River Dee Fishing Reports 2011

[ken@fishdee]

Tomorrow sees the start of the 2011 salmon fishing season on the River Dee and there has been tremendous interest, with rod bookings at a very strong level following another excellent season for catches in 2010. There is some rod availability for the start of the season at really excellent value, with Kingcausie and Altries offering potential for fresh prized springers on opening week. After an extremely cold and harsh winter, conditions have improved somewhat with much milder conditions prevailing, and I expect there to have been runs of fresh springers entering the river and making their way up river slowly. Fresh springers may be located anywhere throughout the catchment but the likelihood is there will be greater numbers found in the lower beats as River temperatures are in the 2 to 4 degrees Celsius range. There is a real possibility of anglers encountering many kelts as a result of extreme cold weather delaying spawning in the lower River. Please handle these fish carefully as we know 2.4 % of them return as repeat spawning springers, which are a stock component in the river that is very valuable indeed.

The weather forecast for the opening week is really encouraging for visiting anglers and I think anglers who have fishing booked will be relishing the prospects of casting a line on opening week. Most days will be cloudy and overcast with showers and occasional heavier periods of rain. Winds will be changeable but quite strong at times perhaps to gale force levels. Air temperature maxima are in the range of 6 to 8 degrees Celsius. The maritime influence shows rising spring tides from 3.9 metres tom 4.3 metres ensuring there are adequate river levels for fish to enter the river if they are there and choose to do so. Water levels may fluctuate over the week but as I write they are showing 6 inches to 1 foot 4 inches above summer level. An ideal height for many fishing beats in the middle and lower reaches. The water quality looked really excellent today as I travelled up the valley to the River Office. You can see for yourself by looking at the FishDee river levels page and clicking on them link to the Potarch Bridge web camera.

At this time of the year convention dictates deep and slow tactics. My advice, as always is to heed the wise counsel of your Ghillie if you have one on your chosen beat. The River Dee Ghillies are extremely talented and knowledgeable who will know better than anyone where a taking Springer may be on their beat. They will have been keeping a close eye on the water over the last few weeks looking at fish activity. If you do not have the services of a Ghillie to call on then you could do a lot worse than fish with a sink tip fly line or an intermediate line with sink tip and light tube fly. I am a big fan of the Guideline triple density shooting headlines and would have no worries about using the intermediate, s2, s4 line with a 2 inch aluminium or copper tube fly. I would also try the Intruder fly as they have tremendous movement in the water being dressed on Waddington type shanks. As to patterns then convention says Black and Yellow, with perhaps silver bodies or the ever reliable gold bodied Willie Gunn. The tungsten Monkey fished deep can do extremely well in the spring so ensure you are able to bring some to the river with you.

If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for FishDee. You may want to toast your capture and I can heartedly recommend the 2011 Dalmore Dee Dram release, which has just arrived in the valley and will be available from most licensees, and of course George Strachan’s stores in Aboyne and Ballater. Dalmore are in the process of rolling out their “ Rivers Collection” range which includes Dee, Spey Foundation, Tay and Tweed drams with profits going to all of the big 4 salmon rivers to help conservation projects http://www.onlinespirits.co.uk/whisky/distilleries/the-dalmore-rivers-collection. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd January 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Opening Day report available here with images of the 25 lb Springer landed.
http://www.riverdee.org.uk/blog&news/newsevents.asp?article0=63&srch0

 

[ken@fishdee]

Fishing Report Update Mon 7th February

Recent Catches


Gary Webster with his 25 lb Springer on opening day

The 2011 season exploded into action with a great result on opening day of 54 salmon landed in good conditions with over 40 landed the next day. As is often the case at this time of year when the weather is changeable we saw River levels rise significantly due to snow melt, mild winds and additional precipitation through the week culminating with a big river on Saturday. There have been 140 salmon reported from FishDee beats on opening week with catches reported from Kingcausie to Lower Invercauld. A snapshot of catches shows Park reporting 30, Little Blackhall 21, Upper Drum 14 and Lower Crathes 12 with the bulk of fish on the opening 3 days.

Jock Royan with a Nice Dee Springer at Lower Crathes

There have been some catches reported to me from a number of anglers and Ghillies with Gary Webster taking the plaudits on opening day with a stunning 40.5 inch Springer at Park. Gary was also the recipient of a beautiful box of flies donated by www.theghilliesflybox.com for having the biggest opening day fish. Paul Devlin from the Glasgow Angling centre reported 3 springers for his two days with the Guideline team who enjoyed a super week on the river and at the Tor Na Coille Hotel. Well known Tay Ghillie Tony Black and his team had a very productive time at Little Blackhall with Tony achieving double figures. Jock Royan from Kinnermony on the Spey had a productive 2 day trip to Lower Crathes and advised ‘I have just returned from a very enjoyable 2 days with Robert at Lower Crathes where we had 9 fish between us. He's a great guy and just full of enthusiasm - a real joy to be with. I've attached one of the photos of a very happy Spey Ghillie. There are others! The other photo I've attached may be of interest. It’s the first fish I caught with what appeared to be a lamprey mark. I enjoyed quite a few large Dalmore Drams last night and met up with Tony Black and crew - they've had another excellent start. Let's hope your season continues as it began and indeed ended off last year.’ Jim Cowper from Aboyne Water kindly wrote advising ‘Just to report that Mr Patrick Rohde from Dundee, who had never fished before has caught the first salmon off Aboyne Water for 2011.’ Congratulations Patrick and well done on landing your first salmon, a fine Dee Springer.

James Atkinson with his first of the season

James Atkinson wrote to me and forwarded images of both himself and well known Deeside angler Mark Paterson who enjoyed good sport at Ballogie fishing with Aboyne Golf Professional Steven Moir who also got his season off the mark with a nice Springer. Tom and Jean Marshall had a group of rods fishing Ballogie and Woodend and they had some nice sport where two rods had nice opening day fish before 9.50 am. I believe Tom may have had the honours of first opening day fish from the Dee although one of his party may have landed his fine 18 lb fish at virtually the same moment. My good friend Alan Morrison from Edinburgh called me on Friday enquiring about conditions for his day at Lower Crathes on Saturday, and I said that things looked reasonable at that time. Alas the River came away big overnight with the gauge reading 6.5 feet on the beat when he arrived on Saturday morning. I spoke to him that night as he travelled south after his day and he mentioned he wouldn’t have travelled had he known the height of water, but as he was there he took encouragement from Robert Harper and fished his day, where conditions improved hourly. He mentioned the river had fallen back to 5 foot on the gauge at lunchtime and Robert was quite hopeful. It was just as well that he did persevere as he was rewarded with a fine 9 lb Springer from the Mill Pool. Even in big clearing water you are in with a chance on the River Dee as there is not too much colour caused by snow melt. Finally to finish it was nice to see Cairnton get of to a good start with 7 fish on opening week. I do hope that rods there continue to enjoy some steady sport but its early days. If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd February 2011.

Prospects

As I write there is snow falling steadily outside the office window and it’s a reminder that it is still winter on Deeside and one must ensure your tactics suit the prevailing conditions. Now talking about conditions allows me to mention that the weather forecast for this week is quite encouraging for salmon fishing. We can expect air temperature Maxima to be in region of 8- 9 degrees Celsius with little in the way of night time frosts. There will be regular rain or sleet showers during the week with winds quite breezy at times making it feel quite raw at times. Winds will predominately be from westerly directions. River levels are excellent with the gauges reading 1 ft at Mar Lodge to 1 ft 11 inches at Park above summer levels. Air pressure will rise during the week and then fall slightly before rising again. The Maritime influence sees high tides at 4.2 metres dropping back to 3.3 metres during the week.

Mark Paterson with his first Springer of the season

On looking at fishing availability I note there are a lot of rods available over the next few weeks on the FishDee website and I would encourage anglers hoping to catch the elusive Springer to venture forth to the River Dee and give it a go. Good catches last week suggest there are a quite a few fresh fish about and you may well encounter one, but only if your fly is in the water. The River Dee still has enough spring salmon running to make fishing a worthwhile pursuit and our Ghillies will have a good idea of how to maximise your chances. Time and time again I hear about the Ghillies being the difference between success and failure so always heed their wise counsel and do what they suggest. If you are fishing and do not have the services of a Ghillie to call on for advice then fish deep and slow is the normal practise for this time of year. Anglers fish with tube flies and fish with shooting heads or full Spey lines usually full sinker or intermediate with a sink tip attached. Fly choice sees anglers using flies with mobility and double hooks. The Black and Yellow or Black and Blue combinations are popular as are the traditional Willie Gunn tube flies and of course the Tungsten Monkey flies. There are a lot of kelts about so please handle these with care as 2.5 % of these will return to spawn sometime in the future. . If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd February 2011.

Celebrate your catch with a Dee Dram

available from The Dalmore rivers collection Online Spirits

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Fishing started off reasonably well at the beginning of last week as the weather was quite settled however conditions changed somewhat and this put a dampener on sport in the later part of the week again-there were also less rods fishing last week following the opening weeks tremendous effort. Nonetheless FishDee beats reported 82 spring salmon for the week with 2 fish reported at 22lbs from Shane Christie at Middle Drum and Jim Paton at Upper Drum. I spoke with Shane Christie this morning who advised that the beat was full of kelts last week with anglers landing between 50 to 60 kelts, and on late Friday afternoon angler Stan Crook landed a spanking Springer of 22 lbs. He advises that the water, at 36 degrees Fahrenheit, is in excellent order which is surprising how wet it has been in Deeside this weekend, perhaps it fell as snow in the upper valley. It was certainly snowing hard on Friday night as Mark Bilsby and I travelled over the Lecht from Speyside after attending the Dalmore Spey Foundation Dram launch at Delfur on Friday night. I also spoke to Jim Paton at Upper Drum this morning who is really delighted with the catches at his beat with this past fortnight’s catches beating the beats best February total since he took over as head Ghillie many years ago. Jim commented “An excellent weeks fishing with double figures and a number of fish hooked and lost. Successful anglers were Dave Wakefield with 4 including a 22lber, Alastair Macdonald had 2, Jim Paton had 2 himself with Malcolm (Mouldy) Tocher with 1 and Graham Duffy also catching one “

Dean Hilton with a Dess Springer

I have received correspondence from Jim Cowper and Dean Hilton and I am very grateful for them getting in touch with their anecdotes and pictures. Firstly Jim Cowper advised quite humorously “Hi Ken, Mr Neil Sneddon, who has just started salmon fishing, caught his first Dee Springer with us at Aboyne Water on Sat 12th Feb. I was saying goodbye to Neil at the end of fishing day. He lay down his rod as we shook hands and his rod and reel unattended began to sing .This might be a case of using a `fixed engine` in fishing terms, but I call it `keeping your flies in the water` A 9lb bar of silver was returned.” Well done to Neil for keeping his composure and landing this fish-how often anglers bemoan bad luck but not with this fish! I also was pleased to receive correspondence from Dean Hilton who supplied some super photographs of Springer catches at the Dess Beats. Dean commented “Dear Ken, these are some pictures of a catch of some 6 springers my nephew Mark Swindlehurst and I caught from Lower Dess, and one from Upper Dess this last week. Marks being the first picture, weight est. 16lbs.This was his first ever spring salmon with snow falling, a salmon fishers holy grail I feel. As for myself I caught 5 springers myself with 3x 12lbs plus 2x9lbs. It will be three days fishing that will not be forgotten in a hurry. With many thanks to Ghillie Eoin smith for making it all that bit more special.”

Mark Swindlehurst with a 16 lb beauty from Dess

If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan’s shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley-you can purchase online at Dalmore Dee Dram Online Spirits. A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd February 2011.

Prospects

Weather conditions look to become more settled throughout the week with colder temperatures forecast with rain and hill snow. Winds will be from southerly directions with a south easterly wind later in the week making it feel cooler. Air temperature maxima are forecast to be around 42 degrees Fahrenheit or 7 degrees Celsius, with air pressure building through the week. The maritime influence shows tides rising from 3.4 metres to 4.8 metres which will allow new Springers to come forward and enter the lower beats. It should be a good fishing week providing the river height doesn’t fluctuate too much.

Dean Hilton with a springer from Dess one of 5 to his own rod in 3 days

There is a lot of fishing available over the next few weeks where there are bound to be good opportunities to catch the coveted Springer. There appears to be good numbers of Springers around and finding them is the key. A good number of fish were hooked and lost last week which I witnessed myself when Nick Evans lost a beauty at a lower river beat. If you are free to fish then please come and try to get one of these double figure specimens to start your season off in style. Prices are really excellent just now for getting on top River Dee beats. There really is no better place to be at this time of year if you are seeking sport with Spring Salmon.


There are some talented anglers visiting Deeside this week and I am hopeful they will do well at Lower Crathes. Ron Sutherland from the Helmsdale tackle company is coming for his annual week and I hope to hear from him what successes he has had with new fly patterns that he has tied for visiting the River. As always heed the wise advice from your beat Ghillie as they do know best where the fish may be lying and what you should do to try and get one to take your well presented fly. I have been lucky to visit a few lower beats last week and the Ghillies were in great form. I would be more than happy following their recommendations. If you don’t have a Ghillie to advise you then I would suggest fishing deep and slowly with tube flies fished deeply the order of the day. As the fishing day is short you may find the best taking time, at the warmest point of the day is lunchtime so don’t tarry too long over lunch. Popular flies at this time of year are Sean Stanton’s Bertie Dustard, Posh Tosh, Willie Gunn and the Tungsten Monkey or any other tube fly with a long wing. Some beats will see anglers spinning a Blair’s spoon or a Devon Minnow and these may do well with fish in the deep holding lies.
If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan’s shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley-you can purchase online at Dalmore Dee Dram Online Spirits. A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd February 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

The week’s salmon fishing finished quietly with only 2 fish reported on Friday. It was a week where fluctuating river levels and weather conditions influenced the salmon’s taking behaviour somewhat. On one day there were 20 fish reported yet on 2 days there were only 2 reported from FishDee beats. When the conditions are fluctuating and river levels are rising and falling then angling can become extremely difficult. There were some bright spots during this difficult week with Park reporting 14 salmon, Tilbouries a healthy 9, and Upper Drum 5. Pride of place for the fish of the week is Banchory angler Iain Hutchison who landed a cracking fish which weighed 23lbs on Friday. Willie Banks reported ‘This stunning Springer was caught and released back to the river after a 30 minute battle after the fish took Ian’s Willie Gunn tube fly whilst fishing the Lawson Pool. It was Iain's lucky day because he went on to catch another Springer of about 8lb, also the third fish of 6lb caught on Friday was by Jim Fraser from Huntly.’ It was good to hear of a run of new fish on Friday and the anglers at Tilbouries reported seeing small groups of new fish going through the beat from time to time.

