River Dee Fishing Reports 2011

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches


As a tribute to the River Dee Ghillies I thought it would be nice to compile a weekly River Dee Ghillies report with their observations over the last week. I am grateful for the feedback provided by such stalwarts of the Dee such as Eoin Smith, Keith Cromar, Archie Hay, Jim Cowper, Sean Stanton and Ian Murray. As always I will mention beat returns in a brief summary. FishDee beats have reported 130 salmon to 25 lbs and 114 sea trout to 7lbs for the week, with Park reporting 20, Carlogie and Waterside beats reporting 11 each and Crathie also into double figures. Ballogie reported 13 sea trout, Waterside 11 and Lower Invercauld & Monaltrie 9 for the week. I had hoped more sea trout would be caught for the week but some very cold nights put paid to chances of good nightly sport on most beats. Anglers by and large had to persevere for their rewards and have a bit of luck.

Hugely experienced Dess beats Ghillie Eoin Smith

Eoin Smith reported from the Dess beats the following ‘Tim Holloway a visitor from Devon had a 25 lb fish from Forbes pool, he also had a 21lb fish during his visit. Anglers had to put in a bit of work and get a bit of luck to get fish to have a go. It was nice to report two bright new fish on Saturday. It’s been the best run on the river in 25 years.’ Keith Cromar from Park commented ‘Anglers picked away all week and had to work hard at times. I am pleased to see new Grilse coming forward in excellent condition. A regular angler managed a brief afternoon on the beat and christened his Hardy Sintrix single handed rod with a fine 9lb salmon at Greenbanks. Prospects are looking good with the river being freshened up following yesterdays rise in river levels.’ Archie Hay reporting from Crathie commented’ Mike Laing had 6 salmon for his week with Charlotte Stone landing 3 salmon. We had to persevere at times and fish became active following a lift in river levels later in the week.’

Park Estates Head Ghillie Keith Cromar with an angler some may recognise

Jim Cowper from Aboyne Water advised ‘We are hoping to get more sea trout however we lost 3 nights sport due to conditions. Mr Trafford fished during the nights and got both salmon and sea trout during his stay. Successful flies were the Crathie and Blue Charm.’ Sean Stanton reporting for Ballogie and Carlogie comments’ we lost more fish than we landed which ensured a frustrating time for anglers. Mike Wrightson hooked 9 and landed one and another angler hooked 5 and lost them all. Murray Stewart lost a big fish on the hitch which he reckoned was over 20 lbs. There has been a good run of fish this year and at times the fish have been difficult to catch. Cold nights made sea trout fishing tough. Following the lift in river levels prospects look very promising for this coming week with Grilse now starting to arrive in excellent condition. The Royal Stoat fly pattern I have been experimenting with is doing exceedingly well and I am very optimistic that this fly will become extremely popular and successful.’ And finally Ian Murray from Lower Invercauld and Monaltrie advised ‘The weather was cold at times however some very good fish were landed including fish of 17 and 15lbs from the ministers by Dr Abrines party. Paul Brett landed a fine 7lb sea trout which is big by River Dee standards. There were no hard and fast rules with small flies doing well at times and at other times bigger flies were seeing some sport however fish were by and large unsettled. The Silver Stoats tail was as consistent as ever on our beats.’ The Abrines party were also successful at Waterside and Dinnet beats.

Crathie Beat Ghillie Archie Hay

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 start of Wimbledon fortnight sees a week of cool and damp weather forecast for the coming week on Deeside. Whilst sun lovers hope for midsummer’s day and long hours of sunshine. I can safely say that weather forecasters expect temperatures here to be around 14 degrees Celsius with night time temperatures around 11 degrees Celsius. This is good fishing weather allied to the river which is neither too warm nor too low. Winds should be light and from northerly directions. Anglers should ensure they have warm and waterproof fishing jackets to hand as there will be occasional heavy rain and frequent showers. River temperatures have dropped back to around 12 degrees which should encourage more activity from fish. The maritime influence indicates high tides dropping back from 4.1 metres to 3.4 metres. There should be enough water for new fish to come forward and we expect sea trout and grilse to come in rising numbers with hopefully the start of the summer run of 2 sea winter salmon. Last year saw an excellent grilse run so hopefully fish that stayed for another years sea feeding will start to come in good numbers.

Aboyne Water Ghillie Jim Cowper

As we approach mid summers day the hours of darkness are at their shortest and this is quite often a very productive time to fish if conditions are decent and fish are active. It doesn’t pay to stop fishing if fish are active at nights, however it can be very tiring fishing both during the day and during the night. Some anglers enjoy having an afternoon’s siesta prior to fishing through the night. I would urge anglers to make sure that fishing is permitted through the night hours with their beat Ghillie. As you will see from the fishing reports a number of Ghillies are pretty optimistic about this week’s prospects and anglers should heed their advice at all times. Providing we don’t have a big rise in river levels then fishing should be pretty reliable this week. Ghillies are recommending blue charms and silver stoats with micro tubes and sunrays fished on the hitch, and do try the new fly of Sean Stanton’s fly vice, the Royal Stoat. As always the Park or Ally’s shrimps on a size 15 salar double hook may also do the trick. Anglers may fish with advantage using shorter rods and light floating lines with short sink tips.

Ballogie Estates Head Ghillie Sean Stanton

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.

Ian Murray from Lower Invercauld and Monaltrie

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches


Good river levels and fishing conditions helped salmon catches, as the river Dee fished well and salmon catches finished the week strongly with a good run of new salmon on Thursday's high water. FishDee beats have reported 218 salmon and 159 sea trout for the week as I write; there will be more added after late catches are added to the tally. Carlogie reported 21 salmon; both Park and Crathie reported 20 and a number of other beats were in double figures for the week. Sea trout catches continued to improve with FishDee beats reporting 159 sea trout to 5lbs. Creditable results considering the nights were on the cool side for anglers fishing through the night hours. I recall a well known angler who I fished with many times as a youngster, who was a great instructor and is a great friend, William Arnold KSG, from Cumbria, telling me how he used to catch more fish by fishing through the night hours than the rest of the party put together, who all used to fish during the daytime hours.

A cracking 25 lb summer salmon for Malcolm Tocher fishing Lower Crathes

I would like to congratulate local retired dentist Malcolm Tocher for catching a cracking 25 lb salmon on his 73rd birthday at Lower Crathes. This fish matches his previous personal best which he also landed at the Lower Crathes. Beat Ghillie Robert Harper reports that the fish was in first class condition and was very deep and broad, measuring 40 inches in length. Park estates head ghillie Keith Cromar reported there was a super run of good sized fish running his beat on Thursday’s high water, which ensured the Andrew Charles party had a productive 3 days with 9 salmon and 3 sea trout for their 3 days. He reports that he is seeing good numbers of sea trout now in the pools and prospects look promising for the next few days.

Malcolm Tocher celebrates his 73rd birthday in style with beat Ghillie Robert Harper and a 40 inch 25lb sea liced salmon

Ballogie estates head Ghillie Sean Stanton reported 'a good finish to the week with Carlogie rods landing 13 salmon on Saturday. Ian Jardine had 8 salmon and 2 sea trout for his day with John Wastle landing 2, Kevin Fraser landing 2 and another angler catching one. We also lost a lot of fish and I'm sure there was a good movement of fish moving up from Ballogie to Carlogie. Paul Brett had a 21lb sea liced salmon and we also had another 20lb salmon. Conditions look very encouraging for the week ahead. Ian Jardine was fishing with a sunken line and tube fly ensuring his fly was presented deeply.' Lars Terkildsen enjoyed some great sport up at Mar Lodge and advised 'Hi Ken, It was fantastic to be back fishing the Dee. Mar Lodge was definitely another wonderful experience. Upstream of The Linn I found two nice productive pools; Pool Yelt, got 1 and lost 3 and Delvorar, got 2 and lost 2.' Edward Humphrey reports that Peter Osborne landed the 100th fish of the season at Aboyne Castle on Friday. Both Aboyne Castle and Craigendinnie have fished very well this season and no doubt Alex Coutts and George Murray have enjoyed their successes this season.

The River Dee at Mar Lodge above the Linn O'Dee

I was pleased to hear that Heughhead on the Feugh got their salmon catches up and running last week and was delighted to receive a nice e-mail from talented angler Rory Campbell who commented, 'Just a quick note to let you know about the fish I had from Heughhead on Thursday. Looking at the water heights on Thursday morning I decided to take the afternoon off work and go for a cast as conditions looked good for the beat. I had previously fished the beat the week before and had seen fish in most of the pools so was full of hope heading up. Fairly soon after starting I had a draw on the line which came to nothing, then all quiet for a couple of hours despite seeing the odd fish moving through. After speaking to one of the other rods, who had not long before lost a fish at the net, I headed up to the same pool. Getting there I fancied a change of fly and put on one of my favourite orange temple dogs which always seem to fish well when the water has a peaty tinge. Half way down I had a good pull on the line and the fight was on! Lots of fun on the wee rod and after a good scrap I landed, and then returned, a slightly coloured cock fish around 9lb which was the beats first salmon of the season. I cannot sing this beats praises enough, it has the facilities which would put some Dee beats to shame, the right balance of good access & fishing bothy, well cut banks and trees for cover, and most importantly a good range of pools which will fish in many conditions. Many thanks to Kath and Alex who were most helpful, and could not do enough to make sure I was shown the beat and got sorted out with a ticket and access. It looks like the Feugh's fantastic fishing is not going to remain a secret for much longer.' It’s good to hear that fish are running this productive River Dee tributary and hopefully more anglers will get along for a cast at Heughhead. Their beat details can be found on the FishDee website where fishing can be booked online. 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


A large high pressure system over the Azores is sending the jet stream across the northern half of the British Isles which is ensuring a continuation of weather fronts sweeping across the country. Weather conditions will be similar to last week with rain predicted today, and for rain showers to be a regular occurrence on Wednesday and Thursday. Air temperature maxima will not exceed 18 degrees Celsius although it will feel pleasant in the sunshine. Winds are forecast to be light and variable. Nights will again be on the cool side with night time lows of around 6 degrees Celsius. The maritime influence sees tides forecast to build during the week from 3.2 metres to 4.2 metres which should encourage new fish to come forward. The Sepa gauges are currently indicating a slight rise moving downriver with gauges expected to rise around 6 inches today which should keep fish on the move and active. The Mar Lodge gauge is reading 9 inches and the Park gauge is showing 1 ft 2 inches. So to summarise fishing conditions look very good for anglers on Deeside this week.

A salmon from Mar Lodge with the successful monkey fly used by Lars Terkildsen

As reported in the fishing reports an angler had tremendous success fishing a sunken line and tube fly. This was because he and the Ghillie considered conditions were more spring like than summer and this tactic paid off handsomely. As always I would encourage you to seek advice from your Ghillie on what tactics to utilise and what flies to use. The Ghillie will also help you pick flies to suit the conditions. If you do not have the services of a Ghillie to call on you may fish with confidence a Silver Stoats Tail or a Crathie fly. Black, silver and blue flies are usually reliable combinations on the Dee when the water is running clear. Many Ghillies like sparsely dressed flies so please keep this in mind. There is a good selection of flies to be found in Orvis in Banchory and the Post Office in Kincardine O'Neil. Other flies worth trying include the Ally's and Park Shrimp and small monkey flies. A pot bellied pig tube fly fished deeply or a Frances tube fly may also come up trumps for you. There are good stocks of salmon and sea trout in the river and there are plenty of rods available to book through the FishDee website, so if you can manage to come fishing, then please book fishing online and have an enjoyable time fishing our productive river.

Another of Mar Lodge's salmon pools that Lars Tekildsen caught salmon from

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

As we would expect for the time of year salmon catches over the week were a little behind sea trout catches, with FishDee beats reporting 137 salmon to 20lbs and 166 sea trout to 6lbs. Park reported 16 salmon with Carlogie reporting 11. The Dess beats produced 33 sea trout with Kincardine reporting 15 and Borrowstone 14. There were other beats also in double figures. The earlier running salmon are widely distributed in beats with anglers reporting salmon are located in areas of water they have not seen salmon lying in for years. Sea trout and salmon will be moving upstream under the short hours of darkness and the best sport is being encountered between midnight and 4.00 am. This is the time of year for sea trout specialists to visit Deeside and fish through the nights and sleep during the days.

I met up for a bite of supper with Alan Morrison, Nigel Badiozzaman, Dr Phil Fairchild and Dr Paul Brown who were fishing through the night on a number of beats. Conditions through the nights have continued being a bit on the cold side and fish were dour at times so perseverance was called for. Dr Fairchild wrote to me when he arrived home and made some observations. He commented ‘I wanted to say how good it was to see many fish everywhere in the system, even though we had to work harder than ever to catch a few. We ended up with 11 salmon and 21 sea trout, but that was through sheer graft and perseverance. It was very much noticeable again, that between 2 and 4 am was the key time every night.

