River Dee Fishing Reports 2012

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

It is perhaps fitting that the recent wonderful Jubilee weekend culminated with a spectacular event at Balmoral with the reported capture of a 50 inch long salmon. Mr Nick James was fishing the pretty 6 mile beat as part of the Woodward Party. Mr James, an experienced angler, hooked and landed this leviathan after 45 minute struggle and in accordance with the River Dee conservation code returned the fish to the river with the minimum of fuss after measuring the fish at 50 inches. He remarked that the fish was a good deep specimen that had been in the river for perhaps 3 weeks. Fishing on the River Dee was steady at the start of the week however a lift in river levels curtailed sport somewhat over the last 3 days of the week. FishDee beats have reported 122 salmon to 48lbs and 57 sea trout to 5lbs. Waterside and Ferrar reported 12 salmon, Birse, Cairnton and Crathie reported 11 salmon and Park also reached double figures.

I received correspondence from Edward Humphrey from Dinnet Estate who commented 'Just to report that Charles Hill's party fished Dinnet and Dee Castle the week before last and had their best catch for 26 years with 31 salmon and 6 sea trout and they even afforded themselves some time off to play golf! There was no lack of effort for the rest of the week but on Saturday evening the party were still two short of the 2010 total. Charles kindly asked me to fish on Saturday night and I caught a small grilse whilst he landed a 10lb fish in Logie but the prize went to Andrew Markland who caught the 27lb cracker in the Glide to round off an excellent week. Sadly no photos are available of the big fish but it rounded off an excellent week for the Hill part with the majority of the fish being shared equally between Charles, Andrew Markland and his brother Robert.' I spoke briefly with Birse Ghillie Doug Murray this morning to ask about the 30lb salmon reported from his beat on Saturday. Doug commented 'Gordon Smith, a keeper at Seafield Estates from Elgin was the angler who landed the 30lb salmon they reported on Saturday. The fish was caught at the Trees Pool and was measured.' Birse is a big fish beat and I am sure Mr Smith was delighted with his fine capture.

I received a humorous anecdote from Kincardine Estate proprietor Andrew Bradford last week that I wanted to share with readers. Andrew advised 'I've just received the following feedback from a Fishing Tenant on our new hut and on his team's (of 3 couples) week's fishing at Kincardine which might amuse you. 'The new Palace on the Bend is wonderful, and the stove was much appreciated even in early June. A barby would be nice, we might bring our own next year, if that is ok by you; otherwise it only lacks a nubile and willing wench to help pull off our waders, and maybe offer to rub lightly scented oils into our weary shoulders after a long day spent battling with huge salmon. The fishing went pretty well much as usual. The girls occasionally dropped a fly into the water between bouts of gossiping, sleeping, drinking, and puzzling over some of the more purple passages of a book they'd found 50 Shades, or some such twaddle, and they caught 5 salmon and 4 sea trout; the gentlemen applied themselves vigorously, continuously and skilfully, throwing a splendid straight line at least 45 yards on all necessary occasions, and caught 4 salmon and 2 sea trout. Despite the humiliation we would very much appreciate being allowed back next year, please.'

Please ensure all visiting anglers sign the Gyrodactylus salaris declaration forms and follow Ghillies instructions. Bio-Security is vitally important to the river, ensuring all visitors are vigilant in ensuring we take necessary precautions and don't see this devastating parasite wiping out our stocks of salmon. If you are not offered one to sign then I would urge you to please ask for one to be provided to you prior to commencing fishing. The new FishDee blog will have reports through the week as I hear of them so please keep me informed of any news FishDee As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.


Beat catches reported(week ending 9th June)
SALMON & GRILSE: Altries and Lower Drum 1, Tilbouries 3, Park 10, Lower Crathes and W Durris 5, Crathes 5, Invery 2, Lower Blackhall 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Cairnton 11, Lower Woodend 1, Commonty 1, Ballogie 3, Borrowston 3, Kincardine 3, Carlogie 1, Dess 3, Birse 11, Aboyne Water 6, Aboyne Castle 2, Waterside and Ferrar 12, Dinnet 7, Deecastle 3, Headinch and Cambus O'May 5, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 5, Birkhall 1, Balmoral 4, Crathie 11, Heughhead 1.
Total: 122 Largest: Balmoral 48lbs
SEA TROUT: Park 1, Lower Crathes and W Durris 3, Invery 3, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Woodend 1, Lower Woodend 2, Kincardine 1, Carlogie 1, Dess 11, Birse 1, Aboyne Water 4, Aboyne Castle 1, Craigendinnie 2, Waterside and Ferrar 6, Dinnet 7, Deecastle 1, Headinch and Cambus O'May 4, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 5, Crathie 1, Heughhead 1.
Total: 57 Largest: Dinnet 5lbs

Prospects

The Met Office forecast for Aboyne this week advises a continuation of the cool weather that has prevailed recently. Air temperature maxima will struggle to reach 12 degrees Celsius and most days will be rather overcast and dull with perhaps the odd rain shower, there is a risk of increased rainfall towards the weekend. The light winds from the north will continue. The maritime influence shows tides dropping back from 3.8 metres to 3.5 metres mid week and then starting to build again next weekend. The Sepa gauges are reading 6 inches at Mar Lodge and 1 ft 1 inch at Park so levels are reasonable for anglers visiting the river. Night fishing for sea trout will perhaps be slow as air temperatures are really quite low for the time of year. Hopefully the next few weeks will see air temperatures increase.

As I always counsel please listed to the advice offered by your Ghillie as they can make a difference to your chances of success. Your Ghillie can advise on where the fish are located on the beat you are fishing and advise on the tactics you should employ when fishing your beat. Your Ghillie can make recommendations about what flies to use and please show them your fly box and discuss the best ones to try. If you don't have a Ghillie to call on for advice then perhaps you will fish with a full floating line or sink tip and a size 13-15 fly on a long leader, and work your fly with perhaps a figure of eight retrieve. The patterns to try may include silver stoats tail, Munro Killer, Crathie fly and black Frances. You may find fish located in the faster streams now where fish like to lie in the well oxygenated flows. At nightfall fish can be on the move and pool tails can fish well as running fish come into a pool. If you don't have the range of flies you need then you can visit the Orvis shop in Banchory, Kincardine O'Neil post office and Strachan's of Aboyne who all have a decent range of River Dee flies available. The catches last week from Altries to Crathie show a decent distribution of fish throughout the catchment and fish are now running the Feugh with salmon and sea trout being encountered at Heughhead.

Please ensure all visiting anglers sign the Gyrodactylus salaris declaration forms and follow Ghillies instructions. Bio-Security is vitally important to the river, ensuring all visitors are vigilant in ensuring we take necessary precautions and don't see this devastating parasite wiping out our stocks of salmon. If you are not offered one to sign then I would urge you to please ask for one to be provided to you prior to commencing fishing. The new FishDee blog will have reports through the week as I hear of them so please keep me informed of any news FishDee As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches


It was a steady week on Deeside with catches well distributed throughout the catchment with salmon landed between Altries and Mar Lodge. FishDee beats have reported 220 salmon and 88 sea trout for the week with Ballogie/Carlogie reporting 29 salmon, Dinnet and Deecastle reported 20 with Park reporting 18. It was pleasing to see some of the lower beats starting to get some decent catches with Upper Drum and Lower Durris reporting 14 and Tilbouries getting into double figures. Feedback suggests there are salmon and grilse running the river in reasonable numbers and prospects look favourable. Sea trout fishing was quite reasonable with Invery reporting a dozen, Kincardine and Park both reported 9 and a number of other beats reported around half a dozen.

I received correspondence from Euan Reid at Dinnet advising 'Hello Ken. This week's report from Dinnet and Deecastle is a good one! This time last year we had a big head of fish in all the pools but they had been with us for quite some time. This time we have fewer resident fish but we have a steady run of fresh fish entering the beat and it is these that are being caught, some still with sea lice. For me, this is the best type of salmon fishing, with success coming from covering as much water as possible as delicately as you can; with the expectation of a pull in every pool from a fresh fish. Notable fish this week were many but I'll select a few- Barry Hannigan 18lb from Ministers, Jeff Featherstone 16lb plus 2 sea trout on a very difficult day for him personally. Jamie Adamson caught a 16lb fish from the Dinnet side of Logie using a very small black conehead and size 20 double! Mike Noble had 6 salmon, Phillip Taylor 4, including a wild 16lb fish from Bruich, and Geoff Stainton caught his first Dee salmon from between the goalposts in the Glide on Deecastle. Unfortunately there was one angler who failed to score, Dick 'fishless' Bradshaw who will no doubt be top scorer next year.' I do wish Dick success on his return to Dinnet as sometimes fishing can see one talented angler being frustrated when everyone else is getting sport.

I was delighted to meet Invery Ghillie Karl Revel this morning who provided an in depth report as always. Karl advised 'As many will know the Invery beat has recently been sold and will now be split, with the upper double bank section remaining as Invery and the lower single bank section being renamed Tilquhillie. The new owners will co-operate closely and will at times operate the two beats in tandem. On Friday Peter Hutchison, back home in Echt, having recently qualified as a doctor, enjoyed a memorable first days salmon fishing. In the morning he adapted quickly to Speycasting with a double handed rod. This in itself pleased him greatly and in the afternoon he put his newly learned skills to good use when he was fortunate enough to catch and release two sea liced salmon of 12 and 13 lbs on a size 12 Munro Killer variant in the Killing Hatch pool. Describing his experience as 'one of the best days of my life,' he added 'I don't know if I'm trembling because I'm cold or because I'm so excited.' Everyone who has caught their first salmon will know the answer to that question. Peter was congratulated by Eddie Sinclair; a regular Dee fisherman who had earlier landed a beautiful 20 lb sea liced fish in Tilquhillie's Floating Bank pool using a self designed size 11 Posh Tosh variant. Eddie and I did caution Peter not to expect success on every trip to the river but we were sure that on this day he was paying little heed to our words of wisdom' Congratulations to Peter and hopefully the first of many memorable salmon fishing adventures.

Peter Hutchison with his first ever salmon at Invery looking delighted

Please ensure all visiting anglers sign the Gyrodactylus salaris declaration forms and follow Ghillies instructions closely. Bio-Security is vitally important to the river, ensuring all visitors are vigilant in ensuring we take necessary precautions and don't see this devastating parasite wiping out our stocks of salmon. If you are not offered one to sign then I would urge you to please ask for one to be provided to you prior to commencing fishing. The new FishDee blog will have reports through the week as I hear of them so please keep me informed of any news this link As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.


Beat Catches ReportedWeek ending 12:08 on Mon 11th Jun 2012
SALMON & GRILSE: Altries and Lower Drum 2, Middle Drum 2, Tilbouries 10, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 14, Park 18, Lower Crathes and W Durris 6, Knappach 1, Crathes 4, Invery 3, Lower Blackhall 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Middle Blackhall 5, Cairnton 10, Woodend 3, Commonty 4, Sluie 2, Ballogie 15, Borrowston 5, Kincardine 6, Carlogie 14, Dess 9, Birse 10, Aboyne Water 5, Aboyne Castle 4, Craigendinnie 5, Waterside and Ferrar 12, Dinnet 8, Deecastle 12, Headinch and Cambus O'May 4, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 13, Birkhall 1, Abergeldie 5, Crathie 4, Mar Lodge 2, Total 220
SEA TROUT: Middle Drum 1, Tilbouries 3, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 4, Park 9, Lower Crathes and W Durris 4, Invery 12, Cairnton 1, Woodend 1, Ballogie 4, Kincardine 9, Carlogie 5, Dess 5, Birse 2, Aboyne Water 1, Aboyne Castle 2, Craigendinnie 1, Waterside and Ferrar 3, Dinnet 7, Deecastle 6, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 7, Birkhall 1, Total 88
TROUT: none reported

Prospects


The Met Office forecast for Aboyne this week advises a continuation of the cool weather that has prevailed recently. Air temperature maxima will struggle to reach 12 degrees Celsius and most days will be rather overcast and dull with perhaps the odd rain shower, there is a risk of increased rainfall towards the weekend. The light winds from the north will continue. The maritime influence shows tides dropping back from 3.8 metres to 3.5 metres mid week and then starting to build again next weekend. The Sepa gauges are reading 6 inches at Mar Lodge and 1 ft 1 inch at Park so levels are reasonable for anglers visiting the river. Night fishing for sea trout will perhaps be slow as air temperatures are really quite low for the time of year. Hopefully the next few weeks will see air temperatures increase.

As I always counsel, please listen to the advice offered by your Ghillie as they can make a difference to your chances of success. Your Ghillie can advise on where the fish are located on the beat you are fishing and advise on the tactics you should employ when fishing your beat. Your Ghillie can make recommendations about what flies to use and please show them your fly box and discuss the best ones to try. If you don't have a Ghillie to call on for advice then perhaps you will fish with a full floating line or sink tip and a size 13-15 fly on a long leader, and work your fly with perhaps a figure of eight retrieve. The patterns to try may include silver stoats tail, Munro Killer, Crathie fly and black Frances. You may find fish located in the faster streams now where fish like to lie in the well oxygenated flows. At nightfall fish can be on the move and pool tails can fish well as running fish come into a pool. If you don't have the range of flies you need then you can visit the Orvis shop in Banchory, Kincardine O'Neil post office and Strachan's of Aboyne who all have a decent range of River Dee flies available. The catches last week from Altries to Crathie show a decent distribution of fish throughout the catchment and fish are now running the Feugh with salmon and sea trout being encountered at Heughhead.

Please ensure all visiting anglers sign the Gyrodactylus salaris declaration forms and follow Ghillies instructions. Bio-Security is vitally important to the river, ensuring all visitors are vigilant in ensuring we take necessary precautions and don't see this devastating parasite wiping out our stocks of salmon. If you are not offered one to sign then I would urge you to please ask for one to be provided to you prior to commencing fishing. The new FishDee blog will have reports through the week as I hear of them so please keep me informed of any news FishDee As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Last week was shaping up to be a really productive week - perhaps one of the best for the season, but the heavens opened and we had a big coloured river on Friday and Saturday that slowed down the action somewhat in areas of the catchment. It wasn't a total washout though as FishDee beats reported a creditable 177 salmon and 118 sea trout. There was some good sport encountered at times and the Ghillies I have been speaking to this morning have been very positive about recent sport and the current prospects. It appears that there were good runs of new salmon and grilse coming in last week before the big lift in river levels, which should encourage another good run of new salmon to run the river. At this time of year if we get water we can get good runs of fish and anglers fishing this week could do very well. In terms of salmon catches the Ballogie beats reported 31 salmon with many lost, Dess reported 15 salmon with many lost, Park and Lower Crathes and West Durris both reported 11 salmon and grilse and many other beats did well.

On the sea trout front, conditions at night were not ideal as the air temperatures during the evenings were on the cool side. That said FishDee beats saw Kincardine report 16 sea trout, Dess 15 sea trout and Park 11. Anglers were catching sea trout as a by catch when fishing for salmon during the day. If we get warmer evenings this week then conditions may be ideal for anglers wishing to have a crack for sea trout with lighter tackle at dusk. I visited the lovely Lower Woodend beat on Saturday morning for a cast and the river looked in really good order until it started to rise.