Ian Hutchison with his 23 lb Springer

I was hopefully the crack team of anglers led by Helmsdale Tackle’s Ron Sutherland would do well on their annual weeks visit to Lower Crathes. Ron commented this weekend ‘Robert Harper (Ghillie) is baffled as to why we blanked last week on LC, we are all baffled, the water looked great apart from two days when it was dirty and rising fast. There seemed to be fish all around us and we tried every fly and line possible but still no joy - disappointing but that's fishing and we have all been on the end of a blank before. We had around 60 kelts and a few baggots and rawners so we certainly bent the rods, but the elusive Springer evaded us. We'll be back for revenge sometime soon.’ I also received correspondence from Richard Jones, who commented ‘Ken, I caught my first ever Springer on Saturday the 12th on the Little Blackhall / Inchmarlo beat, followed two casts later by my second! This was in the Roe Pot pool. I don't really want to talk about size, but let it be said that if there are fish being caught I will land the smallest in the pool. Martin the ghillie witnessed the first, and I have a poor photo of some of the second fish taken with my phone. I try not to remove fish to be returned from the water so some of my photography is a little rushed. The river had come up and dirty on Saturday morning but was falling and clearing as the afternoon lengthened. The party on the N. Bank had packed up and left but on the S. side we had not had a fresh fish all week so efforts were still being made.’ It’s good to hear persistence paid of in the end for Richard as early spring fishing is at times a waiting game and if you are in the right place at the right time then you may encounter the coveted elusive Springer.

If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley-you can also purchase supplies online here Dalmore Dee Dram Online Spirits. A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd February 2011.

Ian's 23 lb Springer safely returned

Prospects

Well the forecast is showing another mixed bag to challenge the intrepid angler pitting his wits against the guile and cunning salmon this week. In the early part of the week it will feel quite raw at times with cool temperatures and strong blustery winds with sleet and rain showers a feature. As the week progresses however we shall see a rise in air temperatures and the sleet will be replaced by rain showers, perhaps heavy at times. How this impacts on fishing remains to be seen however we do need the River level to stabilise for a few days and let fish settle in taking lies. The maritime influence sees tides in Aberdeen falling from 4.8 metres to 3. 4 metres however new fish may come forward as river levels are currently between 7 inches and 2ft 6 inches above summer levels. Anglers will need to dress to suit the conditions with thermals and a good waterproof jacket.

As always heed the wise advice from your beat Ghillie as they do know best where the fish may be lying and what you should do to try and get one to take your well presented fly. I have been lucky to visit a few lower beats last week and the Ghillies were in great form. I would be more than happy following their recommendations. If you don't have a Ghillie to advise you then I would suggest fishing deep and slowly with tube flies fished deeply the order of the day. As the fishing day is short you may find the best taking time, at the warmest point of the day is lunchtime so don't tarry too long over lunch. Popular flies at this time of year are Sean Stanton's Bertie Dustard, Posh Tosh, Willie Gunn and the Tungsten Monkey or any other tube fly with a long wing. Some beats will see anglers spinning a Blair's spoon or a Devon Minnow and these may do well with fish in the deep holding lies.

If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley-you can also purchase supplies online here Dalmore Dee Dram Online Spirits. A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd February 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Update Monday 28th February

Recent Catches

After 2 big spates this week I am pleased to report that there have been some notable highlights this week, considering the conditions, it’s been great to hear of some really big fish being encountered, with quite a few being caught and released back into the river. Park reported 15 salmon, Lower Crathes 6, Little Blackhall and Upper Drum both reported 5 for the week. As the month draws to a close the month to date catches show FishDee beats reporting 339 salmon against last year’s 155 and the 5 year average of 216. Conditions have been more favourable this February enabling more angling effort but we shall get a better idea what the river stocks are like with more beats opening from the 1st March.

I mentioned big fish and I was delighted to speak to some of the Ghillies who were telling me that by and large the fish seem to be of a good size and condition so far this season. As always Jim Paton at Upper Drum is entertaining and he reports that the beat is having an excellent month with 24 salmon caught which is way ahead of the beats previous best February with many fine salmon landed in the teens of pounds as well as in the twenties. He commented ‘As you know the River was very big towards the end of last week and we had 2 small fish of 4 and 5 lbs on Saturday. Later in the day Mr John Lawrie from Edinburgh hooked and landed on a monkey fly a superb specimen of 42 inches which we have conservatively estimated at 26lbs, his biggest salmon to date.’ According to our data a Springer of this size may in fact have weighed as much as 28lbs. The biggest salmon reported from the River Dee so far this season.

Alan Smith with 25 lb Springer

I spoke briefly on the phone with Keith Cromar the head Ghillie at Park who provided some news about end of week sport at Park. He advised ‘Regular visitor to Park Mr Allan Smith was fishing the Cellar Pool on Friday with 73 inches on the gauge, a tremendous height of water, and he landed our 69th salmon for the month at 7lbs. He then went to fish the Durris Stream which can be excellent in very high water as you know. He then hooked and landed a fabulous Springer, just under 40 inches which weighed approximately 25 lbs. It was caught one on of Allan’s Orange Ruffian flies, which do the trick for him as you know. River Board member and secretary for the Stonehaven Angling Association, Mr David MacDonald hooked and lost a fine fish estimated to be in the order of 25 lbs whilst Allan was playing his fish. This is the second big fish David has lost at Park in February during the last few years.’ I also heard that Mike Thornton had lost a huge fish after a 45 minute battle at Tilbouries when his leader sadly broke. So there would appear to be some big fish running the river and perhaps more will have entered the system following the 3 days of very high water last week.

Alan Smith returning salmon

Karl Revel, who Ghillies at Invery with Jim Turnbull, dropped in to see me early this morning on his way to the beat with some notes and photographs. Karl comments ‘Despite a meagre return for the last few days of 3 Springers, we are just one fish short of our 5 year average for February. Our successful anglers were Geordie Doull, head Ghillie on the Thurso, David Burgess from G Loomis and former Fishery manager on the Royalty beat of the Hampshire Avon and last but not least Mattias Bergstrom from Sweden who caught his first ever salmon of 8lbs at 5 pm on Thursday evening with the setting sun and the river running at 4ft 6 inches on the gauge. Mattias and his friend Tim Lindenhall are Swedish teenagers undertaking a course sponsored by the Swedish Government to enable them to become fishing Ghillies. They spent an enjoyable week at Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo, Lower Blackhall and Invery along with their tutor Ingebjörn Lundevall from the Alvdalen Educational Centre, who you met during the week. These young lads were a credit to their college and country. It was a pleasure to work with them and I look forward to welcoming more students from Alvdalen to Deeside in the future’. If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. It's important to return the fish to the river as swiftly as possible. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley-you can also purchase supplies online. A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd February 2011.

Prospects

The first of March sees most of the River Dee beats fishing with upper beats opening, and it will be good to see what stocks of fish are present in the upper reaches. Anglers fishing the river this week are fortunate that the weather forecast looks very agreeable with light winds and little rain forecast. Air temperatures could peak around 10 degrees during the first half of the week and then cooling towards the weekend with water temperatures around 3 degrees Celsius. With high pressure dominating it will also lead to frosty nights with steady river levels predicted during the week. The gauges are currently showing 1ft 4 inches at Mar Lodge to 2ft 4 inches at Park-which are ideal heights for virtually all river beats. The maritime influence sees high tides building during the week from 3.2 metres to 4.2 metres.

The river beat Ghillies have had a good opportunity to observe current conditions, and they are the key to helping you locate a salmon on their beat. As always heed their wise counsel as they know the tactics you should use to fish their beats. If you do not have the services of a Ghillie to count on then you should consider using a sinking line with a light tube fly. Popular patterns at this time of year are Posh Tosh, Park Shrimp, Bertie Dustard, Monkey and the ever popular Willie Gunn. Some of the lower beats will see anglers using Tobies and Blairs spoons. As always handle your fish carefully and try to release it swiftly back to the river with minimum fuss for photography. The spring salmon are our most fragile stock component and we must do all we can to ensure they are released safely back to the river.

If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. It's important to return the fish to the river as swiftly as possible. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley-you can also purchase supplies online. A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd February 2011.

Celebrate your catch with a Dee Dram


available from The Dalmore rivers collection Online Spirits


Ken Reid
Fisheries Development Officer
DDSFB & River Dee Trust Office
Mill of Dinnet, Aboyne
Aberdeenshire, Scotland,AB34 5LA
D +44 (0) 13398 80411
E-Mail ken@riverdee.org
River Dee Trust & Dee District Salmon Fishery Board: Home: Welcome
www.fishdee.co.uk
River Dee Trust Registered Charity No SC028497

 

[ken@fishdee]

Borrowston beat

Some availability from the productive Borrowston Beat that I have been asked to mention. July 25-30th 3 rods, Aug 1st-6th 3 rods, Aug 8th-13th 3 rods,Aug 15th-20th 3 rods. Price per rod £132 inc vat per day. Minimum 3 day lets. Contact Bill Palmer Ghillie to make bookings at The-Palmers@hotmail.co.uk

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

There have been 97 Springers to 20 lbs reported at the time of writing from FishDee beats last week which may rise once all beats have reported in any late catches. Both Upper Drum and Lower Crathes beats reported a dozen fish for the week, Invery 11 and Park also got into double figures. With catches reported from Altries to Lower Invercauld & Monaltrie indicating there are salmon spreading out to the top of the system. Catches rose last week with beats above Aboyne starting to fish and it’s been great catching up with some of the Ghillies when I have been able to. I was also delighted to meet the new Dinnet Ghillie Euan Reid, and I wish him all the best for the forthcoming season where I am sure he will be a great addition to the super team of Ghillies we have on the River Dee. I am sure Euan would have been delighted to see a sea liced fish landed on his first week of the season on the river .I didn’t receive any correspondence this week but have spoken to a number of Ghillies this morning and am grateful for their contributions as always to help provide an overview of current conditions.

Jim Paton reported that visiting anglers did well at Upper Drum, where Kent Hakansson brought a crack team of anglers over from Scandinavia to fish his beat and at Craigendinnie with George Murray. Jim advised ‘The group had 12 'Spankers' with 3 fish landed at 6 pm and one at 5.30 pm when many anglers may have stopped fishing on other beats. All the fish were caught on the Monkey Fly although they did try other patterns. We still have a lot of Kelts which may be encouraging Springers to stop in the beat before moving on. The anglers also landed 4 fish at Craigendinnie and Kent had a flying visit to the Spey at Delfur where he also caught a nice salmon’. I was pleased to see Ghillie George Murray visit the office last week where we discussed the good start to the season at Craigendinnie.

I visited Glasgow Angling Centre and was delighted to meet many anglers who visit our river as well as many representatives in the tackle trade, and of course Mr Paul Devlin and his great team of staff who most generously have provided the FishDee Megastore to help the River Dee fundraising activities. Whilst there for a few days I spoke to River Dee Board member from Tilbouries, Willie Banks, who informed me that on Friday morning Chris Hartley, the MD of Guide Fly-fishing had caught 2 lovely springers in 2 casts, of 9 lbs and 15 lbs. His colleague Jim Brown caught a stunning fish reckoned to be between 18 and 20 lbs on a Posh Tosh. To get 2 Springers in 2 casts is a stroke of good fortune. It was also really pleasing to see Altries had 4 fish on Friday as well indicating there was a good run of new fish coming upriver. It’s a super beat that deserves to have more anglers fishing at this time of year with a really talented and enthusiastic Ghillie Kevin Fleming.

Invery Ghillie Karl Revel was delighted to inform me of the successful anglers fishing his beat last week, and he was keen to emphasise that the fish were in great condition, and that he had a crack team of anglers fishing. Top Scottish Ghillies Colin Wilkie, Bill Drury, Mike Murdoch and Archie Baillie were enjoying a busman's holiday from the Rivers Tweed and Spey. They have been regular visitors to the Dee and again saw success by fishing slow and deep. Colin must have been delighted with his 5 fish, with Mike, Bill and Archie all catching nice fresh Springers. Archie took a real beauty of 15 lbs which was a very deep fish and in beautiful condition. Visitor David Cooke also had 2 fish to his rod of 8lbs and 15 lbs fishing in very cold and clear water.

Robert Harper reported that David and Michael Clarke, who I was delighted to meet last year in Russia, were successful with 3 nice fish apiece to 12 lbs. Robert reports ' Anglers had to persevere last week to intercept fish when pockets of fish were moving through the beat. The fish caught are real proper good Springers to 14 lbs and in excellent condition'. I was also advised by Edward Humphrey at Dinnet that visiting angler Ross Gowl had his first fish for 3 years and fishing companion Gordon Duncan had a nice sea liced fish which must have been running very hard in the cold water to reach the beat. Waterside and Ferrar Ghillie Davie Goodfellow also was pleased to advise that visiting angler Scott Smith from Cumbernauld had caught his first Springer at Waterside of 7 lbs. He mentioned he fished extremely well and was rewarded for his efforts with a nice fish.

If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. It's important to return the fish to the river as swiftly as possible. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley-you can also purchase supplies online here Dalmore Dee Dram Online Spirits. It is now available in London at Friarwood Fine Wine, 26 New Kings Road, London, Tel 020 7736 2628. A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd March 2011.

Action at Tilbouries with Jim Brown catching a fine Springer.

