietor Mr David Trembath enormously. Mr Trembath had 4 fish to his own rod on Thursday and the conditions were just right for the beat. In joint second place for the week were Park and Ballogie, closely followed by Lower Crathes. I sympathise with anglers who persevered for scant reward and was fortunate to witness visiting angler Mr Graham May land a perfect 8lb sea liced salmon late on Saturday afternoon. Graham had fished diligently for days and just before it was time to pack up this lovely salmon took his well presented monkey fly.

I was delighted to receive correspondence from Ole Wistler from Denmark who was fishing Ballogie with friends all week. Ole wrote to me commenting ‘Hi Ken, Long time no hear. Everything’s fine here after a relaxing week at Ballogie. We had 10 fish for the week which is fairly good taking the
catches along the river in consideration. I had five fish for the week and I succeeded in getting another fairly large Dee Springer this year at the Bulwarks. A totally fresh 21 lbs cock fish which was quite deep and beautifully spotted. The fish was caught on a floating line and a faded pink/orange homemade fly and a size 12 hook. Head Gillie Sean Stanton rushed all the way from Carlogie in 5 minutes, just in time to get this one photo of the fish. Sean reckoned that this is a second time spawner due to the spots. A DNA sample of the tail of this 3 sea year fish is now being analysed. The Dee is known for many springers - mostly smaller fish but I've caught big fresh springers every year visiting the Dee weighing 18, 19, 21 and 24 lbs. It's almost like the River Gaula. Best wishes. Ole’

I was also delighted to receive images and correspondence from angler Harry Williamson who hooked and landed an estimated 32 lb fish at Woodend. Harry was fishing the beat with his grandfather when he hooked this whopper and he explained ‘I was fishing on Monday the 19th at Woodend. I caught a 44 inch long Springer estimated at 32 pounds. I hooked the salmon in the Moral Pool on an inch long cascade fly at 6.50pm and proceeded to land the fish at 7.20pm. This was to the delight of myself and my grandfather who I had been fishing with. The fish was safely released. I have some photos however did not get a good one with myself in it as during the excitement of landing the fish I dropped my camera in the river. Both I and my grandpa very much enjoyed our day on at Woodend and will never forget it!’ I am sure many anglers would have shaky hands after playing and landing a magnificent specimen Springer like this.

Harry Williamsons estimated 32 lb Salmon

Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers from Scandinavia to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylaus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As some European rivers are now open to anglers its imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There is a risk of this parasite coming into our river from anglers arriving from Europe for example, where the salmon stocks from many European rivers are resistant to this parasite. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O’Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. I would really like to hear of your angling successes and share these with our readers, so please write to me with your news and pictures to ken@riverdee.org. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, May 2010

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Catches rose significantly from the previous weeks catch to a reported 165 salmon and 17 sea trout at the time of writing from FishDee beats. In pole position was Park with 21 salmon reported for the week followed by Lower Crathes and Lower Dess, and Lower Blackhall just behind them. There are also Grilse being caught now and they seem to be moving swiftly through the lower beats. Salmon catches were reported from Altries to Crathie with the bulk of the catches in the lower middle beats. There were reports of many fish being hooked and lost and in some cases hook failure was a problem. It’s important to ensure that the fly hooks are strong enough to do the job-if they are pliable then chances are they are too weak to use with any confidence.

I received some correspondence this week with Karl Revel from Invery advised ‘ Edwin and Tristan Bailey whose family has shared the ownership of Invery and Upper Crathes beat since the 1950’s, were delighted that all of their guests who fished last week succeeded in landing at least one salmon. Top rod for the group was Ralph Percy, the Duke of Northumberland who was up for 2 days enjoying his first visit to the Dee. He had 2 sea liced springers of 7 and 10 lbs and a 2 lb sea trout and now cannot wait to make a return visit to Deeside.’

Gerhard Schive from Norway who represents the NASF in Norway was a recent visitor to Deeside and commented ‘Finally got home on Wednesday after a few days together with Reid in Ballater. Got a nice fish out of the Garden pool at Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld but the beats above there seemed to be relatively quiet at that time due to the very cold weather. So the trip in total gave me 4 nice springers which I guess I should be satisfied with. Spring very late here in Norway. We are still waiting for the birches to turn green.’ I was really delighted to catch up again with Swedish ace fisherman Mikael Frodin at Dess last week who was fishing with friends Tomas, Mats and Joachim and enjoying some relatively good sport. They had success with his small Dee Sheep pattern using floating lines with small polyleaders. They had a mixture of spanking sea liced fish and river fish over the week and did very well considering how cold the weather was with their chosen tactics. I was also pleased to catch up with another superb fisherman who is a regular visitor to Deeside Árni Baldursson, who was fishing at Lower Crathes with a party including the beat owner the Hon Charles Pearson. I met them briefly at the beginning of the week and was delighted to hear of their success during the week. Árni Baldursson is the proprietor of the global sporting agency Lax-a.is who provides fishing on the Dee as well as many other rivers throughout the world.

Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers from Scandinavia to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As some Scandinavian rivers are now open to anglers its imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There is a risk of this parasite coming into our river from anglers arriving from Europe for example, where the salmon stocks from many European rivers are resistant to this parasite. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O’¬Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. I would really like to hear of your angling successes and share these with our readers, so please write to me with your news and pictures to ken@riverdee.org. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, May 2010

Prospects

We appear to have a bit of a mixed bag this week weather-wise with the forecast air temperature maxima to be unseasonably low at around 10 degrees, with the wind chill making it feel significantly cooler. There are frosts forecast overnight for the beginning of the week accompanied by persistent north winds for most of the week. There will be a change in the wind direction to the south during the week but the cool temperatures will hold sway throughout the week. This puts paid to meaningful sea trout fishing during the night. Fishing in the evening though should be productive when the sun is off the water. There will be some localised showers from time to time and some may be wintry and perhaps heavy, probably not enough to cause river levels to rise. The current river heights as shown on the Sepa gauges are between 9 inches and 1 ft 2 inches which mean fish will be lying in the pools, in lies that the Gillies know of and these will be the hot spots to encounter taking salmon. The maritime influence is indicating that there shall be rising high tides this week from 3.6 to 4.1 metres and this should encourage runs of fresh new fish into the catchment.

It is important to consult your Gillie prior to fishing and utilise their undoubted experience and expertise when fishing your beat. The Gillies of the Dee do a fine job in ensuring anglers can tackle their allocated pools with a degree of optimism about what equipment and flies to use so please heed their wise advice. If you do not have the service of a Gillie to call on then you may want to try a floating line with intermediate tip or perhaps a full floating line with flies between 6 and 10’s depending on your pool. Patterns to try may include Dee fox, Tosh, Crathie, Dee sheep, Stoats tail and monkey fly. Flies that utilise long wings or tails can be effective in the streamier flows. It’s also important to ensure you return smolts safely and carefully to the river as they are migrating downstream in good numbers now. These will hopefully return to the river in 2-3 years time in good numbers as mature adult salmon and spawn future generations of Dee fish.

To finish I would advise that persistence is called for whilst conditions are cold and ensure you are prepared to try different tactics including square casts with a figure of eight retrieve, slow and deep, hitched tubes and perhaps a stripped collie dog or sunray shadow where beats allow this. Please also ensure that your tackle is sound as there are reports of sub standard flies letting anglers down with hook failure. Full Spey lines and shooting heads seem to be the popular choice just now. Can you please write to me with news of your catches and pictures if you have some you want to see on FishDee to ken@riverdee.org Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, May 2010

 

[ken@fishdee]

Fishing Reports

Recent Catches 17 th May 2010

The best week of the season by a long way with 215 salmon and 67 sea trout reported by FishDee beats so far with fish to 24 lbs caught and returned. It was really encouraging to see 22 out of 42 FishDee beats reporting catches on Monday where 48 salmon were recorded. There seems to be a good distribution of fish throughout the lower and middle catchment with fish now running to the upper beats. There was a good number of Grilse reported last week mixed with some good catches of sea liced salmon up as far as Dinnet. Dinnet/ Dee Castle reported 21 salmon, Invery reported 18 salmon, Borrowstone reported 17 and many other beats were into double figures. This no doubt delighted both anglers and Gillies and many happy anglers will have left Deeside on Sunday with happy memories of a super fishing holiday.

As I expected I have received quite a bit of correspondence and fishing reports over the phone. Dinnet proprietor Edward Humphrey advised 'A quick note about perseverance. The Cave-Bigley family have been coming to Aboyne Castle for 40 or more years and I was particularly pleased that father David had two cracking springers by Wednesday lunch time which we all hoped would be a good sign for his son Richard coming to fish the last three days of the week. Thursday & Friday were blank to their frustration as I kept telling them how the score on Dinnet/Deecastle was rising rapidly (the Beaty party finished with 21 for the week), but the stalemate was broken on Saturday morning when I witnessed a lovely 7 pounder being taken out of the Lorne by Richard Cave-Bigley’s friend, Richard Franklin. The party persevered and at 5 to 5 father David accounted for another out of plantation, but not to be left scoreless his son Richard finally landed a cracking 10 pound Springer out of Jocky Fyfe with almost his last cast at 10pm on Saturday evening. Perseverance does pay off sometimes.' and Gary Flynn from Birkhall reported 'Please find attached a photo of a nice fish (approx 11lbs) caught at the top of the Birkhall beat on Friday the 14th. Johnny Liverod visiting from Norway with fellow rods Fredrik Fredrikson, and Arve Lindberg, when he caught this on a purple and black cone head that he named "purple rain". Fellow rod Fredrik had a similar sized fish on the Tuesday from the same pool. ‘Great to hear of fish in the upper beats and this will no doubt have anglers booked for the upper beats getting quietly excited about the prospects there over the next few weeks.