Robin Kemp with his best salmon ever at Ballogie
I have chatted with some of the river Ghillies this morning who were very upbeat. Eoin Smith at Dess remarked 'We caught a good number of fish and lost quite a few too, mostly sea liced fish to boot. We had 10 salmon and 5 grilse. George Chan from Chester did well and had a good number to his rod. Ian Wilson from the Borders Gun Room did well with salmon and sea trout and I expect him to do well this week. Ian's the inventor of the popular Posh Tosh fly and this did the trick for him when the river rose on Friday night.' The pools have stocks of fresh and river fish and new fish are arriving regularly.

Robert Harper at Lower Crathes advised 'A good first half of the week with steady river levels; alas a big rise in river levels towards the end of the week coloured the river somewhat and fish went off the take a bit. We had a decent week with salmon, grilse and sea trout. Successful anglers were shipbroker Gordon Dickinson and John and Anthea Fielding. Cascades and Shipbroker Shrimp flies did the business for us. I would like to see the river levels drop slowly throughout the week and we should fish well.' It looks likely that we should see decent fishing conditions until at least Thursday evening when heavy rain is suggested.

The Franc N Snaelda does the business on the Dee again
Sean Stanton at Ballogie commented 'We had a good first half, a little quiet spell and then a strong finish to the week with 5 salmon on Saturday at Carlogie. Lots of new sea liced salmon and grilse coming forward which are perfectly shaped and in good condition. The Weir party, who were fishing Ballogie and Carlogie had a good week however we lost as many fish as we caught. Ian Jardine had 9 for his week and also lost 9, with 5 lost on Thursday morning at Ballogie. If temperatures rise as forecast we could do really well in the evenings when fishing for sea trout. We have a good team fishing this week and I expect them to do very well.' Based on Ghillies feedback anglers fishing this week could enjoy some excellent sport. For those pondering a flying visit, then please do as conditions appear to be as good as you could ask for at this time of year.

Please ensure all visiting anglers sign the Gyrodactylus salaris declaration forms and follow Ghillies instructions closely. Bio-Security is vitally important to the river, ensuring all visitors are vigilant in ensuring we take necessary precautions and don't see this devastating parasite wiping out our stocks of salmon. If you are not offered one to sign then I would urge you to please ask for one to be provided to you prior to commencing fishing. The new FishDee blog will have reports through the week as I hear of them so please keep me informed of any news. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

Beat catches reported (week ending 23rd June)
SALMON & GRILSE: Tilbouries 2, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 3, Park 11, Lower Crathes and W Durris 11, Invery 3, Lower Blackhall 2, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 4, Middle Blackhall 3, Cairnton 4, Woodend 2, Commonty 4, Sluie 1, Ballogie 8, Borrowston 5, Kincardine 8, Carlogie 18, Dess 15, Birse 9, Aboyne Water 9, Aboyne Castle 7, Craigendinnie 6, Waterside and Ferrar 1, Dinnet 4, Deecastle 5, Headinch and Cambus O'May 8, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 7, Abergeldie 4, Crathie 10, Mar Lodge 2, Heughhead 1.
Total: 177 Largest: Park & Birse 22lbs

SEA TROUT: Middle Drum 1, Tilbouries 1, Park 11, Lower Crathes and W Durris 6, Invery 9, Lower Blackhall 2, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 2, Woodend 6, Ballogie 4, Borrowston 1, Kincardine 16, Carlogie 8, Dess 15, Birse 9, Aboyne Water 8, Aboyne Castle 1, Craigendinnie 3, Waterside and Ferrar 1, Dinnet 1, Deecastle 3, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 3, Crathie 4, Heughhead 1.
Total: 118 Largest: Kincardine & Carlogie & Birse & Waterside and Ferrar & Crathie 4lbs


Prospects

Good river levels allied to a reasonable weather forecast suggest potentially a very good week, time will tell as anglers tackle a falling river with new runs of fish coming forward. The river gauges are currently sitting at 1 foot 1 inch at Mar Lodge and 2 ft 10 inches at Park-ideal for the time of year. The maritime influence sees tides dropping back from 4.0 metres to 3.6 metres on Thursday and then starting to build again. The Met Office is forecasting a mostly overcast week with air temperature maxima perhaps reaching 20 degrees Celsius tomorrow with light winds through the week. There may be the odd isolated shower until Thursday PM when heavy rain is forecast and then brighter and showery conditions on Friday. It is too early to say how much rain will fall on the catchment on Thursday; hopefully it will not be too much to affect river levels drastically. There is good rod availability for anglers pondering a flying visit to Deeside this week.

The pools are at a good fishing height with lots of availability and new fish coming forward


Anglers will be advised to consult their Ghillie during their stay this week to ensure they give themselves the best opportunity of encountering good sport. With positive feedback this morning I hope anglers heed the counsel provided by their Ghillie who will advise the tactics to utilise on their chosen beat. As we have passed the summer solstice daylight hours are at their longest and anglers need to use their time wisely and don't burn the candle at both ends. If you don't have the services of a Ghillie to call on then perhaps you will fish with a sink tip combination whether speyline or shooting head. Fly choice could include Crathie fly, Franc n snaelda, Cascade, Calvin's shrimp and silver stoats tail. Anglers fishing dusk and into the darkness could get good sport from sea trout with flies such as Stoats Tail, Dark Mackerel, Teal blue and silver and monkey. If you need to stock up on flies you can visit Somers in Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Kincardine O'Neil Post Office, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater where you will find a good selection of Dee flies.

Some of Ballogie Estates Head Ghillie Sean Stantons deadly flies

There is a good selection of accommodations for visiting anglers on FishDee and we are pleased to welcome the Old Toll House in Kincardine O'Neil to FishDee. Irene Ross is mine host and welcomes visiting anglers to middle Deeside. Her website can be accessed here The old Toll House At this time of year anglers need flexibility in the times of fishing effort, with a good place to relax in between hours on the river bank. Please look at the good selection of accommodation providers who specialise in catering for visiting anglers and will make your stay both pleasant and comfortable at www.fishdee.co.uk
As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

The cool wet weather that has prevailed on Deeside for a considerable period continues and last week saw persistent rainfall during the latter part of the week ensuring river levels were above normal summer levels. This helped encourage fish activity and salmon catches were reasonable with FishDee beats reporting 213 salmon and 96 sea trout. Carlogie reported 17 salmon and grilse, Dess 15, Lower Crathes and West Durris 14 with Lower Invercauld and Monaltrie, Kincardine, Borrowston, Park and Upper Drum all in double figures. The largest salmon reported was 22lbs at Balmoral. Sea Trout fishing was steady if not spectacular with Tilbouries reporting a dozen and Kincardine 11. Weather conditions were not ideal for keen night fishing sea trout enthusiasts.

Iain Wilson from the Borders Gun Room in St Boswells continued to enjoy good sport at Dess and sent an e-mail advising ‘Hi Ken, Thought I would send you a few pics of our annual trip to Dess this year. The first one is of Bob Smith, Assistant Ghillie at Carham on Tweed, holding a very fresh 8lb fish, caught in Rossacks on Monday morning. The successful pattern was a Brown and orange conehead, which is called Bobs Golden B's, or BGB for short. The first time Bob used this fly on Tweed, he caught 8 salmon with it; Hence the name. Glad to see it works as well on the Dee. Bob caught a 2nd fish shortly afterwards using the same fly. The 2nd picture is of me with a sea liced fish approx 8lb caught on Friday afternoon; this was caught in the Mill pool at Dess, and was one of 3 Salmon a caught in a short space of time, approx 20 mins. I had caught a small grilse, in the same place 5 mins before, which was successfully netted by Mr Jeremy Clayton. After being released I started again and no sooner was into this fish, fortunately Eoin Smith, Dess Ghillie was on hand to net this one, and Mr Clayton manned the Camera. The 3rd pic is myself with a long tailed sea liced fish caught in Jetties (tail of Mill), approx 8lb, this was the 3rd fish caught in 20mins. Once again Eoin Smith was on hand with the net; as I was clearly on a roll, he was keeping a close eye on me. The Successful fly was a XS Tungsten Conehead Crimp Tube, with a Black and Orange Wing, and Orange Holographic body, fished on floating line and 10ft clear inter tip, water height was 2ft 8",and Water temp 57f . We finished our week with 15 Salmon and 9 Sea Trout, on Thursday and Friday we blanked; I think we were fishing to deep, and too big, the water was also very unsettled over the last 3 days of the week. Thanks again Iain Wilson.'

Visiting Tweed Ghillie Bob Smith from Carham with a nice fresh salmon at Dess

I was delighted to receive an e-mail from Lawrence Hunt this morning with a super image of a nice big brown trout his 5 year old son Joshua had caught whilst out fishing with dad on the ADAA beat on the Feugh. Lawrence added ‘Both my boys are hooked and it really is wonderful for them to be able to enjoy such sport locally.' I can also report that Lower Blackhall proprietor Lawrence Ross was providing fishing today to three teenagers from Banchory Academy; Lewis, Cameron and Alex, have just finished their exams, had been helping clear rubbish from the river bank at Kinneskie and were being rewarded for their efforts by Mr Ross. I was delighted to meet them all this morning where Ghillie Colin Simpson was looking forward to teaching them all to fish. Dinnet proprietor Edward Humphrey dropped into the office and advised that Dinnet/ Deecastle had 162 salmon during the spring period, which was the same as 2008. Given the challenging fishing conditions encountered by many anglers during the spring this was a decent achievement and is in line with the beats 5 year average.

5 Year old Joshua Hunt with a nice 3.2 lb brown trout caught whilst fishing with dad Lawrence from the ADAA beat on the Feugh tributary of the River Dee

Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will take a minimal period to carry out. The new FishDee blog will have news through the week so please keep me informed of any news. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd


Beat catches reported (week ending 30th June)
SALMON & GRILSE: Tilbouries 3, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 10, Park 10, Lower Crathes and W Durris 14, Crathes 8, Invery 3, Lower Blackhall 3, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 2, Middle Blackhall 5, Cairnton 3, Lower Woodend 1, Commonty 1, Sluie 3, Ballogie 6, Borrowston 11, Kincardine 10, Carlogie 17, Dess 15, Birse 12, Aboyne Water 9, Aboyne Castle 5, Craigendinnie 5, Waterside and Ferrar 6, Dinnet 6, Deecastle 6, Headinch and Cambus O'May 7, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 10, Birkhall 1, Balmoral 5, Crathie 15, Mar Lodge 1.
Total: 213 Largest: Balmoral 22lbs
SEA TROUT: Culter 1, Tilbouries 12, Park 7, Lower Crathes and W Durris 6, Crathes 4, Invery 1, Lower Blackhall 2, Middle Blackhall 2, Cairnton 2, Woodend 2, Lower Woodend 1, Sluie 1, Ballogie 1, Borrowston 3, Kincardine 11, Carlogie 4, Dess 8, Birse 2, Aboyne Water 4, Aboyne Castle 5, Craigendinnie 1, Waterside and Ferrar 2, Dinnet 2, Deecastle 4, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 3, Crathie 3, Heughhead 1.
Total: 96 Largest: Invery & Woodend & Kincardine 4lbs


Prospects

The river is running well above summer level as I write and gauges are rising in the lower catchment. The Sepa Gauges are reading 9 inches at Mar Lodge and 3 ft 2 inches at Park. The Met Office is suggesting that air temperatures will rise a bit during the week and may reach as much as 20 degrees Celsius. There will be rain at times during the week with perhaps thunder showers on Thursday/Friday occurring. How this will impact on the river is difficult to predict, but heavy localised downpours can cause discolouration if a lot of sediment is washed into the river from fields. The maritime influence sees tides building though the week from 4.1 metres to 4.4 metres. Providing we don't get any dramatic rises in river levels then fishing could be very productive with night sea trout fishers getting a good opportunity for sport. I am looking forward to getting out to fish later in the week.

Iain Wilson from St Bosells with a nice salmon at Dess

I visited a number of beats to speak to Ghillies about bio security and was able to gather some information about how the beats were fishing. Ghillies were very upbeat about fish catches and numbers of running fish. I always recommend anglers speak to their Ghillie to discuss tactics and fly choice; this advice is as valid today as it was when I first started writing these fishing reports a number of years ago. If you don't have a Ghillie on hand to consult then your fly choice could include Crathie fly, Franc n snaelda, Cascade, Calvin's shrimp and silver stoats tail; perhaps a Ness C in peaty water and a green cascade variant. Anglers fishing dusk and into the darkness could get good sport from sea trout with flies such as Stoats Tail, Dark Mackerel, Teal blue and silver and monkey. If you need to stock up on flies you can visit Somers in Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Kincardine O'Neil Post Office, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater where you will find a good selection of Dee flies. Make sure you have floating lines and some poly leaders to help sink the fly just under the surface.

Dess Ghillie Eoin Smith with successful angler Iain Wilson who enjoyed a good fishing trip on Deeside

There is a good selection of quality hotel accommodation on Deeside with some hotels offering tremendous value for money to visiting parties of anglers. I understand Tor Na Coille Hotel, Raemoir Hose Hotel and Banchory Lodge Hotel are offering special fisherman's rates of just over £50 per night for B&B for stays of 3 nights or more-this is tremendous value for money from these top establishments. Please look at the good selection of accommodation providers who specialise in catering for visiting anglers who will make your stay both pleasant and comfortable at www.fishdee.co.uk

Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will take a minimal period to carry out. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

 

[ken@fishdee]

LAST WEEK

Another week of cool wet weather saw river levels maintained at a good fishing height and resulted with another week of reasonable catches with FishDee beats reporting 195 salmon to 24lbs and 94 sea trout to 5lbs. The biggest fish reported for the week was landed at Woodend but I have no other details about this fish. Lower Crathes and Dinnet beats both reported 16 salmon each which was decent sport as only two anglers were fishing each beat for the week. Crathes and Invery both reported 13 salmon, with Birse reporting 12. The river is not as heavily fished just now as it is in the early spring, which is a pity as there are good runs of fish coming forward, and lots of availability at super beats-River levels are ideal to encourage fish to run the river in good numbers. If you have a chance to come fishing then I would recommend that you come to the Dee to fish.

I met Jeremy Clayton, the Dess proprietor on Friday who reported that he had some good sport with a fine 22lb salmon to his own rod. His last 4 fish caught very recently from Dess have all been over 15lbs which has delighted him.I was also delighted to hear that Ron Low had a fine 21lb sea liced fish from Tilbouries. Ron is the proprietor of the Raemoir Trout fishery in Banchory which is a great place for local youngsters wishing to learn to fly fish during the school holidays as they have equipment available to hire and good numbers of stocked brown and rainbow trout to catch.

Bernard Bimboes from France with a lovely summer salmon at Lower Kirks, Park North

Regular Dee fisher Philippe Koehler from France was back on Deeside staying at the Tor Na Coille Hotel and fishing Tilbouries and Park. He sent an e-mail advising ' Back from The Dee, my friend Bernard and I had a good week at Park and Tilbouries, we fish very hard and manage to catch 6 salmons, 5 were sea liced 1 was not. One was a grilse and the 5 other fish were over 12 pounds, the biggest was 17lbs . I caught my 3 fish with the Frank n snaelda, on a little conehead tube, black and yellow (thank you Mr Sean Stanton!) Marguerite saw you at Tilbouries, she was receiving some casting lessons from Willie Banks, she began salmon fishing this week! We will come back in September and hope we will meet you.'