Prospects

Spring fishing in Deeside is a challenge for anglers and that’s why so many come year on year and fish for Spring Salmon. The challenges come from mastering the weather and river conditions and ensuring the tactics utilised are likely to deliver the opportunity of hooking fish in truly first class condition. This year Ghillies and anglers are reporting fish to be of a good size and in really first class condition. Now for the week ahead the weather forecast is looking quite reasonable and hopefully we will see catches pick up through the week. An air temperature maximum is reported to be between 8 and 10 degrees Celsius this week according to the Met Office and the BBC. There is likelihood during the week of fresh hill snow in the extreme western catchment. Winds should be light but will pick up on Thursday and Friday as weather fronts move through with perhaps gusts to 40 mph. Anglers need to ensure they wrap up well and have their waterproof wading jackets on as there is a good chance of occasional rain showers. The maritime influence is showing tides are dropping back through the week from 4.2 metres to 3.3 metres however river levels are still running between 9 inches and 1 foot 7 inches on the Sepa gauges.

The river beat Ghillies have a great knowledge of how to fish to suit current conditions, and they are the key to helping you locate a salmon on their beat. As always heed their wise counsel as they know the tactics you should use to fish their beats and give yourself every chance of catching a salmon. If you do not have the services of a Ghillie to count on then you should consider using a light sinking line with a light tube fly. Popular patterns at this time of year are Posh Tosh, Park Shrimp, Bertie Dustard, Monkey and the ever popular Willie Gunn. Some of the lower beats will see anglers using Tobies and Blairs spoons. As always a plea to anglers to handle your fish very carefully and try to release it swiftly back to the river with minimum fuss for photography. I know the moment can be dramatic as you land the beautiful salmon, however it is vital to ensure the salmon is extended the courtesy of a safe release and return to the river. The spring salmon are our most fragile stock component and we must do all we can to ensure they are released safely back to the river.

If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. It's important to return the fish to the river as swiftly as possible. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley-you can also purchase supplies online here Dalmore Dee Dram Online Spirits. It is now available in London at Friarwood Fine Wine, 26 New Kings Road, London, Tel 020 7736 2628. A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd March 2011.

Guide Fly-Fishing MD Chris Hartley enjoying sport at Tilbouries last friday.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

A quiet week on Deeside with 50 salmon reported so far from FishDee beats. Park reported 6 fish to 23lbs, Invery also had 6, and Middle Drum reported 5 salmon. The fish were quite dour last week with the deterioration of water conditions and river temperatures dropping. Anglers were seeing the odd fish but they were not taking well. Towards the end of the week we saw gale force winds and very heavy snow which made fishing extremely difficult for the gallant anglers who persevered.

Karl Revel from Invery called with an update and advised ‘Invery’s fish were all caught by returning visitors to the Dee. Fifteen year old John Kane from Kilmarnock and Russell Neighbour from Surrey had 2 fish each, these being their first Springers. Other successful anglers were young John’s uncle and Jim Reid from Edinburgh. The fish were reluctant takers last week.’ Willie Banks from Tilbouries advised an angler who wishes to remain anonymous landed 2 fish of 12 and 22 lbs. The 22lber was a super specimen and was the anglers largest Springer to date.

Jim Fearn with 22lb Springer from Tilbouries

Shane Christie from Middle Drum reported he had a regular group of fishers up from Wigan. He comments ‘Stanley Cook was successful with 4 fish to his own rod on his own tied Dozem fly, a Willie Gunn variant. Stanley visits the beat 3-4 times every year and his knowledge of the beat was helpful to him when fishing the lies he knows fish will be at this time of year. Jim Black a novice angler caught his second Springer from the beat on a day visit giving him an average of a Springer for each of his visits to the beat this year.’
It's important to return the fish to the river as swiftly as possible. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley-you can also purchase supplies online here http://www.onlinespirits.co.uk/dalmore-dee-dram. It is now available in London at Friarwood Fine Wine, 26 New Kings Road, London, Tel 020 7736 2628. A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd March 2011.

Prospects

The Ghillies I have spoken to are optimistic sport will pick up this week following last week’s very trying conditions. The weather forecast is a bit of a mixed bag with air temperature maxima predicted to be around 6 degrees with night time frosts also predicted. Winds will be blustery from time to time as the direction changes during the week from north easterly to south westerly. There will be regular bands of rain, sleet and hill snow which should hopefully freeze on the mountain tops ensuring a reservoir of water for the weeks ahead. River levels are currently showing on the Sepa gauges 4 inches at Mar Lodge to 2ft at Park and the river is carrying a bit of sediment in the lower reaches as the River Feugh tributary is currently rising and cold with temps at 2 degrees Celsius. The maritime influence sees tides rising during the week from 3.3 metres to 4.7 metres on Sunday. This will encourage fish forward if they wish to run the river. The sea will be considerably warmer than the river.

River beat Ghillies in the lower river are saying there are decent numbers of fish in the pools but they are reluctant takers. A couple of lower beat Ghillies are saying the numbers of Springers in their beats are the most they have seen for many years. One of the most experienced Ghillies on the River with over 40years experience, was telling me this week that it’s a very common problem in March for fish to seemingly go off the take, and then come on again as the water warms up and they get on the move. The Ghillies advice is vital in helping you locate fish on their beats and they will give good advice about fly choice and tackle set up. If you do not have the services of a Ghillie to call on then you would be well advised to fish slow and deep with a sinking line or intermediate with fast sink tip. Flies to use could range from a size 6 dressed double to a big monkey fly. The Willie Gunn is a good option as is the Park Shrimp, Black and Yellow and Ice Maiden.

Mike Megginson with a 23 lb Fish

As always a plea to anglers to handle your fish very carefully and try to release it swiftly back to the river with minimum fuss for photography. I know the moment can be dramatic as you land the beautiful salmon, however it is vital to ensure the salmon is extended the courtesy of a safe release and return to the river. The spring salmon are our most fragile stock component and we must do all we can to ensure they are released safely back to the river.

If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. It's important to return the fish to the river as swiftly as possible. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley-you can also purchase supplies online here http://www.onlinespirits.co.uk/dalmore-dee-dram. It is now available in London at Friarwood Fine Wine, 26 New Kings Road, London, and Tel 020 7736 2628. A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd March 2011

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

A much better fishing week with conditions improving and fish becoming more inclined to respond to a fisherman's well presented fly. FishDee beats have reported 83 for the week as I write with perhaps a few more to be reported. The fabulous Lower Crathes beat reported 10 salmon for the week as did the ever reliable Ballogie beat with Ghillie Sean Stanton leading his visiting guests from Scandinavia to the obliging salmon. Carlogie and Park reported 8 and Invery reported 6 for the week. Catches were reported from Altries to Cambus O'May showing a wide distribution of fish in the catchment. Ghillies had predicted a better week and as always their views were spot on.

Kojla Veyhle with a nice 15 lb Salmon

I have received a number of letters of correspondence from anglers and I would like to thank them for writing and forwarding images of their fine catches. Firstly Kolja Veyhle commented 'I have just returned to Germany after a week of spring fishing on the River Dee. I was fishing with a group of 10 Fly fishermen at the Ballogie Estate beats, where we were able to catch some Springers. For me it was the first time to fish the river in springtime and I was fortunate enough to catch 3 Spring-salmon, biggest one was 15lbs! For me it was just the topping on a really good fishing trip in excellent company, with some of the nicest fisherman I have ever met, and of course the two Ghillies Sean and Ian, everything was just perfect. Attached are some pictures of spring salmon, maybe you would like to put them on the Blog? ' I also received an e-mail from Craig Fleming who advised 'Just thought I'd send you a couple of pictures of a Springer I caught this afternoon 19/03/11 from the Lawson Pool on Middle Drum. The fish took a monkey fly about half way down the pool. I was yapping away to Shane and my fly had come round onto the dangle, when suddenly the line began tearing off my reel! After a few runs and some nervy head shaking, Shane netted this fine fresh fish around 8lbs. P.S Keep up the good work. Love seeing all these cracking fish pictures!' Thanks to Andrew Wright for sending a nice picture of a lovely big spring salmon he landed at Invery on the 17th March. I was advised by Ballogie Ghillie Sean Stanton that they had 3 salmon on Friday morning and one was a really fabulous specimen landed by visiting angler Thomas Torpe. I received the image today from regular Dee fisherman and tour organiser Lars Terkildsen and I can confirm it was a beautiful salmon of 20lbs, and very fresh. Lars commented 'Monday morning and now only one week to my trip to The Dee with 7 angling brothers. Last week Team FiskeShopen got a total of 23 springers at the 3 Ballogie Beats, what a fantastic week they had. Now the water is rising and new salmon will move up-stream to be there for us next week.'

Normann Kotzurek with a 12lb Salmon at Commonty

I can also advise that there will be a whisky tasting evening for the Dalmore Dee Dram and other Dalmore Rivers Collection whiskies at the Deeside Drinks Emporium in Banchory, opposite the Orvis shop, at 7.30 pm on Thursday 31st March. Many people were unable to attend the Dee Dram launch night at Balmoral in January this year. If you are planning to attend can you contact Deeside drink to confirm your attendance by calling 01330 822650 or e-mail deesidedrinks@live.co.uk to help them organise enough supplies for the evening? There will be a nominal charge of £5.00 for the event which promises to be a super night's entertainment. I plan to come along on the night to speak about the River Dee to the audience.

You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley-you can also purchase supplies online here this link It is now available in London at Friarwood Fine Wine, 26 New Kings Road, London, Tel 020 7736 2628. A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd March 2011.



Beat catches reported
(week ending 19th March)
SALMON & GRILSE: Altries and Lower Drum 1, Middle Drum 2, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 2, Tilbouries 1, Park 8, Lower Crathes and W Durris 10, Crathes 1, Invery 6, Lower Blackhall 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Middle Blackhall 2, Cairnton 3, Commonty 5, Sluie 1, Ballogie 10, Borrowston 3, Kincardine 2, Carlogie 8, Lower Dess 2, Upper Dess 2, Birse 3, Aboyne Water 1, Aboyne Castle 1, Craigendinnie 1, Waterside and Ferrar 1, Dinnet 2, Deecastle 2, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1.
Total: 83 Largest: Ballogie 20lbs
SEA TROUT: Cairnton 1, Borrowston 2.
Total: 3 Largest: Cairnton & Borrowston 2lbs

Prospects

Providing we don't get wildly fluctuating river levels this week, I expect catches to lift significantly as a result of much warmer temperatures, and the big Spring tides that are currently bringing new fish forward. The air temperature maximum is forecast to be 17 degrees Celsius this week, which is significantly higher than the last few weeks. The air temperatures will however fall back from Friday into the weekend. This will see snowmelt from the mountains ensuring good river levels all week. The Sepa river level gauges are all rising and currently showing 1ft 11 inches at Mar Lodge to 3ft 7 inches at Park. There should be very little rainfall, and winds don't like they will be too troublesome for visiting anglers. All in all, perhaps a potentially productive week for anglers on the River Dee.

Craig Fleming with a salmon from Middle Drum

With good river levels and fish getting on the move, it is prudent to fish carefully following the sound advice our crack team of Ghillies will provide to visiting anglers. The Ghillies know the moods of the salmon and how to ensure you give yourself every opportunity to catch a fish, so please heed their wise advice. If you do not have the services of a Ghillie to call on and are fishing this week then you will need to ensure you fish to suit the conditions. You would perhaps be wise to fish with a sinking Spey line or shooting head, with an intermediate as an option in shallower pools. A good strong leader and a tube fly will perhaps the best option, with patterns worth trying including the Gold Bodied Willie Gunn, Park Shrimp, Bertie D, Posh Tosh, Monkey and Ice Maiden. Long winged flies are in vogue and seem to be catching good numbers of fish according to reports.

Visitor Thomas Torpe with a fine 20 lb Salmon with tiny head and broad back.

As always a plea to anglers to handle your fish very carefully and try to release it swiftly back to the river with minimum fuss for photography. I know the moment can be dramatic as you land the beautiful salmon, however it is vital to ensure the salmon is extended the courtesy of a safe release and return to the river. The spring salmon are our most fragile stock component and we must do all we can to ensure they are released safely back to the river.

I can also advise that there will be a whisky tasting evening for the Dalmore Dee Dram and other Dalmore Rivers Collection whiskies at the Deeside Drinks Emporium in Banchory, opposite the Orvis shop, at 7.30 pm on Thursday 31st March. Many people were unable to attend the Dee Dram launch night at Balmoral in January this year. If you are planning to attend can you contact Deeside drink to confirm your attendance by calling 01330 822650 or e-mail deesidedrinks@live.co.uk to help them organise enough supplies for the evening? There will be a nominal charge of £5.00 for the event which promises to be a super night's entertainment. I plan to come along on the night to speak about the River Dee to the audience.

If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley-you can also purchase supplies online here this link It is now available in London at Friarwood Fine Wine, 26 New Kings Road, London, and Tel 020 7736 2628. A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd March 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Salmon catches rose again on the River Dee with FishDee beats reporting 94 salmon and sea trout. This is very pleasing for anglers and Ghillies alike as the beginning of the week saw air temperatures rise significantly, which in turn caused significant snowmelt from the hills which in turn caused the river to rise to a high level for the first part of the week. This subdued catches significantly, but as the river levels dropped new fish came forward on the big spring tides. Saturday saw 24 salmon reported and anglers were reporting seeing fresh fish running hard. Lower Crathes reported 10 salmon for the week as did the delightful Birse beat, where Ghillie Doug Murray will have been delighted with the returns from his visiting anglers. Kincardine finished the week strongly with 9 salmon reported; perhaps salmon have been stopping there to investigate the super new fishing hut being constructed for anglers to enjoy. Park reported 8 for the week with Ghillie Keith Cromar reporting fish are being seen in reasonable numbers. There were some big fish reported among the catch with some big fish being seen running the lower beats.