Karl Revel paid me a visit this morning and was really enthusiastic about the sport last week and the numbers of fish seen at Invery. He commented 'Invery fishers enjoyed another pleasing week with 18 salmon and 9 sea trout caught with all fish safely returned. Top rod was regular Dee visitor Mr Colin Harvey from Worcester with 7 salmon and 2 sea trout.(Colin also landed a 24 lb Springer at Invery in February). Mr Bob McBain, a retired Gillie from the Naver, landed 4 salmon and 2 sea trout for his 3 days. On Saturday afternoon in bright sunshine Ed McLellan from Motherwell had 1 salmon and 2 sea trout on a size 14 silver stoats tail fly. This brought Invery's total for the season to 100 salmon and 17 sea trout.' I also received an e-mail from David Jackson who wrote ' Hi Ken, thought I would get in touch before you and my mate Brooksey set off on your Russian trip. Would have loved to be going with you but early retirement means looking after the pennies! We first fished the Dee in 1991 at Altries and again in 1993.It was on the last Saturday morning that David's reel started screaming and all hell broke loose;12 lbs of mint Springer dripping sea lice. We were hooked! In 1994 I got my first Dee fish at Altries and it was also the first year I fished Woodend, although it was 1996 before I booked a fish there. We have fished on the Dee together every year since 1993. Myself mainly at Woodend, although I have taken fish from 7 other Dee beats over the years.David & Susan thought it that nice they acquired the Post Office in Kincardine. Well, I’m on 99 fish at Woodend, and determined to get the ton,wc 24th May. (might need a rain dance) Checking my records this is the story: Total fish 99, total days fished 152, blank weeks 1, weeks with 1 fish 4, most fish in a week 8, and most fish in a day 4. Some memorable days there Ken, and some disasters, without doubt, the worst was inviting Brooksey for a day at Woodend with him racking up three fish! I don’t even remember seeing one all day! (Just kidding David) As always to come up to Deeside is a marvellous experience, good fishing or bad (if you can have bad fishing on the Dee) but this time anticipation & expectation are pretty high as I'm sure you will understand. Perhaps David will bring you down to Woodend, it would be nice to meet you, perhaps you might even be able to land no 100, now would that be a picture for FishDee. Keep up the great work on FishDee and have a cracking Russian week, make sure you don’t lose David as I sometimes need bed & breakfast up there. Kind Regards, David Jackson. ‘This just epitomises for me the sense of anticipation some anglers have on travelling to Deeside for a fishing holiday. And there are still rods available to let on FishDee !

Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers from Europe to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As some European rivers are now open to anglers it’s imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There is a risk of this parasite coming into our river from anglers arriving from Europe for example, where the salmon stocks from many European rivers are resistant to this parasite. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O’Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. I would really like to hear of your angling successes and share these with our readers, so please write to me with your news and pictures to ken@riverdee.org. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, May 2010

Prospects

After a fine weeks fishing on the River Dee last week I see no reason why the prospects should be any poorer, in fact catches could be even higher with the improving air temperatures. The weather forecast is for sunny spells throughout the week with the odd local rain shower, some may be heavy. Air temperatures could possibly reach 19 degrees Celsius with overnight lows to 4 degrees Celsius. Winds will be predominately light and from a southerly direction which will ensure anglers fishing will feel quite comfortable. The maritime influence is indicating high tides of 4.1 metres falling back to 3.6 metres by the weekend. There will be an excellent chance of good sport in the evenings and anglers should ensure they fish in the evening if at all possible as fish will be on the move around dusk. There are also what appears to be encouraging numbers of sea trout in the river which take well in the evening.

There appears to be good numbers of salmon, grilse and sea trout moving from the lower beats to the middle and upper beats and there may be some real red letter days for some lucky anglers. There is a good migration of smolts underway so please ensure you handle this precious resource carefully when returning them to the river as they are the next generation of returning adult salmon. Ensure you heed your Gillies wise counsel as they will be able to give you sound advice about what tactics to use when fishing your beat. They know all the taking lies and with river levels between 8 inches and 11 inches on the Sepa gauges fish will be occupying taking lies. If you do not have the services of a Gillie to call on then you should fish with floating lines with perhaps a 5 ft poly leader and small flies. Patterns to try with real confidence are silver stoats tail, black or red Frances, Arndilly fancy and Crathie fly with perhaps the cascade for streamier flows. Fly sizes in the range of size 10-14 will be suitable. To finish I would advise that persistence is called for whilst conditions are showery and ensure you are prepared to try different tactics including square casts with a figure of eight retrieve, slow and deep, hitched tubes and perhaps a stripped collie dog or sunray shadow where beats allow this. Please also ensure that your tackle is sound as there are reports of sub standard flies letting anglers down with hook failure. Full Spey lines and shooting heads seem to be the popular choice just now with leaders of 8- 10 feet in length, perhaps 12-15 lbs breaking strain.