Phil Fairchild with a nice fish caught during the short midsummer nights

The other really positive thing was that I don't remember ever catching so many parr and small fish on a trip. Perhaps emphasised because we found that small flies were the key to success, but the health of the river looks good and tribute to the work done by the Board, good on you! We might have caught one or two more, but both of us became slightly indisposed with an attack of ‘Banchory Belly’ and didn't want to stray too far from a facility, so we didn't actually venture up to Monaltrie until Saturday. It did give Alan and Nigel chance to have a fish, though, and Alan did very well. It will also make us much more appreciative of Andrew Bradford’s excellent new hut, which should be ready for us next year; what a setting to build it there. John McGinley was in great form and looked after us really well, as did Bill Palmer for that matter, so the customer service end was well delivered! I will check the photos when I get home, sadly I don't think the ones of the 17lb licer from the Borrowston Flats will be very good, as I was in an awkward spot and didn’t want to take the fish out of the water just for photos. Best wishes, Phil’


Keep your eyes peeled to the FishDee website as there will be a fabulous auction launched shortly. There will be a fantastic week’s fishing opportunity in September for two anglers fishing two rods, wishing to fish some of the top River Dee beats. There will be fishing for two days per beat at Lower Crathes, Dinnet and Crathie, where anglers will get a chance to fish these prime beats during the week of 12th to 17th September. I hope readers find this opportunity of interest and submit their bids either online or by submitting a bid to the River Office, Mill of Dinnet, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, AB34 5LA. All bids will be shown on the both the FishDee and River Dee websites and the auction will be hosted on FishPal’s auction page. These beats reported a catch in September last year of 241 salmon!

As anglers are fishing through the night feedback is a little sporadic during the mid summer weeks and some Ghillies are also on holiday. If you have any information you wish to pass onto readers. Please write to me, Ken Reid, with any news or reports of success at ken@riverdee.org and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd July 2011.

Prospects

The weather forecast is indicating a warm day for Deeside of 25 degrees Celsius but before anglers think they need to get the barbecues ready for their fishing week, a word of caution. The Met Office are predicting a considerable change in weather conditions over the next few days with air temperature maxima falling to around 16 degrees for the next few days. This is as a result of a series of weather fronts crossing over Scotland and bringing heavy rain showers and blustery winds. Whether these are thundery remains to be seen however rain jackets will be more essential than barbecues. This will help fishing as decent river levels are needed to get fish moving and we hope that we shall start to see improving numbers of salmon and Grilse running, especially as we get towards the latter half of the month. The big summer runs of the last few summers are hoped to arrive and good river levels will encourage them in from the sea. The maritime influence sees tides for the next couple of days holding at 4.3 metres before dropping back gradually through the week to 3.6 metres.

Phillipe Koehler with a night time capture

For those anglers who do fish through the night prospects look reasonable provided we don’t get a big dirty rise in the river level. If we do then anglers will change shifts and fish through the daylight hours instead. The first six inches of a rise in river levels can really stir things up and get fish on the take. If the river colours up then fishing can become difficult until the level drops and the water starts to clear.
River Dee ghillies are ideally placed to give you advice on what flies to use and tactics to utilise on their beats. They know where fish are likely to be located and what type of fly should be presented to suit the prevailing conditions. If you don’t have the services of a Ghillie to call on then try and fish with light lines and long leaders. Big heavy fly lines can make a bit of a splash when landing on low water and this can put fish off, especially sea trout which are the shyest of creatures. The ever reliable silver stoats tail, Crathie fly and Sean Stanton’s royal stoat are worth a try. In the streamier flows as small monkey fly, Park shrimp, Silver shrimp and red Frances could also be useful. If fishing the deeper pools, try fishing a pot bellied tube deep may just stir a resident to snap at the fly. You may see lots of fish and get frustrated at times but perseverance is the key and keep the flies moving, especially when it swings around to the dangle. There is a good selection of flies to be found in Orvis in Banchory and the Post Office in Kincardine O'Neil. There are good stocks of salmon and sea trout in the river and there are plenty of rods available to book on great beats through the FishDee website, so if you can manage to come fishing, then please book fishing online and have an enjoyable time fishing our productive river. 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. 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 July 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

A tricky week for salmon anglers as conditions seemed to unsettle fish and put them off the take a bit. If you were in the right place at the right time you may have been fortunate to get sport and perseverance was the order of the day. River levels fluctuated, and still continue to do so, with heavy rainfall coming at times during the week and yet again at the weekend. As the river levels yo-yoed catches did likewise. FishDee beats reported 118 salmon and 80 sea trout for the week. I should point out some Ghillies are on other duties so we don’t get catches reported daily from some beats. Park reported 18 salmon; Carlogie 12, Crathie 11 and Lower Invercauld & Monaltrie were also in double figures for the week.

Some feedback received from anglers this week through FishDee; Colin Bull who had a salmon and a sea trout commented about Morven, ‘A very good fishing experience and a nice beat for the money. Information on catches was provided by the beat owner when requested.’ Bruce Laidlaw from Edinburgh who had a 1 salmon and 3 sea trout commented about Lower Dess ’ We also stayed in Dess Cottage and it was exceptional ’

I managed to get a day’s fishing and was delighted to see fellow angler Ian Scott, River Dee Trust and Board Chairman land a fine 21lb sea liced salmon when fishing across from me. This was caught on a size 8 thunder and lightning and was in really first class condition. I believe the Jim Davies Party at Park had an enjoyable week and I was glad to hear about the number of good sized salmon being caught during their week by a number of anglers. Some of the anglers also had an enjoyable stay at the Tor Na Coille hotel and mentioned this to me when I visited for dinner at the weekend. I saw there were some large 24 lbs specimens landed at Lower Invercauld and Monaltrie with Crathie also reporting a fish of similar size. Commenting about the upper river beats I would like to advise readers that Mar Water have joined FishDee this week and have rod availability between now and the end of the season. Details about the beat can be found on the FishDee website.

Ian Scott with a Fine sea liced salmon

I would also like to end the column by advising readers of a very special auction being held by the River Dee Trust and A.F.Y.D (Angling for youth development). There is a special fishing break organised through the kindness & generosity of some wonderful accommodation providers on Deeside and some of the top River Dee fishing beats. The package includes salmon fishing for two rods for two days from 12th to 17th September at Lower Crathes, Dinnet and Crathie with accommodation and breakfast at the Tor Na Coille Hotel, Loch Kinord Hotel and Darroch Learg Hotel. You can bid online at FishPal - Fishing Services - Auctions - Dee Trust - A U D Plot1 or by submitting a bid to the River Office, Mill of Dinnet, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, AB34 5LA.and it is hoped this fundraising week for these two very important charities will be well supported. These beats reported a catch in September last year of 241 salmon!

I am off on a busman’s holiday to Alaska later in the week and Edward Humphrey will be writing the reports for the FishDee website for the next fortnight. As some anglers are fishing through the night feedback is a little sporadic during the mid summer weeks and some Ghillies are also on holiday. If you have any information you wish to pass onto readers. Please do write to Edward Humphrey with any news or reports of success at office@dinnet-estate.co.uk and tight lines to all. Copyright FishDee Ltd July 2011.

Prospects

This is the time of year when the summer runs of grilse and salmon are expected to arrive of our coastline and hopefully some will start to run the river. The last few summers, which have been incidentally wet providing good river levels, have seen good numbers of fish start to come in during the latter half of July. River levels are rising this morning on a number of the gauges; these range from 1ft 2 inches at Mar Lodge to 3ft 10 inches at Park. The River Feugh has also had a good rise in levels over the weekend so I expect fish to be ascending the falls of Feugh in good numbers. The Heughhead beat should see good numbers of fish arriving. Tides are forecast to rise during the week from 3.7 metres to 4.3 metres which means conditions are ideal for bringing new fish forward should they choose to come forward and enter the river system. The weather forecast looks like we shall see a continuation of rain showers and occasional sunny periods with light winds. It may get warmer through the week as pressure builds with air temperature maxima around 20 degrees Celsius. Sport should pick up if new fish come forward in good numbers.

A nice fish being returned safely

I would advise anglers who have a Ghillie on their chosen beat will heed their advice on what tactics to use and where to fish. I was grateful for the advice of a Ghillie last week and this helped me get a salmon and lose another couple. My selection would have been different from his but by following his advice I am sure this helped me get some offers. If you don’t have the services of a Ghillie to call on then you may fish with a floating line or one with a short sink tip attached. Your fly choice may include a Calvin’s shrimp, Park Shrimp, Silver Stoats Tail, Crathie fly or perhaps a Monkey fly stripped across the current. A shooting head is ideal when stripping a large lure across the surface of a pool as the fly can be brought a lot closer to you than when using a conventional Speyline.If the water is high and coloured then daytime fishing may be productive, but if the river drops away and clears then you may fish earlier and late into the nights, if you have the energy and inclination to do so.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Apologies for the lack of reports for the last fortnight as I have been away fishing in Alaska.

Recent Catches

The dog days of summer have arrived with catches tailing off last week from an impressive tally the week before. FishDee beats reported 130 salmon to 20lbs and 43 sea trout to 4lbs. Park reported 16 salmon, Tilbouries 13, with Upper Drum & Lower Crathes beats reporting a dozen apiece. I spoke to Willie Banks the proprietor of Tilbouries who advised 'We have had some cracking fresh fish over the last few days-nice deep sea liced specimens into double figures and not Grilse.' This is a beat that normally enjoys good sport when the summer / back end run starts. Sea trout catches last week have again been less than hoped for with catches for the season just through the 1,000 barrier against a 5 year average for the season of 1626.

I was delighted to hear from Malcolm Nicol who commented 'Just to report that the 'Ballogie' beats have gone through the 500 barrier with 513 salmon reported for the season so far.' David Burgess from the River Deveron valley had a nice day at the delightful Morven beat and advised 'Having never fished the Upper Dee I booked a day at Morven on Saturday. The day was bright, warm and the river gin clear, so I put up my G.Loomis 13ft 6wt Spey rod, 8lb leader and a size 13 black and gold double (my tying). I had two fish for the day, a salmon at 12lb and grilse at 5lb. But what amazed me was how fresh both of these fish were so far up the river, the 12lb salmon was a bar of silver, the Dee fish must run hard and fast sometimes. During the day I sat down to some Scottish blue cheese, fresh bread, and olives as I watched the Red Squirrels, would I change this for one of the offers to return to the Southern Chalk Streams? No Chance.' How right David is in pointing out there is more to fishing than catching fish; having just returned from a fishing trip in Alaska I found the wildlife on the riverbank both fascinating if somewhat larger, with numerous Grizzly Bears somewhat worthy of keep a cautious eye on.

John Taylor recently hosted a week for friends at Park where one of the guests was River Dee chairman Ian Scott. John commented to Ian 'I haven't fished as many rivers as you but Park on The Dee was excellent. Shame that the weather had such an effect, but great to see such a healthy river with abundant fish about. Just to see the fish moving about always gives me hope that I'll maybe catch one , and to get such a good fish was beltin' as we say in these parts !' Karl Revel at Invery kindly got in touch and advised 'Top rod at Invery last week was Dave Thomson from Leven in Fife with 5 salmon and 4 sea trout for his 3 days.' Kathleen Brown from Heughhead kindly wrote and advised 'just to let you know we are now getting interest from junior anglers who are not accompanied by adults and therefore not entitled to fish for free. We have spoken to Bert and he has agreed that unaccompanied Junior anglers (persons who have not reached their 17th birthday) can now get their tickets for 1/2 the regular price (£18/day, £9/Part Day and Dusk to Dawn). Also, with all the rain at the early part of the week, conditions at Heughhead have been excellent. Since Wednesday, a total of six salmon have been landed ranging between 31/2 to 8lbs.' Some really nice feedback has been received from visiting anglers to Heughhead.

To finish this week’s report I wish to advise readers of an outstanding fishing opportunity for a week's salmon fishing during September, now at auction to raise funds for the River Dee Trust. There is a week's fishing and accommodation available to the highest bidder from three of the top River Dee beats and hotels. This is a genuine once in a lifetime opportunity to come and fish the cream of the River Dee salmon fishing beats during the most productive month of the season, and we hope that readers will find this an exciting way of raising funds to help the River Dee Trust team with their very important river restoration work programmes. Full details can be found at

FishPal - Fishing Services - Auctions - Dee Trust - Home so don’t miss out. 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 August 2011.

Prospects

As we enter August, we are entering potentially a very productive period where big runs of salmon and Grilse can enter the river if water conditions are suitable. Runs of lively energetic grilse can make their appearance with good sized 2 sea winter summer salmon and the odd hefty 3 winter specimen. The Grilse are welcome at this time of year as they can really liven up a pool as they rush upriver and stir up resident fish. The Park Trophy is available for the largest verified salmon captured from the River Dee and with some really big fish reported this year it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if some more really large fish are landed.