Angler Per Heikkila with a fine Spring Salmon

I was really pleased to see a very happy Davie Goodfellow popping into the office to report the capture of a really fine 22lb salmon at Waterside. Local angler Norman Matheson landed this fine fish after a good struggle and the fish was recognisable by having what looks like a lamprey scar on its back between the tail and the dorsal fish. Norman celebrated his birthday a few days later which made this a super birthday present, so many congratulations to Norman. I also received a picture of another fantastic 22lb salmon landed at Dinnet. Visiting Finnish angler Per Heikkila was the delighted angler who landed the fish at the Logie Pool at Dinnet, a favourite pool of mine. The picture just epitomises the beauty of a big wild spring salmon landed in a spectacular setting. This is one of the nicest photos of a salmon I have ever seen over the years. Steven Cooper from Peterhead reported his first Spring Salmon at Sluie so congratulations are in order for Steven. I was delighted to receive an e-mail from David Ramsay who was commenting about the wonderful week his party enjoyed. David advised ‘ Ken, I had the pleasure of fishing Lower Dess and Waterside & Ferrar this week, unfortunately with the high water and the lack of the gods smiling all I had was 1 kelt, but I can't complain as I had a great week. I have attached a few photos’ including a photo of Davie Goodfellow and Norman Matheson relaxing at the hut just after he caught the 22 lber well done Norman! There's also a few photo's of Davie inspecting my brother in laws (Colin Innes, Home) set up, Davie was convinced this was a prank as out came the C Playfair of Aberdeen reel dated around 1930's and a 3/0 Akroyd fly, you can see Davie's expression; priceless! Colin proceeded to fish down the Waterside pool from the south bank and yes; the line tightened and the real sang and what a song it sang. Unfortunately the fish came off, it just goes to show with all the modern tackle the old traditional flies and tackle still works. I would like to pass on my thanks to Eoin Smith at Lower Dess and Davie Goodfellow at Waterside and Ferrar for a great week. Regards, Dave Ramsay. ‘There is a link to Colin’s website on the Flies for the Dee page on the FishDee website and I would recommend it to all who have an interest in traditional fishing tackle and flies.

I can also advise that there will be a whisky tasting evening for the Dalmore Dee Dram and other Dalmore Rivers Collection whiskies at the Deeside Drinks Emporium in Banchory, opposite the Orvis shop, at 7.30 pm on Thursday 31st March. Many people were unable to attend the Dee Dram launch night at Balmoral in January this year. If you are planning to attend can you contact Deeside drink to confirm your attendance by calling 01330 822650 or e-mail deesidedrinks@live.co.uk to help them organise enough supplies for the evening? There will be a nominal charge of £5.00 for the event which promises to be a super night's entertainment. I plan to come along on the night to speak about the River Dee to the audience.

You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley-you can also purchase supplies online here this link it is now available in London at Friarwood Fine Wine, 26 New Kings Road, London, Tel 020 7736 2628. A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd March 2011.



Beat catches reported
(week ending 26th March)
SALMON & GRILSE: Altries and Lower Drum 1, Middle Drum 1, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 3, Tilbouries 3, Park 8, Lower Crathes and W Durris 10, Crathes 3, Invery 6, Lower Blackhall 6, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 2, Cairnton 2, Commonty 2, Sluie 1, Ballogie 3, Borrowston 2, Kincardine 9, Carlogie 2, Lower Dess 1, Upper Dess 1, Birse 10, Aboyne Water 1, Aboyne Castle 3, Craigendinnie 4, Waterside and Ferrar 2, Dinnet 1, Deecastle 3, Headinch and Cambus O'May 3, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 1.
Total: 94 Largest: Waterside and Ferrar & Dinnet 22lbs
SEA TROUT: Park 1, Lower Blackhall 1.
Total: 2 Largest: Park & Lower Blackhall 2lbs

Prospects

Now the clocks have gone forward to British Summer Time anglers will have additional opportunities to fish longer in the evenings to capitalise on fish moving at dusk. The weather forecast is reasonable for the week with air temperatures forecast to peak around 10 degrees Celsius and perhaps a little more towards the weekend as a series of weather fronts pass over the region. The river temperature is around 5-6 degrees Celsius. River heights are showing 1ft 2 inches at Mar Lodge to 1ft 11 inches which is an ideal height for fishing. Winds are forecast to be light for the beginning of the week and these will pick up towards the weekend. There will be little rainfall in the first half of the week but rainfall will increase towards the weekend so anglers will need their waterproof jackets. The maritime influence indicates tides are rising throughout the week to 4.1 metres which could bring new fish forward.

If you are fortunate enough to be fishing the river this week then prospects look very good however the salmon as always has the final say in the matter. The River Dee Ghillies, who I hold in the highest regard, will be ideally placed to provide you with the best advice on where and how you may get a salmon to leave its lie and take you well presented fly. They know all the lies that salmon will be resting in at any particular height on their beats, and this is invaluable knowledge for an angler visiting a beat for the first time. If you don’t have the services of a Ghillie to call on then you may want to fish with an intermediate line or a sink tip fly line, and a small 1-2 inch tube fly or a size 4-8 dressed double; perhaps a Posh Tosh , Park Shrimp or Templedog. As the water is warming up then fish are more inclined to rise to a fly and there is less need to scrape the bottom with big tube flies. However the big Sunray or Monkey fished at 90 degrees to the flow of the river may induce a fish to chase your fly and grab it before trying to return to its lie. So ring the changes and be prepared to experiment if fish are dour. As Colin Innes experimented last week with a traditional dressed single and hooked a fish, you just never know what is going to encourage a salmon to intercept your fly.

As always a plea to anglers to handle your fish very carefully and try to release it swiftly back to the river with minimum fuss for photography. I know the moment can be dramatic as you land the beautiful salmon, however it is vital to ensure the salmon is extended the courtesy of a safe release and return to the river. The spring salmon are our most fragile stock component and we must do all we can to ensure they are released safely back to the river.

I can also advise that there will be a whisky tasting evening for the Dalmore Dee Dram and other Dalmore Rivers Collection whiskies at the Deeside Drinks Emporium in Banchory, opposite the Orvis shop, at 7.30 pm on Thursday 31st March. Many people were unable to attend the Dee Dram launch night at Balmoral in January this year. If you are planning to attend can you contact Deeside drink to confirm your attendance by calling 01330 822650 or e-mail deesidedrinks@live.co.uk to help them organise enough supplies for the evening? There will be a nominal charge of £5.00 for the event which promises to be a super night's entertainment. I plan to come along on the night to speak about the River Dee to the audience.

If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley-you can also purchase supplies online here this link it is now available in London at Friarwood Fine Wine, 26 New Kings Road, London, and Tel 020 7736 2628. A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd March 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

So far this week there have been 82 salmon and 7 sea trout reported from FishDee beats with 2 days fishing catches still to count so things are shaping up nicely for a good weeks catch.Following the catch of a splendid 30lb salmon at Birse on Wednesday I thought I would write a mid week update for readers. I visited party leader Lars Terkildsen at Birse to get some background details. One of his party Marko Heinonen who started salmon fishing last year caught his first two salmon on the Dee. He then had the day that all anglers dream about on Wednesday at Birse where he landed 3 spring salmon. The big fish was a 110 cms long salmon which weighed approximately 30lbs. The big fish, like the other two fish was caught on a small plastic sunray shadow tube fly in ideal fishing conditions from the Irrigation pool. Aboyne Water Ghillie Jim Cowper let me know that an angler fishing his side last Friday had played a very big fish for 25 minutes before it got off. Was this the same fish? Perhaps it was. There have been reports of good sized fish seen running and it’s very pleasing to hear of one being landed. Of course legendary Birse Ghillie Doug Murray is very proud of the beats achievements.

Marko's 30lb Springer from Birse which was returned safely

I visited Lower Blackhall Ghillie Colin Simpson who had been unwell through the winter but is now back working at the beat, much to the delight of his regular fishermen. We were chatting about a number of things and as always it is always illuminating talking with him and hearing his views about fishing flies. Colin is incredibly knowledgeable about traditional salmon flies, as is his father, and he was telling me that he has been helping a channel 4 film crew who are producing a film about the late Megan Boyd from Brora, who needs no introduction to salmon anglers who tie flies. Colin teased me about the flies we use today and how we think we are using something new and deadly. He laughed and said ‘The new monkey flies, park shrimps etc you use today, I was using over 20 years ago to great success’. As always great fun when you are being teased by an undoubted expert in salmon fly design and construction, and what a pleasure to get some time to chat.

Mike Stevenson with his nice Salmon

I received a nice communication from Mike Stevenson who was fishing with River Dee Board and Trust chairman Ian Scott at Waterside and Ferrar. Mike advised ‘I was fishing with Ian today at Waterside & Ferrar and we both had success at the Waterside pool. Ian landed a bar of silver weighing some 16lbs in the morning. After lunch, it was my turn and a fresh fish was duly landed with its weight estimated by Davie, our excellent ghillie, at 12lbs. This was my first March Springer for over 11 years and I had Davie record the moment. The fly was an Ally's Shrimp and, yes, the fish did run around the pool in a very energetic manner until the beat ghillie, Davie, skilfully netted a beautiful bar of silver fresh fish from the Dee. At Ian's suggestion, I attach a picture of myself with the salmon before it was successfully returned.’

I was delighted to hear that Mr Neil Rae the new owner of the Raemoir House Hotel and his team, who manage the Hotel beside Banchory, have been awarded the Scottish Country House Hotel of the year award. There has been extensive refurbishment of the hotel since Mr Rae took ownership and the hotel is looking fabulous. Mr Rae is keen to attract anglers old and new to the hotel to enjoy the comforts and hospitality, and I am delighted to report he has announced he will provide special packages for fishermen parties and groups. For parties of 3 or more anglers, staying for 3 nights or more, he will offer a super rate of £50 per night for bed and breakfast, which is a fabulous incentive for anglers to save money and enjoy top quality food and comfort. Visitors are promised a fine culinary experience with Mr David Littlewood master chef of Great Britain running the restaurant team. Anglers looking to secure accommodation should call Mr Rae in the first instance on 01330 824884.

If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley; it is now available in London at Friarwood Fine Wine, 26 New Kings Road, London, and Tel 020 7736 2628. A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd April 2011.

Prospects

If you are fortunate enough to be fishing the river this week then prospects look very good however the salmon as always has the final say in the matter. The River Dee Ghillies, who I hold in the highest regard, will be ideally placed to provide you with the best advice on where and how you may get a salmon to leave its lie and take you well presented fly. They know all the lies that salmon will be resting in at any particular height on their beats, and this is invaluable knowledge for an angler visiting a beat for the first time. If you don’t have the services of a Ghillie to call on then you may want to fish with an intermediate line or a sink tip fly line, and a small 1-2 inch tube fly or a size 4-8 dressed double; perhaps a Posh Tosh , Park Shrimp or Templedog. As the water is warming up then fish are more inclined to rise to a fly and there is less need to scrape the bottom with big tube flies. However the Sunray or Monkey fished at 90 degrees to the flow of the river may induce a fish to chase your fly and grab it before trying to return to its lie. So ring the changes and be prepared to experiment if fish are dour. As always a plea to anglers to handle your fish very carefully and try to release it swiftly back to the river with minimum fuss for photography. I know the moment can be dramatic as you land the beautiful salmon, however it is vital to ensure the salmon is extended the courtesy of a safe release and return to the river. The spring salmon are our most fragile stock component and we must do all we can to ensure they are released safely back to the river.

Lee Harper,son of Lower Crathes Ghillie Robert Harper, with a 10 lb salmon

I was delighted to hear that Mr Neil Rae the new owner of the Raemoir House Hotel and his team, who manage the Hotel beside Banchory, have been awarded the Scottish Country House Hotel of the year award. There has been extensive refurbishment of the hotel since Mr Rae took ownership and the hotel is looking fabulous. Mr Rae is keen to attract anglers old and new to the hotel to enjoy the comforts and hospitality, and I am delighted to report he has announced he will provide special packages for fishermen parties and groups. For parties of 3 or more anglers, staying for 3 nights or more, he will offer a super rate of £50 per night for bed and breakfast, which is a fabulous incentive for anglers to save money and enjoy top quality food and comfort. Visitors are promised a fine culinary experience with Mr David Littlewood master chef of Great Britain running the restaurant team. Anglers looking to secure accommodation should call Mr Rae in the first instance on 01330 824884.

If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley; it is now available in London at Friarwood Fine Wine, 26 New Kings Road, London, and Tel 020 7736 2628. A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd April 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

River Dee Ghillies were the stars of the show last week by leading their visiting anglers to the salmon and ensuring they followed their advice. FishDee beats reported 154 salmon to 22lbs and 3 sea trout, which is the top week of the season so far. Park reported 16, Kincardine 13, Invery 12 and Birse 11 salmon. And anglers and Ghillies are reporting really good numbers of fresh springers running hard throughout the catchment with salmon at Dinnet landed with long tailed sea lice, indicating how swiftly fresh salmon are running upstream. Everything is looking positive for a continuation of this excellent sport, but as always the fish has the final say in the matter.

A delighted Bill Church with a fine Spring Salmon

I was delighted to have regular River Dee visitor Phillip Wood drop into the office to give me a report on his parties sport last week at Waterside and Ferrar and Craigendinnie. Phillip never fails to have you laughing at his anecdotes and this visit was no different. He tells me he was fishing down the Waterside pool when he noticed some fishing leader attached to some underwater roots and he went in to remove the leader and as serendipity would have it, there was a lovely monkey fly with cone head attached. He took me to his car to show me the fly and it looked very similar in design to ones used by visiting Scandinavian anglers. Anyway as luck would have it Phillip fished the lucky fly in Jocky Fyfe and landed a spanking 13 lb salmon. He also advised that the following anglers had success, David Craik, Charlie Campbell, Rob Stead, Will Davies, Bill Siddell and Mark Morris. The good week at Invery saw anglers enjoying success and congratulations to Stephen McGrandles who landed 4 fine fish; Ghillie Karl Revel was pleased to see his anglers doing well.