For anglers visiting Deeside and fishing onto the evening I can advise that the Potarch hotel are doing late evening dining so please pay them a visit for a nice hot meal at the end of your evenings fishing. They have a fine new menu with a lot of local produce being used to produce tasty fare. As always can you please write to me with news of your catches and pictures if you have some you want to see on the FishDee website to ken@riverdee.org Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, May 2010

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Catches again were reasonable with 159 salmon and 82 sea trout reported so far from FishDee beats and would have been significantly higher had we not received a deluge from the Gairn on Friday following a torrential thunderstorm. Many parts of Aboyne were also submerged with significant flooding with quite a visual display of lightening interspersed with tremendous clatters of thunder. I was fishing on Friday and was almost caught out in shirt sleeves when the rain deluge arrived; thankfully I managed to seek shelter in the hut beside Dinnet Bridge. Talking about Dinnet I can advise that their catches with Dee Castle and Cambus O’May and Headinch were the highest for the week with both producing 19 fish for the week. Crathie's numbers increased strongly and they were just a few behind. It’s good to hear of fish now running into the upper beats in good numbers and sport could be excellent there this week. No doubt the Gillies will be busy with their landing nets ensuring fish are landed for their guests.

I was pleased to receive correspondence from Blairs tenant Stuart Yeats who reported 'Hope you are keeping well and good to see the Dee producing good numbers of fish over the last few weeks. My Dad and I booked at Lower Woodend on Saturday and planned to have an evening session for Sea Trout and then fish the first few hours of daylight for Salmon, as the forecast was for a hot sunny day. My Dad and I turned up at the beat around midnight to be met with a murky river sitting at 2ft 6" on the beat gauge. We headed home and returned at 6am to be met with a river at 3ft 7" and the colour of a Caramac. I had another look on the website at 8pm and noticed the river had fallen to 2ft, so decided to try a third attempt to get a cast. The river was still carrying colour but fishable and within 20 minutes of starting I landed and nice bright fish around 6lb and still carrying some sea lice (photo attached).' As Stuart mentions the river was heavily coloured on Saturday and to all intents and purposes was mostly unfishable. I can report that there was some catches at Dinnet with Tony Conroy and Serena Humphrey reporting catches as well as noting there were catches at Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld as well as Crathie. The river in the upper beats was a little bit clearer than the water I observed at Banchory lodge when visiting for breakfast with Jim Coates. A word of congratulations to our Gillies who are doing a great job with our fishing guests. The feedback forms that anglers are submitting are very complimentary which is great to hear with many anglers achieving success following good advice from their Gillie.

Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers from Europe to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As some European rivers are now open to anglers its imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There is a risk of this parasite coming into our river from anglers arriving from Europe for example, where the salmon stocks from many European rivers are resistant to this parasite. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O’Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. I would really like to hear of your angling successes and share these with our readers, so please write to me with your news and pictures to ken@riverdee.org. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, May 2010

"Christopher Tregoning made an easy transition from city banker to river banker on 17th May and caught his first ever salmon within a few casts in the Mill Pool, Carlogie. Pictured here with Gillie Sean Stanton and the 20lb fish, he underwent every true Carlogie fishrman's rite of passage by falling into the Boat Pool the following afternoon."

Prospects

After the mini heat wave that lasted a few days on Deeside culminating with Thunder showers we see a return to cooler conditions which are coming from the north. The forecasters are predicting frequent rain showers throughout the week with air temperatures below normal. The air temperature maxima will be 14 degrees Celsius with minima of 0 degrees perhaps bringing a touch of ground frost in some sheltered spots and perhaps hill snow. River levels are currently at a good height with Sepa gauges showing heights from 1 ft 1 inch to 1 ft 8 inches throughout the catchment. The maritime influence shows spring tides rising from 3.9 metres to 4.1 metres which should encourage new fish to come forward on incoming tides. Taking all this into the consideration catches should continue strongly with sea trout catches increasing along with salmon and grilse.

There is a good migration of smolts underway so please ensure you handle this precious resource carefully when returning them to the river as they are the next generation of returning adult salmon. Ensure you heed your Gillies wise counsel as they will be able to give you sound advice about what tactics to use when fishing your beat. If you do not have the services of a Gillie to call on then you should fish with floating lines with perhaps a 5 ft poly leader and small flies. Patterns to try with real confidence are Smiths Shrimp, Silver Shrimp, Arndilly fancy and stoat’s tail with perhaps the cascade or Park shrimp for streamier flows. Fly sizes in the range of size 10-14 will be suitable. To finish I would advise that persistence is called for whilst conditions are showery and ensure you are prepared to try different tactics including square casts with a figure of eight retrieve, slow and deep, riffled hitched tubes and perhaps a stripped collie dog or sunray shadow where beats allow this. Full Spey lines and shooting heads seem to be the popular choice just now with leaders of 8- 10 feet in length, perhaps 12-15 lbs breaking strain. Careful casters will use long leaders with a dropper and point fly.