I also received an e-mail from Sam Harris advising ' Hi Ken, just a quick line for you to consider for your blog, it would make Mark's day if you include it! I had a fantastic day with my father and best mate, Mark Roxburghe at Cairnton today. Mark was my pupil until today, having recently mastered his Spey cast, he put it to good use and took a sea trout and two salmon. Good luck for the future Mark! Thanks Ken, Regards, Sam Harris' Delighted to hear of Mark's success at Cairnton. This is a lovely beat where new Ghillie Brian Brogan I hear is doing a great job with visiting guests. I visited him for a brief chat and was pleased to hear how much he is relishing his role at Cairnton. I was pleased to get the chance to fish for an hour or so in the evening and was pleased to land a nice sea trout of 3lbs.

Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will take a minimal period to carry out. The new FishDee blog will have news through the week so please keep me informed of any news. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

SALMON & GRILSE: Altries and Lower Drum 1, Middle Drum 2, Tilbouries 7, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 11, Park 7, Lower Crathes and W Durris 16, Crathes 13, Invery 13, Lower Blackhall 4, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Middle Blackhall 4, Cairnton 9, Woodend 2, Commonty 3, Sluie 2, Ballogie 7, Borrowston 3, Kincardine 5, Carlogie 11, Dess 5, Birse 12, Aboyne Water 11, Aboyne Castle 6, Craigendinnie 4, Dinnet 16, Deecastle 3, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 7, Crathie 6, Heughhead 4, Total 195

SEA TROUT: Altries and Lower Drum 3, Middle Drum 1, Tilbouries 3, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 1, Park 1, Lower Crathes and W Durris 1, Crathes 5, Invery 8, Lower Blackhall 2, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 3, Woodend 6, Lower Woodend 1, Commonty 1, Sluie 1, Ballogie 5, Kincardine 5, Carlogie 12, Dess 14, Birse 6, Aboyne Castle 3, Craigendinnie 4, Dinnet 1, Deecastle 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 2, Crathie 2, Total 94
TROUT: Crathie 1, Heughhead 1, Total 2

PROSPECTS

The river is still carrying a bit of peat stain as I have spent the day with a flim crew at Glen Tanar filming their beats. The water is at a super fishing height and should remain so during the week unless we get a dramatic rainfall. The Sepa gauges are running at 9 inches at Mar Lodge and 2ft 6 inches at Park,great levels for summer fishing on the Dee. The Met Office are suggesting that there will be heavy rain on Tuesday with perhaps a little bit more rain later in the week. It will be predominantly an overcast week with light northerly breezes. Air temperature maxima will be around 15 degrees Celsius. The maritime influence sees tides falling though the week from 4.1 metres to 3.6 metres. Providing we don't get any dramatic rises in river levels then fishing could be very productive with night sea trout fishers getting a good opportunity for sport too if the evenings stay warm enough. I suspect salmon anglers could do very well this week if we can get enough to come and fish.

Philippe Koehler with a nice summer fish from the Long Pool, Park North

I always recommend anglers speak to their Ghillie to discuss tactics and fly choice; this advice is as valid today as it was when I first started writing these fishing reports a number of years ago. If you don't have a Ghillie on hand to consult then your fly choice could include Crathie fly, Franc n snaelda, Park Shrimp, Calvin's shrimp and silver stoats tail; perhaps a Ally's shrimp in peaty water. Anglers fishing dusk and into the darkness could get good sport from sea trout with flies such as Stoats Tail, Dark Mackerel, Teal blue and silver and monkey. If you need to stock up on flies you can visit Somers in Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Kincardine O'Neil Post Office, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater where you will find a good selection of Dee flies. Make sure you have floating lines and some poly leaders to help sink the fly just under the surface.

There is a good selection of quality hotel accommodation on Deeside with some hotels offering tremendous value for money to visiting parties of anglers. I understand Tor Na Coille Hotel, Raemoir Hose Hotel and Banchory Lodge Hotel are offering special fisherman's rates of just over £50 per night for B&B for stays of 3 nights or more-this is tremendous value for money from these top establishments. Please look at the good selection of accommodation providers who specialise in catering for visiting anglers who will make your stay both pleasant and comfortable at www.fishdee.co.uk

Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will take a minimal period to carry out. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

 

[ken@fishdee]

LAST WEEK

This summer on Deeside has seen cool wet conditions overall which have been ideal for salmon anglers, with river levels fine to encourage new fish forward. It was the second best week of the season which saw FishDee beats break through the 3,000 barrier for the season once the 272 salmon were added to the season's totals. It was an exciting week for anglers on Deeside with some great sport to be had at times. Park reported 44 salmon for their week with their best day of the season occurring on Tuesday when 4 anglers landed 17 salmon. Birse had a good week with 26 salmon and two rods fishing Lower Crathes had 17 for their week. I was out on the river with a film crew producing beat films for 7 estates last week and would like to thank all the participating anglers for their kind help and patience with the film crew. Thanks also go to our participating Ghillies who did a sterling job in helping produce these films, which should hopefully be ready by the end of October to go onto the FishDee website.

Philip Black with a nice salmon at Park, one of 6 to his own rod for his day there
I have received quite a few e-mails in the last week and am grateful to all the correspondents who have written to me. The weekly reports would be all the poorer without your enthusiastic reports; so please keep them coming. Firstly I received an e-mail from Tom Saville, a long time River Dee supporter and famed inventor of the renowned Crathie Fly, featured in this month's Trout and Salmon magazine, in an excellent article written by local angler and writer Ross Macdonald who invented the renowned Park Shrimp fly. Tom commented 'We had a poor week last week on Crathie, the water was peaty all week and I'm sure it puts them off. We had 6 for the week (5 on one day) - all on the Crathie fly! Of course. We're back on August 12th, hoping for better conditions.' Tom has been fishing the Dee since the 1960's and has a wealth of experience and invaluable knowledge which he puts to good use on his trips to the upper river at Crathie. His Crathie fly is a great all rounder and ideal for the River Dee. Paul Huggins also dropped me a line with an image of the 24lb salmon he landed recently at Woodend, a super fresh sea liced cock fish. Paul advised 'Hi Ken, I am a regular rod at Woodend. We have swapped emails etc in the past. I saw your report mention a 24 lb fish at Woodend last week. Please find picture attached. The fish was 40 inches long snout to fork. As you can see it was very fresh and in perfect unmarked condition. The fish took a size 12 editor and put up a very exciting struggle! I was on my own so took this quick snap at the water's edge before slipping him back unharmed. Thanks for all your FishDee work and info, like many others, I am a regular reader. Kind regards Paul Huggins' The beats around Woodend offer superb scenery and privacy.

I also was delighted to receive nice feedback from anglers fishing at Park last week who enjoyed their productive trip. Philip Black wrote with images advising 'Hi Ken, good to see you yesterday, hope all went well with the filming. I'm just sending a few pictures of fish I caught on Park on Wednesday. I had a great day with Jim Reid and Keith the Ghillie. I ended up getting 6, from 4lb to 13lb, all liced. I'm not back up till end of august. All the best Phil.' Philip was most helpful with his colleague Billy at Little Blackhall where we were filming on Wednesday during really high water conditions. I also had news from the aforementioned Jim Reid, who also had good sport at Park. Jim commented 'Hi Ken, fishing was really good, despite quite high and peaty water. I got three on Monday, two grilse and a 12lber, then two 12lber's and two 14lber's on Tuesday. My pal Philip Black got 6 on Tuesday; another two fishers got three each. Most of mine were sea-liced, cracking Dee fish. I was very well looked after by Keith as usual. Take care, Jim'. After a difficult season it is good to hear that Park is producing really good catches whilst not fully let. There appears to be good numbers of fish there now co-operating with the anglers who are fishing there. It's a lovely beat to fish, with at times very productive pools and streams. Current conditions are excellent for anglers fishing the Dee and I hope more anglers will take advantage with the amount of availability at present and come to fish the river. Lots of good fishing this week is available at 12 locations on Deeside and can be booked online at the find fishing page on the FishDee website.

Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will take a minimal period to carry out. The new FishDee blog will have news through the week so please keep me informed of any news. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences.

Beat Catches Reported; Week ending 17:11 on Mon 9th Jul 2012
SALMON & GRILSE: Altries and Lower Drum 1, Middle Drum 7, Tilbouries 11, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 11, Park 44, Lower Crathes and W Durris 17, Crathes 8, Invery 11, Lower Blackhall 8, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 3, Middle Blackhall 9, Cairnton 10, Commonty 1, Ballogie 8, Borrowston 4, Kincardine 9, Carlogie 12, Dess 6, Birse 26, Aboyne Water 8, Aboyne Castle 5, Craigendinnie 8, Dinnet 5, Headinch and Cambus O'May 4, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 9, Abergeldie 5, Crathie 15, Mar Lodge 5, Heughhead 3, Total 273
SEA TROUT: Culter 2, Middle Drum 2, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 3, Park 1, Lower Crathes and W Durris 2, Invery 4, Lower Blackhall 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Cairnton 2, Woodend 1, Ballogie 4, Borrowston 1, Kincardine 2, Carlogie 2, Dess 7, Birse 12, Aboyne Water 6, Aboyne Castle 2, Craigendinnie 2, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 5, Crathie 1, Heughhead 1, Total 64
TROUT: none reported


PROSPECTS

Last week saw the second best week's sport of the fishing season and perhaps it would have been the best had we not had a big rise in river levels on Wednesday that curtailed catches significantly. The cool wet weather conditions that have prevailed look set to continue with most days seeing light rain or showers forecast. Air temperature maxima should be around 17 degrees Celsius with any winds being light and from a northerly direction. By and large it should be overcast most days which allied to decent river levels at present, indicate that this week should be productive for anglers out fishing the river. The maritime influence shows tides building through the week from 3.6 metres to 4.3 metres. This should bring more salmon and grilse forward into the river. There have been good runs of new fish recently and these will hopefully continue to build between now and the end of the fishing season.With prospects looking great for the week it is important for anglers to capitalise on the potential for good sport.

Greig Thompson of Salmo Fishings International with a fine summer salmon at Park

As always listen to the advice offered by your Ghillie whilst fishing the pools on your beat. The River Dee Ghillies are very knowledgeable and helpful and can help in no small way to increase your catch. They will advise on fly choice, presentation, where to concentrate on fishing and at what depth. If you don't have the services of a Ghillie you would be advised to fish with a full floater or a sink tip fly line and leader of perhaps 6 foot plus. Fly choice could include the following popular Dee flies; Crathie fly, Park shrimp, Monkey, Snaelda, Red or Black Frances, Tosh and as Eoin Smith from Dess recommends, any black fly that's one inch in length ! If you need to stock up on flies you can visit Somers in Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Kincardine O'Neil Post Office, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater where you will find a good selection of Dee flies.

There is a good selection of quality hotel accommodation on Deeside with some hotels offering tremendous value for money to visiting parties of anglers. Please look at the good selection of accommodation providers who specialise in catering for visiting anglers who will make your stay both pleasant and comfortable at www.fishdee.co.uk the feedback from anglers about the service they have enjoyed on Deeside has been really excellent. Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will take a minimal period to carry out. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

 

[ken@fishdee]

LAST WEEK

It was the best weeks fishing for the season for FishDee beats with 311 salmon and grilse reported and 64 sea trout. With eight more fishing days until the end of the month it is hoped that the month will finish with a flourish and returns for the month will exceed 1,000 salmon and grilse. Prospects look very reasonable with the Lower Beats starting to catch good numbers of salmon and grilse. Earlier in the season salmon had rocketed through the lower beats to the middle and Upper River and it is pleasing to hear of good catches on lower beats. I have spoken to a number of lower beat Ghillies today who were all really upbeat about recent catches. There are good sized summer salmon and very well conditioned grilse being reported.

Park had an excellent week with anglers catching 52 salmon and grilse. I spoke to Ghillies Keith Cromar and Bert Webster who advised 'We caught really good quality salmon and grilse last week with a good number of fish over 15lbs with the largest 22lbs. Small lightly dressed flies seem to do the trick with 12's and 14's very successful. The Park shrimp did very well along with cascade, silver stoat and Willie Gunn Flamethrower. The ever enthusiastic Majors, Simon Poett and Mike Dunning put their extensive knowledge of the beat to good use and had great sport. Duncan White had 6 to 22lbs on his trip. George Buchan, a day rod from Fourdon had 6 for his day. Best day of the week saw 21 landed between North and South banks with quite a lot of fish hooked and lost nover and above. Considering there was not a full complement of rods fishing this was a good result with a lot more fish caught than were being seen. Conditions are looking really ideal now for anglers here with levels dropping to a height that encourages fish to stop at Park.'

Jim Coates who had a 5 salmon and a sea trout for his day at Ballogie

Robert Harper at Lower Crathes advised 'The Fielding party had an excellent week with 25 salmon and grilse to 20lbs. They had an excellent first half of the week with 19 for the first 3 days before the river rose significantly and sport quietened down. Anthea Fielding had an excellent 20lb salmon on Saturday to round of an excellent week.' I also chatted with Brian Sim at the lovely Crathes beat who commented 'We had a good week with 23 nice salmon and grilse to 16lbs. Mr Vincente Gonzalez had a fantastic weeks fishing with 14 fish for the week on small size 14 Cascades fished on a variety of sink tips off a floating line to suit water heights. We have had 3 already this morning which is a super start to the week.' Eoin Smith at Dess advised 'We had a good week with 13 salmon being caught by the Somerville party. Ross Somerville had 3 fish on Monday which set us up nicely for the week.'

I received an e-mail from Dave Hartley commenting about his recent trip to the pretty Aboyne Castle beat. Dave commented 'Two of us had 3 days on Aboyne Castle last week. Ghillie Alec Coutts put me straight on to the fish and we had a superb 14lber in the first hour, thanks to my red-headed Norham Butcher fly. The river was at a good full height and the fish weren't showing, but we knew they were there. Later in the day my pal had a respectable smaller fish so we felt the pressure was off. Next day we fished hard under Alec's guidance, but despite tweaks and pulls we failed to score. That night there was a lot of rain and the river was quite high but Alec was able to guide us to the only really fishable place at that height. Again, a few pulls but nothing on the bank. Late in the day, as the river was dropping he moved us to another pool which was coming into play - again, pulls and 'releasing at distance' as we call it, all good fun. Two friends arrived to fish the second part of the week, and as always, we missed the best water and it was going to be good for them. (should have been here last week etc.). I heard later they had 3 excellent fish (1 better than mine), and as is good form, released a few 'at distance'. We all had a thoroughly enjoyable time thanks to Alec's invaluable help and guidance, and look forward to a return visit.' Alec is a very popular and knowledgeable Ghillie who offers great advice to visiting anglers.

Super summer salmon like these are running in excellent numbers

Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will only take a minimal period to carry out. The new FishDee blog will have news through the week so please keep me informed of any news. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences.