Regular Dee angler Jamie Sampson visited last week and promised me a report which duly arrived this morning-thanks Jamie. He commented 'What a week Ghillie ducking in Pol Bar, Deecastle side and one of our salmon virgins catches his first salmon after 9 years trying. Oh to be on Deeside in the spring! Lovely weather and the river full of lovely salmon. As ever Ingrid - my wife, Tony and Julia O'Hagan, and I arrived on Deeside Monday morning. We were met by Colin Espie and his Dinnet colleague Ghillie Euan Reid - what an asset he will be to Dinnet & Kinord Estate! Off onto the river but a blank Monday was the result, but Tuesday arrived, and in swift order 5 lovely bars of silver by 5.00pm. The best of course was mine netted and measured by Euan. In all my years' salmon fishing this was a first. At the same time this feat of genius was witnessed by my lucky mascot Edward Humphries, walking his dogs on the other bank. Before this feat, we had witnessed a river first at around noon on the Tuesday, both ghillies got into a fish, Euan's was easy, but Colin's was nothing short of Herculean. The spirited fish, took in Pol Bar in front of hut, and was landed at the gorse bushes on the 29 pool. By all accounts Colin yomped over a mile, hurdling fallen trees, negotiating rapids and wearing no waders was up to his chest in Dee water. When I asked him at lunch why he had done this his response was 'It's my first fish this season Jamie'. You can imagine the crack in the hut that evening. Onto Wednesday at 3.23pm on The Boat Pool a long journey ended. Our great friend Tony O'Hagan caught and landed his first Dee salmon after 9 years - weight 13lbs and a bar of silver. Tony and his wife Julie have supported the fishing on the Dee for 9 years, they spend much of the year in Kenya, but as Tony says, 'my spring fishing is now an immovable date in our yearly calendar'. That was the end of action for the week. Loads of fish in the river but none would play! Thank you Michael and Edward for allowing us to fish your lovely beats, for me this was my 30 oddth yearly visit, originally well taught by that other Ghillie maestro Eoin Smith, who still comes to see us with his lovely honey. Finally a special thanks to Colin and Euan for making this week as always a very special one. I hope this wets the appetite for you lucky fishers yet to have your time on this lovely river - I am extremely envious and am counting down the days till June when I will fish Kincardine with John McGinley who I last fished with on Cambus o' May Beat.

Tony O'Hagen with a fresh run salmon

I was delighted to hear that Mr Neil Rae, the new owner of the excellent Raemoir House Hotel, which is beside Banchory, have fantastic packages for visiting angers with special rates from £50 per night for bed and breakfast. Anglers looking to secure accommodation should call Mr Rae in the first instance on 01330 824884. There are similar offers from the super Tor Na Coille hotel who can be contacted on 01330 822242. These hotels are offering great value and have really high standards of comfort, cuisine and service. If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley; it is now available in London at Friarwood Fine Wine, 26 New Kings Road, London, and Tel 020 7736 2628. It can be purchased online at this link A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. A final plea to anglers to return all spring fish and refrain from using the priest-we need all spring fish to be returned as they are our most fragile stock component. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd April 2011.



Beat catches reported
(week ending 9th April)
SALMON & GRILSE: Altries and Lower Drum 1, Middle Drum 2, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 2, Tilbouries 3, Park 16, Lower Crathes and W Durris 7, Knappach 1, Crathes 4, Invery 12, Lower Blackhall 2, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 6, Woodend 4, Commonty 8, Sluie 1, Ballogie 9, Borrowston 3, Kincardine 13, Carlogie 10, Lower Dess 2, Upper Dess 2, Birse 11, Aboyne Water 5, Aboyne Castle 3, Craigendinnie 6, Waterside and Ferrar 3, Dinnet 4, Deecastle 3, Headinch and Cambus O'May 4, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 2, Crathie 3.
Total: 154 Largest: Birse 22lbs
SEA TROUT: Lower Crathes and W Durris 1, Crathes 1, Carlogie 1.
Total: 3 Largest: Lower Crathes and W Durris & Crathes & Carlogie 2lbs
TROUT: None reported

Prospects

River temperatures last week crept up to the magic 50 degrees Fahrenheit mark signifying to many anglers it's the time for fishing with full floating lines and smaller flies. The weather forecast is very reasonable this week with air temperatures maxima to be around 12-15 degrees Celsius and overnight lows to around 4 degrees. The maritime influence shows tides rising this week from 3.4 metres to 4. 4 metres. River levels are currently reading 1 ft 4 inches at Mar Lodge to 1 ft 10 inches at Park on the Sepa measuring gauges. There may be rain showers on Monday and Friday but river levels should remain reasonably steady or drop slightly during the week. All in all, potentially another great week's salmon fishing for visiting and local anglers. It is clear there is a good upstream migration of fish from the lower beats to the middle and upper beats with a lot of tide fresh salmon travelling swiftly upstream. Some beats will have good numbers of fish one minute and they could have moved on shortly after to the next beat above them. There are still a few kelts around and they will be splashing around as they continue to migrate downstream and back to see to recommence feeding at sea.

Jamie Sampson with Dinnet Ghillie Euan Reid

Please consult your Ghillie who will give you the best advice on your beat on how to catch a Dee salmon. Our Ghillies have the years of experience on the river and will help you crack the code. Anglers who heed the wise counsel of the Ghillie should always do better than those who ignore their helpful advice. If you don't have the services of a Ghillie to call on then perhaps you should use a floating line with a sink tip and a fly, perhaps between size 6 and 10. Patterns to try include Ally's shrimp, Tosh, Cascade or Maggie's shrimp and Park Shrimp. Traditionalists will use the Munro Killer and Silver Stoats' tail to good effect, and always be prepared to try a small sunray or Monkey fly if you see fish running.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

An excellent weeks fishing last week according to the feedback from Ghillies and anglers alike with reports of excellent runs of fish moving upstream from the lower beats to the middle and upper beats; not that catching fish was easy. FishDee beats reported 225 salmon and 9 sea trout with Deecastle reporting 18, Carlogie reported 17, Lower Crathes 14 with Park reporting 13. There were reports of many fish hooked and lost, with pools seemingly full of fish one hour then quieter until the next pod of fish came through. There were many talented anglers fishing last week with anglers like Peter Lonsdale who fished Carlogie, landing 14 to his own rod for the week. I was really delighted to meet Alan Lankshear last week, who was presented with a super gift by Malcolm Nicol at Ballogie in recognition of his 50th year fishing the River Dee and his 49th season at Ballogie; he caught a Springer during the week which would have made his trip very special.

Malcolm Nicol presents Alan Lankshear with a lovely memento

Phillip Wood commented ‘Good to see you last Monday. My second week this April, this time on Aboyne Castle with Bill Siddall was exciting to say the least. The river continued to drop and the weather was great - a little too much sun at times and the dratted 'downstream wind' sometimes creating difficult casting conditions. In your report of last Monday you alluded to running fish, this continued, I believe, with even more fish moving through during the week - tailing off somewhat towards the end of the week, but with some runners still forging upstream on last Saturday evening at around 10 pm. I endeavoured to equal my catch of 4 last year but ended up with 3. Bill however, our elder statesman angler showed us younger ones that we don't know it by half. In his tenth year of spring fishing the Dee he had his best ever catch. He tried to claim 9 but was held back at 8 after Alec Coutts ruled that a small silver fish of about 6 lb was in fact a much silvered Kelt. Even those with exceedingly wide experience of catching salmon can be fooled by the glitter of silver! We found the fish caught towards the end of the week to be well sea-liced - obviously running hard. A sign of drought to come? The found 'monkey fly' produced another fish before it passed on, and all my efforts in searching the river and its environs for other lost flies failed to produce any results! Alec was amused each time I caught up a twig or branch saying I was fishing for flies and not fish. He even retrieved the odd trapped branch from the rocks and was disappointed when there was nothing lodged in the wood - saying 'there's no monkey up this tree'! As usual I would acknowledge the help and encouragement given by the ghillies, they are absolutely great. My grateful thanks to the three 'gentlemen' ghillies that put up with me and my fishing companions over the last two weeks, we certainly enjoy their company, advice - and the 'craic', usually with a little liquid refreshment.’

A happy party of anglers at Ballogie

Jerk Sönnichsen, president of the Danish Flyfishers Federation called me this morning and reported his group had 10 salmon and he had 6 to his own rod. He noted Monday’s excellent catch of over 50 salmon and was very excited about travelling over from Denmark on Tuesday. He was swiftly into action with 2 salmon on Tuesday when he arrived. He thinks the Dee Spring salmon are the prettiest fish of all. Famous Norwegian salmon angler Gerhard Schive who was fishing at Lower Dess commented ‘4 nice Springers and 4 lost. Thanks for a great week at a great river and I’m looking forward to next year.’ I am grateful to Dinnet estate Ghillie Euan Reid who provided the following report ‘As you will be aware we had a very good week on Dinnet and Deecastle finishing with 30 fish. Many of the fish caught were in the 8-10lb range and in excellent condition with more than half carrying sea lice. Two anglers during the week caught 4 springers for their day-Mr Tinsley on Monday and Mr Gordon Tait on Friday- which is fantastic fishing for any time of the season let alone mid April! We’ll just have to wait and see what low water and bright sun do to the catches, although it would be tough to follow up a week like the last one even with ideal conditions! I am warned by Colin that it's not always like this!’ Dr Philip Fairchild, fishing with Alan Morrison had 2 fish during his stay at Cairnton which he thoroughly enjoyed; Alan was a little unlucky having a splash into the Rockheads. Alan did redeem himself at Park on Saturday with a nice salmon and a number of other encounters with fresh salmon, sea trout and a Kelt. He also reported a tremendous run of salmon going through the beat during the morning. Congratulations to all who succeeded in landing fish last week, for those who didn’t succeed they have my sympathies as it can be exasperating at times to see many fish that just will not co-operate and take the fly well. This belies the myth that catching spring salmon is childsplay; it’s simply not the case, making success all the sweeter when an angler lands a fresh run fish.

If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley; it is now available in London at Friarwood Fine Wine, 26 New Kings Road, London, and Tel 020 7736 2628. It can be purchased online at Dalmore Dee Dram Online Spirits A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. A final plea to anglers to return all spring fish and refrain from using the priest-we need all spring fish to be returned as they are our most fragile stock component. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd April 2011.

Prospects

I noticed the swallows have arrived last week, and as a harbinger of summer we have a forecast that looks more like summer than spring, with river levels also more like summer than spring. Warm temperatures with little precipitation have stripped snow of the mountains, which saw river levels drop daily during the past week. The river levels are currently running between 8 inches and one foot on the Sepa measuring station gauges. Water temperatures are often above the magical 50 degrees Fahrenheit mark, which signals the switchover from sunken lines and big flies to floating lines and small lightly dressed flies. The weather forecast is very pleasant for anglers with little wind forecast and mostly light cloud cover. Perhaps on Tuesday there may be occasional rain showers, but nothing of any significance indicated. Air temperatures will be around 16 Degrees Celsius inland, but cooler nearer the coast as coastal haar rolls upstream during afternoons. This quite often stops around Peterculter but can travel as far as Aboyne. The maritime influence shows high tides peaking on Tuesday at 4.6 metres before dropping daily to 3.5 metres allowing fresh fish to come forward.

Philip Black with a nice salmon at Park

We are coming into the peak weeks for the spring run migration as fish migrate to the middle and upper beats, with the last of the kelts dropping to the estuary now, more sport is hoped for as salmon numbers have built over recent weeks. Reports indicate there is a good head of fish in the river system and hopefully more will follow if river levels hold up. Low water beats like Carlogie could do well this week. Catching fish will not be easy, and perhaps anglers will try an early morning trip to the river, and fish into the dark if afternoon conditions are too bright. Stealth is required, and lighter lines and longer leaders will be utilised to good effect as river levels drop.

Please seek the advice of your beat Ghillie who knows the river intimately and discuss the likely taking spots on his beat. This can often be the key to unlocking the code and having success with taking fish. Our talented team of Ghillies do know best. As the river levels are low and clear ensure your fly is lightly dressed. An angler last week advised me how he caught salmon last week on size 16 trout fly and a 5 weight line. A number of anglers also caught fish on a small hitched tubes and 2cm monkey flies close to the surface. You could try to good effect flies that do well during summer on the Dee, like the Crathie fly, Silver Stoats tail, Arndilly fancy, Black and Red Frances flies and in faster water a silver Ally’s shrimp, Park Shrimp or small sunray. The emphasis is on summer tactics rather than spring tactics now with fly sizes in the range of 8-14’s, often the smaller the better.

I was delighted to hear that Mr Neil Rae, the new owner of the excellent Raemoir House Hotel, which is beside Banchory, have fantastic packages for visiting angers with special rates from £50 per night for bed and breakfast. Anglers looking to secure accommodation should call Mr Rae in the first instance on 01330 824884. There are similar offers from the super Tor Na Coille hotel who can be contacted on 01330 822242. These hotels are offering great value and have really high standards of comfort, cuisine and service.

Beat catches reported
(week ending 16th April)
SALMON & GRILSE: Altries and Lower Drum 2, Middle Drum 2, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 4, Tilbouries 2, Park 13, Lower Crathes and W Durris 14, Knappach 8, Crathes 5, Invery 8, Lower Blackhall 9, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 3, Middle Blackhall 2, Cairnton 2, Woodend 3, Commonty 4, Sluie 1, Ballogie 9, Kincardine 7, Carlogie 17, Lower Dess 6, Upper Dess 9, Birse 5, Aboyne Water 10, Aboyne Castle 10, Craigendinnie 5, Waterside and Ferrar 11, Dinnet 12, Deecastle 18, Headinch and Cambus O'May 6, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 9, Crathie 9.
Total: 225 Largest: Waterside and Ferrar 22lbs
SEA TROUT: Altries and Lower Drum 4, Park 1, Crathes 1, Invery 2, Ballogie 1.
Total: 9 Largest: Ballogie 4lbs

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Salmon anglers enjoyed excellent sport again, especially the upper beats as the runs of salmon continued their swift journey upriver. Lower Invercauld and Monaltrie reported 31 salmon to 28lbs, Dinnet/Deecastle 28, Ballogie/Carlogie 28, Crathie 21 and Park 18. Ian Murray reported an excellent days sport on Friday where his anglers landed salmon of 28lbs, 23 lbs,22lbs,21lbs,15lbs,8lbs,8lbs and 6lbs. The biggest fish was caught by Rolf Ytterdahl. Salmon catches for April are well up on the 5 year average but water levels are getting quite low for the time of year. A prolonged dry spell may see catches drop of as fish become less inclined to run the system. We expect to see sea trout rod catches increasing over the next few months as anglers fish on into the evenings. There are a tremendous amount of visiting anglers, with many visitors from Scandinavia enjoying good sport and good Scottish hospitality in some of the hotels the length of the valley. I enjoyed a lovely dinner with a group from Norway this week at the Glen Lui hotel in Ballater who were fishing with Ian Murray at Lower Invercauld and Monaltrie. Many thanks to Reid Hagelin for his kind hospitality, and Susan Bell and her staff for providing a fabulous dinner utilising the best of Scottish fare.