For anglers visiting Deeside and fishing onto the evening I can advise that the Boat Inn are doing late evening dining so please pay them a visit for a nice hot meal at the end of your evenings fishing. As always can you please write to me with news of your catches and pictures if you have some you want to see on the FishDee website to ken@riverdee.org Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, May 2010

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches 27 th May 2010

Midweek Catches Update

What an exciting start to the salmon fishing on Deeside for some of the FishDee beats this week. It’s been a hectic time for anglers and Gillies landing fish where there has been a really good amount of fish movement which has led to catches exceeding 200 salmon and 88 sea trout for the first 3 days of the week. I was wondering as I wrote this week’s report if we would see 250 salmon caught. I was pretty optimistic given the fish catches over the previous 10 days and a good lift in water levels at the end of last week. As I write I am now wondering if we shall see the 400 barrier breached for salmon catches this week? It is a tall order and the weather forecast is causing some concern if we do see forecast thunderstorms materialise. What I am delighted to report is that the catches for the spring have exceeded the 5 year average which looked perhaps doubtful during March when there had been so many days lost to poor weather and river conditions. Congratulations must go to our loyal group of visiting anglers who have toughed it out when it has been difficult and of course our expert team of Gillies up and down the length of the river. We are not out of the woods yet and we would all like to see Spring catches recover to a level they were once at but we can all be grateful for the efforts of great many people working to enhance the river by natural means. I would hope to see catches exceed 2000 fish for the spring period and fingers crossed we shall get there over the next few days.

It’s fitting to list the top beats this week that have waited so long this spring to receive good runs of fish. Dinnet and Dee Castle have landed 37 salmon, Aboyne Castle; a 2 rod beat has landed 22 salmon, Crathie 19 salmon with Lower Invercauld and Monaltrie reporting 17 salmon and Abergeldie, Balmoral and Birkhall 17 salmon. I sincerely hope that catches continue in the same vein as the weekend totals might be quite remarkable. It is also pleasing to report that sea trout catches have been very encouraging with 88 sea trout to 7 lbs reported so far for the week with Park reporting 14, Borrowstone 7 and Sluie 6. I have been advised that sea trout are in very good condition with some plump specimens being landed. Given how low catches were during the really terrible conditions it is heartening to hear that salmon and sea trout numbers are improving with the peak season still to come for these elusive fish. I am sure night fishers due in the summer months will be looking forward to their visits with some degree of optimism.

Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers from Europe to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As some European rivers are now open to anglers its imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There is a risk of this parasite coming into our river from anglers arriving from Europe for example, where the salmon stocks from many European rivers are resistant to this parasite. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O’Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. I would really like to hear of your angling successes and share these with our readers, so please write to me with your news and pictures to ken@riverdee.org. Copyright Ken Reid FishDee Ltd, May 2010

Midweek Prospects Update

The cooler weather will continue and there is potential for thundershowers to hit the catchment. If they do arrive we may see catches fall off if the rise materialises and the river colours up as it did last Friday and Saturday.

There is a good migration of smolts underway so please ensure you handle this precious resource carefully when returning them to the river as they are the next generation of returning adult salmon. Ensure you heed your Gillies wise counsel as they will be able to give you sound advice about what tactics to use when fishing your beat. If you do not have the services of a Gillie to call on then you should fish with floating lines with perhaps a 5 ft poly leader and small flies. Patterns to try with real confidence are silver stoats tail, Crathie fly, Black Frances, Tosh, Executioner and Arndilly fancy, with perhaps the cascade or Park shrimp for streamier flows. Fly sizes in the range of size 10-14 will be suitable. To finish I would advise that persistence is called for whilst conditions are showery and ensure you are prepared to try different tactics including square casts with a figure of eight retrieve, riffled hitched sunray tubes and perhaps a stripped collie dog or sunray shadow where beats allow this. Full Spey lines and shooting heads seem to be the popular choice just now with leaders of 8- 10 feet in length, perhaps 12-15 lbs breaking strain. Careful casters will use long leaders with a dropper and point fly.

For anglers visiting Deeside and fishing onto the evening I can advise that the Boat Inn are doing late evening dining so please pay them a visit for a nice hot meal at the end of your evenings fishing. As always can you please write to me with news of your catches and pictures if you have some you want to see on the FishDee website to ken@riverdee.org copyright Ken Reid FishDee Ltd, May 2010

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Catches for the week started well and picked up pace during the week and finished well providing anglers with 383 salmon from FishDee beats as well as 272 sea trout. The upper beats saw good runs of fish and the bulk of the sport which the following beats indicate. Dinnet and Dee Castle reported 59 salmon, Crathie reported 39 salmon and Aboyne Castle 30 salmon. Good sea trout catches were made at Kincardine with 35, Park 32 and Borrowston 21, with a visiting angler doing well at Kincardine on Saturday with a dozen sea trout in the evening.