The weather forecasters are predicting a mixed bag however there is potential for a good amount of rain in the western catchment from Tuesday onwards. Whether this materialises remains to be seen however if it does arrive it will set the river up nicely for new runs of fish to come forward. Air temperature maxima will be around 20 degrees however it may become cooler over the course of the week. Winds should be reasonably light and cloud cover should be adequate and provide, by and large good conditions if we have new water. The maritime influence indicates tides rising to 4.5 metres during the week before falling back at the weekend to 3.6 metres.

Salmon fresh in from the tide are not as shy about which fly they will take and anglers have scope to use larger flies for fresh run salmon. As always please heed the wise counsel of your beat Ghillie who will give you some good constructive advice about tackle to use and where to fish on your chosen beat. If you don’t have the services of a Ghillie to call on you may wish to fish with a floating line, with or without a polyleader. Fly choice may include Park Shrimp, Ally’s shrimp, Thunder and lightning, red Frances, Silver stoats tail with an option of fishing a pot bellied pig deeply or having a collie dog fished fast and square to stir up a response if fish are dour and unresponsive. With River Dee levels currently sitting between 4 inches and 9 inches above summer level on the Sepa gauges stealth is required with a delicate presentation required and a long leader. If the river rises significantly, which could happen, then anglers will fish with shorter stouter leaders and flies from size 8-12, depending where in the catchment anglers are fishing.

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 August 2011.

No pics from Deeside sent in so will post a couple of images of nice King Salmon I caught in the Alagnak River in Alaska.

28lbs Chrome King with sea lice

38lbs King that was starting to colour up-they colour up very fast on entry to freshwater.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

With a distinctly autumnal feel to the weather fishing was at times hard work for anglers fishing last week. There were a number of rises in river levels due to heavy rainfall through the week which ensured the river levels were never settled and the water was quite peaty at times. FishDee beats reported 135 salmon and 42 sea trout as I write and there be more to add to this tally over the next few days. Park finished the week strongly and reported 19 salmon for the week, Carlogie reported 12 and both Ballogie and Lower Crathes reported 9 each. Anglers are seeing plenty of fish but the fish are not being too co-operative. Sea trout catches were quieter than hoped for but unsettled weather / river levels makes fishing for them tricky at the best of times.

Salmon ascending the Linn of Dee

I do have some news to report; firstly I was delighted to hear that David Brooks from Kincardine O'Neil had caught a 25lb salmon which was his first for the season, just after losing another fish. Edward Humphrey told me this morning that Mr Winnaird had an 18lb salmon from Pleasant Walk at Dinnet on Saturday. I was also pleased to receive a nice report from Ross Macdonald, the inventor of the highly successful Park Shrimp, who had some good sport on Saturday. Ross commented 'Ken, I enjoyed a great day out at Park on Saturday, albeit it in unfortunate circumstances. Our good friend Jim Coates broke his wrist earlier in the week and asked me to fill in for him, which I was only too glad to do. Jim has done a lot of good work for the Dee and I am sure everyone associated with the river wishes him a speedy recovery.

I managed to land two grilse and lost a salmon, which broke me. This all happened in the morning on bt6. As ever, it pays to listen to your ghillie and it was no coincidence that I picked up the fish while head ghillie Keith Cromar was with me. Staying out of the water and fishing a shortish line, the first grilse took exactly where he said it would. It was very lively for its size, around 5lb. After landing it, I retied my knots (always good practice) and rolled out my line into the 'V' leading into the Bridge Pool proper and another grilse around 4lb duly obliged. I fished on through the pool to Park bridge and returned to the top where I hooked a good salmon in the same spot as the first grilse. Its was very fresh and gave me the run around, before the line caught on a rock and my leader snapped. I was fishing a s11 Park Shrimp with a 5' fast sink tip. The rest of the day was somewhat frustrating as the fish were reluctant to move to the fly.

River Dee beside Banchory

I also had the pleasure of fishing with John Henderson of Hardy's. John picked up a fish in Duffers on a fly tied for him by his father in law, who only started tying a few months ago. John and Keith christened it the 'Duffers Buck' and informed me that my Park Shrimp was yesterday's news! All in all, another fine day on the Dee in good company and beautiful surroundings. Best wishes, Ross' I spoke briefly with John this morning who thoroughly enjoyed his day. I asked him if he saw many fish and he commented 'Are you joking? I have never seen so many fish in a river.'

Visiting French Tackle dealer, and host to visiting parties of French anglers to Deeside, Mr Phillipe Koehler sent some correspondence and many fine photographs which I appreciated. Phillipe is very passionate about our River Dee and writes with real enthusiasm. He commented 'It's a little late to give you some news but I was very busy since I got back home. Three of us fished 4 days at Park, then one day at Little Blackhall, then 2 days Altries, then a last day at Park South. Like every time, it's always a big, big pleasure to fish the River Dee, one of my friends fish there for the first time and now he is very keen to fish it again (like me). We caught 6 salmons, 3 grilse and 12 sea trouts, I had the chance to take the two biggest salmons, 15 and 17 pounds sea liced, the last one was a 12 pounder, I caught him on the last day, the last minute, the last cast! It was after a big rise (7 feet) from the river during the night before, the water was so high, I never fished it like this. It gives me big pleasure when I see you use some of my pictures on the web site. My friend Bernard Bimboes was fishing the first time on the Dee with me, it was fantastic, he caught 2 salmons, 2 grilse, and 5 sea trouts in 4 days at Park, and he opened the week with a lovely 13 pounder, a silver brick, I see him happy like a child! What salmon fishing can do to us! About my stay on the beats, Park was very good, and we took 3 days 3 rods at little Blackhall. We had 2 days at Altries it was fun, and Kevin is so great, please thanks him from us. I saw my friend Willie banks in front of me in the Alfred's Pot and the battle begins, but Tilbouries win with 2 salmon to 0 for us.

Bernard Bimboes first fish

Up until now for myself and my friends the River Dee is the best choice, I have fished now 4 other rivers in Scotland, and my friends 2 others and I can tell it's the best because the river very great, and so good for fly-fishing, and the accommodation in the valley is very good, and the people of the area are nice.(our last hotel was the Tor Na Coille, just wonderful) and of course your job, the contact you keep, all the reports that you do is very helpful for people like me, we are far away and the web site is our contact with the Dee. Since we have returned home we are planning our next trip to the Dee. (It will be in March 2012)

To finish this week's report I wish to advise readers of an outstanding fishing opportunity for a week's salmon fishing during September, now at auction to raise funds for the River Dee Trust. There is a week's fishing and accommodation available to the highest bidder from three of the top River Dee beats and hotels. This is a genuine once in a lifetime opportunity to come and fish the cream of the River Dee salmon fishing beats during the most productive month of the season, and we hope that readers will find this an exciting way of raising funds to help the River Dee Trust team with their very important river restoration work programmes. Full details can be found at this link so don't miss out. 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 August 2011.



Beat catches reported
(week ending 6th August)
SALMON & GRILSE: Blairs 5, Culter 2, Altries and Lower Drum 1, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 7, Tilbouries 4, Park 19, Lower Crathes and W Durris 9, Invery 5, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 4, Sluie 3, Ballogie 9, Borrowston 2, Kincardine 4, Carlogie 12, Lower Dess 4, Upper Dess 2, Birse 3, Aboyne Water 3, Aboyne Castle 5, Craigendinnie 5, Waterside and Ferrar 3, Dinnet 6, Deecastle 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 5, Crathie 8, Mar Lodge 1, Heughhead 5.
Total: 138 Largest: Birse 23lbs
SEA TROUT: Culter 2, Park 3, Cairnton 1, Ballogie 7, Carlogie 2, Lower Dess 1, Birse 7, Aboyne Water 2, Craigendinnie 1, Waterside and Ferrar 2, Dinnet 3, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 1, Crathie 4, Heughhead 6.
Total: 42 Largest: Dinnet & Crathie 4lbs
TROUT: None reported


Prospects

Given the real autumnal feel to the weather today with rainfall, cool temperature and a stiff breeze, I hope that fish switch on and sport picks up significantly, however as always the fish has the final say. Weather-wise the met office is predicting a generally unsettled week with showers and longer outbreaks of rain, heavy at times. It will be quite windy at times, with tomorrow looking to be reasonable. The maritime influence shows tides rising later in the week from 3.6 metres to 4.1 metres. River levels have fluctuated quite a bit recently and this has been responsible for putting fish off the take. The peat stain that prevailed during the week seems to have this effect. River levels are dropping back from a decent rise on Sunday with Sepa gauges reading 1ft 11inches at Mar Lodge to 3 ft 6inches at Park. River levels could yo-yo this week and sport could be difficult at times for anglers but the good news is the reports of numbers of grilse running the river at last.


Phillipe Koehler with a nice summer salmon

As always I would strongly encourage anglers to heed the wise advice of your Ghillie, who knows his beat intimately and can put you on to taking lies. As mentioned by angler Ross Macdonald in his correspondence, his Ghillie put him exactly on the spot at the right time. Anglers of course like to crack the code themselves however it always pays to listen to the Ghillie. If you don't have the services of a ghillie to assist you then you may wish to fish with a floating line with sink tip or poly leader. Fly choice might include bright flashy flies like the Ally's shrimp, Park Shrimp, Flamethrower or Munro's Killer. Anglers may find fish respond to a sunray fished close to the surface or try a sunk Willie Gunn tube fly. Other anglers swear by red flies at this time of year so you may think about that. I would fish the Park shrimp with confidence and not worry about chopping and changing patterns as I have confidence with this fly. If we really knew why fish took the fly then how different our sport would be as the challenge of getting a salmon to take your fly wouldn't be the same. Some Ghillies have their own favourites and many on our river tie flies extremely well. I always enjoy listening to their advice and wisdom which really adds to the enjoyment of the day. 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 August 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

There were some excellent days fishing last week with 51 salmon & grilse reported on Tuesday and 61 salmon and grilse reported on Friday. These days helped the FishDee week’s totals rise to 232 salmon and Grilse and 41 sea trout, as I write, which is quite remarkable given the very large rise in river levels on Thursday where we had a lift of over 7 feet. We were quite fortunate as the high water levels were not too turbid considering the volume of water that roared down the valley from the western catchment.

There were a number of beats from top to bottom of the valley which saw good sport during the week. Park reported 24 salmon & grilse, Dinnet reported 18, Aboyne Castle and Carlogie both reported 13, Altries and Tilbouries reported 12 each, Ballogie 11 with Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld reporting 10, as did new FishDee beat Heughhead, on the River Feugh tributary. I heard reports of Craig Fleming catching a grilse on Saturday, Robert Thomson had 2 grilse at Deecastle on Saturday, Peter Staude had an 18lb salmon at Balmoral and Ross Maclean reported 3 salmon at Cambus O’May on Saturday. I would also like to congratulate River Office staff Mark Walker and Blair Forsyth who had 5 salmon on the Ballogie club water on Friday/Saturday.

I was delighted to receive an e-mail from Nick Evans who is a regular Dee fisherman making a number of trips each season to fish the Dee. Nick wrote about a trip to Park he had organised for Fishing for Forces. He wrote ‘On 30 July, John Foster the owner of the famous Park Beat on the Aberdeenshire Dee, very kindly donated 2 rods to the Fishing For Forces charity. Fishing for Forces aims to provide fishing for those returning from operational duties, so that they can enjoy a little rest and relaxation and, even if they’ve never fished before, they can discover the therapeutic qualities of the sport.

Fishing for forces at Park

Two members of 1 Scots based in Edinburgh were the lucky recipients of this wonderful opportunity, and Dickie Coppard and Wes Gold met up with Park head ghillie Keith Cromar and their mentor and organiser of the day, Nick Evans, a regular fisher at Park. Neither Dickie nor Wes had experience of fishing with a double-handed salmon rod, but after a little explanation and instruction from Nick, both were able to cover the water quite adequately with a Single Spey cast. The Dee was running quite low, but there were many fish in the beat, with a lot of fresh fish running upriver, as well as some ‘residents’ that had been there for a little while. Fish of all sizes were seen, but the low water and desire to run hard meant the fish were focussed on other things and not our flies! Small flies had been taking fish and Nick had tied up some suitable patterns for our two guests.

Shortly after lunch, whilst fishing Park’s famous Durris Stream, Dickie was taken solidly by a salmon, but the fight lasted only a few minutes before the fish made its escape. Nevertheless, this was a great achievement on a difficult day, and left Dickie with the feeling for what might have been! All together a wonderful opportunity for Dickie and Wes, and all made possible by the kindness and generosity of John Foster – memories were made and the relaxation of the river bank helped sooth away some of the less memorable experiences both had experienced recently in Helmand.’ Well done Nick for organising a nice days experience for two of our brave soldiers.