Aberdeen Angling Association President Bob Dey with a nice salmon from Invercauld

I met Ole Wisteler from Sportsfiskeren magazine in Denmark during the week and he reported excellent sport at Crathie. He was indebted to Alan Lankshear for being on hand to net a nice fish for him. Mr Wisteler does a tremendous job in promoting Deeside in magazine articles which are read by over 30,000 anglers. Henrik Larsen from Denmark was fishing at Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo and he commented ‘Under difficult conditions, especially I think on middle Dee, we had a very nice week. I wish to mention we had two first time visitors in our group, Jens Sondergaard and Claus Dollerup, who by Tuesday had a Springer. The biggest during the week was Jens’ nice 15 lber from Inchmarlo.’ Regular River Dee angler Alan Morrison from Edinburgh reported a fine 10lber at Woodend whilst fishing the beautiful Moral Pool on a single handed rod and size 14 silver stoats tail fly. Stuart Buchan from Genesis Oil and Gas hosted a corporate week at Birse and his visitors reported half a dozen fish for the week with many interesting adventures from his novice team.

A sea liced Springer

Visitor John Shaw wrote to me and advised ‘Dear Ken, I trust you are well. I just wanted to share a quick summary of our recent trip to the river Dee. During the winter months my colleague and friend Kevin Dean asked if I could arrange a fishing trip for the two of us and his good friend Chris Hall who recently turned 50 (he doesn’t look it) for some time late March/early April. The main aim of the trip was for Chris to catch his first salmon, after 35 years fishing for trout, coarse and sea fish. The budget for the trip was very generous and I managed to secure 2 days on Park South through Rosalind at the estate office for the 14th and 15th April. We arrived on the evening of the 13th April in plenty of time to have a look at the beat. To my surprise the number of spring fish showing was incredible, fish were leaping everywhere. I had initially thought the majority must be kelts but no pools were already filling up with resident spring fish. A great sight, and surely a superb sign of the health of the river Dee’s spring salmon population. We couldn’t wait to wet our lines. Thursday morning we arrived in plenty of time and had our waders on and rods all set up as our ghillie Charlie arrived around 8:40am. We introduced ourselves and over a cuppa were given our beats for the morning. Charlie then walked us up our beats pointing out the hot spots and potential lies for running fish, high tide was late morning which should bring some fresh fish to our beats. We got started and it wasn’t long before the main aim was looking good, Chris was playing a strong salmon in mid current as I arrived to help him. Some minutes later he beached a beautiful fat 11lb spring salmon dripping in long tail sea lice. What a start to his salmon fishing career. A few photos were taken before the fish was carefully released. I managed to winkle out a 10lb Springer that afternoon and again it was beautifully fat and healthy. We celebrated in Banchory that evening and although we suffered a little first thing in the morning, we fished very hard on our final day without any further success. All in all, a brilliant trip and certainly one to remember, especially for Chris. Our thanks to Charlie for looking after us so well. He sure has a wonderful part of the Dee for his guests to fish. I was gob smacked at the number of spring fish in the river and although I have had some success on the Dee over the years it hasn’t always been my first choice for spring fishing. That has certainly changed; the Dee will be my first choice for future spring fishing. All the very best for the remainder of the season. Kind Regards, John’ Congratulations to all who succeeded in landing fish last week, for those who didn’t succeed they have my sympathies as it can be exasperating at times to see many fish that just will not co-operate and take the fly well. Many thanks to the talented River Dee Ghillies who will have worked hard to keep anglers spirits up, especially in lower and middle beats when fish were zooming through their beats.

Chris Hall returning carefully his first Dee Springer

If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley; it is now available in London at Friarwood Fine Wine, 26 New Kings Road, London, and Tel 020 7736 2628. It can be purchased online at Dalmore Dee Dram Online Spirits A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. A final plea to anglers to return all spring fish and refrain from using the priest-we need all spring fish to be returned as they are our most fragile stock component. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd April 2011.

Prospects

This is a tricky week to forecast with lower river levels than we would hope for at this time of year. There is no doubt about the numbers of salmon in the river at present, with catches for the season so far comfortably above the 5 year average, with catches swiftly accelerating towards the 1,500 mark-hopefully this will be achieved by midweek for FishDee beats. The weather forecast is reasonably settled albeit temperatures will fall back from the unseasonably warm conditions of the last few weeks. Air temperature maxima will be in the region of 12-14 degrees Celsius and water temperatures are around 11 degrees Celsius. There is a risk that the prevailing high pressure will ensure overnight mists and night frosts which will shift during the morning fishing sessions. Winds, mainly light, will be from a south easterly direction, which is common for this time of year. Any precipitation is likely to be insignificant so river levels will drop marginally during the week. The maritime influence shows high tides rising during the week, encouraging new fish to come forward. Just because river levels are low it is wise to remind anglers that they must wade stealthily and with real care. Sadly there was a report of a fatality on another river last week which does remind us that the river bank can be a dangerous place at times, so please remain vigilant and don’t take any un-necessary risks.

Baroness Walmsley with a nice salmon from Waterside and Ferrar

Now to the business at hand-catching a prized Dee salmon! Please consult your Ghillie about the tactics to employ during your visit to his beat. Perhaps you always like to do what feels right to you? Well our expert team of Ghillies are great at seeing things you perhaps won’t and they can make recommendations based on their observations which will stand you in good stead. They know their beat intimately, its moods and where to put the fly to find a potential taking salmon. If you don’t have a Ghillie on hand to offer advice then please fish with light lines and small flies. Anglers will make less disturbance with a 7/8 weight line than say a 10/11 weight fly line. Smaller rods of 12-13 feet will make fishing really pleasurable combined with light lines and leaders of 10 foot plus, perhaps 10lbs breaking strain. Fly choice will see popular summer flies, lightly dressed of course, in sizes of 6-14 doubles. Patterns to choose are Red and Black Frances flies, small Park Shrimp, Allies silver bodied shrimp, Silver Stoats Tails, Crathie fly, Arndilly Fancy and Posh Tosh-traditionalists may give the Blue Charm, Jeannie or Logie a go. Longer winged flies like the Monkey or Sunray are also worth a throw but be careful that you don’t spook the fish too much by persevering too long with this type of fly.

Charlie Yates with a nice salmon being returned

I was delighted to hear that Mr Neil Rae, the new owner of the excellent Raemoir House Hotel, which is beside Banchory, have fantastic packages for visiting angers with special rates from £50 per night for bed and breakfast. Anglers looking to secure accommodation should call Mr Rae in the first instance on 01330 824884. There are similar offers from the super Tor Na Coille hotel who can be contacted on 01330 822242. These hotels are offering great value and have really high standards of comfort, cuisine and service.

Beat catches reported
(week ending 23rd April)
SALMON & GRILSE: Altries and Lower Drum 1, Middle Drum 1, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 2, Park 18, Lower Crathes and W Durris 9, Crathes 2, Invery 5, Lower Blackhall 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 2, Middle Blackhall 2, Cairnton 3, Woodend 1, Lower Woodend 1, Commonty 3, Sluie 1, Ballogie 16, Borrowston 1, Kincardine 7, Carlogie 12, Lower Dess 3, Upper Dess 3, Birse 6, Aboyne Water 7, Aboyne Castle 3, Craigendinnie 5, Waterside and Ferrar 4, Dinnet 16, Deecastle 12, Headinch and Cambus O'May 10, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 31, Birkhall 1, Morven 2, Balmoral 4, Crathie 21.
Total: 216 Largest: Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 28lbs
SEA TROUT: Altries and Lower Drum 2, Park 1, Commonty 1, Ballogie 1, and Borrowston 1.
Total: 6 Largest: Altries and Lower Drum & Park & Borrowston 3lbs

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Another excellent weeks fishing for visiting anglers to the River Dee with FishDee beats reporting 242 for the week up to this point; there may be later catches still to be added. Ballogie reported 29 salmon for the week, which was an excellent return, Dinnet and Deecastle reported 27 salmon, with Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld reporting 25 salmon as did Park beats. Given the difficult conditions with low water levels and very bright skies, this is a remarkable achievement from anglers and River Dee Ghillies. The reports filtering through are plenty of fish about, however many will not take the fly well and many hook-ups are tentative at times with fish being lost early into the fight. There are fish distributed well throughout the catchment now and anglers should be covering fish wherever they are fishing. I should also mention that experienced anglers are doing well with anglers used to fishing these difficult conditions, fishing with the right tackle and delicate presentation making the bulk of catches.

I am grateful to Sean Stanton, Ballogie Estates Head Ghillie who reported 'Hi Ken Just a quick note to tell you about the great catches last week, both Ballogie and Carlogie broke 50 fish for the month with Ballogie finishing on 64. Peter Terndrup's party at Ballogie had 29 salmon for their week, up to 16lb with peter himself landing 18 salmon, this was a huge achievement considering the average catch for the month as a whole is just over 30 fish. Mike Wrightson's party at Carlogie had 12 and celebrated breaking 50 for the month, Mike was delighted to have the honour of catching the 50th fish, pretty good for a party whose average age was 82 years old, and long may they continue to catch fish.' Peter Terndrup commented to me via Facebook 'It was amazing fishing. We had 29 salmon in total for the party despite the low water conditions. The pools were full of fish and they liked our small tubes.' I was delighted to meet Mike and his friends for lunch at Carlogie during the week and they were having a very enjoyable time-thanks for the kind invitation.

I was also delighted to receive an in depth report from regular Dee angler and PGA golf professional Sam Jarman who reported 'Hi Ken, Hope all good with you. Just a quick run through of our time with Archie Hay at Crathie last week. It was great to find him back on form after his illness last year. It makes such a difference when conditions are tricky to have someone as knowledgeable and enthusiastic to offer advice and encouragement. As you know the weather wasn't helpful, with temperatures as low as minus 5 overnight and clear blue skies during the day. The river level fell away towards the end of the week and fishing early and late was the order of the day. Despite this we managed a few fish, highlight of the week being a first salmon for Pete Swinfen, a superb 17lb hen from McLaren on Tuesday morning after a really good scrap. Pete commented that there was no way he would have landed it without Archie being there to advise and assist and eventually net it. The fish was safely returned.

The rest of the party had some good sport, I had 4 fish, with 2 in 3 casts from Garland on Tuesday, Phil Roberts managed his first Dee salmon from Queens on Saturday morning, and John Fyfe was unlucky to only land one fish, losing half a dozen more. This was to be a common occurrence with everyone having at least one long range release story to tell. We were seeing salmon in nearly every pool, but takes were tentative and even fish which seemed well hooked were finding ways of getting off. First time salmon fisher Chris McKirgan had an exciting but frustrating day on Monday, hooking three fish and playing them all for a few minutes, but unfortunately not managing to get one to the net. I'm pretty sure he will be back.All the fish came to small flies, Stoats Tails, Silver Shrimps and Crathies being the popular choices. I had a lot of fun raising a number of fish to a small hitched Collie Dog, such an exciting way of fishing in these conditions. Another very enjoyable week on Deeside. After the cold temperatures and high water of the last two years it was very pleasant to be fishing in shirt sleeves and to see so many fish in the pools. Fingers crossed for some rain in the next few days to keep them moving through. All the best for the rest of the season, speak to you soon, Sam' I am also very grateful to Ian Murray for his report from Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld this morning who advised 'It was a good week for our beats with Michael Cook having his first ever salmon after a number of years trying, and Charlie Barton also catching his first salmon. We were using small flies and micro tubes and we are still catching sea liced fish. We are fortunate that our beats fish in all water heights.' Dave Walker kindly wrote and commented 'Just a short note, I had the good fortune to fish Lower Woodend last Thursday 21st. I was shown round the beat the evening before by Rory Cooper, the setting beautiful and so quiet. Arrived with expectation at 8.00 am the next morning and started fishing around 9.15. Fifth cast of the day delivered an 11lber on a lightly dressed stoat's tail as advised by Rory. All the better that three guys at the opposite hut witnessed it. As you know, I am relatively new to salmon fishing and this represents the biggest fish I have caught to date. I will be back at Lower Woodend, availability permitting.' Congratulations to David for his success at the delightful Lower Woodend.

If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley; it is now available in London at Friarwood Fine Wine, 26 New Kings Road, London, and Tel 020 7736 2628. It can be purchased online at this link A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd May 2011.

Prospects

I remarked last week that it could be tricky to advise how the prospects would be given the weather forecast and low river levels. We had the best weeks fishing for the season so perhaps I should tempt fate and suggest that this week's conditions make predicting prospects difficult. Advice received from Ghillies is always worth heeding and I am grateful to the Ghillies for their feedback. The current high pressure and prevailing conditions look like continuing for the next week albeit there are some weather forecasters providing a glimmer of hope for some much needed rainfall later this week. The local website Ballogie Weather Home comments that it has been probably the driest April on record. I would expect to see a continuation of warm bright days and cold nights, with potential for frosts and coastal haar to progress upriver. This will burn off in the mornings, and as the air warms up it will draw cool easterly breezes from the sea upriver. Many anglers will then forsake angling during the bright afternoons and return to fish hard during the evenings into the night. The maritime forecast is indicating that tides will rise daily until Tuesday and stabilise and then drop back on Saturday. This could encourage some new fish to come forward. Will it rain to any great extent on Friday? I will watch the skies with interest and fingers crossed we will hopefully receive much needed rainfall in the valley.