Derek Wright with a nice salmon

Crathie Ghillie Archie Hay reported ' What a enjoyable week on the river with plenty of fish both seen and caught, a big change from the previous weeks of the season which have been very disappointing but what I put down to the continuing cold weather and low water temperatures. I had a mixed party of fishers throughout the week some complete novices to others who have fished for many a year. Despite our best efforts we could not quite hit the 40 for the week despite trying hard on Saturday evening, fishing into the dark. Heaviest fish of the week a 20lber fell to Mr Derek Wright a Dee regular in Boat Runs to a 2" Tosh tube fished on an sinking tip. Of the 39 fish reported 12 were in double figures, 2 were grilse with the remainder in the 6-9lb bracket. Successful flies were the Crathie, Ally's Shrimp, Munro Killer, Sheila, Tosh, Silver Stoats, Stoats Tail and Collie Dog/Monkey type, flies size 12 's being the most successful. Let’s hope for as good week next week there has been a rise in the river today.' I was also pleased to hear that visiting angler Pierre Chenet from France caught a nice fish at Mar Lodge and was returning there after visiting in 1978. The heaviest salmon for the week was landed by Lower Blackhall and Inchmarlo Gillie Terry Paton and was 23lbs, his heaviest fish to date, no doubt the first of many big fish during his angling career. I know his father Jim Paton at Upper Drum was delighted for him.

David Winterbottom was back fishing Woodend, a beat he knew well in the 70's and 80's in March and remarked it's paradise fishing in May. He caught 3 salmon and 2 sea trout and enjoyed a great 3 days in beautiful surroundings. Fellow angler David Jackson also fishing Woodend was highly delighted to catch his 100th fish from the beat. He commented ' Wed night with half the week gone I was beginning to have my doubts especially as the other rod for the first three days (David Winterbottom from Leeds) had taken three salmon in 2 hrs that morning. Eventually on Thursday it was relief all round and I could relax a bit more. On Saturday morning I managed a superb 13 lb cock fish from the loop pool, no sea lice but the proverbial bar of silver, to end another great week on Deeside. Its thanks all round to everyone who looks after such a marvellous resource as the Dee is. Keep up the good work!'

Terry Paton with a 23 lb salmon-his biggest so far

I received an extensive report from Edward Humphrey where he commented 'What a truly amazing week in the upper river! It is almost difficult to know where to start, but perhaps we should mention the Gillies, Alec Coutts at Aboyne Castle, George Murray at Craigendinnie, Davie Goodfellow at Waterside and Ferrar, Colin Espie at Dinnet & Deecastle, Fergus Cumming at Cambus O’May and Headinch, as well as further up river, Ian Murray at Lower Invercauld and Archie Hay at Crathie, as it may be that these gentlemen perhaps thought it unlikely they would ever see a week like this to match some of those of “the good old days”. All our Gillies are excellent on the Dee, but I am so pleased for those in the upper river to have such a fantastic week to put behind them the bitterly cold March and parts of April. I happened to bump into Alec Coutts on Tuesday lunchtime after his rods had landed 5 fish off the Aboyne Castle bank that morning and he was struggling to remember exactly when that had last occurred. We think it is in the region of 20 years ago, I shall certainly look up the records to check this. The party fishing Aboyne Castle, Craigendinnie and Waterside and Ferrar was led by Harvey Norman whose father John sadly died last year, but it is a fitting tribute to the Norman family and John in particular, that they have stuck with the River Dee for 40 years now after he took on the tenancy of his first week on Cambus O’May in 1970 and has gradually built up a tenancy of beats in the upper river over a 5 week period in May and June each year. Harvey thought that the best total in any one week before had been around 30 fish so their total of at least 103 (72 salmon and 31 sea trout) is a very welcome reward for the loyalty that family have shown the Dee over the years. Harvey said to me on Friday evening that his father would have been absolutely thrilled to have had such a catch of classic Dee spring fish. Of course, there are many families who have supported the Dee through thick and thin over the years, but in the upper river at least there are few that can match the Norman family.