Beat Catches Reported:Week ending 14:02 on Mon 16th Jul 2012
SALMON & GRILSE: Altries and Lower Drum 5, Middle Drum 1, Tilbouries 24, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 10, Park 52, Lower Crathes and W Durris 25, Knappach 2, Crathes 23, Invery 17, Lower Blackhall 6, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 12, Middle Blackhall 6, Cairnton 11, Lower Woodend 4, Commonty 10, Sluie 6, Ballogie 13, Borrowston 1, Kincardine 10, Carlogie 12, Dess 13, Birse 9, Aboyne Water 5, Aboyne Castle 7, Craigendinnie 2, Waterside and Ferrar 2, Dinnet 1, Deecastle 5, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 4, Crathie 9, Mar Lodge Estate 2, Heughhead 2, Total 311
SEA TROUT: Culter 1, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 3, Park 1, Crathes 3, Lower Blackhall 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Lower Woodend 3, Commonty 2, Sluie 1, Ballogie 2, Kincardine 12, Carlogie 1, Dess 6, Birse 7, Aboyne Castle 6, Craigendinnie 3, Waterside and Ferrar 5, Deecastle 2, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 1, Crathie 2, Heughhead 1, Total 64

PROSPECTS

Last week saw the best week's sport of the fishing season and perhaps it would have been even better had we not had a big rise in river levels again on Wednesday that curtailed catches significantly on the Thursday and Friday. The cool wet weather conditions that have prevailed look set to change with less rainfall and warmer temperatures forecast for the week ahead. Air temperature maxima should be around 20 degrees Celsius with any winds being light. By and large there should be broken cloud most days with a bit of sunshine, which allied to decent river levels at present, indicate that this week should be productive for anglers out fishing the river. The maritime influence shows tides dropping through the week from 4.3 metres to 3.7 metres. Good water heights should ensure more salmon and grilse forward into the river. There have been really good runs of new fish recently and these will hopefully continue over the next few weeks. There is good availability between now and the end of the fishing season so if you can manage to come to fish I would urge you to do so as the river is in good form, with lots of superbly conditioned fish.

Cracking summer fish at Crathes

With prospects looking great for the week ahead it is important for anglers to capitalise on the potential for good sport on your chosen beat. As always listen to the advice offered by your Ghillie whilst fishing the pools on your beat. The River Dee Ghillies are very knowledgeable and helpful and can help in no small way to increase your catch. They will advise on fly choice, presentation, where to concentrate on fishing and at what depth. If you don't have the services of a Ghillie you would be advised to fish with a full floater with or without a sink tip and leader of perhaps 8 foot plus. Fly choice, sizes 12 and 14, could include the following popular Dee flies; Crathie fly, Park shrimp, Cascade, Red or Black Frances, Tosh and as Eoin Smith from Dess recommends this week, any black fly that's half an inch in length –stoats tail should suffice! If you need to stock up on flies you can visit Somers in Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Kincardine O'Neil Post Office, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater where you will find a good selection of Dee flies at good prices.

Malcolm Tocher is back at Lower Crathes this week hoping to land another big Dee salmon like this one

There are a lot of visitors in Deeside at present and we sometimes can have an isolated incident of people fishing without permission. I would urge anyone noticing any suspicious activity to contact the River Office on 013398 80411 which is manned 24 hours per day to deal with such incidents. Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will only take a minimal period to carry out. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

 

[ken@fishdee]

Catches are holding up nicely with over 100 landed for the first two days this week. We have set up a FishDee blog for anglers looking for news updates and more information about the salmon fishing scene on Royal Deeside. Hope you have time to look in. FishDee

Ken

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Another good week of catches for anglers on Deeside with FishDee beats reporting great sport. Some Ghillies advised they have more fish to put on the catches, but at 247 salmon and grilse, and 46 sea trout everyone seems mighty pleased with the good catches being sustained with new runs coming forward off every high tide. Jim Paton at Upper Drum and Lower Durris reports ‘The beat had 36 salmon and grilse for the week, with some real crackers being landed. Dave Wakefield had a fabulous 24lber and Peter Brown had salmon of 22lbs and 20 lbs. The grilse are in excellent condition this year; nice plump specimens. Results were really first class during the first half of the week with the Lower Durris shrimp fly scoring heavily. The fly was designed by George West and has an olive green coloured hackle and tail with silver body; a really great fly.’ That confirms there are some really good quality summer salmon entering the river now in good numbers. All in all we can say that July is turning out to be a tremendously productive one with sustained runs of really first class fish which will see the month produce well over 1,000 salmon and grilse.

Greenbanks-A lovely salmon pool to swim a fly at Park

Robert Harper was able to provide some news from the productive Lower Crathes and West Durris beat. Robert advised’ Malcolm Tocher had the beat for the week and enjoyed a really good weeks sport, with a good strong start to the week. Monday would have been really spectacular but sadly we lost quite a few fish. We had to work a bit harder during the week but we finished strongly. We had some really cracking salmon and grilse and one or two residents that came on. Successful flies again were small cascades and red Frances. Malcolm had 7 nice fish for his week and Mr James had 8 during his visit to the beat.’ My friend Stuart Buchan fished there on Monday night and had 2 salmon and lost another two salmon, including one estimated to be around 20lbs. The beat has had a really good month with over 80 salmon and grilse so far for rods; hopefully sport will continue strongly for the weeks ahead with good catch levels being sustained.

Stephen Hadden with a nice summer salmon at Park

I received an e-mail from Orazio Gatti advising he had spectacular sport on the Dee with 4 anglers sharing 61 salmon for 4 days. Orazio had 29 to his own rod which is a personal best for him from the Dee. He is a very talented fisherman of course and is a regular visitor to the River Dee with his friends. Stephen Hadden from Fraserburgh dropped me an e-mail advising ‘I recently had my first experience fishing the river Dee. I was at Park on the 21st of July and within 1 1/2 hrs fishing I landed this 14lb sea liced cracker. I then proceeded to lose another 3 fish. Needless to say I had a great day out and will most definitely be back fishing the Dee.’ The picture received shows a delighted Stephen with a fine looking salmon.

The Durris Stream at Park

River Office staff managed some success last week with River Operations Manager Ed Third enjoying good sport on Saturday at Aboyne Castle. Edwin kindly advised ‘Ken, Please find attached pictures of the fish I got on Saturday morning, one at 11:30 in Minarloch and the next at 12:30 in Lady Grace, 1st one about 10lb, second a bit bigger, maybe 11lb, both very fresh. Pictures are not great because they were taken from my phone and I was on my own, without a net and didn't want to faff about with the fish too much. Really thankful to Edward and Alec for the kind offer of fishing. Regards Edwin’ I understand River Dee Chairman Ian Scott enjoyed some good sport at Park where he had 3 fish to his own rod for his day and enjoyed further success at Aboyne Castle. I received an invitation to fish at Park on Friday and had a nice sea liced grilse and lost two other fish during the morning. Park has been fishing tremendously well in July with 137 salmon and grilse reported so far. I must try and find out if the final total for July will be a record month for the beat.

Beat catches reported(week ending 28th July)
SALMON & GRILSE: Culter 2, Altries and Lower Drum 3, Middle Drum 4, Tilbouries 7, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 31, Park 34, Lower Crathes and W Durris 23, Crathes 19, Invery 7, Lower Blackhall 3, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 2, Middle Blackhall 5, Cairnton 19, Woodend 3, Commonty 2, Sluie 5, Ballogie 2, Borrowston 6, Kincardine 4, Carlogie 8, Dess 9, Birse 12, Aboyne Water 1, Aboyne Castle 6, Craigendinnie 8, Waterside and Ferrar 4, Dinnet 5, Deecastle 5, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 3, Crathie 1, Heughhead 4.
Total: 247 Largest: Upper Drum and Lower Durris 24lbs
SEA TROUT: Culter 1, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 9, Park 5, Lower Crathes and W Durris 2, Invery 1, Lower Blackhall 1, Woodend 5, Sluie 1, Ballogie 1, Kincardine 2, Carlogie 1, Dess 4, Birse 2, Aboyne Castle 1, Craigendinnie 1, Waterside and Ferrar 2, Dinnet 2, Deecastle 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 3, Heughhead 1.
Total: 46 Largest: Dinnet & Deecastle 4lbs

Prospects

With tides building during the week and regular rain showers, with heavy downpours possible, the river should fish well. Weather forecasters are predicting frequent showers and perhaps prolonged rain on Wednesday and Saturday. Hopefully we won’t get a flood as we hope to install an underwater web camera mid week. The maritime influence sees tides building from 3.9 metres to 4.5 metres. The river height is good for the time of year with the Sepa gauges reading between 9 inches at Mar Lodge to 1 foot 5 inches at Park. This should encourage good runs of new fish off the high tides. Air temperature maxima should be around 18 degrees Celsius with some night time lows of only 5 degrees Celsius. There are much bigger numbers of fish building in the lower beats now and they should continue to fish very well.

Angler gets his wading boots disinfected prior to fishing at Park

With prospects looking great for the week ahead it is important for anglers to capitalise on the potential for good sport on your chosen beat. As always listen to the advice offered by your Ghillie whilst fishing the pools on your beat. The River Dee Ghillies are very knowledgeable and helpful and can help in no small way to increase your catch. They will advise on fly choice, presentation, where to concentrate on fishing and at what depth. If you don't have the services of a Ghillie you would be advised to fish with a full floater with or without a sink tip and leader of perhaps 8 foot plus. Fly choice, sizes 12 and 14, could include the following popular Dee flies; Crathie fly, Park shrimp, Cascade variants, Red or Black Frances, Tosh and Snaelda. If you need to stock up on flies you can visit Somers in Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Kincardine O'Neil Post Office, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater where you will find a good selection of Dee flies at good prices. You can also purchase the 2012 Dalmore Dee Dram fundraising whisky from Strachan’s of Aboyne who have just received a new delivery. They have excellent offers to help clear the remaining 2011 Dee Dram stock with bottles going for under £35.00.

Ghillie Charlie Yates returning a nice sea liced Grilse

There are a lot of visitors in Deeside at present and we sometimes can have an isolated incident of people fishing without permission. I would urge anyone noticing any suspicious activity to contact the River Office on 013398 80411 which is manned 24 hours per day to deal with such incidents. Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will only take a minimal period to carry out. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches


A tougher week for anglers on Deeside, with river levels rising on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, ensuring the fish were more reluctant to come to the fly as freely as they have in recent weeks. Catches reported from FishDee beats are currently sitting at 202 salmon and grilse and 33 sea trout with fish reported from Culter to Crathie. Park has reported 33 salmon and grilse, Lower Crathes reported 27 salmon and grilse and Carlogie 21 salmon and grilse. Catches were distributed throughout the river from top beats to bottom beats. There has been a good grilse run this year and salmon are still running the river in good numbers. July saw an excellent total from FishDee beats with beats reporting 1141 salmon and grilse against a 5 year average for July of 652 salmon and grilse. Sea trout catches have been disappointing this year due in no small part to poor weather conditions. Sea trout sport can be good if the river is low and the weather is warm; not something we have seen much evidence of this summer.

The needle stone rock at Pol Slach'd Dinnet

I received an e-mail from Kincardine proprietor advising of some success for anglers fishing his beat. Andrew passed on the following e-mail ‘Dear Andrew, Just a quick note about a very enjoyable weeks fishing I have just completed at Kincardine. I was fishing with Dia Jones. What a lovely man. Very enthusiastic about his fishing and I do hope I'm still fishing when I reach his age! Ghillie John was very entertaining and knowledgeable which helped me a lot through-out the week. The water was up and down for most of the week and the bright sun played its part later on in the week but I managed to land a 10lb fresh salmon and a 4lb grilse which I was pleased with. Dia Jones managed a grilse and a couple of sea trout. I also picked up a nice sun tan which was an added bonus! Many thanks for the great week and hopefully see you again next season. Kind regards, Craig Fleming’.

A nice salmon being returned by Ross Macdonald

There are a lot of visitors in Deeside at present and we sometimes can have an isolated incident of people fishing without permission. I would urge anyone noticing any suspicious activity to contact the River Office on 013398 80411 which is manned 24 hours per day to deal with such incidents. Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will only take a minimal period to carry out. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

Beat catches reported
(Week ending 4th August)
SALMON & GRILSE: Kingcausie 2, Culter 2, Altries and Lower Drum 6, Middle Drum 6, Tilbouries 9, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 4, Park 33, Lower Crathes and W Durris 27, Crathes 9, Invery 2, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 3, Middle Blackhall 7, Cairnton 4, Woodend 4, Commonty 2, Ballogie 10, Borrowston 3, Kincardine 4, Carlogie 21, Dess 2, Birse 14, Aboyne Water 4, Aboyne Castle 5, Craigendinnie 7, Dinnet 1, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1, Crathie 6, Heughhead 4, Total 202
SEA TROUT: Altries and Lower Drum 2, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 1, Park 2, Lower Crathes and W Durris 2, Crathes 3, Invery 3, Commonty 1, Ballogie 2, Kincardine 3, Carlogie 7, Dess 1, Birse 1, Craigendinnie 2, Dinnet 2, Heughhead 1, Total 33


Prospects


Weather conditions look reasonable this week for anglers visiting the River Dee fishing beats. Most days should be cloudy with the odd sunny interval with air temperature maxima around 19 degrees Celsius and overnight lows around 10 degrees Celsius. There are light winds forecast during the week from variable directions which should not prove troublesome for fly fishers. There is the risk of some rain showers at times during the week but nothing of any note to affect the river adversely predicted. The maritime influence sees tides dropping back from 4.3 metres to 3.3 metres. It is hoped runs of new salmon and grilse will continue to come in and populate the lower river beats in decent numbers. Some of the Lower beats such as Kingcausie, Culter, Altries, Middle Drum, Tilbouries, Upper Drum, Park and Lower Crathes could fish well, but the fish will have the final say in these matters. Make sure you give pool tails a bit of attention as running fish may be lingering before deciding to run on through your allocated beat.

Major Simon Poett with a lovely fresh salmon at Park

Prospects for sport look reasonable for the week ahead as there is a good distribution of fish throughout the whole catchment and grilse are running hard upstream providing exciting sport from time to time. These one sea winter fish can have soft mouths so fish can be hooked and lost all too frequently. As always listen to the advice offered by your Ghillie whilst fishing the pools on your beat. The River Dee Ghillies are very knowledgeable and helpful and can help in no small way to increase your catch. They will advise on fly choice, presentation, where to concentrate on fishing and at what depth. If you don't have the services of a Ghillie you would be advised to fish with a full floater with or without a sink tip and leader of perhaps 8 foot plus. Flies with a touch of red in them will start to take good catches with river fish responding to more autumnal coloured flies. Fly choice, sizes 8 to 14, could include the following popular Dee flies; Calvin’s shrimp, Park shrimp, Cascade variants, Red Frances, Willie Gunn flamethrower and red flamethrower. If you need to stock up on flies you can visit Somers in Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Kincardine O'Neil Post Office, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater where you will find a good selection of Dee flies at good prices. You can also purchase the 2012 Dalmore Dee Dram fundraising whisky from Strachan’s of Aboyne who have just received a new delivery. They have excellent offers to help clear the remaining 2011 Dee Dram stock with bottles going for under £35.00.