Fishing for Forces at Park

I met Dr Patrick Taylor and Dr Ade Warburton a couple of weeks ago at Potties who were dining with some talented Irish anglers, and River Board member Dave MacDonald prior to fishing for a couple of weeks. I was delighted to receive an e-mail from Dr Taylor who commented ‘We had a number of rods join us the first week, all of whom were great company – and highly skilled fishers. I can’t remember the total – but we fished hard and got some decent fish. There were plenty of fish showing but dour and unresponsive – so any fish was a bonus. We fished Commonty last week and had a great time. In between the significant downpours that saw the river rise to almost 8 feet at one stage on the Potarch gauge, we were able to fish. For the rods on the beat we had 10 fish between us (Salmon, Grilse and Sea Trout) and Dr Ade Warburton managed to get the 100th fish of the season for Commonty, on the final day. It was an unusual week where we were resorting to tactics akin to spring – big flies, sinking tips etc. As ever, the Ballogie estate ghillies, Ian Fraser and Sean Stanton were great company and willing us on, so I’d like to thank them for their advice and assistance. Attached is a link to a video I pulled together for Carlogie when the water was raging on Commonty and it was better to have a few beers/whisky/wine/cider than fish. Click here to access [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKvpkdnO5PY]SF11 Carlogie River Dee August 2011 - YouTube[/ame]

To finish this week's report I wish to advise readers of an outstanding fishing opportunity for a week's salmon fishing during September, now at auction to raise funds for the River Dee Trust. There is a week's fishing and accommodation available to the highest bidder from three of the top River Dee beats and hotels. This is a genuine once in a lifetime opportunity to come and fish the cream of the River Dee salmon fishing beats during the most productive month of the season, and we hope that readers will find this an exciting way of raising funds to help the River Dee Trust team with their very important river restoration work programmes. Full details can be found at this link so don't miss out. 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 August 2011.

Beat catches reported
(week ending 13th August)
SALMON & GRILSE: Blairs 1, Altries and Lower Drum 12, Middle Drum 4, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 7, Tilbouries 12, Park 24, Lower Crathes and W Durris 8, Crathes 8, Invery 3, Middle Blackhall 5, Cairnton 8, Woodend 3, Commonty 8, Sluie 3, Ballogie 11, Kincardine 8, Carlogie 13, Lower Dess 8, Birse 4, Aboyne Water 9, Aboyne Castle 13, Craigendinnie 3, Dinnet 18, Deecastle 10, Headinch and Cambus O'May 10, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 10, Crathie 9, Heughhead 10.
Total: 242 Largest: Deecastle 22lbs
SEA TROUT: Altries and Lower Drum 1, Park 3, Lower Crathes and W Durris 2, Crathes 1, Invery 1, Cairnton 2, Woodend 1, Commonty 2, Sluie 2, Ballogie 4, Kincardine 2, Carlogie 2, Upper Dess 1, Birse 2, Aboyne Water 1, Craigendinnie 1, Dinnet 5, Deecastle 3, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 3, Heughhead 2.
Total: 42 Largest: Crathes & Carlogie 4lbs
TROUT: Heughhead 2. Total: 2.

Prospects

All things being equal we should see a continuation of good sport for anglers fishing the River Dee this week. The water levels are very good and should drop away slowly over the course of the week providing we don’t receive another deluge of rain like we experienced last week. There are new fish coming forward off every tide, and in decent numbers, both some grilse and larger summer salmon. The weather forecast looks reasonable for anglers but not for those looking to relax in prolonged sunshine as there is not going to be lots of prolonged sunshine I’m afraid. Air temperature maxima will be around 18 degrees Celsius at the start of the week but it will become cooler throughout the week as a series of weak weather fronts cross the country. It will be a showery week with perhaps some longer out breaks of rain on Tuesday evening going into Wednesday morning and perhaps on Thursday and Saturday. Winds will be mostly light and variable over the course of the week and should not be troublesome for anglers. The maritime influence indicates tides will drop back over the course of the week from 4.3 metres to 3.6 metres. Sepa gauges, on their website, which have not updated on the FishDee website, are currently indicating levels of 11 inches at Mar Lodge and 2ft 2 inches at Park this morning. So there is no shortage of water in the catchment and fish should be able to migrate feely upriver if they choose to do so.

Anglers who are fishing this week would be wise to heed the counsel of their beat Ghillie if they have one, as they will be able to provide good sound advice on where to fish on their beat. There is no shortage of fish throughout the river catchment and some have been in the river for some time now, with new fresh fish coming forward off every tide. Grilse have made an appearance and are running quickly through the catchment and they will be stirring up residents in the pools as will the fresh new salmon. This ensures anglers can perhaps enjoy good sport if they are in the right place at the right time. Your beat Ghillie will do all he can to put you onto some taking fish. As river levels are good and new fish are running, anglers will be fishing tactics more suited to earlier in the season with sink tip lines and slightly bigger flies being preferred. Your Ghillie will advise you on what flies to use however if you don’t have a Ghillie to advise you then perhaps you will fish with perhaps small 1.5 inch tube flies or doubles from size 6-10 depending on patterns. As always the Park shrimp, Ally’s shrimp, Flamethrower, and Red Francis can be fished with confidence as can tube flies such as the monkey, pot bellied pig and gold bodied Willie Gunn. As the water temps are cooling down it may pay you to fish onto the pool tails as not all salmon are concentrated in the necks of the pools.

I would like to remind anglers that the Park Trophy is awarded annually for the largest rod caught salmon that is verified from the River Dee. It was won last year by Jesper Holm Nielsen with a salmon of over 30lbs from Dess. This year the largest verified salmon has been reported by Borrowston Ghillie Bill Palmer for a fish of 36lbs landed by Mr Judson, netted and photographed by Bill Palmer. There have been quite a number of good sized salmon reported most weeks and it may still be possible for a salmon of that size or bigger to be caught before the season finishes so good luck to all anglers. I would also like to advise that there is good rod availability on the FishDee website for the remaining 9 weeks of the season so please ensure you book some fishing now and give yourself every opportunity of catching potentially the Park trophy winning salmon. Thanks to Phillip Fleming, general manager of the Tor Na Coille Hotel, who invited me to sample the new dinner menu at their new Royal Deeside Restaurant on Friday evening which was first class. 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 August 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Another steady week’s salmon fishing on Deeside with the lower beats starting to catch more and more tide fresh salmon. There was a lift in river levels that slowed catches a little bit however FishDee beats have as I write reported 231 salmon& grilse and 23 sea trout. I see there is a 30lb salmon reported at Borrowston but have no details of the capture to report as yet. There are quite a number of beats reporting catches in double figures for their week; Park reported 30, Upper Drum 20, Lower Crathes 18, Altries 15, Crathie 14, Culter and Ballogie 12, Monaltrie & Lower Invercauld, Crathes and Tilbouries all reported 11 for the week. These show the upper beats are still ticking over nicely and the lower beats numbers are ramping up as we would expect in late summer. I have been away for a few days and have returned to quite a lot of correspondence from visiting anglers, as always I am grateful for all the effort the correspondents have put in by writing to share their experiences and images. So in no particular order I will detail these below.

John Gordon-Smith advised ‘I have just returned home after a truly memorable week at Park (South) fishing with a couple of regular pals and for the first time my son Giles, his girlfriend Katy Emson, my daughter Philippa and her husband Jonathan, all of whom were fishing for the 1st time under the excellent guidance of Tom and Jean Marshall for Thursday and Friday. Also joining us for a day was your friend Stuart Buchan who bagged the best fish of the week at 12lbs. The total tally was I think 17. I think all of the fish apart from 3 salmon, were grilse. The best tally went to friend Graham Watson at 6 who very frustratingly lost a fish into the high teens at Durris after an epic battle which ended in his fish rather rudely spitting out his fly following a furious head shaking performance more akin of Jimmy Hendrix. My meagre tally came to 4, but of course should have been more if I had been more alert. The main excitement for us came late on Friday afternoon at almost 6pm when Giles (remember 1st trip and only 2nd day!) lost his first fish. Determined to succeed and already mastering perfect casting on beat 5, which his Dad can only dream of, he landed his 1st grilse of 4lbs on a Park shrimp. Katy duly followed suit moments later with a 5 pounder and sensing the moment had arrived Giles dropped to one knee in the river and popped the magic question to Katy. All of this came as a big surprise to us (my wife Helen a non-fisher was back at the hut) after Giles showed us pics of the 1st 2 fish and then said actually he had landed a far bigger one. Step forward Katy and the ring. So what more could we have wished for, absolutely magical and you can bet your pound that all being well the G-S’s will be back. Best regards, John.’ Many congratulations to Giles for his catch of a lifetime.

Lucy Furse with her first ever salmon from Crathie

I was delighted to receive an e-mail from regular Dee angler, the inventor of the highly successful Crathie fly Mr Tom Saville, who commented ‘Hi Ken, Just back from a week on Crathie, most enjoyable despite changeable conditions. Notable because one lady in my party, Mrs Lucy Furse, caught her first-ever salmon, a 15lbs hen fish (picture attached) followed by two more. Her husband Justin lost at the net a cock fish estimated by Archie Hay to be 30lbs. (picture of him playing the fish is also attached). The fish was played for some 40 minutes and was head-up and ready to net when one hook of the size 14 Crathie double fly broke. Obviously only one of the hooks went in. My wife Pat had a 15lbs cock fish and 3 sea trout. Old age and infirmity restrict my fishing nowadays, but I managed to fish a nice easy pool for 15 minutes and got a 10lbs cock fish. While the water was suitable all the fish were caught on my Crathie fly (of course) and when the peat stain appeared we switched to Ally's orange/silver Shrimps and the odd Red Frances. Lucy's fish were caught on an unusual version of the Crathie tied by Archie Hay with the addition of an orange Ally's-Shrimp-style tail! I decided to call it Archie's A........ I wonder if the name will stick. We'll be back! Tom Saville. ‘It sounds like Tom, Pat and party had another really enjoyable visit. Anglers interested in the Crathie Fly can look at the Flies for the Dee page on the FishDee website where a description and image are provided. Tom very kindly sent me some flies to put onto the website and it is a very successful fly which many River Dee anglers swear by.

Robert Carter with a cracking sea liced salmon

I received a nice e-mail and super images from Richard Newton and Robert Carter with Richard advising ‘Dear Ken, You might like this photo for your website. It’s a couple of weeks old I’m afraid, but it shows my 13 year old son Will Newton, with his first ever Salmon, a lovely silver grilse landed at dusk from Upper Gannets at Ballogie on 2nd August. Will is the third generation of the Newton family to fish (and catch) at Ballogie, and was there with his grandfather, John. Another one hooked? I think so. Spurred on by the young snapping at his heels, Newton senior went on to land his best ever Dee fish later that week, a cracking 20lber, from Middle Gannets. Regards, Richard Newton’ I am always delighted to hear of anglers landing their first salmon and I wish to extend congratulations to Will for his success.’ Robert who had been fishing at Altries on the lower river, a beat with some beautiful fly fishing pools commented ‘Hi Ken, I recently had a trip up to the Dee, fishing 8th 9th and 10th of August. I blanked the first 2 days but on the third day, caught 2 fish within 3 casts of each other. I was fishing Altries and Lower Drum with a small party organised by the ‘ legendary ‘ Jim Fearn. Most of us had fish and we all enjoyed the trip. On the Wednesday morning, I was allocated a pool to fish and within half an hour of starting, had a take and successfully landed a 5lb fish, the fish being a bit coloured. I then returned to the water and started to fish. I put out a rather bad cast, so re cast a great line which sailed right across the river. As soon as the fly hit the water, a great big salmon smashed into it and cart wheeled away, behaving like an electrocuted marlin! I have never experienced a take anything like it. The amazing thing was that Kevin, the ghillie watched me cast out, commented on the good cast, then saw the fish smash into the fly, all from further down river on the opposite bank. The fish took off like a train and had me onto the backing within seconds. It was still cart wheeling around and I saw this huge tail fin on a very silvery body. I knew it was going to be a very good fish. The fish fought on and made several very powerful runs before I finally got him on his side and drew it into the bank after a 15 minute battle. The cock fish was well hooked, covered in sea lice, and weighed approximately 18 pounds. What an incredible experience! ‘

A delighted Will Newton with his first salmon

And my final piece of correspondence and another first fish, was kindly sent to me by Tim Lawson who advised ‘We have been coming to stay at Invercauld for about ten years, enjoying the amazing country and great sport. My two sons and I have experienced stalking our first deer and shooting our first grouse on the estate. This week we have been staying as guests at the House of Glenmuick and having never fished for salmon before, this morning I had the great fortune to be taken to Kynoch by Matilda Matthews, an expert fisherman, who has stayed at Glenmuick for many years. We went to the river at about 12 noon with another guest, Angus Maclean, fishing about a hundred meters downstream. After receiving some tuition from Matilda on Spey casting, I was let loose by myself. I would say that my attempts at casting out into the river were at best variable but with advice and good guidance, I started getting the hang of it and began to feel the joy of a few half decent casts. After about half an hour, with my fly drifting back almost to the dangle, I felt a gentle tug on the line. I remembered not to panic but lifted my rod slightly and let the line run. Great excitement! With Matilda offering expert instruction I played the fish for about 30 minutes. By this time, Angus had called the house and my family and other guests came to the bank to witness either my line going limp (potentially very embarrassing) or my very first landing of a salmon. Luckily, with help from Angus and Matilda, the latter prevailed and we landed a very healthy looking hen fish (we think about an 8lb) before we put her back in the water, saw her recover and then swim happily away. It was just the most exhilarating feeling and something that I will remember for a good long time. ‘Many congratulations to Tim who I hope is hooked on salmon for life, and of course enjoy much more success on the River Dee.