I always advise anglers should consult their ghillies and heed their wise advice and I would urge the same this week. Anglers should bring light and strong tackle to the river to ensure that they can use the lightest fly lines they have, preferably sea trout lines of 7/8 weight with small double handed rods, or single handed rods and leaders around 10 lbs breaking strain. The River Dee Ghillies have been studying the runs of fish and locations where fish are stopping in their beats so are best placed to provide you with invaluable information. One Ghillie reported watching a shoal of around 50 salmon swimming past him in very shallow water last week. Fly sizes utilised will be around sizes 10-16 with lightly dressed flies being favoured by Ghillies. Small bright patterns like the Park shrimp, Cascade, Allys shrimp, as well as Stoats tail variants and Crathie fly are doing well just at the moment. Small hitched tubes, micro flies and hitched monkeys may encourage a highly visual take in the necks of pools. The tiny Frances patterns are also well worth a go, with Ghillies like Sean Stanton favouring these in low water. There is still plenty of fishing availability on FishDee so if you are able to visit the river and fish then please do.

Anglers are requested to report any suspicious activity on the river bank to the River Office hotline on 013398 80411 where there is 24 hour cover from our Bailiff patrols. I was delighted to hear that Mr Neil Rae, the new owner of the excellent Raemoir House Hotel, Scottish Country house Hotel of the year award winner 2011, which is beside Banchory, have fantastic packages for visiting angers with special rates from £50 per night for bed and breakfast for groups of 3 or more staying for 3 nights or more. Anglers looking to secure accommodation should call Mr Rae in the first instance on 01330 824884. There are similar offers from the super Tor Na Coille hotel who can be contacted on 01330 822242. The Loch Kinord Hotel at Dinnet also has angler's special packages and proprietor Andrew Cox advised 'We do have special nightly offers for fishermen, and 7 night stays from £250pp B&B. Also self catering lodges behind the hotel with a lodge sleeping 4 from £75pp for 7 nights! (£300pw) with the benefit of the hotel bar & restaurant on your doorstep serving excellent meals.' These hotels are offering great value and have really high standards of comfort, cuisine and service. Copyright FishDee Ltd May 2011.

Beat catches reported
(week ending 30th April)
SALMON & GRILSE: Altries and Lower Drum 1, Middle Drum 1, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 3, Tilbouries 3, Park 25, Lower Crathes and W Durris 8, Knappach 6, Crathes 2, Invery 13, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 3, Commonty 6, Ballogie 29, Borrowston 2, Kincardine 10, Carlogie 12, Lower Dess 1, Birse 6, Aboyne Water 5, Aboyne Castle 7, Craigendinnie 14, Waterside and Ferrar 10, Dinnet 15, Deecastle 13, Headinch and Cambus O'May 11, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 25, Crathie 11.
Total: 243 Largest: Borrowston & Craigendinnie 20lbs
SEA TROUT: Upper Drum and Lower Durris 2, Park 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Ballogie 1.
Total: 5 Largest: Upper Drum and Lower Durris & Park 4lbs

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches


A really challenging week for salmon anglers fishing the River Dee with river levels at such a low level for this time of year. One Ghillie quoted it as the lowest level he could recall in many a long year for the time of year. Historically good levels of snow in the mountains and corries would melt slowly providing a sufficiency of water to keep the river level toped up through May. We have had the warmest April for many a long year and this has depleted the snow reservoir significantly. That said I don’t want to sound pessimistic as anglers still produced a very creditable 144 salmon and 15 sea trout for the week. Low water and bright skies make angling a real challenge and most anglers prefer to fish early mornings and late into the evenings. This is when the 9-5 office hours fishing routine changes to out of office hour’s routine.

Toby Owen with salmon

There appear to be very good numbers of salmon spread throughout then catchment as this following snapshot of catch returns indicates. Park 18 salmon, Carlogie 12, Cambus O’May 11 as did Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld with beats like Dess, Birse and Aboyne Castle picking away. Sea trout numbers picked up a little as you would expect with 15 reported. Lower Invercauld reported a 7lb sea tout in their return and if I recall correctly an angler last year around this time of year produced a very good sea trout. It’s unusual to hear of big sea trout on the River Dee as compared to other east coast rivers like the River Tweed that can produce sea trout in excess of 10lbs regularly.

Ray Cuthcee playing a salmon

Now onto correspondence; many thanks to all the anglers for getting in touch, and providing their anecdotes and feedback. Both myself, and the readers of the weekly River Dee news are always interested in reading about visiting anglers experiences. Firstly Ross Macdonald, who is a very talented and innovative fly tier and creator of the Park Shrimp, has tied a new pattern he is calling the Lochy Shrimp. He was able to get up to Waterside as a guest of a gentleman from Edinburgh who couldn’t manage, and give this pattern its first freshwater trials and it did the trick in very low water on a bright sunny day. He advised ‘Hi Ken, I had a day on Waterside and Ferrar on Thursday. As ever, I had a wonderful day out in the beautiful surroundings of upper Deeside. Despite the bright conditions, ghillie Dave Goodfellow's optimism kept me focused on the job in hand and I was lucky to catch a fresh run salmon of 9lb, on a Lochy Shrimp in the Kirks Pool. I had the pleasure of fishing with Ray Cuthcee of Kent, who landed a similar fish from the same lie on a Silver Stoat. I attach a couple of pics of Ray in action. Tight lines and lets pray for rain.’ I also received an e-mail from Jesper Holm Neilsen who was presented with the Park Trophy last week for the biggest salmon in 2010 from the River Dee. Jesper commented ‘Hi Ken, Home again after a tough week – who said that fishing for Salmon is easy? I managed to get one more at Lower Blackhall, lost a couple of “good ones” and had some violent takes. All of these on skating fly (“Titanic”). When I left, the river was steadily rising, and I now see from the river levels, that you got plenty of water. Let’s hope this will inspire a lot more Salmons to rise. ‘

I received an e-mail from Simon Brown this morning who commented ‘Morning Ken, I have attached a photo of Toby Owen who was top rod on Carlogie last week catching 8 fish which was quite a challenge in the very low conditions. A 10 foot rod and 7 weight line accounted for most of his success. There were a lot of fish in the beat but many were coloured and showing some signs of disease due to the conditions. No doubt this spate will improve things. We were also delighted to have the evergreen Alan Lankshear in our party still putting in a full shift and catching fish at 80.Regards Simon Brown.’ Mark Linley-Adams also wrote to me last week and he advised ‘Ken, Dr Brian Richardson and Dr Mark Linley-Adams had the pleasure of fishing Waterside and Ferrar 25-29/4 April. Brian, on his 50th birthday (28/4) was broken by a 20lb+ fish (dropper) after it towed him to the bottom of the pool and back for a good five minutes. Biggest salmon he’d ever hooked, he is sure. He recovered by getting an 8lb fish later in the morning. There were fish seen in Waterside, a large number holding there, and some monsters- no fish at all moving elsewhere hardly at all – I had 15lb Waterside,14lb Upper Kirk – fish muscled like a Tuna,12lb Waterside completed a trio in a week that looked pretty depressing at Monday lunchtime. Brian had 2 x 8lbers. Waterside, itself a banker in such conditions. All caught tiny black doubles-S Stoat, Green Highlander etc, often on a dropper.’ Thanks to Mark and Simon for writing with their news.

If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley; it is now available in London at Friarwood Fine Wine, 26 New Kings Road, London, and Tel 020 7736 2628. It can be purchased online at this link A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd May 2011.


Prospects

At last, a good spate arrived on Sunday following heavy rainfall and by tea time the river had risen by 6 feet at Park and is now dropping back quite quickly. The river badly needed a lift in water levels and providing there is not too much sediment the river will start fishing well over the next couple of days. I was on the riverbank yesterday with some other volunteers as part of the Bonnie Banchory initiative, where we were removing litter from the River bank at Lower Blackhall on the Kinneskie side, and the river was big but not too dirty.The weather forecasts I have looked at are indicating it will be a pleasant fishing week for anglers with air temperature maxima forecast around 18 degrees Celsius with a river temperature around 11 degrees Celsius. Winds are forecast to be reasonably light but occasionally it may get blustery. Winds will start the week in a south easterly direction but will swing around to a westerly direction by the end of the week. There will be regular rain showers through the week interspersed with sunny spells. Hopefully there will be enough rainfall to keep the river at a decent height through the week. The maritime influence is indicating tides will rise through the week at Aberdeen from 3.5 metres to 4.1 metres which could encourage new fish forward; perhaps some early Grilse may arrive.

River at Potarch Bridge 8th May

Anglers should bring tackle to cope with a variety of conditions; the river may be high at the beginning of the week and low by the end of the week. Listen closely and follow the guidance of your beat Ghillie. Our Ghillies will know the best tactics to adopt and where to fish on your chosen beat to give you the best opportunity for success. Our Ghillies will know the best lies to cover and how to present your fly effectively so please heed their advice. If you don't have the services of a ghillie to call on you may find it useful to fish with a floating line, with or without a short intermediate sink tip. Small flies or micro tubes with cone heads should give you opportunities, but perseverance is the key to success as fish will be running from pool to pool. Patterns to choose could be the Park Shrimp, Allys Shrimp, Posh Tosh, Crathie fly, Silver Stoats tail, Calvin's Shrimp, Bertie Dastard and the Icelandic Frances flies. There will also be scope to use Sunray shadow flies and monkey flies, but not too long winged. There may be some big fish caught this week so please ensure you have a camera with you and a tape measure too.

River Bank clear up with volunteers

Anglers are requested to report any suspicious activity on the river bank to the River Office hotline on 013398 80411 where there is 24 hour cover from our Bailiff patrols. I was delighted to hear that Mr Neil Rae, the new owner of the excellent Raemoir House Hotel, Scottish Country house Hotel of the year award winner 2011, which is beside Banchory, have fantastic packages for visiting angers with special rates from £50 per night for bed and breakfast for groups of 3 or more staying for 3 nights or more. Anglers looking to secure accommodation should call Mr Rae in the first instance on 01330 824884. There are similar offers from the super Tor Na Coille hotel who can be contacted on 01330 822242. The Loch Kinord Hotel at Dinnet also has angler's special packages and proprietor Andrew Cox advised 'We do have special nightly offers for fishermen, and 7 night stays from £250pp B&B. Also self catering lodges behind the hotel with a lodge sleeping 4 from £75pp for 7 nights! (£300pw) with the benefit of the hotel bar & restaurant on your doorstep serving excellent meals.' These hotels are offering great value and have really high standards of comfort, cuisine and service. Copyright FishDee Ltd May 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

A daunting week for salmon anglers fishing the River Dee at times during the last week with a big spate on Monday and subsequent rising and falling levels through the week; add very blustery conditions into the mix and conditions will test the mettle and resolve of anglers. As always our super Ghillies marshalled the anglers to a very creditable 241 salmon and 53 sea trout for the week from FishDee beats. Fish are well distributed as this snapshot of catches indicates, Invery 19, Carlogie 19 and Crathie 18 with many beats well into to double figures. Sea trout catches are on the increase and hopefully this trend will continue as anglers fish on into the evening.

Having returned from an overseas trip I was delighted to receive a lot of correspondence from visiting anglers and shall try to reply to you all over the next few days. Edward Humphrey called into the office and was delighted to report that both Dinnet and Deecastle beats reached 100 for the season on Thursday with the talented Eric Wardle securing the honour for Deecastle and Euan Reid matching the feet for Dinnet last cast on Thursday evening.

A super image of Lars Terkildsen at Commonty with a fine salmon

I received a nice email from Simon Boyden I would like to share who commented ‘Hello Ken, Are the fish in the Dee getting bigger? We have just arrived back from our annual trip to the glorious River Dee and thought you might like to hear about our exploits. We're a regular party of 4 who share rods on Crathie and Abergeldie and have been coming up to Deeside to fish for up to 31 years. This year we had 2 new additions to the party who were skilful and lucky enough to catch/encountered a Salmon for the first time. Conditions were challenging to say the least with high winds, rain and high water for the week. Monday started well for Dave Scott with 2 fish off Abergeldie before we watched the river shoot up by over 3 feet in a little under 2 hours leading to a wash out in the afternoon along with coloured water. Tuesday bought a high, but falling River and success for Ian Child from Winchester who caught a fresh 7lb Salmon from the Old Boat Pool on the bottom beat on Crathie his first salmon on his first proper visit to the Dee. The first was caught on a size 6 Ally Shrimp. Shortly afterwards in the same pool, Ian's father-in-law Richard Ford ( on his first visit to the River Dee) had a battle with a larger fish before it let go as we were bringing it to the net. At the same time on Abergeldie, Tim Briggs caught a 7lb fresh fish from Mary's Cottage fishing a bright tube fly. Later in the week on Friday, veteran Dee visitor Derek Wight caught a superb 20lb fish from Big Shinval on Abergeldie fishing a bright tube fly and later in the day, Simon Boyden had a 24lb fish from Polmonier on Friday night, his biggest Salmon (picture to follow). Simon has been fishing on the Upper Dee since his late Grandfather took him to Monaltrie when he was 9 years old and this fish was double his previous best, a fitting present from the Dee as he had his 40th Birthday the week before! The fish measured 40 inches long took a size 8 Ally Shrimp and fought for nearly 40 minutes.

All of our fish were safely returned to the Dee to fight another day. This year, apart from the unusual conditions was noted for the presence of larger fish being seen and caught during our week on the Dee. In our party over the years, a larger fish is rare with the average fish being around 7-9lb. This year, larger fish made up the majority of the fish caught and I wondered if anyone had a theory for this but long may it continue. Many thanks Ken for your excellent weekly updates throughout the season. Kind regards Simon.’ I don’t know what Simon’s theory for bigger average size of fish this year is but I suspect that marine feeding conditions were favourable for the fish his party were catching.

I also received a brief email from Andrew Thompson advising ‘Hello Ken, We thought you might like to see these images from our week on Lower Blackhall. There were four of us in the party and we had 5 salmon between us by the end of the week, thanks to the help and guidance of Colin Simpson, what a fantastic character! We are just back home today, and have already booked to go again next year - what a week!’ I agree that Colin is a very talented and extremely popular Ghillie on our river and as always great fun to meet up with.