Guide Ian Neale with angler Jean Louis Lacombe with a nice sea trout

There are a lot of visitors in Deeside at present and we sometimes can have an isolated incident of people fishing without permission. I would urge anyone noticing any suspicious activity to contact the River Office on 013398 80411 which is manned 24 hours per day to deal with such incidents. Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will only take a minimal period to carry out. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

 

[ken@fishdee]

Underwater Web Camera

Work has got underway this morning at 6.30 am to start to install an underwater web camera to provide live streaming from the river. We hope the location will be one that provides some reasonable amounts of footage of salmon and sea trout in their natural environment. Its the first time that Farson Digital have been able to fit a hemispheric camera to provide underwater footage and it is hoped that the camera will be a great media hit for all involved. The security camera used is password protected and coded to ensure it has no value to anyone trying to remove it. We hope to have live streaming from the River Dee later this week and a link shall be provided at this time to access the live streaming imagery.

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches


A better week for anglers fishing the Dee last week with FishDee beats reporting 221 salmon and 30 sea trout as I write. As I suspected the lower beats saw decent action with sport still being enjoyed all the way to the top of the river system. Park had a cracking week with 62 salmon and grilse where the Ghillies must have been running about like ‘dancing nuns on roller blades’ as seen in the Olympics closing ceremony last night; they certainly weren’t idle. Altries and Birse reported 15 each, Ballogie had 14, Kincardine 11 and Tilbouries and Lower Crathes also into double figures. There were continued runs of grilse and good sized summer salmon. Some grilse have been very small with fish of just over 1lb being landed. The very bottom beats have yet to get stocks of residents and fish appear to be sprinting upriver in a manner more reminiscent of Usain Bolt; much to the Ghillies disappointment. Lower water conditions should hopefully encourage fish to slow down and fill the lower beats.

I spoke to Keith Cromar, Park Estates Head Ghillie this morning who enjoyed a quiet Sunday after the frenetic activity of last week. Keith commented ‘We had a fantastic start to the week with good runs of fish entering the beat. Anglers worked hard and were rewarded with their efforts. Colin McLean had 10 salmon to 20lbs for his two days; Craig Corbett had 9 for 3 days. River Dee regulars Jim Coates and Ron Low also had a couple each. We had a mixture of sea liced salmon and grilse where we had quite a few salmon between 15-20lbs with grilse down to 1lb in weight. Successful flies were the Park Shrimp and Gruinard Shrimp with the Black Frances accounting for a few; the Park Shrimp did very well.’ I also chatted to Kevin Fleming the Ghillie at Altries and Lower Drum this morning who advised ‘The Tony Smith party enjoyed some good sport at times but also lost quite a number, with 15 salmon and grilse landed and 11 lost. We had a mixture of grilse and summer salmon up to 18lbs.The yellow Ally’s Shrimp did well, as did the Monkey fly when the water was bigger at the start of the week.’ I was delighted to hear that the beat is fully let until the end of the season and I hope good sport continues there for visiting rods.

Craigendinnie Ghillie George Murray helps a lady angler with her catch

I was delighted to receive a few e-mails this week. Firstly, Bill Palmer, the beat Ghillie from Borrowston wrote advising ‘Dear Ken, This is the photo of Mr. Chris Coltart. This is the first salmon that he has caught and it weighed 28 lbs. He caught it on an executioner (one of my interpretations) at Mid Hole. He also had another take in the same pool and the fish looked about the same size, unfortunately this one got away. If there is anything else you need to know just get in touch with me. After speaking to you this morning I saw a lot of fish moving about and running. The man who was fishing the opposite bank said there were a lot of fish in the flats, but they were not looking at anything.’ When I visited the beat I did see a lot of fish leaping about and this is a big fish beat with great holding water. I also received an e-mail from Jonathon Woodcock commenting ‘Ken, Last week my family took a week at Craigendinnie. I had fished for 3 days prior to this but my wife and daughter had never fished. We had a fantastic week guided by the beat Ghillie George Murray who was a real star and between four of us we caught 6 Salmon between 6 and 9 pounds, and a sea trout. I attach a few photographs. We had a fantastic week and will be back again.’ George Murray is a delightful Ghillie who is a great ambassador for Craigendinnie. Tom Lumley enthused about his fishing experience at Park advising ‘Keith Cromar was just fantastic - his enthusiasm and professionalism was just amazing, he is an example to all other Ghillies - he went beyond the call of duty to get me a fish, he noticed I wasn't enjoying one particular beat, and moved me around to get me a fish, which I did.’

Chris Coltart with his first salmon at Borrowston

There are a lot of visitors in Deeside at present and we sometimes can have an isolated incident of people fishing without permission. I would urge anyone noticing any suspicious activity to contact the River Office on 013398 80411 which is manned 24 hours per day to deal with such incidents. Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will only take a minimal period to carry out. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

Beat Catches Reported
Week ending 23:21 on Mon 6th Aug 2012
SALMON & GRILSE: Culter 2, Altries and Lower Drum 15, Middle Drum 2, Tilbouries 10, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 9, Park 62, Lower Crathes and W Durris 10, Knappach 1, Crathes 7, Lower Blackhall 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 3, Cairnton 8, Woodend 2, Commonty 6, Sluie 5, Ballogie 14, Borrowston 3, Kincardine 11, Dess 7, Birse 15, Aboyne Water 8, Aboyne Castle 3, Craigendinnie 4, Dinnet 2, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 2, Crathie 7, Heughhead 2, Total 221
SEA TROUT: Altries and Lower Drum 1, Tilbouries 1, Crathes 2, Lower Blackhall 3, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Commonty 3, Sluie 1, Ballogie 2, Kincardine 1, Dess 6, Birse 2, Aboyne Water 2, Craigendinnie 1, Dinnet 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 1, Crathie 2, Total 30


Prospects


With the Sepa gauges running at 5 inches at Mar Lodge and 10 inches at Park we have low water conditions for visiting anglers commencing their fishing today. This is the lowest the river has been since April. Will this last? It is looking doubtful with a number of weather reports suggesting some rainfall during the week. Some forecasters are predicting a risk of thundershowers with high humidity during the week. If we get thundershowers we could get a lift in river levels but to what degree will depend on the amount of localised precipitation that falls on the river catchment. It should be a mild week with temperature maxima around 19 degrees Celsius and overnight lows staying above 10 degrees Celsius. The maritime influence shows tides building through the week from 3.4 metres to 4.4 metres which should bring new runs of salmon into the river. Prospects look pretty reasonable for sport and a small lift in river levels later in the week will set us up nicely for the following week.

George Murray helps another successful angler in Jonathon Woodcocks party

As always listen to the advice offered by your Ghillie whilst fishing the pools on your beat. The River Dee Ghillies know their beat intimately and will help in no small way to increase your catch if you heed their advice. They will advise on fly choice, presentation, where to concentrate on fishing and at what depth. If you don't have the services of a Ghillie you would be advised to fish with a full floater with or without a sink tip and leader of perhaps 8 foot plus in low water conditions. Flies with a touch of red are starting to produce catches with river fish responding to more autumnal coloured flies. Fly choice, sizes 10 to 14 will do nicely, which could include the following popular Dee flies; Park shrimp, Cascade variants including the Ness C, black Frances and the yellow or orange Ally’s shrimp. If you need to stock up on flies you can visit Somers in Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Kincardine O'Neil Post Office, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater where you will find a good selection of Dee flies at good prices. You can also purchase the 2012 Dalmore Dee Dram fundraising whisky from Strachan’s of Aboyne who have just received a new delivery.

Another successful lady angler at Craigendinnie

There are a lot of visitors in Deeside at present and we sometimes can have an isolated incident of people fishing without permission. I would urge anyone noticing any suspicious activity to contact the River Office on 013398 80411 which is manned 24 hours per day to deal with such incidents. Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will only take a minimal period to carry out. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Having just arrived back in the UK after a trip to Barcelona I was informed by some river contacts that things had been a bit Messi last week on the river. At times sport was out of this world and at other times the river was dark and seemingly dispirited, with salmon seemingly as difficult to capture as a refugee at a London Embassy! The culprit was the great British weather which as always can be quite unreliable. I wrote last week hoping that we would get a rise of river levels towards the end of the week to set us up nicely for this coming week. Inclement conditions saw the river levels rising on 4 separate days during the last week; never ideal for great salmon fishing.

FishDee beats have reported as I write 181 salmon to 20lbs and 30 sea trout to 8lbs-the largest reported from the river this season. Park reported 29 salmon, Carlogie 16, Heughhead on the Feugh 15; a super week with Cairnton and Ballogie 14 each. Catches were again a mixture of nice summer salmon and grilse. I received an e-mail from Alex and Kathleen Brown at Heughhead on the River Feugh which I wanted to share, as it highlights what a great resource the FishDee website is for those that use it. Alex and Kathleen advised ‘Good Morning Ken, just a quick word about a new customer we had fishing on Saturday. Graham Bruce, from Fife, booked through FishPal on Friday afternoon and travelled up on Saturday with his friend John, and after a late start as the river was still quite high after Friday morning's rain, they managed to catch (and release) a total of 7 salmon between them, ranging from 2 small grilse to a 10lb fish which is the biggest we have had off the beat this season. That took the beat's total for the week up to 15 salmon and 5 sea trout, obviously helped by large spates on Tuesday and Thursday and that smaller one on Friday/Saturday. This was by far our best week since we started managing the beat. Hope things are well with you, Alex & Kath’ I am sure John and Graham travelled back to Fife thoroughly delighted by their visit to this nice fishing beat.

I received an e-mail from Mr John Walne about a recent trip to Birse. Mr Walne commented ‘Should have emailed you weeks ago but things kept getting in the way. Thought I would just let you know how very much I enjoyed 3 days on Birse back in July. It`s many years since I last fished the Dee (Tweed is nearer home) but 25years ago I caught my best ever salmon (25lb Springer) on the Bruach Pool at Dinnet, so for old times’ sake I decided to treat myself to a trip down memory lane. I hadn`t fished Birse before and arrived (12th July) as it was starting to fine off after heavy rain on the 10th. First morning - a very nice 12lb fish from Irrigation Pool; Doug Murray netted it for me, he`s a great character. Second morning a 7lb fish from Trees Pool and third morning a nice sea trout from Red Rock and in the afternoon lost a cracking fish on Belwade Pool. The river was improving steadily and if I remember right the total bag that week was 26 salmon and about 12 sea trout. Doug Murray was most helpful and friendly, especially on the first day as I was the only rod to score, and he keeps the hut so well stocked and immaculate. By coincidence I booked B&B at Dinnet House so there was much reminiscing about times past - Marcus and Sabrina Humphrey rooted out their old 1987 record book to confirm the date of my prize catch and Marcus even took me down and invited me to wet a line on Bruach Pool - what wonderful hospitality. Having reconnected with your lovely river I hope to return next season - trouble is I`m getting a bit long in the tooth and at 77, three full days solid fishing is becoming more of a challenge so must find someone to share a rod. I`m only a lad compared to Doug at 83! I see from your fishing reports you like to hear how visiting rods get on so here`s one who went away very happy. Best wishes, John Walne, Harrogate, North Yorkshire.’ As so many people remark that their week at Birse is made so special with Doug Murray holding court. It was also pleasing to see that Birse reported the capture of an 8lb sea trout by Mr Gibson.

Mr Albert Sutherland from Fraserburgh dropped me a line advising about a productive trip to Park where he caught 4 salmon.’ My First fish 15lb 11.20 main hut down to pylons beat 4, on home tied size 10 gold Willie Gunn. Three others of 5lb, 10lb, and 20lb all taken between 5 and 7 pm on the same home tied Gold Willie Gunn tied the night before! I was fishing on my first visit to Park with my friend Stephen Hadden who got one at 14lb. ( I took his photo that is on your web page) 6 rods North bank produced 7 fish total and 2 on the South bank. Big thanks to Keith the Gillie who was so helpful and more or less promised the fish.’ As always heed the wise advice from your knowledgeable Ghillie. River Dee Trust director Jim Coates reported he had a grilse, a sea trout and a cracking 15lb sea liced salmon at Ballogie which made a bit of a mess of his Park Shrimp. Jim advises ‘What a great little hook to hang on to such a strong fish. It’s worth paying for good quality flies.’

Albert Sutherland with a fine Dee summer salmon

There are a lot of visitors in Deeside at present and we sometimes can have an isolated incident of people fishing without permission. I would urge anyone noticing any suspicious activity to contact the River Office on 013398 80411 which is manned 24 hours per day to deal with such incidents. Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will only take a minimal period to carry out. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

Beat Catches Reported
(Week ending 18th August)
SALMON & GRILSE: Culter 1, Altries and Lower Drum 3, Middle Drum 1, Tilbouries 8, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 7, Park 29, Lower Crathes and W Durris 12, Crathes 5, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 3, Cairnton 14, Woodend 3, Commonty 4, Sluie 9, Ballogie 14, Borrowston 2, Kincardine 2, Carlogie 16, Dess 3, Birse 9, Aboyne Water 2, Craigendinnie 7, Dinnet 2, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 3, Crathie 6, Mar Lodge Estate 1, Heughhead 15.
Total: 181 Largest: Dess 20lbs
SEA TROUT: Park 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 2, Sluie 2, Borrowston 2, Carlogie 4, Dess 2, Birse 3, Aboyne Castle 1, Craigendinnie 3, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 4, Crathie 1, Heughhead 5.
Total: 30 Largest: Birse 8lbs

Prospects

Conditions on the river could be unsettled at times with forecasters suggesting a strong possibility of some heavy thunder showers and persistent rain through the forthcoming week. Air temperature maxima will be around 20 degrees Celsius and dropping back during the course of the week to cooler more seasonable conditions. Winds may light and variable with the chance of blustery conditions at times. The maritime influence sees tides dropping back from 4 .5 metres to 3.6 metres. The river is at a good fishing height today with the Sepa gauges running between 7 inches at Mar Lodge and 1 ft 4 inches at Park. Fresh fish will be coming off every tide and making their way into the river with good summer fish being reported and smaller grilse.
As always listen to the advice offered by your Ghillie whilst fishing the pools on your beat. The River Dee Ghillies know their beat intimately and will help in no small way to increase your catch if you heed their advice. They will advise on fly choice, presentation, where to concentrate on fishing and at what depth. If you don't have the services of a Ghillie you would be advised to fish with a full floater with or without a sink tip and leader of perhaps 8 foot plus in low water conditions. Flies with a touch of red are starting to produce catches with river fish responding to more autumnal coloured flies. If the river rises don’t be wary about fishing a small tube fly, cone head, pot bellied pig or a Dee Monkey.

A cracking summer fish at Culter with Ghillie Mads Pedersen reporting great opportunities for sport are available at the beat

Fly choice, sizes 10 to 14 will do nicely in lower flows, which could include the following popular Dee flies; Park shrimp, Cascade variants including the Ness C, black Frances, the yellow or orange Ally’s shrimp and Duncan Egan’s Flamethrower range. If you need to stock up on flies you can visit Somers in Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Kincardine O'Neil Post Office, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater where you will find a good selection of Dee flies at good prices. You can also purchase the 2012 Dalmore Dee Dram fundraising whisky from Strachan’s of Aboyne who have just received a new delivery.