To finish this week's report I wish to advise readers of an outstanding fishing opportunity for a week's salmon fishing during September, now at auction to raise funds for the River Dee Trust. There is a week's fishing and accommodation available to the highest bidder from three of the top River Dee beats and hotels. This is a genuine once in a lifetime opportunity to come and fish the cream of the River Dee salmon fishing beats during the most productive month of the season, and we hope that readers will find this an exciting way of raising funds to help the River Dee Trust team with their very important river restoration work programmes. Full details can be found at this link so don't miss out. 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 August 2011.

Prospects

Anglers visiting Deeside should see more good sport providing the river levels don’t fall away too much. The weather forecast looks reasonably pleasant for anglers with air temperature maxima in the region of 18 degrees but it may drop considerably under clear skies on some of the nights. Winds are forecast to be light and variable which shouldn’t cause anglers any difficulties when casting a fly. There will be sunny spells and showers through the week with the occasional one heavy and perhaps prolonged. The Sepa river levels are currently sitting at 7 inches at Mar Lodge to 1 ft 3 inches at Park. The maritime influence shows tides building through the week from 3.4 metres to 4.2 metres which should bring new fish forward from every tide. All in all it looks quite promising and anglers visiting the lower beats will have first crack at tide fresh salmon and grilse.

Justin Furse playing an estimated 30lb salmon-which broke his fly and escaped

Anglers who are fishing this week should listen to the advice provided by their beat Ghillie if they have one, as they will be able to provide good sound advice on where to fish on their beat to suit the conditions. There are good numbers of fish throughout the river catchment with new fresh fish coming forward off every tide now. Some grilse have made an appearance and are moving through the lower beats as are bigger salmon. This ensures anglers can perhaps enjoy good sport if they are in the right place at the right time. Your beat Ghillie will do all he can to put you onto some taking fish. Your Ghillie will advise you on what flies to use however if you don’t have a Ghillie to advise you then perhaps you will fish with perhaps small tube flies or doubles from size 6-10 depending on patterns. As always the Park shrimp, Ally’s shrimp, Flamethrower, and Red Francis can be fished with confidence as can tube flies such as the monkey, pot bellied pig and gold bodied Willie Gunn. As the water temps are cooling down it may pay you to fish onto the pool tails as not all salmon are concentrated in the necks of the pools.

I would like to remind anglers that the Park Trophy is awarded annually for the largest rod caught salmon that is verified from the River Dee. It was won last year by Jesper Holm Nielsen with a salmon of over 30lbs from Dess. This year the largest verified salmon has been reported by Borrowston Ghillie Bill Palmer for a fish of 36lbs landed by Mr Judson, netted and photographed by Bill Palmer. There have been quite a number of good sized salmon reported most weeks and it may still be possible for a salmon of that size or bigger to be caught before the season finishes so good luck to all anglers. I would also like to advise that there is good rod availability on the FishDee website for the remaining 8 weeks of the season so please ensure you book some fishing now and give yourself every opportunity of catching potentially the Park trophy winning salmon. 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 August 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

We have had another good weeks fishing on Deeside with FishDee beats reporting 240 salmon to 24 lbs and 21 sea trout. This brings the FishDee beats totals for the season to 5018 salmon and 1179 sea trout. Park reported 25 salmon & grilse, Upper Drum & Lower Durris 20, Culter 19, Crathie 17, Commonty 16, Altries and Crathes had 14. I have decided this week to compile this week’s report predominately led by Ghillies feedback, and I have spoken with Ghillies from 5 of the top producing beats from last week for their comments. Thanks to all for your feedback, it’s much appreciated as always.

Keith Cromar at Park advised ‘ John and Clarinda Foster had six salmon between them to 15 lbs and we had a couple of big fish on Saturday with Andy Forbes landing a 20 lb salmon and Gary Webster landed a 24 lb salmon, who you will recall had a 25lb salmon on opening day this year. We have water levels sitting at 65 inches on our gauge this morning and the water temperature is now 8 degrees Celsius. I am recommending anglers’ fish with intermediate tips and small tube flies to get them down to the fish. I expect fish to be caught on Red Frances, Park shrimp and cascades. There are a lot of fish on the beat with summer salmon and grilse. Stuart Buchan commented this morning about catching a 10 lb salmon at Park and then hooking a small parr which was grabbed by a salmon leaving bite marks on its body.

Fiona Andrew with her first salmon at Aboyne Water

Jim Paton, Ghillie at Upper Drum and Lower Durris commented ‘We have a lot of fish on the beat with most of the fish being landed bright bars of silver. Peter Brown recently had 5 salmon for his visit. We have a large river this morning which should fine back and should fish really well. I would recommend anglers fish with intermediate tips; a yellow stoat’s tail tube variant has been fishing well.’

Mads Pederson, Ghillie at Culter advised that there are good numbers of salmon in his beat with some nice fat grilse amongst them. We have had success with a black and orange fly with fish to 15lbs with the average weight 10-11 lbs. We have had great conditions for fishing but would be doing better if we had more rods fishing. September will be really productive and we have rods available for visiting anglers.’

Sean Stanton, head Ghillie for Ballogie estates commented about Commonty. ‘Ghillie Ian Fraser booked the fishing for the week and they had a very good week, in fact their best week of the season with 16 salmon and grilse to 2 rods. Kevin Fraser, Iain’s son had his biggest salmon at 20 lbs. They were fishing with size 13 Crathie Fly, and Red Frances fly on full floating lines as the water was low. This week is looking very promising and I expect the beats to fish very well for the rest of the week as the river level falls. Intermediate lines and tube flies will be required this week.’

Kevin Fleming reports from Altries. ‘Good numbers of fresh salmon coming in and some really small thin grilse. Some fish with red vent syndrome as well. Average weights of salmon are 10-11 lbs and taking the usual flies for the time of year Cascades, red Frances etc. The beat is full of fish and prospects look good.’

Archie Hay, Ghillie at Crathie advised ‘The party this week was led by party leader Dr J R Hartley who had a good week landing 17 salmon and grilse. They were fishing size 14 Crathie Flies on intermediate tips. The biggest fish was landed by Dr Cooksey at 15 lbs and we had quite fresh grilse of 3-4lbs that looked like they had been in the river for a couple of weeks.’ I also received an e-mail from Dave Walker who advised ‘Thought I would drop a note, having not fished as much as I should have this year, I was rewarded this week when I connected with a 36 inch salmon; the evening was beautiful and the river seemed to be full of fish, your tips re a park shrimp was also spot on. Per the weight to length table - this makes the fish about 18lbs - by far the biggest salmon I have ever caught. The photo does not do it justice - however the whole evening was just perfect.’

To finish this week's report I wish to advise readers of an outstanding fishing opportunity for a week's salmon fishing during September. The auction, which closes in 3 days, is to raise funds for the River Dee Trust & AFYD. There is a week's fishing and accommodation available to the highest bidder from three of the top River Dee beats and hotels. This is a genuine once in a lifetime opportunity to come and fish the cream of the River Dee salmon fishing beats during the most productive month of the season, and we hope that readers will find this an exciting way of raising funds to help the River Dee Trust team with their very important river restoration work programmes. 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 August 2011.


Prospects

It could be a really productive week on Deeside following on from the big rise in river levels yesterday coinciding with Spring tides. This should hopefully bring in a good run of late summer salmon and more grilse. The SEPA gauges were down this morning however the Ghillies have reported from their gauges the following, Park hut gauge is 65 inches and falling, Potarch Bridge gauge is 5 ft and falling and Crathie beat gauge was 4 ft and falling. Water temperature at Park this morning was 48 degrees Fahrenheit or 8 degrees Celsius. The met office website is forecasting good fishing weather which is blustery today with winds dropping back nicely. The air temperature maxima for the week are around 15 degrees Celsius, with night time lows around 5 degrees Celsius. There will be intermittent rain showers throughout the week and it will feel a bit warmer when the sun does shine. The maritime influence sees tides building this week to 4.7 metres on Wednesday and falling back to 3.8 metres on Saturday.

Anglers who are fishing this week should listen to the advice provided by their beat Ghillie if they have one, as they will be able to provide good sound advice on where to fish on their beat to suit the conditions. There are good numbers of fish throughout the river catchment with new fresh fish coming forward off every tide now. Some grilse have made an appearance and are moving through the lower beats as are bigger salmon. This ensures anglers can perhaps enjoy good sport if they are in the right place at the right time. Your beat Ghillie will do all he can to put you onto some taking fish. Your Ghillie will advise you on what flies to use however if you don’t have a Ghillie to advise you then perhaps you will fish with perhaps small tube flies or doubles from size 6-10 depending on patterns. As always the Park shrimp, Ally’s shrimp, Flamethrower, and Red Francis can be fished with confidence as can tube flies such as the monkey, Red Frances and gold bodied Willie Gunn. As the water temps are cooling down it may pay you to fish onto the pool tails as not all salmon are concentrated in the necks of the pools now-pool tails can be productive for intercepting running fish.

I would like to remind anglers that the Park Trophy is awarded annually for the largest rod caught salmon that is verified from the River Dee. It was won last year by Jesper Holm Nielsen with a salmon of over 30lbs from Dess. This year the largest verified salmon has been reported by Borrowston Ghillie Bill Palmer for a fish of 36lbs landed by Mr Judson, netted and photographed by Bill Palmer. There have been quite a number of good sized salmon reported most weeks and it may still be possible for a salmon of that size or bigger to be caught before the season finishes so good luck to all anglers. I would also like to advise that there is good rod availability on the FishDee website for the remaining 8 weeks of the season so please ensure you book some fishing now and give yourself every opportunity of catching potentially the Park trophy winning salmon. 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 August 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Having just returned from an assignment with Trout and Salmon magazine I was really delighted to hear during the week how well the River Dee was fishing. The River temperature cooled for a number of days last week and really put fish on the take with FishDee beats reporting 93 salmon & grilse on Tuesday, 101 salmon and grilse on Wednesday and 90 salmon and grilse on Thursday. This helped boost the weeks catch to 427 salmon and grilse and 38 sea trout which is the best week of the 2011 season by quite some way. I am grateful for Ghillies calling me this morning with feedback and I am pleased to report that they were very happy for their fishing guests.

Keith Cromar, head Ghillie at Park advised ‘We had a really excellent weeks fishing with 89 salmon and grilse being landed by our rods. Philip and Tony Black did exceptionally well with 29 salmon for their short stay. We had days of 17, 33 and 33 being caught midweek as the water dropped below 8 degrees Celsius, which put fish on the take. Messer’s Knox also did well with 13 salmon, with fish to 24lbs. Robert Bramman had a 25 lb salmon which was the biggest of the week. Steve Hogg, who called you from Deeside during the week, had 6 salmon and grilse. The average weight of salmon caught last week was around 14 lbs. The water is at a nice height and the temperature has risen a bit to 11 degrees Celsius. I am hopeful good catches will be made during the week as long as the river levels don’t fluctuate too much this week.’

Philip Black at Park

Jim Paton, Ghillie at Upper Drum and Lower Durris commented ‘We had 30 salmon and a sea trout for the week with a good average weight of around 14lbs. Peter Brown did very well with over a dozen salmon to his own rod. The salmon and grilse were really keen to take a size 8 or 10 cascade and didn’t really take as freely with other patterns. Anglers fished with floating lines and intermediate tips.’

Sean Stanton, head Ghillie for Ballogie estates advised. ‘I booked the Ballogie week this week myself and had fishermen fishing with me during the week. As you will recall the river was really big on Monday but dropped back steadily during the week before rising again on Saturday. I had 20 salmon and grilse and 5 sea trout to my own rod so I was really delighted to get good sport. My best day was 8 fish and I was pleased to see some good runs of really fresh sea liced grilse running through the beat. David and Craig Macdonald fished Commonty and had 14 salmon and grilse for their week. I had success at the earlier part of the week with a red Snaelda conehead, and had some fish on a red Frances later in the week as the river level dropped.’