At Dinnet/Deecastle, the total of 59 salmon and 5 sea trout is certainly the best for at least 22 years and here again I will have to go and search the records as my current weekly chart only goes back to 1988. Congratulations to the 5 rods in Julian Strutt’s party and to Bernard Lunel, a passionate French angler! Top rod in the party was Ron Irvine with 13 fish who, if he will forgive me, is not in the first flush of youth, but used all his experience to continue to add to his tally throughout the week. Finally it is interesting to note that the beats Aboyne Castle, Craigendinnie, Waterside and Ferrar, Dinnet & Cambus O’May have all at least doubled their average May catch solely as a result of last week’s efforts. I am not sure why so many fish seem to speed through to the upper river after last weekend’s storms, but I just wonder if the huge sediment load coming down the Tarland burn into the main stem at Aboyne pushed so many fish through to (into cleaner water) above Aboyne bridge? Many congratulations again to all anglers and Gillies who contributed to such a fantastic week, only time will tell whether this is a one off or not!'

I am grateful to the correspondents who have written and am pleased for the successes many have enjoyed. It has been a super week but it’s important to not get too carried away. Let’s just hope that fish runs continue strongly this year and many anglers enjoy success but salmon fishing can be incredibly fickle at times. There's more to fishing than catching fish and as my good friend Morten Agnar commented wisely" If I want lots of fish I go to Iceland, If I want big fish I stay in Norway but if I want the best fishing holiday in the world I come to Deeside in Scotland". I would really like to hear of your angling successes and share these with our readers, so please write to me with your news and pictures to ken@riverdee.org. Copyright Ken Reid FishDee Ltd, May 2010

Prospects for the coming week

The start of the week finds the River Dee running at a good height and a bit peaty following rain overnight Saturday and into Sunday morning. The Sepa gauges are showing heights between 8 inches and 1 ft 10 inches on the river levels page of FishDee. This will hopefully keep fish on the move and perhaps motivated enough to come to the fly. The weather forecasts I monitor are indicating a pleasant week on Deeside where air temperatures will rise during the week to 20 degrees Celsius with air temperature minima around 7 degrees Celsius. There is a potential for rain showers, perhaps some may be heavy and thundery and there may be prolonged rainfall on Friday, sites are showing different opinions on this matter. The maritime influence is indicating tides dropping back from 4.0 metres to 3.4 metres during the week but with good river levels fish should come forward. There should be some good evenings sport this week with running fish in the evenings with an encouraging good stock of fresh salmon and sea trout in the river.

Anglers will find many Gillies in a very buoyant mood following the encouraging catches last week and they will be able to provide you with the best advice about what tactics to use and flies to put onto the business end of your leader. The Gillies I have spoken to, or have written to me are suggesting that size 12's to 14's are the sizes that are attracting offers from fish, with some mentioning the collie dog flies on beats that allow these to be used. As always its sporting to use the small fly before resorting to stripped lures and it’s such a pleasure to see the surface boil and feel your line tightening as the fish seizes the small fly and turns to go back to its lie. Full floating lines with or without small polyleaders will be the most popular set up with long leaders, and some anglers use a dropper fly to good effect. At this time of year a lightly dressed fly such as the stoats tail, Crathie, Arndilly Fancy, Tosh, hairy Mary and blue charm are the likely flies of choice as well as small Park, Ally's and Cascade shrimps. At this time of the year the fishing day is usually extended by choice as anglers choose to fish late on into the evening and this means angling effort is now carried out in 3 sessions during the day. It’s not without the realms of possibility for anglers to use a muddler type wake lure and encounter sport in the dusk as fish may come to investigate the wake and either snatch the muddler or seize the tail fly if a 2 fly combination is used. I am sure many rods will be travelling to Deeside with a certain level of optimism based on the decent runs of fish in May.

Lars Terkildsen with a fine springer from 2 years ago which I just received

Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers from Europe to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As some European rivers are now open to anglers it’s imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There is a risk of this parasite coming into our river from anglers arriving from Europe for example, where the salmon stocks from many European rivers are resistant to this parasite. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O’Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. I would really like to hear of your angling successes and share these with our readers, so please write to me with your news and pictures to ken@riverdee.org. Copyright Ken Reid FishDee Ltd, May 2010

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Another steady weeks sport was encountered on the river by anglers with the enigmatic sea trout providing some anglers with terrific sport. That’s not to suggest salmon fishing was dour, far from it as this snap shot of catches will indicate. Salmon catches reported from FishDee beats so far are 246 for the week with Dinnet and Deecastle landing 40, Crathie reported 25, Waterside and Ferrar reported 23 and Lower Crathes reported 19. Heaviest fish was reported at Ballogie at 25lbs of which I don’t have details as yet. Sea Trout catches reported from FishDee beats so far were 288 with the honours going to Davie Goodfellow’s beat Waterside and Ferrar landing 74, Dinnet and Deecastle reported 31 and Headinch and Invery reported 22 each. The quality of sea trout reported is of excellent plump specimens to 5lbs and some anglers really did tremendously well with small silver stoats tail flies with jungle cock cheeks. What tremendous sport these feisty fish provide on single handed rods at dusk. Anglers who are able to fish at night will encounter salmon as well as sea trout as it doesn’t get really too dark for salmon to take through the night. The party hosted by Mr Wardle did very well at Waterside and Ferrar.