A salmon falls to the charms of the monkey

If you have been fortunate enough to land a prized Springer this week then please send me an image of the fish being returned to the River for the FishDee website. You may also want a memento from your trip to Deeside and toast your success. I can recommend the new Dalmore Dee Dram which is on sale at George Strachan's shop in Aboyne and a number of the hotels in the valley; it is now available in London at Friarwood Fine Wine, 26 New Kings Road, London, and Tel 020 7736 2628. It can be purchased online at this link A significant contribution from each bottle sold will go to the River Dee Trust to help fund obstacle removal and other important salmon conservation work programmes currently underway. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd May 2011.

Prospects

As I travelled up the valley this morning I was delighted to see the river in excellent order and I am hopeful we shall see a good weeks fishing for anglers. River heights are currently running between 1 foot at Mar Lodge and 1 foot 5 inches at Park ensuring there are good water levels for anglers fishing anywhere in the catchment. The weather forecast looks more favourable than last weeks with some days at the start of the week seeing sunshine and showers. I see that blustery winds are possible on Wednesday and then conditions will brighten again and temperatures will rise later in the week. There may be thundery showers early in the week but it’s difficult to predict what impact, if any this will have on river levels as this depends on the volume of rainfall. I do hope that the river falls slowly over the course of the week. Air temperature maxima are around 19 degrees this week with the chance of an air frost tonight and perhaps some wintry showers on the mountain tops. The maritime influence shows tides rising from 3.7 metres to 4.1 metres throughout the week perhaps bringing runs of new fish forward.


I would encourage anglers to heed the advice of their beat Ghillies carefully as they will give you the best advice on how to fish their beat. They know the moods of the river and the lies where taking fish may be located. If you don’t have the services of a Ghillie to call on then fish with a small double handed rod with 8/9 weight lines or shooting heads. Fly lines should be full floaters with perhaps a short sink tip if needed. Long leaders and lightly dressed flies do well at this time of the year so fish fine and far off. Fly choice will see anglers looking for small flies such as silver stoat, blue charm, Crathie fly as well as silver shrimp, Park shrimp. Some Ghillies swear by the charms of the red and black Francis flies. Small monkey flies and sunray shadows can be fished with confidence too. If you are fishing for sea trout you may wish to fish with a silver march brown, dark mackerel, teal blue and silver with the Jambo being used for the darkest time of nights.

Anglers are requested to report any suspicious activity on the river bank to the River Office hotline on 013398 80411 where there is 24 hour cover from our Bailiff patrols. I was delighted to hear that Mr Neil Rae, the new owner of the excellent Raemoir House Hotel, Scottish Country house Hotel of the year award winner 2011, which is beside Banchory, have fantastic packages for visiting angers with special rates from £50 per night for bed and breakfast for groups of 3 or more staying for 3 nights or more. Anglers looking to secure accommodation should call Mr Rae in the first instance on 01330 824884. There are similar offers from the super Tor Na Coille hotel who can be contacted on 01330 822242. The Loch Kinord Hotel at Dinnet also has angler's special packages and proprietor Andrew Cox advised 'We do have special nightly offers for fishermen, and 7 nights stays from £250pp B&B. Also self catering lodges behind the hotel with a lodge sleeping 4 from £75pp for 7 nights! (£300pw) with the benefit of the hotel bar & restaurant on your doorstep serving excellent meals.' These hotels are offering great value and have really high standards of comfort, cuisine and service. Copyright FishDee Ltd May 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches


The spring period came to an end last week with FishDee beats reporting 2669 salmon for the period against a 5 year average of 1859 which is a significant increase. This is the best spring catch since 1989 and good news for all concerned with the River Dee. Summer certainly announced its presence last week with a mini heat wave which saw air temperatures soar to 27 degrees Celsius. This caused river temperatures to soar and suppressed catches with FishDee beats reporting 179 salmon and 60 sea trout. It’s not always big numbers of fish getting caught that can create headlines with the capture of large fish last week being well worthy of comment. A local retired gentleman had a battle with a huge fish last week that he will never forget. Mr Dennis hooked and landed a fish of 47 inches which was estimated to weigh 39 lbs by Ballogie estates head Ghillie Sean Stanton. Scale samples were taken and the fish was confirmed as a 3 sea winter fish. The fish was caught on a self tied Green Highlander fly and was returned safely with the minimum of fuss by the angler. At this time of year when the air and river temperatures are high it is vitally important to return fish to the river without removing them from the water as this can cause mortality.

Edward Humphrey with a salmon from Bruaich

I spoke with Ian Murray last week and was really delighted to hear of the capture of more big Salmon from Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld. Ian advised that anglers had landed fish of 28 lbs and 25lbs on the same day which is quite some feat. Bill Palmer, the ghillie from Borrowston also reported to my colleagues the capture of a 42 inch salmon which he estimated to be 28 lbs. The Dee is not renowned as a big fish river so these are really notable specimens. Congratulations to the anglers for their fine catches. With the excellent volume of fish in the river it is not surprising that big fish are being caught as anglers and ghillies alike have been reporting large fish being seen, hooked and lost so it was just a matter of time before a few were landed. Having four big fish landed in a week is really exciting news. Catches were well distributed throughout the river with Ballogie reporting 17, Birse, Waterside and Ferrar and Crathie all reporting 13 salmon with Park reporting 10 salmon and 9 sea trout for the week.

Dave Roberts with his first salmon

Some feedback from anglers this week included Jonathon Graves advising ‘For 4 days of our week we had water levels at Potarch Bridge of over 2'. Had we been allowed to spin (as in the ‘good old days’) I am sure our catches could have surpassed any weekly catches from those days of plenty. While I have no wish to spin, or to match the catches of the '70s, I think this is a sound argument against anyone who says ‘it’s not like it used to be’. Great news about the large fish from Commonty, and good recognition for a great beat and its super ghillie Ian Fraser.’ Keith Rishworth wrote and commented ‘Many thanks for arranging to put my picture on the FishDee website. I have one more favour to ask and then I will leave you alone for a bit. There were four of us at Lower Blackhall that week and my friend Dave Roberts caught his first ever salmon. He fished extremely hard all week and on the very last day having dropped 2 or 3 off earlier in the week, he managed to land his first salmon.’ Congratulations to Dave on catching his first ever salmon, a moment he will never forget. Andrew Wright who fished at Invery advised ‘An excellent few days break, and greatly enhanced by the courteous and friendly support from the local ghillies Karl and Jim. Invery as usual produced fish when other beats were struggling.’ Alex and Kathleen Brown who look after the Heughhead beat on the Feugh tributary advised they have had their first sea trout captures of the season. This pretty beat which joined FishDee this year can be productive throughout the summer and autumn and offers really good value for visiting anglers with excellent facilities on the beat. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd June 2011.


Prospects

Summer time heralds the arrival of sea trout and grilse to the River Dee, where anglers can and often do fish through the hours of darkness making impressive catches at times when low water conditions prevail. Sea trout are starting to arrive and it is hoped that catches will pick up as more anglers fish on during the evenings. Sea trout are the shyest of creatures and the best time to fish for these is during the hours of darkness.

Night time is best for Sea Trout sport

The weather forecast for the forthcoming week looks very reasonable with suggested air temperature maxima around 15 degrees Celsius and most days seeing a mixture of sunny spells and rain showers. There may be a chance of low cloud cover and mist but generally skies will be overcast with the odd sunny spell. Therefore it should be much cooler than last week with more cloud cover. Winds are forecast to be by and large light and should not cause much difficulty to anglers and no dramatic drops in overnight temperatures are expected. The maritime influence shows high tides in Aberdeen are dropping back from 4.0 metres to 3.6 metres. Grilse and sea trout should come forward on high tides throughout the week.

Marcus Humphrey with a nice fish at Dinnet

I would encourage anglers to heed the advice of their beat Ghillies carefully as they will give you the best advice on how to fish their beat. They know the moods of the river and the lies where taking fish may be located. If you don’t have the services of a Ghillie to call on then fish with a small double handed rod with 8/9 weight lines or shooting heads. Fly lines should be full floaters with perhaps a short sink tip if needed. Long leaders and lightly dressed flies do well at this time of the year so fish fine and far off. Fly choice will see anglers looking for lightly dressed small flies such as silver stoat, Jeannie, Crathie fly as well as silver shrimp, Park shrimp and Ally’s shrimp patterns. Some Ghillies swear by the the red and black Francis flies so they are always worth a go. Small monkey flies and sunray shadows can be fished with confidence too especially as it is getting dark and fish are on the move. If you are fishing for sea trout you may wish to fish with a silver march brown, dark mackerel, teal blue and silver with the Jambo being used for the darkest of nights as will the snake fly fished deeply. With daylight hours reaching their peak for the year anglers may choose to fish the day in 2 sessions rather than one long day’s effort. Very often the mornings and evenings offer the best chances of sport and there is plenty of things to do in Deeside if you choose not to fish during the afternoon-FishDee have a reference page with suggested activities.

If you notice any suspicious activity on your beat please report this to your Ghillie or contact the river office on 013398 80411 where River Dee Bailiffs can be contacted 24 hours a day. There are plenty of rods available for anglers on FishDee at the moment, and with the volume of fish in the river it is well worth the effort of travelling to fish our wonderful river. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd June 2011.Copyright FishDee Ltd June 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

A good week for anglers fishing the River Dee last week with FishDee beats reporting 224 salmon to 36lbs and 107 sea trout. It is good to hear of improved sea trout catches with conditions more favourable for anglers fishing on into the small hours of the morning targeting sea trout. However the talking point of the week was another monster salmon landed on the River Dee. Borrowstone Ghillie Bill Palmer reported that one of his fishermen Mr Judson hooked and landed a 45.5 inch salmon in excellent condition that put up a tremendous scrap with the angler. The fish was landed safely and a photograph was taken which I really do hope to receive in due course. The fish had taken a small cascade fly that Bill Palmer had tied. Hopefully the angler will forward details to the Malloch committee as the fish may be in the running to win the Malloch trophy at the end of the season.

River Dee Ghillie Robert Harper's son Calum with his first salmon of 16 lbs

And his second fish a short while later at 9lbs

I received a call from Dinnet proprietor Edward Humphrey who advised that Dinnet/ Deecastle have landed their 250th salmon of the season which is the earliest time they have reached this benchmark since 1993. The angler who had the honour was Ross Macdonald who had a really enjoyable couple of days fishing the beat. Ross has written an e-mail to me and commented ‘Hi Ken, I had the very good fortune of an invitation to fish Dinnet/Deecastle this week. I enjoyed some tremendous sport in beautiful surroundings, landing 5 fish for my two days, including a fresh fish of around 12lb and the season's first grilse on the beat. I am pleased to report that the grilse was in splendid condition, which augurs well for the summer to come. Euan and Colin the Dinnet and Deecastle ghillies, were wonderful company and I would not have enjoyed such good sport without their enthusiasm and expertise. The other rods in the party enjoyed good sport and it was a pleasure to join them for part of their week. Tight lines and warm regards. Ross ‘

Ross Macdonald with a lovely fresh salmon

I would also like to advise readers that one of the stalwarts of the River Dee Davie Gibbon, Middle Blackhall Ghillie has recently been awarded his UKCC level 2 casting qualification and is one of only a handful of casting instructors in Scotland with this award. This is a great achievement for Davie and at 71 years young his enthusiasm and expertise are as keen as ever. I wish him and the beat all the best for the season and if anyone is looking for a great instructor to teach novices to fish I can highly recommend David. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd June 2011.

Prospects

The weather forecast for the forthcoming week looks varied with suggested air temperature maxima around 18 degrees Celsius and most days seeing a mixture of sunny spells and perhaps the odd rain shower. There may be a chance of heavier rain later in the week and it will be quite breezy at times. Therefore it should be a bit milder than last week with broken cloud cover. The maritime influence shows high tides in Aberdeen are rising back from 4.0 metres to 4.2 metres and should encourage new fish to come forward. Grilse and sea trout should come forward on high tides throughout the week. Prospects look encouraging providing we don’t get a sudden big rise in river levels.

A salmon being landed

I would encourage anglers to heed the advice of their beat Ghillies carefully as they will give you the best advice on how to fish their beat. They know the moods of the river and the lies where taking fish may be located. If you don’t have the services of a Ghillie to call on then fish with a small double handed rod with 8/9 weight lines or shooting heads. Fly lines should be full floaters with perhaps a short sink tip if needed. Long leaders and lightly dressed flies do well at this time of the year so fish fine and far off. Fly choice will see anglers looking for lightly dressed small flies such as silver stoat, Jeannie, Crathie fly as well as silver shrimp, Park shrimp and Ally’s shrimp patterns. Some Ghillies swear by the the red and black Francis flies so they are always worth a go. Small monkey flies and sunray shadows can be fished with confidence too especially as it is getting dark and fish are on the move. If you are fishing for sea trout you may wish to fish with a silver march brown, dark mackerel, teal blue and silver with the Jambo being used for the darkest of nights as will the snake fly fished deeply. With daylight hours reaching their peak for the year anglers may choose to fish the day in 2 sessions rather than one long day’s effort. Very often the mornings and evenings offer the best chances of sport and there is plenty of things to do in Deeside if you choose not to fish during the afternoon-FishDee have a reference page with suggested activities.

A salmon being returned carefully

Summer time heralds the arrival of sea trout and grilse to the River Dee, where anglers can and often do fish through the hours of darkness making impressive catches at times when low water conditions prevail. Sea trout are the shyest of creatures and the best time to fish for these is during the hours of darkness. Good sport can be enjoyed on single handed rods with the chance of hooking grilse and salmon as fish migrate upstream under the cover of darkness.

If you notice any suspicious activity on your beat please report this to your Ghillie or contact the river office on 013398 80411 where River Dee Bailiffs can be contacted 24 hours a day. There are plenty of rods available for anglers on FishDee at the moment, and with the volume of fish in the river it is well worth the effort of travelling to fish our wonderful river. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success to ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd June 2011.Copyright FishDee Ltd June 2011.