There are a lot of visitors in Deeside at present and we sometimes can have an isolated incident of people fishing without permission. I would urge anyone noticing any suspicious activity to contact the River Office on 013398 80411 which is manned 24 hours per day to deal with such incidents. Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will only take a minimal period to carry out. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

As I write this report FishDee beats have reported 235 salmon to 28lbs and 22 sea trout. Fishing was a bit of a mixed bag at times with good sport if you were in the right place at the right time. Park reported 43 salmon, Culter 23, Lower Invercauld and Monaltrie, Lower Crathes and Tilbouries 13 apiece; Crathie and Crathes beats reported 11 each. There were smaller runs of new fish coming forward later in the week but some good runs of grilse at the beginning of the week. Tides are building this week and a fair bit of rain is forecast so we should see some good runs of new fish coming forward as the late running fish do usually come in good numbers as we head into September. As always the fish have the final say on this and we do hope we get good runs coming forward to delight visiting anglers over the next few weeks as we head towards the end of the 2012 fishing season. There are still plenty of rods available on FishDee with prime autumn beats like Park and Lower Crathes both having rods available now.
I spoke to Park Ghillies Keith Cromar and Bert Webster to get some information about the weeks fishing. Keith advised it was a bit of a mixed bag with some anglers doing well at times. He advised Mr Crawford had 3 for his day and Mr Law had 4 for his day; with a small red Ally’s shrimp doing very well. There was a good 42 inch long salmon, estimated at 28lbs landed on Park South by Mr John Kane from Ayrshire. This fish was hooked in Bulwarks and landed down beside the Sheeoch burn some 40 minutes later. Mr Kane had 10 fish during his 3 day visit from a 2lb Grilse to this cracking 28lb cock salmon. All the fish were taken on a size 13 orange Flamethrower pattern; this popular design was created by Duncan Egan and is a highly successful fly.

A good Dee summer fish

Mads Pedersen provided a report from Culter where there were 23 fresh salmon reported. He advised that Stephen Farquhar enjoyed a red letter day on Friday with 6 salmon landed and 3 lost to his own rod. They only had 2 rods fishing each day last week so the catch of 23 was a good return for the amount of rod effort. The beat has good stocks of new fish which should continue to provide decent sport to rods that have booked to fish there. Kathleen Brown provided some feedback from Heughhead on the Feugh advising ‘Here are a couple of pictures of brothers Stan and Geo Youngson who fished with us on Monday and Tuesday and had a total of four Salmon to 10lbs. Stanley said ‘Thanks for a momentous time on a fantastic sporting fishing beat, I am sure we will see you again next season.’ Another customer, Douglas Cameron also had a salmon on Tuesday but I have no more details of it at the moment.’ This productive beat saw 9 salmon reported for the week and offers excellent value for money.

George Youngson with a small summer salmon at Heughhead

I managed to secure a rod with a fishing friend Stuart Buchan on Saturday at Birse where we were well looked after by Birse Ghillie Doug Murray. It’s one of my personal favourites as it offers a good variety of fly fishing water and provides opportunities at times for big fish. I fished a little in the morning in Lummels and had a few casts in Irrigation with no success other than a pull to a Monkey fly fished at the tail of the Lummels pool. Lunchtime saw all the rods gather at the hut for a chat and refreshment. Stuart and I were allocated the bottom half of the beat in the afternoon and went downriver seeking some action. I must confess that I took 40 winks beside Belwade and woke an hour later ready to have a cast. I waded into the neck of the pool and checked my set-up; on the business end, a lovely size 13 Maggie’s shrimp tied by Ross Macdonald-a super fly. I had a feeling of Déjà vu when my first cast saw a beautiful silver ten pound salmon nail the fly. I had a similar experience in Belwade in April when a fish took first cast. I was thrilled to catch such a lovely fresh fish which gave a good scrap before being landed and returned to the river safely. My friend Stuart was also successful in Red Brae with a 5 lb cock fish that was just starting to colour up.

Now we shall see the stocks in the river increase steadily until the end of the season and there is a chance of hooking a fish from 1lb to perhaps over 40lbs. Anglers will need to ensure their tackle is sound, and strong enough to withstand an encounter with a big fish. Large cock fish do become aggressive in late summer. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will only take a minimal period to carry out. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

Beat Catches Reported
SALMON & GRILSE: Kingcausie 2, Culter 23, Altries and Lower Drum 7, Middle Drum 5, Tilbouries 13, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 10, Park 43, Lower Crathes and W Durris 13, Crathes 11, Invery 5, Middle Blackhall 3, Cairnton 10, Woodend 2, Commonty 12, Sluie 6, Ballogie 3, Borrowston 3, Kincardine 4, Carlogie 6, Dess 3, Birse 6, Aboyne Water 2, Craigendinnie 5, Dinnet 1, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 13, Birkhall 3, Crathie 11, Heughhead 9, Total 235
SEA TROUT: Upper Drum and Lower Durris 2, Park 1, Cairnton 1, Commonty 1, Ballogie 1, Kincardine 1, Dess 3, Craigendinnie 5, Waterside and Ferrar 1, Dinnet 1, Headinch and Cambus O'May 2, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 2, Heughhead 1, Total 22

Prospects

With Tropical Storm Isaac lashing Florida we are not short of wild weather conditions on Deeside as I write. Aberdeen saw an inch of rain fall in 30 minutes on Saturday causing no end of problems in the city. We are in for a spell of wild weather with heavy rain and gale force winds forecast for the next day or so. There will be continued showers during the week with really blustery winds interspersed with sunny intervals and some warmth when the sun makes an appearance. An air temperature maximum is forecast to be around 19 or 20 degrees Celsius this week. The maritime influence sees tides building through the week from 3.7 metres to 4.5 metres which should encourage good runs of summer salmon and grilse to come into the catchment. River levels are currently sitting between 7 inches at Mar Lodge and 1 foot 2 inches at Park. There is every possibility we could have a big coloured river if the forecast is accurate.

As always listen to the advice offered by your Ghillie whilst fishing the pools on your beat. The River Dee Ghillies know their beat intimately and will help in no small way to increase your catch if you heed their advice. They will advise on fly choice, presentation, where to concentrate on fishing and at what depth. If you don't have the services of a Ghillie you would be advised to fish with a full floater with or without a sink tip and leader of perhaps 8 foot plus in low water conditions. Flies with a touch of red are starting to produce catches with river fish responding to more autumnal coloured flies. If the river rises don’t be wary about fishing a small tube fly, cone head, pot bellied pig or Dee Monkey.

An example of a big summer salmon that can run the river in late summer-Lower Crathes saw this one landed by Malcolm Tocher pictured with Ghillie Robert Harper

Fly choice, sizes 10 to 14 will do nicely in lower flows, which could include the following popular Dee flies; Park shrimp, Cascade variants including the Ness C, black Frances, the yellow or orange Ally’s shrimp and Duncan Egan’s Flamethrower range. If you need to stock up on flies you can visit Somers in Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Kincardine O'Neil Post Office, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater where you will find a good selection of Dee flies at good prices. You can also purchase the 2012 Dalmore Dee Dram fundraising whisky from Strachan’s of Aboyne who have just received a new delivery.

Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will only take a minimal period to carry out. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches


A pretty decent week overall for FishDee beats with 295 salmon to 25lbs reported and 27 sea trout. There were some good days during the week which was somewhat hampered by a large flood on Tuesday and another rise on Thursday. This coincided with high tides which encouraged a good run of new fish into the river. Park reported 43 salmon and grilse, Lower Crathes 22, Crathie 18, Aboyne Castle 16, Tilbouries and Culter 14 each with quite a few other beats into double figures. Nick Armstead from Edinburgh landed the 25 lb salmon at Park which was reported as being in excellent condition. Bookings through the FishDee website have also been excellent with close to 3,500 rods let for the season. The season to date catch is approaching 5,000 salmon & grilse for FishDee beats and prospects for the remaining few weeks of the season look ideal with a good head of fish throughout the whole river catchment and plenty of good summer salmon coming forward.

James Watt with a personal best 22lb salmon at Lower Crathes

Willie Falconer wrote about his experience at Park on Saturday on FishDee’s Facebook page, which was quite eventful advising 'Just had a great day at Park. Charlie was on form as ever, had a great laugh with Jim, Mike and another guy, I don't know name and a lovely couple from Sweden; sorry I meant Denmark, they will get the joke. Anyway started fishing - wind blowing - water up, and to make it even harder there was a seal chasing the fish, it even swam up to me with a lovely silver grilse in its mouth. Keith and co' managed to chase it downstream so I bet it went to see Willie Banks. After lunch the wind got up a bit and the rain started, around 5pm it settled and after having changed my fly for the 20th time, and had a discussion with another fisherman who thought it would be alright to push in front of me as he was fishing the other bank and thought north bank had priority over south; he didn't expect me to cast all the way to his side. I pushed past him and within two casts bang a lovely 13lb fresh fish covered in sea lice. It took a black and yellow monkey tube. After taking care to put the fish back I fell climbing the bank ripping my waders and snapping my rod. Never mind the memories of the fight took over. I went back to the car and got my sea trout single hand rod and back into the same spot, bang again another fresh fish this time slight smaller, what a fight with an 11 foot rod. Days like this will stay with me forever.' Just a reminder to anglers & Ghillies if they see anything that looks out of place in the river whether on 2/4 legs, finned, feline or with flippers, to please call the river office on 013398 80411 to make your report.

Fiona Martin wrote from Glen Tanar advising 'Georg Reutter whose fishing party have been on the beat for the week commented. 'We were staying at Birkelunn this week for some walked up grouse shooting, stalking and of course fishing the lovely Headinch and Cambus O'May beat. With a good amount of rain at the beginning of the week, the river was fishing well for most of the week. We had several first time fishermen and women in our group and it was great that two of them (William Shirley from Norfolk and Benedikt Traun from Austria) were able to land their first ever salmon. By Friday we had caught 4 fish in total with the biggest coming in at 13lb.We caught all our fish on the Ally's shrimp fly which proved to be very effective for both the larger resident salmon we caught but also a couple of clean grilse that had made the long run up to the upper Dee in quick time. With the week not over yet we are optimistic that we might yet have some good fishing today and Saturday.' I wonder if they managed a MacNab?
Alec Coutts dropped me a note about sport at Aboyne Castle last week advising 'Kenneth Carruthers party had a good week on Aboyne Castle with 16 salmon and grilse plus a sea trout. Kenneth caught 6 and the sea trout. Guest Alex Robertson caught his first salmon and finished with 3 for his day on Monday. Also a first fish for Colin Shand with grilse of 3 and 5 lbs, a converted trout fisherman! David Robinson had 3 and John Grandison one. Cascades, Park Shrimps and Sunray Shadows were doing the business for the party. We had our 100th fish for the season on Friday.' The Aboyne Castle beat is well managed by expert Ghillie Alec Coutts who is much revered for his knowledge and good humour. Lower Crathes Head Ghillie Robert Harper advised me this morning 'We had a really good week for the 3 rods fishing with 22 salmon and grilse landed by anglers. Lewis Gray had 10 to his own rod with brother Jim having a couple, James Watt had 3 of 10, 7 and 22lbs. River Dee Board Chairman Ian Scott a fish and visitor Jim Reid had 2 fish.' The detailed story about Mr Watt's big fish is included in the FishDee web blog with images FishDee As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences.

Beat Catches Reported
(Week ending 1st September)
SALMON & GRILSE: Culter 14, Altries and Lower Drum 13, Middle Drum 8, Tilbouries 14, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 8, Park 43, Lower Crathes and W Durris 22, Crathes 3, Lower Blackhall 4, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 8, Cairnton 16, Woodend 8, Commonty 3, Sluie 6, Ballogie 10, Borrowston 7, Kincardine 4, Carlogie 4, Dess 2, Birse 14, Aboyne Water 2, Aboyne Castle 16, Craigendinnie 6, Waterside and Ferrar 8, Dinnet 12, Deecastle 2, Headinch and Cambus O'May 5, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 14, Crathie 18, Mar Lodge Estate 1.
Total: 295 Largest: Park 25lbs
SEA TROUT: Culter 4, Altries and Lower Drum 1, Middle Drum 1, Park 4, Crathes 1, Lower Blackhall 1, Woodend 1, Commonty 4, Kincardine 3, Dess 1, Aboyne Water 1, Aboyne Castle 1, Dinnet 2, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 2.
Total: 27 Largest: Park & Commonty 3lbs


Prospects

Now stocks in the river continue to increase steadily until the end of the season and there is a chance of hooking a fish from 1lb to perhaps over 40lbs. Anglers will need to ensure their tackle is sound, and strong enough to withstand an encounter with a big fish. Large cock fish do become aggressive in late summer.

Good sport for the Reutter Party at Glen Tanar

We seem to be in for a spell of settled weather according to weather forecasters this week. Air temperature maxima will peak around 20 degrees with the risk of rain showers today, tomorrow and Thursday. It will be quite windy at times so anglers will need to take care with their fly casting. The maritime influence sees tides dropping back from 4.4 metres to 3.3 metres with river conditions still ideal to encourage new fish forward of every tide if they choose to run the river. Sepa gauges are between 9 inches at Mar Lodge and 1 foot 4 inches at Park. Anglers would be advised to have some sun cream as it will feel warm when the sun makes an appearance during the week. There are no frosts predicted this week although we did have a frost last Friday.
As always listen to the advice offered by your Ghillie whilst fishing the pools on your beat. The River Dee Ghillies know their beat intimately and will help in no small way to increase your catch if you heed their advice. They will advise on fly choice, presentation, where to concentrate on fishing and at what depth. If you don't have the services of a Ghillie you would be advised to fish with a full floater with or without a sink tip and leader of perhaps 8 foot plus in low water conditions. Flies with a touch of red are starting to produce catches with river fish responding to more autumnal coloured flies. Perhaps you may consider using a tube fly, cone head, pot bellied pig or Dee Monkey. Some of the big fish may respond to a well sunk Gold Willie Gunn, Red Frances Cone head or Snaelda where they can be lurking in the deep pools of the Dee.

Georg Reutter with a grilse at Cambus O'May

Fly choice, sizes 10 to 14 will do nicely in lower faster flows, which could include the following popular Dee flies; Park shrimp, Cascade variants including the Ness C, black Frances, the yellow or orange Ally's shrimp and Duncan Egan's Flamethrower range-the red flamethrower may do really well. If you need to stock up on flies you can visit Somers in Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Kincardine O'Neil Post Office, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater where you will find a good selection of Dee flies at good prices. You can also purchase the 2012 Dalmore Dee Dram fundraising whisky from Strachan's of Aboyne who have just received a new delivery.

Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will only take a minimal period to carry out. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Lovely late summer weather saw just about everyone in Deeside smiling and enjoying the belated dry and warm late summer conditions, except anglers and Ghillies that is. River levels dropped very quickly during the week and fish became very dour and quite uncooperative. FishDee beats have reported 168 salmon to 20 lbs and 10 sea trout as I write with perhaps some more to be added once late catches are reported to beats. Rising river temperatures and falling river levels are never a great combination for anglers at this time of year, who had to work very hard for scant rewards. Park reported 19 salmon & grilse; Birse 15, Kincardine 14, Dess 13 and Lower Crathes 12. Catches were well down on recent weeks pretty decent numbers.