Charlie Robertson wrote to me advising ‘Hi Ken, Had a great day at Park on Tuesday with Eddie Allan and Mike MacBain. Eddie landed three, biggest 15lbs and lost 4. Mike had two; biggest 12lbs and I managed a 6lbs sea-liced grilse from Durris, I also lost three salmon. First time fishing with Ghillie Bert Webster, a real gentleman. I had a good laugh at the Durris hut with Ian Neale, the author of Shadows in the Stream. Also first time fishing the south bank and it was excellent.’

Nicky McDougal playing a salmon at Lower Durris

Finally Edward Humphrey called this morning and advised that the 200th salmon of the season was landed at Dinnet, which is the first time they have reached this number for this time of the year since 1988. The successful angler was Sue Rudge, who came to visit the group of fishermen from Trout and Salmon magazine. Sue caught her salmon on her self tied Vincent pattern and the fish was netted and released by Ghillie Euan Reid. Thanks to all for getting in touch with me which helps me so much in providing a weekly report. It wouldn’t be the same without your contributions so please keep them coming. 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 September 2011.


Beat catches reported(week ending 3rd September)
SALMON & GRILSE: Blairs 4, Culter 14, Altries and Lower Drum 20, Middle Drum 14, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 29, Tilbouries 20, Park 89, Lower Crathes and W Durris 12, Crathes 10, Invery 8, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 4, Middle Blackhall 4, Cairnton 21, Woodend 5, Commonty 14, Sluie 3, Ballogie 27, Borrowston 7, Kincardine 11, Carlogie 3, Lower Dess 4, Upper Dess 3, Birse 11, Aboyne Water 7, Aboyne Castle 13, Craigendinnie 4, Waterside and Ferrar 2, Dinnet 16, Deecastle 5, Headinch and Cambus O'May 9, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 21, Birkhall 1, Crathie 14, Heughhead 1.
Total: 430 Largest: Park & Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 25lbs
SEA TROUT: Culter 1, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 1, Tilbouries 1, Park 3, Lower Crathes and W Durris 1, Invery 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Middle Blackhall 2, Cairnton 1, Commonty 3, Sluie 2, Ballogie 5, Kincardine 1, Carlogie 1, Birse 1, Aboyne Castle 4, Dinnet 3, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 2, Birkhall 1, Crathie 1, Heughhead 2.
Total: 38 Largest: Heughhead 5lbs

Prospects

Following on from the best week of the season I am hoping sport continues in the same vein for anglers fishing up and down the River Dee valley. However the weather forecast could cause some difficulties as a series of weather fronts are forecast to cross Scotland this week bringing quite windy conditions and at times heavy rain. As long as the river levels don’t fluctuate too much during the week then sport should be good. The air temperature maxima should be around 17 degrees but will feel colder when the winds are blowing hard from the west. When the sun makes an occasional appearance it will feel quite pleasant. The maritime influence shows tides dropping back to 3.5 metres on Wednesday and rising to 4.1 metres on Sunday. The River levels are currently running at 10 inches at Mar Lodge and 1 ft 3 inches at Park, which should encourage fish to get on the move and provide opportunities of good sport on the river. We have had good river levels this summer but as we move into autumn anglers do like to see the occasional night frost to take the river temperature back below 8 degrees Celsius which seems to bring more fish on the take; there doesn’t appear to be any likelihood for air or ground frosts this week.

There are good numbers of fish, spanking new fresh fish coming forward off every tide now. Some decent numbers of grilse have made a belated appearance and are moving through the lower beats as are bigger salmon. I can advise that there are reports of really small specimens and quite a number of fish have red vent syndrome caused by the Anaskis nematode parasite. Some ghillies and anglers speculate that this causes some irritation to the fish and makes them more aggressive. Your beat Ghillie will do all he can to put you onto some taking fish. Your Ghillie will advise you on what flies to use however if you don’t have a Ghillie to advise you then perhaps you will fish with perhaps small tube flies or doubles from size 8-10 depending on patterns. As always the Park shrimp, Ally’s shrimp, Cascade, and Red Francis can be fished with confidence as can tube flies fished deeply such as the Monkey, Red Frances and 1 inch gold bodied Willie Gunn or pot bellied pig. As the water temps are cooling down it may pay you to fish onto the pool tails as not all salmon are concentrated in the necks of the pools now-pool tails can be productive for intercepting running fish. I also hear that salmon are lying in areas where they are not normally located; perhaps this is because the beats are so heavily populated that salmon are looking for a quiet spot to rest before migrating further upriver. But it may pay anglers to fish in areas on their beats that the Ghillies advise that don’t normally hold fish, but they know are holding fish just now.

Nicky McDougal with her salmon

I would like to remind anglers that the Park Trophy is awarded annually for the largest rod caught salmon that is verified from the River Dee. It was won last year by Jesper Holm Nielsen with a salmon of over 30lbs from Dess. This year the largest verified salmon has been reported by Borrowston Ghillie Bill Palmer for a fish of 36lbs landed by Mr Judson, netted and photographed by Bill Palmer. There have been quite a number of good sized salmon reported most weeks and it may still be possible for a salmon of that size or bigger to be caught before the season finishes so good luck to all anglers. I would also like to advise that there is good rod availability on the FishDee website for the remaining 8 weeks of the season so please ensure you book some fishing now and give yourself every opportunity of catching potentially the Park trophy winning salmon. 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 September 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Salmon fishing was productive at times with FishDee beats reporting 265 salmon to 28lbs and 25 sea trout. It could have been considerably more, however we had fluctuating river levels which always seem to put salmon off the take. The SEPA gauge at Mar Lodge rose 4 times over the course of the week and some coloured water coming from some of the tributaries did slow sport down temporarily. Park reported 29 salmon for their week, Crathie 21, Tilbouries 18, Upper Drum 17 with Kingcausie reporting 16 as did Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld. Heaviest fish was reported to be 28 lbs at Park landed by Mr Phil Walker.

Archie Hay reported this morning that Crathie had 3 rods fishing through the week with Trevor Cardy and Peter Cheesewright landing 11 between them. Trevor had the biggest fish of the week for the beat at 24lbs. Simon Miller fishing on Friday had four salmon. When asked to speculate why they had steady sport during the week with fluctuating river levels Archie suggested it was because the water temperature had dropped to 8 degrees Celsius. His anglers also put the hours in over the week and typically fished from 9am to 7 pm most days. Successful flies were the silver Ally’s shrimp, Cascade and Crathie fly. Earlier in the week anglers fished with small tube flies and by the end of the week were fishing smaller doubles.

Ross Macdonald with a Grilse at Park

Willie Banks at Tilbouries reported that fishing was hard going at times due to coloured water with anglers really putting the hours in. The biggest fish of the week was caught by a local angler who landed a super 20lbs sea liced fish. He has good experienced anglers on the beat who know the beat well. He advised that there were a lot of fish about this morning and allied to good water levels and high tides is hopeful for another good week. Anglers will be fishing with intermediate lines and sink tips fishing small bottle tubes. The water temperature was recorded this morning at 12 degrees Celsius.

Mr Tom Charles reported through the FishDee feedback reporting system a really enjoyable trip to Lower Crathes and West Durris. He advised that head Ghillie Robert Harper was away and he had received outstanding service and customer care from Ghillie Charles Booth and deserves special recognition. I am delighted to pass on Mr Charles comments and am sure that Charles will be a great asset to the beat. He is a smashing Ghillie with super personality. Finally I would like to thank the Ghillies for their feedback and ask anglers to pass on any stories, news or anecdotes they wish to share. 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 September 2011.


SALMON & GRILSE: Blairs 6, Kingcausie 16, Culter 11, Altries and Lower Drum 8, Middle Drum 3, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 17, Tilbouries 18, Park 29, Lower Crathes and W Durris 14, Crathes 2, Invery 5, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 10, Middle Blackhall 3, Cairnton 4, Lower Woodend 2, Commonty 2, Sluie 3, Ballogie 9, Borrowston 3, Kincardine 13, Carlogie 10, Lower Dess 3, Upper Dess 2, Birse 13, Aboyne Water 1, Aboyne Castle 8, Craigendinnie 5, Dinnet 5, Headinch and Cambus O'May 2, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 16, Crathie 21, Heughhead 2.
Total: 266 Largest: Park 28lbs
SEA TROUT: Kingcausie 1, Tilbouries 1, Park 1, Middle Blackhall 2, Commonty 1, Sluie 2, Kincardine 6, Carlogie 4, Lower Dess 2, Birse 3, Aboyne Water 1, Aboyne Castle 1.
Total: 25 Largest: Middle Blackhall & Lower Dess 4lbs

Prospects

With a variety of weather forecasters predicting different things for Deeside I would suggest that we will have some tricky conditions at the beginning of the week with the remnants of Hurricane Katie due to reach Scotland as I write. As to how troublesome the rainfall and wind will be is difficult to foresee as the mountains will act as a buffer to the approaching storm. I suspect there will be rainfall in the western catchment and we will see river levels rising on Tuesday, however I am hopeful that we will see levels drop off during the week as the weather is forecast to become calmer as pressure builds. Air temperature maxima will be around 16 degrees Celsius and night time lows will be around 6 degrees Celsius. The maritime influence sees tides building to 4.3 metres tomorrow and then dropping back during the week. The SEPA gauges are currently running at 1 ft 9 inches at Mar Lodge and falling and 2ft 5 inches at Park and rising. The river is full of fish from top to bottom, therefore anglers contemplating some fishing, would be well advised to book some fishing from the FishDee website, as rods are becoming scarce as we are entering the final few weeks of the 2011 salmon fishing season.

The witching hour at Crathes

There are still reasonable numbers of fish, coming forward off every tide now and hopefully this will continue. Some numbers of grilse have are still running the river and are moving through the lower beats, as are bigger fresh salmon. I can advise that there are reports of red vent syndrome caused by the Anaskis nematode parasite. Some ghillies and anglers speculate that this causes some irritation to the fish and makes them more aggressive. Your beat Ghillie will do all he can to put you onto some taking fish. Your Ghillie will advise you on what flies to use however if you don’t have a Ghillie to advise you then perhaps you will fish with perhaps small tube flies or doubles from size 8-10 depending on patterns. As always the Park shrimp, Ally’s shrimp, Cascade, and Red Francis can be fished with confidence as can tube flies fished deeply such as the Monkey, Red Frances and 1 inch gold bodied Willie Gunn or pot bellied pig. As the water temps are cooling down it may pay you to fish onto the pool tails as not all salmon are concentrated in the necks of the pools now-pool tails can be productive for intercepting running fish. Fish hard and persevere and you may get your rewards if you are in the right place at the right time when fish come on the take. I know it can be disheartening for anglers watching dozens of salmon leaping around them and not one of them is inclined to take their fly at that time. However salmon can come on the take when something triggers a change, air pressure, river level, other activity from fish; anglers like to speculate however it pays to persevere when fish are present in your beat. Prospects are looking good for continued sport.

I would like to remind anglers that the Park Trophy is awarded annually for the largest rod caught salmon that is verified from the River Dee. It was won last year by Jesper Holm Nielsen with a salmon of over 30lbs from Dess. This year the largest verified salmon has been reported by Borrowston Ghillie Bill Palmer for a fish of 36lbs landed by Mr Judson, netted and photographed by Bill Palmer. There have been quite a number of good sized salmon reported most weeks and it may still be possible for a salmon of that size or bigger to be caught before the season finishes so good luck to all anglers. I would also like to advise that there is good rod availability on the FishDee website for the remaining 8 weeks of the season so please ensure you book some fishing now and give yourself every opportunity of catching potentially the Park trophy winning salmon. 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 September 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Rainfall was not in short supply last week and thankfully salmon sport was better than I expected given the wildly fluctuating river levels during the week that saw the gauge at Park peak at over 6 ft on Saturday morning. As I write FishDee beats have reported 259 salmon and 12 sea trout for the week with perhaps some late additions to follow. A notable feature last week apart from big water levels were big fish captures with every day seeing the largest salmon of the day over 20 lbs. Crathie reported a super 41 salmon and grilse for the week, Park 38, Aboyne Castle 17 with both Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld and Tilbouries reporting 15 salmon and grilse. There are still sea liced silver salmon entering the river as evidenced by the nice picture Keith Cromar, head Ghillie at Park sent me of TV celebrity Paul Whitehouse with a fine 18lb cock fish. As always, many thanks to the Ghillies and anglers who have written providing feedback to share.