I have received some communication from Dinnet proprietor Edward Humphrey who is always enthusiastic about the river and keen to visit his visiting anglers when time permits. Edward commented 'Another great week's sport on the river last week, particularly in the upper river. Dinnet/Deecastle produced 40 fish and 31 sea trout to give the beat its best spring since 1993 which was the last year that spinning was allowed on the beat prior to the introduction of catch and release. One notable anecdote involved Simon Jones, who hooked what turned out to be a 5lb sea trout, but in doing so his reel fell off his rod. Being a completely unflappable Welshman, Simon merely bent down, picked up the reel, put it in his top pocket and proceeded to hand line the sea trout into his net. Realising this was a sea trout of significant size, he managed to take some pictures with his camera, but sadly the next day he left his camera on the roof of his car and it was later found on the South Deeside road in more than one piece! Also worth mentioning in relation to Aboyne Castle is the 10lb fish caught on 10 June by the ever youthful Arthur Harwood from Aboyne. I am sure he won’t mind me saying that he doesn’t throw the longest of lines, but the quality is significant, not how far you throw it.' I also received a communication from Guy Hemsley who commented 'I recently had three days fishing on Headinch & Cambus O'May , 27th -29th May as part of the Beaty party. I was lucky enough to be on the river during the 'big week' and caught the fresh 11lb fish in the attached photograph from the Clarach Pool. The photo looks as though I am offering up a prayer of thanks which I was!, one of our party asked me to look up from the top of the bank which I did at exactly the same time as another member of the party took a photograph at river level. The captions could be fun?! The other photo shows how this all evolved, but it may worth putting on the website with a caption suggestion. I have been fishing the Dee for 15 years, this week was the best.'

I am grateful to the correspondents who have written and am really delighted for the successes many have enjoyed. It has been a good week but it's important we don't get too carried away and imply that anglers are all going to encounter terrific sport. Let's just hope that fish catches continue strongly this year and many anglers enjoy success but salmon fishing can be incredibly fickle at times. As my old friend and renowned angler and writer, the late Hugh Falkus remarked 'there's more to fishing than catching fish'. I would really like to hear of your angling successes and share these with our readers, so please do write to me with your news and pictures to ken@riverdee.org. And finally I have been advised that there is a fundraising auction for the breast cancer charity Casting For Recovery and auction lots are on line now including River Dee fishing at kerri-martin items - Get great deals on Sporting Goods, Holidays Travel items on eBay UK!
Copyright Ken Reid FishDee Ltd, May 2010

Guy Hemsley looking thoughtfully to the heavens perhaps having his prayers answered

Prospects

For anglers arriving on Deeside they will find the river in good order with the river running at a good fishing height with levels between 7 inches and 1 foot 2 inches on the Sepa gauges and water temperatures around 12 degrees Celsius in the middle stretches, perhaps marginally cooler above and higher below. The weather forecast models are suggesting pleasant fishing conditions, with generally light breezes from northerly directions at the start of the week swinging around to the south for the middle of the week and reverting back again to the north towards the weekend. Air temperatures will be around 12 degrees Celsius at the start of the week rising to 19 degrees and falling back again to 12 degrees at the weekend. The maritime influence is showing high tides in Aberdeen at 4.2 metres at the start of the week falling back to 3.6 metres on Saturday. Some rainfall yesterday with some snow melt is keeping the river at a nice height so we hope to see steady sport throughout the catchment.

Having just returned from a much cooler northern Russia I have not been able to catch up with river Gillies but expect they will be reasonably optimistic about prospects given the steady sport enjoyed in Deeside over the last few weeks and decent water levels. Anglers should ensure they heed the advice offered by our Gillies who will advice on fly choice and where the best chances of sport on their allotted beats may be encountered. Feedback from anglers about the advice from Gillies has been full of praise which is great to hear as many anglers are getting some sport during their visit. There appears to be a decent head of salmon and sea trout in the river and salmon catches around the 2,500 mark and sea trout over the 1000 mark from FishDee beats this season. For anglers fishing without the services of a Gillie to call on then tactics to employ will see full floating lines with perhaps five foot polyleaders, leaders of around 10 feet and fly sizes in the range of size 8 to size 14. Patterns to try would be the ever reliable silver stoats tail, black Frances, Tosh, Crathie fly and for streamier flows the Park, Calvins, Allys and Cascade. Small bottle tubes may be used in deeper pots and sunrays or monkey flies.

Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers from Europe to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As some European rivers are now open to anglers it’s imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There is a risk of this parasite coming into our river from anglers arriving from Europe for example, where the salmon stocks from many European rivers are resistant to this parasite. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O'Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. I would really like to hear of your angling successes and share these with our readers, so please write to me with your news and pictures to ken@riverdee.org. Copyright Ken Reid FishDee Ltd, May 2010