Visiting angler from Nova Scotia Byron Anderson with a nice fresh fish

I visited Dess during the week to meet Jeremy and Jenny Clayton who had prepared a most enjoyable lunch in the lovely Upper Dess hut. Jeremy had enjoyed some success during his stay. I enjoyed meeting the visiting anglers and chatted with them about the river and FishDee beat improvements and website developments. I was delighted to meet a keen fisherman from Nova Scotia, Byron Anderson who’s a pilot with Air Canada. He enjoyed his trip to Deeside immensely and kindly sent an e-mail and picture. He commented ‘Hello Ken, It was great to meet you on Wednesday. When I booked my fishing through your site, I certainly didn’t envision getting to have lunch with owners of the Dess Beat; super hosts Jeremy & Jenny, and yourself. What a way to cap off an incredible fishing journey. I wanted to say thank you for your FishDee website, as without it, I would not have had such easy access to the information needed for someone ‘from across the pond’ to realise his dream of fishing the Dee. The river lived up to her reputation. Just standing on the bank, thinking of her storied past was a powerful experience. It’s hard to pinpoint a favourite moment of the trip, but a few include releasing a fresh five pound male on my first morning, the Upper Dess ‘fishing hut’ (I felt like royalty), swinging a fly through such a classic salmon pool as Pitslug, and sitting down having a dram of 15 yr old Scotch with Ghillie Eoin Smith, who is one of the finest gentleman I’ve met. Eoin was kind enough to show me his late 1800’s era Hardy Perfect. Many thanks, and hopefully I will see you on the Dee again in the future.’ I do hope Byron makes a return trip with some more anglers from Nova Scotia to pit their wits against the River Dee salmon with their flies. Anglers fishing the Nova Scotia waters also catch Atlantic salmon, and tend to fish with single hooked flies and floating flies called bombers, which can provide exciting surface action for the fisherman.

Dess Ghillie Eoin Smith & Byron Anderson

Dinnet Ghillie Eoin Reid called this morning to advise that Tony Gahagan had his first ever salmon last Monday at Cobbles. The salmon took a shrimp fly fished of a hover/intermediate line. Eoin advised that he waded into he river above welly boot height, got his Tweeds wet and was in his second pair for the day by 10.00 am. But they did get the fish! He advised that the only way to get salmon to take a fly was to fish it well down. Regular River Dee visitor Sean Harvey dropped me an e-mail advising about a recent visit to Upper Drum. ‘Hi Ken. I only did three days at Jim’s. I got a 12 pounder and my son Simon got one about the same size. Mine was on Conray Shadow fished conventionally without stripping, I find that fly works everywhere, Iceland, Dee, Spey etc. Everyone else was fishing little flies and kept getting tentative takes that didn’t hook up. Best regards, Sean.’ As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences.

Beat Catches Reported

Week ending 11:54 on Mon 3rd Sep 2012
SALMON & GRILSE: Culter 15, Altries and Lower Drum 3, Middle Drum 1, Tilbouries 5, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 6, Park 19, Lower Crathes and W Durris 12, Invery 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 3, Woodend 1, Sluie 9, Ballogie 6, Borrowston 10, Kincardine 14, Carlogie 2, Dess 13, Birse 15, Aboyne Water 5, Aboyne Castle 3, Craigendinnie 4, Waterside and Ferrar 3, Dinnet 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 7, Crathie 8, Total 168
SEA TROUT: Altries and Lower Drum 1, Park 1, Crathes 1, Birse 2, Aboyne Water 1, Aboyne Castle 3, Craigendinnie 1, Total 10

Prospects

I note with interest that weather forecasters are suggesting Hurricanes Leslie and Michael may merge this week in the Atlantic and make their way across the Atlantic courtesy of the Jet stream and introduce blustery and perhaps very wet conditions to the United Kingdom. Whether this comes to pass remains to be seen but we could really do with a spell of cool weather and significant rainfall to really freshen up the river and put fish back in a taking mood. Air temperature maxima will be around 17 degrees and falling during the week as weather fronts approach and sweep over the country, so it’s fair to say that it could be quite blustery at times. River levels are currently running between 6 inches and 10 inches on the Sepa gauges-the lowest they have been since March. Tides are building this week from 3.3 metres to 4.4 metres which will hopefully encourage a good run of new fish if they are there to come.

Noel Harvey fishing at Upper Drum

As suggested by Ghillie Eoin Reid, anglers may enjoy more offers from fish if they get the fly down a bit deeper. As we approach the autumnal equinox we expect to see falling air temperatures and rising river levels. Fly sizes can also be increased depending on water levels. Small tube flies may be used to good effect and long tailed shrimp flies. It may pay you to fish well down into the tails of pools where you may intercept a fish which has just run upstream into your pool. As always please heed the advice of the Ghillie who really knows best when it comes to finding taking fish on their beats. You ignore their advice at your peril. Fly patterns that can do well at this time of year are Ally’s Shrimp, Park Shrimp, Calvin’s shrimp, Flamethrower and Gold Willie Gunn; flies with a bit of orange, yellow black and red to reflect the approach of autumn. If you need to stock up on flies you can visit Somers in Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Kincardine O'Neil Post Office, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater where you will find a good selection of Dee flies at good prices. You can also purchase the 2012 Dalmore Dee Dram fundraising whisky for the River Dee Trust from Strachan's of Aboyne.

Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will only take a minimal period to carry out. If anyone notices anything untoward in the river please contact the river office on 013397 80411 to report your findings. The telephone number is manned 24 hours a day. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

Salmon catches picked up last week on Deeside with Thursday providing over 70 salmon as a result of much cooler and fresher weather conditions which saw the river temperature drop significantly and put salmon back in a taking mood. Whilst there were days where it was very bright with little cloud cover, the sport nevertheless picked up throughout the length of Deeside. FishDee beats have reported 265 salmon to 26lbs as I write with perhaps some late catches to be added. Park reported 34, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 20, Crathie 19, Lower Crathes and Ballogie 17 apiece, Birse 14, with Culter and Altries reporting a dozen for the week. This week’s catch was a good increase over the previous week.

Archie Hay returns an Autumn salmon at Crathie

I have received some correspondence which I would like to share with you. Firstly Miranda McHardy wrote about an exciting encounter her son Andrew had at Woodend commenting ‘Last night Andrew (our son) went down to Woodend to fish with my brother George Forbes-Leith. Andrew hooked a fish, in the dark, and played it for an hour, George said there was no way it was coming in and he did not want to beach it for fear of damaging or losing it, and they had no net at this point. It got darker, George got hold of me when he found a signal and we went down with the net. It was impossible to see anything, it was pitch black and whenever we shone a torch for George to see where the fish was to net it, the fish scarpered off up the pool again away from the light. Finally George took a chance and tried to scoop it into the net as we were getting nowhere. Torch ran out of battery! And we only had a mobile. The fish fell back out as it was bigger than the diameter of the net. He had another go and tried to lift it, the handle of the net bent and tipped the net, and the fish fell back over the side free. It was Andrew's first ever fish at Woodend and he is devastated! It was the worst feeling in the world he said when the line went slack and he realised the fish had fallen back into the river before he even saw it. It’s hard to tell how big it was as neither of them really saw it, the diameter of the net is 32". George said it had a huge tail and that was about all he could see apart from the flashes of bright silver every now and again.’ Oh my! What a disappointment-to lose a big fish creates a wound that never seems to heal and these fish are always the ones that stay in your memory forever. Salmon angling can be the school of hard knocks and anglers have to accept these desperately sad moments when they come along.

River Dee Trust director and very talented salmon angler Jim Coates had his annual 3 day trip to Park South with his father Geoff and family friend David Golder, where they enjoyed some good sport. Jim advised ‘Just a quick note to let you know how much I enjoyed a holiday on Deeside last week. I was visiting with my Dad Geoff and friend David Golder. I’m happy to report that we shared 18 fish between us for our 3 days fishing, mostly from Park South but with some from a beat just above Banchory as well. We were superbly entertained and looked after by Charlie Yates- who kept us full of cheer and fishing in all the right places! Let’s hope for some rainfall to top up the river and give visiting rods some more great sport over the last few weeks of this season.’ I enjoyed two pleasant evenings in their company and it was really pleasing to see how much enjoyment they got taking fish in what were at times very trying circumstances. Jim is a hugely determined and thoughtful angler who is always aware of changing conditions and adapts his techniques to suit these moments. Many times I have seen him take a number of fish when other anglers hardly get an offer.

Ross Macdonald with an autumn cock fish

I was pleased to receive an e-mail from Rob Fuller who writes to me annually about the Hawkins parties fishing week on a number of fishing beats. Rob advised ‘Dear Ken, the Hawkins Week Team have had another highly enjoyable week ending on Sat 15th. Thirteen of us fished on 5 beats notably Birse, Carlogie, Ballogie, Inchmarlo and Park South. Conditions were difficult with low water, high water temperatures, and strong winds on 2 days with bright sunshine yesterday. However we persevered and caught 26 salmon and grilse up to 13lbs and 4 sea trout for the week. Our biggest problem was trying to catch decent sized cocks. The River seems to be full of girls this year with very few male planks showing! This made it very difficult for us in finding suitable entries in our annual contest for the largest cock fish! The trophy was awarded to Richard Taylor for a 10lb fish which is rather less than what we were all hoping. Top rod was fortunately me, with 7 fish and 2 sea trout. We all rated Ballogie as the best beat which is verified by the fact that it is taken for a week by its own ghillie, notably the maestro himself Sean Stanton! With all good wishes for the rest of the season. Rob Fuller.’
As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences.

Beat Catches Reported
Week ending 13:05 on Mon 10th Sep 2012
SALMON & GRILSE: Kingcausie 7, Culter 12, Altries and Lower Drum 12, Middle Drum 1, Tilbouries 6, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 17, Park 34, Lower Crathes and W Durris 15, Knappach 1, Invery 4, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 1, Woodend 1, Lower Woodend 2, Commonty 4, Sluie 10, Ballogie 17, Borrowston 14, Kincardine 9, Carlogie 5, Dess 5, Birse 14, Aboyne Water 6, Aboyne Castle 8, Craigendinnie 1, Waterside and Ferrar 6, Dinnet 1, Deecastle 11, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 20, Crathie 19, Mar Lodge Estate 1, Total 265
SEA TROUT: Upper Drum and Lower Durris 1, Park 2, Sluie 1, Ballogie 1, Dess 1, Birse 3, Waterside and Ferrar 2, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 2, Total 13

Prospects

Weather conditions on Deeside will play their part this week determining if we have improved catches-I suspect that we may have a week with over 300 fish and keeping my fingers crossed that this will transpire. The weather forecast models I have been studying this morning suggest that air temperatures will continue to drop this week with an air temperature maxima today of perhaps 14 degrees Celsius. During the week this will fall and a result of falling air temperatures will see river temperatures drop back. This should hopefully put more fish into an aggressive mood resulting in good catches. I note one website suggesting wintry showers on the hills later in the week. There will be rain showers, some which may be heavy at times with blustery winds that will swing round to the north. It will feel autumnal so remember to wrap up well and fish appropriately to suit the conditions with intermediate lines and larger flies. The maritime influence sees tides peaking at 4.6 metres until Wednesday and then dropping back to 3.7 metres at the weekend. This may encourage a run of new fish into the lower beats where good sport may be had with fresh silver salmon.

Alec Coutts returns an autumn cock fish carefully

As has been reported to me by visiting anglers, the Ghillies are best placed to offer advice on where and how to fish on your chosen beat. Whilst water levels are quite low it will pay you to heed their counsel and follow their direction. If the Ghillie advises to fish deep, then make sure you get your fly well down. You may lose the odd fly as a result of fishing deep, but it is a small sacrifice to make in pursuit of sublime sport. I know of one talented angler who did very well last week by fishing a plain black snaelda tube slow and deep. Fly choice is as always a matter of suggestion, choice and experiment. You may wish to fish with a Dee Monkey, Black Frances or Black Snaelda, Flamethrower, Park shrimp, Calvin’s shrimp or a Red Allies shrimp. If you need to top up your supplies during the week please drop into Countrywear in Ballater, Orvis in Banchory, George Strachan’s store in Aboyne or perhaps your Ghillie may be able to provide suitable flies. Be aware that there are big fish throughout the river, some of which may have been in the river a while and are well rested. You would be wise to fish with a strong leader in case you encounter a big fish. Perhaps we may see a really big fish captured this week where I will be able to report about an exciting encounter. There are more visitors coming back to Deeside from Scandinavia as a result of a lot of rivers being closed for the season. There are still a good amount of rods available to fish the well stocked beats of the River Dee, so please make every effort to come and fish if you can before the fishing season draws to a close.

Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will only take a minimal period to carry out. If anyone notices anything untoward in the river please contact the river office on 013397 80411 to report your findings. The telephone number is manned 24 hours a day. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

 

[ken@fishdee]

LAST WEEK

I suggested last week that we may see a return of over 300 salmon and some big fish caught where I could report about some significant fish. This has transpired with this week being a big fish week. FishDee beats have reported as I write, 333 salmon to 30lbs and 26 sea trout. There were at times some outstanding catches and news filtered through of some great sport from last week too. I should mention that Andrew Callaghan landed a verified 35lb fresh salmon at Ardoe and Ian Murray's rods at Lower Invercauld and Monaltrie had 12 salmon and a sea trout in one day. Birse reported 31 salmon, Carlogie and Aboyne Water both had 23 salmon for the week, Park 22, Dess 20 and Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 19. The water temperature has dropped significantly and salmon are becoming more aggressive which in turn has led to significantly increased catches from the river.

Grant Gibson with a PB at Craigendinnie

With the increase in outstanding daily catches for some beats and big fish being reported, I would like to share some of the news that's coming through to me. Firstly Bill Palmer from Borrowston has advised that the beat has been fishing really well. Bill commented that salmon seemed to be only interested in taking a Red Frances fly with a gold hook and would not look at any other colour of hook! Bill landed a 30lb salmon, a fresh run 28lb salmon and his son Mark had a 24lb salmon. Hugh Lane landed a 28lb salmon at Birse assisted by Cleeve Cowie. This big coloured fish took a size 12 silver stoat's tail fly at Red Brae. I spoke to Archie Hay the Ghillie at Crathie this morning to catch up on how things are going at one of the most popular and scenic beats on the River Dee. Archie advised that a visiting angler Mr James Williams hooked and landed a 25 lb coloured cock fish on a size 12 Munro Killer. They had a couple of inches rise in river levels which stirred the fish up a bit and the water temp had dropped to 48 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ian Murray and Stene enjoy an opportunity to play some tunes on the river bank

Grant Gibson wrote advising about a rather painful personal best for himself at Craigendinnie commenting 'Ken, Please find above picture of fish caught from Craigendinnie on Tues 17th Sept. George Murray asked me to send it to you. The fish was 40 and a half inches long and estimated at 24lbs and a bit. The story behind why I am not actually standing in the water to release the fish is as follows. About an hour before the capture I was in the pool above and on getting out fell down one of the concrete walls hurting my knee and straining my groin severely. I had sat in my car in agony with tears rolling down my face for an hour when I decided I either went home or kept on fishing. I decided to find an 'easy' pool to fish and shuffled to the edge of the water. I did not dare get into the river. On my third cast I caught the fish. I could not move, walk or bend over! I was just beginning to realise I had no chance of landing the fish when George turned up and done the job. As I stood there motionless he placed the fish in my hands, took the picture then released it. So in the picture I was standing there in excruciating pain while holding the biggest salmon I had ever caught. So I named the photo 'The Agony and Ecstasy'. To finish the day, one hour later I had another of16lbs.' What a great effort and congratulations to Grant for his perseverance.