Firstly Bjorn Riise from Norway provided some comments about his parties fishing week and advised ‘Just back from the annual Dee autumn trip. This time we fished Waterside & Ferrar with 2 rods on wed, and then added Deecastle, Dinnet and 3 more rods thu-sat. Wednesday was very windy with the water on the high side, but we managed to beach 2 good sized salmon from Waterside pool. The biggest one estimated to be 17-18 lbs. On Thursday the sun was shining most of the day, but I managed a fat hen around 7 lbs from Red Brae and one of the other rods landed a nice fish from Upper Kirks. On the first part of the Friday the weather was grey, and the river continued to drop. This brought the fish on the take, but they were “coming short” as you Scotsmen say. So in addition to landing 2 fish (Pol Slachd and Cobbles I believe), we lost 7 (I lost 4 myself). It rained hard Friday night, and our hopes were very low when we barely could see the gauge below Dinnet Bridge on Saturday morning. But the brilliant new Ghillie on Dinnet (Euan Reid) said that we still had some fishable pools, so Sandy Bay, Boat Pool, Pol Ba and Waterside Pool were fished – with great success. We had 1 fish out of Pol Ba, 1 out of Sandy Bay and no less than 8 fish out of the Boat pool on Dinnet. 1 brown trout, two sea trout, 1 skinny little grilse and the rest were fish in the 6- 11 lbs range. And thanks to excellent guiding from the Ghillie, both our 2 new rods, Christoffer Ostvik and Rune Haglund, landed their first sea trout and their first salmon while fly-fishing that afternoon. Sverre Einersen also had a successful visit. In fact all rods caught fish on the Saturday. We also had the pleasure of having Englishman Dave Hatwell as a guest for 3 days, and he managed to land 3 fish in total, with 2 on the Saturday. It’s also interesting to note that all fish on Saturday took just 1 to 3 meters from the bank, on tube-flies fished quite deep. It should come as no surprise that we’re already looking forward to our next trip to the Aberdeenshire Dee.’ Ghillie Euan Reid also advised that Matthew Brown fishing with Dad Sandy Brown had a 6lbs fish.

Paul Whitehouse with a fine sea liced autumn cock fish

Crathie Ghillie Archie Hay very kindly supplied some notes about the fantastic sport that was enjoyed at Crathie where they had their best weeks fishing of the season. Archie comments ‘Just a short note about last week’s fishing at Crathie. We had a fantastic week catching a total of 41 salmon and grilse plus 1 sea trout of 4lbs, largest fish of the week was caught by Dr John Lewis, a fine 26lber on the Wednesday. Top rod of the week went to Mr George Renwick fishing only 4 days who caught 16 salmon, largest 14lbs using a fast sink tip and an Admiral Nelson 1" tube. Miss Charlotte Stone accounted for 5, her biggest a 24lber fishing a fast sink tip and size 8 Ally's Shrimp, which also brought up the 300th of the season, Mr Kenny Scott had 5, biggest 19lbs plus the sea trout. Mr Ian Hill caught 4 on Friday, and on Saturday Mr Simon Sharp caught his first salmon of 5lbs. I accounted for 4, largest 19lbs, with other successful rods being Mr Mike Lane 14lb and Mr Alan Lankshear 12lbs.’ Many thanks Archie for your report. Crathie are having a very productive season where they have so far landed 324 salmon which compares very favourably with their 5 year average of 218 salmon. Keith Cromar, as mentioned earlier advised that the Paul Whitehouse party had 26 salmon and grilse and 4 sea trout for their week. The party led by Paul’s father Harry Whitehouse, are annual visitors to Park, and it goes without saying the group are very talented anglers who always do well during their visit to Deeside.

As we enter the last few weeks of the season there is still rod availability from some of the top beats on the River Dee so anglers should get their fishing booked before the long close season is upon us. Finally I would like to thank the Ghillies for their feedback and ask anglers to pass on any stories, news or anecdotes they wish to share. 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 September 2011.

Beat catches reported(week ending 17th September)
SALMON & GRILSE: Kingcausie 9, Culter 3, Altries and Lower Drum 7, Middle Drum 3, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 8, Tilbouries 15, Park 38, Lower Crathes and W Durris 10, Crathes 2, Invery 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 3, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 6, Woodend 2, Commonty 9, Sluie 4, Ballogie 14, Borrowston 6, Kincardine 1, Carlogie 8, Lower Dess 7, Upper Dess 5, Birse 1, Aboyne Water 8, Aboyne Castle 17, Craigendinnie 2, Dinnet 8, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 15, Crathie 41, Heughhead 5.
Total: 259 Largest: Crathie 26lbs
SEA TROUT: Upper Drum and Lower Durris 1, Park 2, Sluie 1, Ballogie 1, Lower Dess 2, Aboyne Castle 1, Dinnet 2, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 1, Crathie 1.
Total: 12 Largest: Crathie 4lbs
TROUT: None reported

Prospects

This could be a good weeks fishing for anglers on Deeside with weather forecasters suggesting less rain than last week’s rainfall amounts. That said the winds could be challenging for anglers with some days seeing perhaps fresh to strong winds which will make the air feel cool. Air temperature maxima will be around 17 degrees and dropping a bit as the week progresses. The maritime influence sees high tides falling back from 3.7 metres to 3.4 metres on Wednesday and rising to 4.3 metres on Sunday. River levels are on the high side with the Sepa gauges sitting at 1ft 5 inches at Mar Lodge and 3ft 6 inches at Park. The river is full of fish from top to bottom with good catches being made in top, middle and lower beats last week. New fish are still coming forward off the tide in reasonable numbers. As river temperatures are falling more fish will come on the take.

Phil Walker with a big autumn cock fish

I would strongly advise visiting anglers to heed the wise advice of beat Ghillies who will do their best to put anglers onto taking fish. Ghillies will advise anglers about what lines to use and flies to fish with as well as what parts of their pools fish may take a well presented fly. If you don’t have the services of a Ghillie to call on for advice then perhaps you will fish with a sink tip line or intermediate line and get the fly down a bit from the surface. As there are big fish being caught daily do not fish with a light leader, a shortish leader of around 4-5 feet 15lbs breaking strain or more would be advisable. Fly choice may include the red or orange Ally’s shrimp, Park Shrimp, Red Frances tube fly with a sunken sunray shadow or monkey fly an option to try. Perseverance is required as salmon may be seen in good numbers but may appear to be reluctant at times to take the fly, a comment I have heard so many times this season.

I would like to remind anglers that the Park Trophy is awarded annually for the largest rod caught salmon that is verified from the River Dee. It was won last year by Jesper Holm Nielsen with a salmon of over 30lbs from Dess. This year the largest verified salmon has been reported by Borrowston Ghillie Bill Palmer for a fish of 36lbs landed by Mr Judson, netted and photographed by Bill Palmer. There have been quite a number of good sized salmon reported most weeks and it may still be possible for a salmon of that size or bigger to be caught before the season finishes so good luck to all anglers. I would also like to advise that there is rod availability on classic beats on the FishDee website during the remaining few weeks of the season so please ensure you book some fishing now and give yourself every opportunity of catching potentially the Park trophy winning salmon before the long close season is upon us. 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 September 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

As I write FishDee beats have reported 300 salmon and grilse for the week which may rise with late reports. Park reported 37, Aboyne castle (a 2 rod beat) 23, Culter 19 and Crathie 18 with another 6 beats in double figures. Largest reported salmon were 24lbs at Deecastle and Crathie. River levels still fluctuated with a number of rises and this may have curtailed catches a bit. There is a big head of fish in the river at the moment and it appears there was not a lot of new fish running last week on the neap tides.
As always I am grateful for feedback from anglers and Ghillies and I have received a number of reports I can share with readers.

Firstly Mr John Murray from Anstruther e-mailed me and commented ‘The Anstruther Angling Club have just had their annual two weeks fishing on Aboyne Castle. This is the 28th year the club has been fishing the beat. At times the fishing was difficult with high water and some very strong winds. Nevertheless we managed 17 salmon/grilse and one sea-trout for the first week and 23 salmon/grilse and two sea-trout for the second week. Notable catches were Dr Stuart Gray and Gordon McKay with sea liced fish, David Dick a 23lbr and a red letter day for Stuart Murray with 8 salmon and a sea trout on Friday past including a 20lbr. I myself had the honour of landing the 200th fish from the beat this year. Successful flies were the monkey, and a raffia shrimp fly first shown to us by ghillie Alec Coutts who often tied one up on the river bank and encouraged us to give it a cast. We are as always very grateful to the Humphrey family for allowing us to fish a well sought after beat and to Alec for his advice and company.’ Dinnet proprietor Edward Humphrey commented ‘Another successful week on Aboyne Castle with Anstruther Angling Club members following up 17 salmon for the previous week with 23 for last week, not bad for a 2 rod beat. David Dick landed the biggest fish at 23lbs and Stuart Murray also landed a 20 pounder, both out of Tanar Mouth. Stuart’s fish was one of 8 he landed to his own rod that day and together with the 4 that Davie Dick landed was the beat’s most productive day of the season. The previous day John Murray, Secretary of the Angling Club, caught the 200th fish for the beat and all fish were caught in either a Monkey or a Basil Shrimp.’

David Golder with a fresh autumn salmon at Park.

Archie Hay advised that the Ford party had an enjoyable week which is split between hill and river and he commented ‘We had 18 salmon and grilse last week with Mr Keyser top rod with 8 salmon. General Palmer had a big 24 lb salmon from Craigenrhur on a cascade. I had a 21 lb salmon from Polmonier and Mrs Caroline Ford 20 lb salmon from Keiloch. It’s pleasing to see so many big fish in the river this year.’

Mads Pederson who is a fine Ghillie, and experienced global salmon fisherman at Culter advised ‘We had some good sport at times last week with 14 salmon for the first 3 days to regular Culter anglers. Two anglers had four fish on Friday. There is not a lot of new fish coming forward though and we only had one grilse, a nice sea liced fish of 5lbs. Hopefully with tides building we will see new fish coming forward. If it gets warm we shall encourage anglers to fish with longer leaders and small black flies.’

Keith Cromar at Park commented ‘We had a mixed bag with fresh and coloured fish through the week and steadily picked away. Most of the fish caught were cock fish and we did see pods of small grilse going through the beat first thing in the morning and last thing at night. This helped stir the pools up a bit as the pools are full of fish.’ I also received a note from Jim Coates who advised ‘Attached is a picture of David Tilly Golder with his 3rd ever salmon, a real brute weighing in at 22.5lbs. David caught the fish in the Durris stream at Park. During the tremendous fight I was just psyching myself up to tail the fish when Bert Webster appeared with his extra large net. Bert is a fine Ghillie with many talents, not least of which is his immaculate timing.’
As the fishing season draws to a close for the upper beats this week there are rods available for lower beats on FishDee if anglers are wishing to source fishing before the close season is upon us. We will hopefully see new fish coming forward to ensure angler fishing the lower beats have enjoyable sport. Finally I would like to thank the Ghillies for their feedback and ask anglers to pass on any stories, news or anecdotes they wish to share. 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 September 2011.

Beat catches reported
(week ending 24th September)
SALMON & GRILSE: Blairs 4, Kingcausie 15, Culter 19, Altries and Lower Drum 13, Middle Drum 4, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 13, Tilbouries 9, Park 37, Lower Crathes and W Durris 13, Crathes 6, Invery 5, Lower Blackhall 2, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 11, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 6, Woodend 3, Commonty 4, Sluie 4, Ballogie 7, Borrowston 4, Kincardine 4, Carlogie 12, Lower Dess 2, Birse 2, Aboyne Water 8, Aboyne Castle 23, Craigendinnie 4, Dinnet 14, Deecastle 9, Headinch and Cambus O'May 5, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 8, Crathie 18, Mar Lodge 2, Heughhead 9.
Total: 300 Largest: Deecastle & Crathie 24lbs
SEA TROUT: Culter 3, Tilbouries 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 3, Ballogie 2, Borrowston 1, Aboyne Water 1, Aboyne Castle 2, Heughhead 2.
Total: 15 Largest: Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 3lbs
TROUT: Heughhead 1. Total: 1.

Prospects

I thought I was hearing things when a lady told me on Saturday whilst visiting Glasgow that we were going to see a heat wave arrive this week. Alas she appears to be correct as the weather forecasters are predicting a rise in temperatures this week to perhaps 23 degrees Celsius or more. This warm air should arrive on Wednesday and continue through the weekend. How this impacts on angling is difficult to predict; if its bright fishing may be dour, but if it is cloudy and overcast fish may respond to small flies fished on longer leaders. The maritime influence sees tides building to 4.8 metres on Thursday and Friday before starting to drop back and this should bring new fish forward if they chose to run the river. There was a small overnight rise in river levels up the top of the valley which sees the Sepa gauge at Mar Lodge running at 1ft 4 inches, Ballater is 1ft 9 inches and Park 1 ft 4 inches. There doesn’t appear to be much rainfall predicted this week but high air temperatures just may produce a thundery downpour. It could be breezy at times as the southerly winds arrive with Wednesday perhaps seeing blustery conditions.

I suspect perseverance will be called for this week as fish may be on the move. As daylight hours are shortening and it is dark around 7.30 pm fish may get on the move at dusk. It may pay anglers to fish on until dark when local colour goes. Please consult your Ghillie about what tactics to employ as they will know best on how to go about finding a taking fish on their beat. The ones I have spoken to this morning are suggesting as the river temperature rises this week to fish with longer leaders and small dark flies like the Stoats tail, Crathie fly, Arndilly Fancy and Tosh. Some ghillies swear by the effectiveness of small red or black Frances flies. A small lightly dressed monkey fly or silver shrimp might also be worth a try. If you are in the right place at the right time and salmon do come on the take you could do well.

I would like to remind anglers that the Park Trophy is awarded annually for the largest rod caught salmon that is verified from the River Dee. It was won last year by Jesper Holm Nielsen with a salmon of over 30lbs from Dess. This year the largest verified salmon has been reported by Borrowston Ghillie Bill Palmer for a fish of 36lbs landed by Mr Judson, netted and photographed by Bill Palmer. There have been quite a number of good sized salmon reported most weeks and it may still be possible for a salmon of that size or bigger to be caught before the season finishes so good luck to all anglers. I would also like to advise that there is good rod availability on the FishDee website for the remaining 2 weeks of the season on lower beats so please ensure you book some fishing now and give yourself every opportunity of catching potentially the Park trophy winning salmon. 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 September 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

As I write FishDee beats have reported 220 salmon and grilse for the week and 7 sea trout with perhaps some more to be reported later. Upper Drum reported 41 for the week which was an excellent number; Carlogie reported 19 and Park 18. The upper Dee beats have now closed for the season with beats below Aboyne fishing until October the 15th during the season extension. The heat wave that arrived midweek put the brakes on fish catches nevertheless fishing was pretty good during the week. I haven’t received any feedback from anglers this week however I am grateful for reports from some of the beats.

Firstly Jim Paton, Ghillie from Upper Drum and Lower Durris advised ‘We had a very good weeks sport with 41 salmon and grilse for the week. Peter Brown, a regular to the beat was top rod for the week with 13 salmon closely followed by George West. Proprietor Jim Gray had 5 to his own rod. George tied a new shrimp fly which did tremendously well with 25 salmon being caught on it. The river height last week also was ideal for our pools which also helped our catches. We had a mixture of fresh and coloured fish for the week with the biggest at 18lbs.’

Ballogie estates head Ghillie Sean Stanton gave me a call and advised ‘Peter Lonsdale was back for the week with a party of anglers fishing Ballogie and Carlogie. Peter had an excellent weeks sport with 18 salmon and grilse to his own rod for the 5 days he fished. I was delighted to fish his rod on Saturday and had my biggest salmon to date at 21lbs. Peter had 2 salmon over 20lbs and an 18 lb salmon amongst his catch which were all made on a half inch Black Frances tube fly. Peter is a great stalwart of the Dee and has had about 6 weeks on the river this year.’

Edward Humphrey the proprietor for Dinnet and Aboyne Castle beats wrote today and commented ‘Now the season is over in the Upper Dee, I can report that the 230 salmon & grilse caught on Dinnet this year represents the best season since 1988, an excellent first season for my new Ghillie, Euan Reid. Aboyne Castle could not quite match last year’s total, but a catch this year of 218 salmon & grilse is very respectable for a 2 rod beat. My thanks again to Alec Coutts for his efforts throughout the season, including scale sampling, a very high percentage of fish caught.’

As the fishing season draws to a close for the upper beats this week there are rods available for lower beats on FishDee if anglers are wishing to source fishing before the close season is upon us. We will hopefully see new fish coming forward to ensure angler fishing the lower beats have enjoyable sport. Finally I would like to thank the Ghillies for their feedback and ask anglers to pass on any stories, news or anecdotes they wish to share. 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 October 2011.

Prospects

The weekend saw more rainfall on Deeside which caused the levels to rise over the weekend. This rainfall will have freshened up the river and hopefully will encourage some late running fish to come forward into the lower and middle beats. The Sepa gauges are running at 1ft 1 inch at Mar Lodge and 2 foot at Park. The maritime influence sees tides dropping from 4.0 metres in Aberdeen to 3.5 metres in mid week and rising again to 3.9 metres by the weekend. The weather forecast is more autumnal following last week’s heat wave with air temperature maxima forecast to be around 17 degrees Celsius. It will become cooler with blustery winds and showers throughout the week with perhaps more persistent rain on Wednesday. The long range forecast is indicating potential for evening frosts and snow on the mountains so winter is not far away now. Hopefully with the river starting to cool again catches will rise during the week but as always the salmon has the final say.

The Ghillies will be looking forward to the end of the season and the opportunity to perhaps enjoy a nice holiday, but will be trying extremely hard as always to put anglers onto taking fish. As always heed their wise counsel as they know best about what tactics to employ when fishing their water. There is no shortage of salmon in the river however just because you see many fish does not necessarily mean they will be easy to catch. Persistence will be called for and as always it may pay to fish until dark with the last hour of daylight being the most productive. If you don’t have the services of a Ghillie to call on then perhaps you would be wise to fish with an intermediate line and a small tube fly. Patterns that find favour with fishermen at this time of year include Red and Black Frances, Cascade, Tosh, red or orange Flamethrowers and Ally’s shrimps.

I would like to remind anglers that the Park Trophy is awarded annually for the largest rod caught salmon that is verified from the River Dee. It was won last year by Jesper Holm Nielsen with a salmon of over 30lbs from Dess. This year the largest verified salmon has been reported by Borrowston Ghillie Bill Palmer for a fish of 36lbs landed by Mr Judson, netted and photographed by Bill Palmer. There have been quite a number of good sized salmon reported most weeks and it may still be possible for a salmon of that size or bigger to be caught before the season finishes so good luck to all anglers. I would also like to advise that there is good rod availability on the FishDee website for the remaining 2 weeks of the season on lower beats so please ensure you book some fishing now and give yourself every opportunity of catching potentially the Park trophy winning salmon. 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 October 2011.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

This is the last weekly report for the 2011 salmon fishing season as we enter the last few days of fishing for the middle and lower beats; the 2011 season draws to a close on Saturday. Once all the final results are posted next week I shall produce a season report for the FishDee website, advertisers and mixed media. It’s been an eventful week or as an angler said on Saturday, “these big fish are really coming on the take”. It was a big fish week with 5 beats reporting 25lb salmon in their catches and a reported 30lb salmon from Birse. I also heard of some anglers who lost their fly lines whilst fighting big fish. FishDee beats have reported 342 salmon so far for the week and 21 sea trout, including a late run of finnock. I managed a couple of days fishing at Park at the end of the week and note their catches rose significantly towards the end of the week as the water temperature dropped. Park reported 71 salmon for the week, Ballogie/Carlogie 42, Birse 39 and Culter 24. Andy Hutson landed the 1000th fish of the season for the Ballogie beats and was rewarded with a bottle of Dee Dram from Ballogie Estates Head Ghillie Sean Stanton.

I had some friends fishing at Ballogie and Carlogie last week with Gareth Headland and Frede Hognestad taking the fishing on the beats. Gareth reported that sport was good during the first half of the week but a bit quieter at the end of the week with a much higher proportion of hooked fish being lost, including some really big fish. His friend Wayne Gibbens was fishing at Kincardine who also had some fish but again found a lot of fish coming unstuck. Frede Hognestad, Geir Magne Johnsen and friends had an exciting week at Ballogie with some hard fighting fish reported. Two of their friends lost their shooting heads when big salmon overpowered them. As it was Geir Magne had his biggest salmon from the Dee at 25lbs and as always the lads enjoyed their holiday on Deeside.

Ian Neale who is a well regarded fishing guide, FishFindhorn correspondent visited Park and dropped me an e-mail advising ‘I hope that you enjoyed your couple of days fishing at Park on Friday/Saturday. It was really very pleasant yesterday and what a difference when that wind eased off! I was guiding a couple of my regular clients, Des Dunlop and Jim Bishop for the three days and they thoroughly enjoyed their fishing at Park South, having been there two years ago with me. Jim Bishop had a great morning on Bakebare yesterday and caught two salmon; one was an older fish of around 10lbs. However, the other was a really lovely fresh autumn run salmon of around 15lbs, which gave him some great sport and after quite a long battle was finally netted by Charlie Yates. I got there just in time as the fish was about to be released by Charlie and managed to get the attached photo of this cracking fish which I hope you might be able to put onto your Fishing Reports page. Des Dunlop also caught a couple of fish whilst he was fishing with me at Park south. He had a cock fish of around 10lbs from Greenbanks on Thursday and another small fresh grilse of around 4lbs yesterday afternoon from the Upper Kirks pool, below the old hut.’ Rosalind Chrisp who handles the fishing at Park managed to get a day’s fishing with her guide. Rosalind commented ‘As you know I was fishing on Park South as a guest on Saturday and thought I would drop you a line to let you know how I got on. With my ‘red nosed’ guides help and expertise I had my most successful fishing day so far, landing three fish (2 x 10lb and 1 x 14lb) and sadly losing another which felt even bigger!’

Jim Bishop and Park Ghillie Charlie Yates

I had hoped to visit Tono Puicercus from Lax-A, who had a party of rods on Lower Crathes fishing from Thursday to Saturday. Alas I was unable to get along to see them as there were a number of fishing agents at Park who bring a lot of fishermen to Deeside annually who I managed to catch up with. I was really pleased to hear that Tono and team Lax-A had some really enjoyable sport with salmon to 18lbs at Lower Crathes. I was really pleased to meet up with top angler and guide Greig Thomson from Salmo Fishings, who had a very productive time at Park, as did Philip Black where they had around 20 salmon between them. Philip advised ‘Hi Ken. Nice to finally meet you on Fri. hope you had a few more on sat. Just a short message for your Dee report where I ended up getting 8 on Fri. up to 16lb, another great day on Park with Keith. On Saturday I was on Inchmarlo and got 3 fish up to 15lb, my friend Jim Torbet got one, a nice sea licer about 12lb and Terry Paton the Inchmarlo ghillie got the final fish. We had a great day, many thanks to Martin and Terry. That’s me finished on the Dee this year. I had a great season on the Dee catching 32 fish up to 18lb.Hopefully it will be as good a season next year, roll on the 1st Feb. I look forward to meeting you again.’
As the fishing season draws to a close this week there are still rods available for lower beats on FishDee if anglers are wishing to source fishing before the close season is upon us. We will hopefully see new fish coming forward on the spring tides to ensure anglers fishing the lower beats have enjoyable sport. Finally I would like to thank everyone for their feedback and ask anglers to pass on any stories, news or anecdotes they wish to share. 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 October 2011.


Prospects

The last few days of the 2011 fishing season find the river levels at a reasonable height for salmon fishing and the temperature dropping. The Sepa gauges are running at 1 foot at Mar Lodge and 1 foot 5 inches at Park and the water temperature is between 6 and 7 degrees Celsius. The weather forecast is autumnal with air temperature maxima around 12-14 degrees Celsius with perhaps some blustery days and occasional heavy rain showers. The river levels shouldn’t fluctuate too much this week. The maritime influence sees tides rising from 4.0 metres to 4.2 metres before falling back to 4.0 metres at the weekend. I expect anglers to catch a lot of fish this week providing new fish come forward. Some of the big male fish are coming back on the take so it wouldn’t surprise me to see more big fish showing in this week’s catch return.

Andy Hutson receiving a bottle of Dee Dram from Ballogie Head Ghillie Sean Stanton for catching the 1000th fish of the season from the Ballogie beats

The Ghillies will be looking forward to the end of the season and the opportunity to perhaps enjoy a nice holiday, but will be trying extremely hard as always to put anglers onto taking fish. As always heed their wise counsel as they know best about what tactics to employ when fishing their water. There is no shortage of salmon in the river however just because you see many fish does not necessarily mean they will be easy to catch. Persistence will be called for and as always it may pay to fish until dark with the last hour of daylight being the most productive. If you don’t have the services of a Ghillie to call on then perhaps you would be wise to fish with an intermediate line and a small tube fly. Patterns that find favour with fishermen at this time of year include Red and Black Frances, Snaelda’s and Ally’s shrimps.

I would like to remind anglers that the Park Trophy is awarded annually for the largest rod caught salmon that is verified from the River Dee. It was won last year by Jesper Holm Nielsen with a salmon of over 30lbs from Dess. This year the largest verified salmon has been reported by Borrowston Ghillie Bill Palmer for a fish of 36lbs landed by Mr Judson, netted and photographed by Bill Palmer. There have been quite a number of good sized salmon reported recently and it may still be possible for a salmon of that size or bigger to be caught before the season finishes so good luck to all anglers. I would also like to advise that there is good rod availability on the FishDee website for the remaining few days of the season on lower and middle beats so please ensure you book some fishing now. 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 October 2011.