Ken Reid returns a sea liced salmon at Culter landed by Thomas Thore

Joy Wadsworth wrote about a great days sport for her husband at Birse commenting 'Dear Mr Reid, My husband, David Wadsworth, has asked me to tell you of his most memorable day, ever, on the River Dee. Today, at Birse, he caught 7 salmon in 3 hours. Their weights were; 25lbs, 16lbs, 2X 15lbs,13lbs, 10lbs and 5lbs.He will try and forward images on Monday to you.' Sounds like a fantastic days sport at Birse which is a big fish beat. I visited a lovely group of talented Swedish fishermen who were fishing part of the week at Lower Invercauld & Monaltrie and then part of the week at Culter. The visiting party came over with River Dee supporter Thomas Thore and enjoyed a super week of sport. They were looked after magnificently by Ian & David Murray at Lower Invercauld and then at Culter by Ghillie Mads Pedersen. I was fortunate to return a lovely sea liced bar of silver for Thomas at Culter where we got some lovely photographs. The other anglers did very well catching a good amount of fresh run sea liced fish. The gentlemen advised that they cannot wait to come back and fish the River Dee as the experience was truly outstanding for them. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences.

PROSPECTS

Wild, windy and wet weather is forecast to hit the valley over the next 48 hours which should see river levels rise from their current low levels of between 5 inches at Mar Lodge and 8 inches at Park. Air temperature maxima will be around 12 degrees Celsius but it will feel colder due to wind chill. Anglers will need to wrap up well and battle it out through the difficult conditions. The plus side to this for anglers are the opportunities to encounter salmon eager to take a well presented fly. The maritime influence sees tides building through the week from 3.7 metres to 4.4 metres which should bring new fish forward into the catchment. If the river doesn't rise and colour up then we could see another week with catches exceeding 300 for FishDee beats.

Niklas Larsson with a nice fresh fish at Culter

River Dee Ghillies are best placed to offer advice on where and how to fish on your chosen beat. Whilst water levels may alter during the forthcoming week it will pay you to heed their counsel and follow their direction. If the Ghillie advises to fish deep, then make sure you get your fly well down. You may lose the odd fly as a result of fishing deep, but it is a small sacrifice to make in pursuit of sublime sport. Fly choice is as always a matter of suggestion, choice and experiment. You may wish to fish with a Dee Monkey, Black or Red Frances or Black Snaelda, Flamethrower, Park shrimp, Calvin's shrimp or a Red Allies shrimp. If you need to top up your supplies during the week please drop into Countrywear in Ballater, Orvis in Banchory, George Strachan's store in Aboyne or perhaps your Ghillie may be able to provide suitable flies. Be aware that there are big fish throughout the river, which are being landed , some of which may have been in the river a while and are well rested. You would be wise to fish with a strong leader in case you encounter a big fish. Perhaps we may see more really big fish captured this week where I will be able to continue to report about more exciting encounters. There are more visitors coming back to Deeside from Scandinavia as a result of a lot of their rivers being closed for the season. There are still a good amount of rods available to fish the well stocked beats of the River Dee, so please make every effort to come and fish now if you can, before the fishing season draws to a close and you put away your rods until next year.

Thomas Larsson with a fresh salmon at Culter

Visiting anglers to the river will see enhanced bio security measures in place as all beats have had disinfection kits provided. Anglers will need to follow the beat Ghillies instructions on disinfection, which will only take a minimal period to carry out. If anyone notices anything untoward in the river please contact the river office on 013397 80411 to report your findings. The telephone number is manned 24 hours a day. As always please let me know how you get on during your visit to the river by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

 

[ken@fishdee]

LAST WEEK

Autumn chills are very noticeable in Deeside with water temperatures really starting to fall significantly. This hasn't meant salmon angling has ground to a halt - far from it with some lucky anglers enjoying some moments of high drama with big River Dee salmon. In accordance with the River Dee Conservation Code fishing is now restricted for beats beats below Aboyne Bridge. FishDee beats have reported as I write 237 salmon to 35 lbs and 14 sea trout; undoubtedly higher catches would have been made if we didn't have a dirty rise in river levels during the week. Park reported 44 salmon; Lower Crathes had 37 to 4 fishermen, Carlogie 29, Ballogie 20 and Crathes 18.

Reid Hagelin with 35 lb cock fish at Lower Crathes

I met visiting angler Tono Puicercus who a very fine artist who specialises in fishing commissions. I had commissioned him to produce a painting for me and he travelled from Spain to bring the finished artwork to me-it's a super painting. As a result of this planned meeting we agreed to do some fishing and were able to secure some rods at Lower Crathes. Tono manages the Lax-A fishing business in Spain for Arni Baldursson and is a keen salmon angler and regular visitor to the River Dee. The fishing was really excellent with Ghillies Robert Harper and Charles Booth doing a great job in looking after the visiting anglers from Spain and Norway. Reid Hagelin who was over from Norway hooked into a huge fish, first cast at the top of the Mill Pool and had a real battle with a big strong male fish which took him hundreds of yards downstream. Charles Booth waited patiently providing great advice for the angler and Charles eventually managed to get the great fish into the MacLean landing net after it got stuck in some Ranunculus weed in the pool tail. The angler and Ghillie were delighted to see the scale drop to over 35 lbs and agreed that they would settle at 35 lbs and swiftly took some images for the angler and beat and returned the fish safely back to the river. The angler would never have landed this great fish without the Ghillie who waded out to secure the capture of this great specimen. The visiting anglers had some great sport with Frances tubes fished deeply on fast sink tip lines. Head Ghillie Robert Harper was absolutely thrilled to write up the capture of this big fish into the catch log; his first entry of over 30lbs in 36 years of being a top Ghillie.

Chema Moscardo with a nice 25lb cock fish at Lower Crathes

Meanwhile down at Park some visiting anglers were having some great sport with Tony and Phillip Black from Tayside landing 13 between them in one day. There were some new fish coming forward which were being landed as well as stirring up big resident fish. I was asked to fish Ross MacDonald's rod on Saturday and fished with River Dee Trust director Jim Coates. We had 7 between us including a beautiful sea liced 19 lber to my own rod. I was disappointed to lose a big fish in the tail of the cellar which straightened my new Owner Double hook after a very explosive encounter. The beat produced 13 on Saturday with the majority landed on the north bank. It was pleasing to hear that silver fresh fish were coming through the beat from time to time and happy to take an anglers fly. Ross Davidson had a first fish at Bakebare with Andy Forbes providing constructive tuition enabling him to get the rich reward for his hard efforts.

Tono Puicercus with a 23lb cock fish at Lower Crathes

I met visiting anglers who were fishing at Carlogie and Ballogie in the Potarch Hotel following the River Dee Board AGM on Thursday evening. It was nice again to meet Gareth Headland, Wayne Napier Gibbens, Andy Hutson and Thomas Bergen. They had a great week at Carlogie with Wayne having his best week with 7 salmon; Andy and Thomas were in double figures for their week. At Ballogie regular visiting anglers from Norway were having some good sport with Frede Hognestad losing a very big fish. He subsequently had a 1 lb silver grilse next cast! They had 10 fish in 3 days and fished Ballogie, Middle Blackhall and Culter. I hear Richard Torkar had a 24 lb salmon at Dess and Chema Moscardó had a 25 lber at Lower Crathes. Rob Bull had 4 to his own rod on Saturday at Ballogie including a 25lber.Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

Beat Catches Reported

Week ending 10:25 on Mon 1st Oct 2012

SALMON & GRILSE: Culter 7, Altries and Lower Drum 11, Middle Drum 6, Tilbouries 12, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 10, Park 44, Lower Crathes and W Durris 37, Knappach 2, Crathes 18, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 3, Woodend 2, Commonty 2, Sluie 2, Ballogie 20, Borrowston 6, Kincardine 6, Carlogie 29, Dess 6, Birse 8, Aboyne Water 4, Total 237

SEA TROUT: Culter 1, Altries and Lower Drum 1, Tilbouries 1, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 3, Lower Crathes and W Durris 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Middle Blackhall 2, Ballogie 1, Kincardine 1, Dess 2, Total 14


PROSPECTS

The last full weeks salmon fishing on Deeside sees many anglers populating the river, hotels and bars celebrating the end to the 2012 salmon fishing season on the River Dee. There are anglers from all over the world coming to the valley and taking advantage of the good sport on offer in the middle and lower beats. Having just been advised by Ghillie Sean Stanton that the water temperature is down to 5 degrees Celsius we can expect anglers to have some excellent sport if they are in the right place at the right time who fish their fly slow and deep. Weather conditions look great for the next few days with light winds and air temperature maxima at 12 degrees Celsius. There will be overnight frosts until Thursday when some wet and windy weather is forecast. Tides are building from 3.2 metres to 4.2 metres encouraging new fish forward.

Ken Reid with a nice sea liced 19lb salmon at Park

Anglers will need to heed the advice of their Ghillie regarding fly choice and presentation. Your Beat Ghillies know where the fish are and at what depth you will need to fish. If you don't have a ghillie then you should employ a decent fast sink tip of 10-15 feet off a floating line to help you mend upstream or downstream to control the speed of your fly. Short stout leaders are required, indeed I was utilising a 24 inch leader of 25 lb breaking strain last week and had 6 salmon and a similar amount lost in 3 days. Fly choice should be focussed on tube flies with the Red Frances, Cascade or Park Shrimp, Franc n snaelda, Gold Willie Gunn likely to produce takes. The key is to get the fly down to the level where the fish are as they won't rise far to take the fly. If you need to acquire some flies then visit Orvis in Banchory, Kincardine O'Neil Post Office and George Strachan,s store in Aboyne.

There are some rods still available on the FishDee website so if you are itching to have a final cast before the season ends then go to the website and book some fishing. The salmon fishing season closes on Monday 15th October until Friday the 1st February 2013 when the season re-opens to anglers. Until then we will all want to wish all the River Dee salmon a safe and productive time on the redds. Please write with any reports of catches and pictures to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines.Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd

 

[ken@fishdee]

Recent Catches

The final week of the 2012 fishing season saw the best catches reported for the entire season with the fishing season finale, today’s final act. FishDee beats have reported 414 salmon for the week with some really dramatic catches being made on some beats. Birse reported 76 salmon, Ballogie 59, Park 45 with Lower Crathes and Carlogie both reporting 32. The heaviest fish reported was landed by Thomas Torpe at 33lbs, which was measured at 43 inches, part of a catch of 11 he made for his day at Birse, on a size 14 fly. Heughhead beat on the Feugh had a catch of 14 in one day following the big spate that occurred during the latter half of the week. There were quite a number of significant individual catches made and large salmon caught and released during the week, which for the first part of the week saw excellent conditions tailor made for anglers to do well. The latter half of the week saw a big spate descend through the valley from all the tributaries which slowed catches significantly on Friday and Saturday.

33lb salmon landed at Birse by Thomas Torpe

Lars Terkildsen had a crack team of 18 experienced salmon anglers fishing Birse, Ballogie, Carlogie, Kincardine and Commonty beats during the week where their final tally for the week was 195 salmon, heaviest fish was Thomas 33 pounder from Birse. I had dinner with a dozen of the anglers on Saturday at Ballogie House where I was able to discuss what they were doing, why their catches were so great and how the beats differed. I can advise that the anglers rotated beats every day so they had a minimum of 1 day on each beat. They fished from 8.00 am until dark every day and fished very hard and methodically. They stressed they would not be using one tactic but employed different methods from fishing fast sink tips with Red Frances tubes to full floaters and size 14 flies, and virtually every combination in between. This ensured that anglers would find taking fish using differing methods. It’s interesting to see how anglers could take a huge amount on one beat and a more modest amount on another beat using exactly the same methods. I guess one can speculate that there were more taking fish on some beats than others. Top angler was Mawill Lüdenbach with 24 salmon and the lowest return from Tor was 4 salmon for his week (6-12-14 and 18lbs). They showed me images of some fresh salmon and some large coloured cock fish.

The Torpe Nymph which accounted for 11 salmon in a day at Birse

I have some e-mails and feedback I would like to share with readers of the weekly report. Ian Neale, who operates the Speycaster.net guide business was back at Park for a few days and advised ‘I had a party of 5 rods fishing on Park South from Monday-Wednesday and they caught 27 fish between them with a best fish of 23lbs, which was reasonably fresh. I went over to join them on Wednesday and they had all had a great time and had hooked and lost as many more, I believe, although North Bank wasn’t fairing quite as well!’ Ian had asked me to visit the delightful Eliane Schleiffer during her week on the river and I visited her at Dess on Thursday. It was quite a thrill to see a gorgeous red Alvis sports car on the river bank. Eliane has a super blog about her fishing adventures in her Alvis TA21 1954, 6 cylinder car at About | salmonalvis blog

Markus Lindsjo landed this bright salmon at Birse

I was pleased to receive feedback about the catch of 14 in a day at Heughhead on the Feugh with Alex and Kath Brown e-mailing to advise ‘I had a call on Wednesday from someone you may know (Jules Evans) who was looking to fish the beat at the end of the week. I advised him that the level was very low (3″ above normal summer level, despite this Kevin Stirton had a 6lb salmon that day!) but with the rain forecast Saturday might be quite good. He took two rods but with all the rain on Friday I sent him a text that evening advising him he would be wasting his time as the river would, in all likelihood be too high. Despite that he took a trip up to the beat at 7.30 and decided conditions were fine, got his tickets at the Orvis shop and commenced fishing at 9.30am. When I arrived at the lodge at 2.30pm I was surprised his car was still there. I was in for an even bigger surprise when Jules announced that he had already caught 3 salmon and a 3lb sea trout! Not only that, his friend Paris had caught another 2 salmon and another customer, Douglas Cameron, had caught 4 salmon to 8lb! Jules added that he had also lost a salmon of approx 17lb and Paris had his rod broken by another double figure fish! This was by far the best day we have had since we took over managing the beat and all the more satisfying as Kath and I had considered not staying open for the extension after not getting many customers last year! What a memorable day to finish off the 2012 season on the Feugh.’ Well done to all concerned in providing a really nice fishing beat with great facilities for visiting anglers to enjoy. I am sure your customer base will go from strength to strength next year and more new anglers will come to fish this lovely spate river.

Andy Crawford with a fresh sea liced salmon at Park

It was nice to read the praise offered by Chris Adams to Shane Christie, the experienced Middle Drum beat Ghillie, who commented ‘Shane’s help with landing my 25lber was exceptional. He could see the fish was a good one and went over waist deep (no waders-just trousers and wellies) and when the moment was right, in with the net. Thank you Shane; my biggest fish to date. Tight lines and good wishes.’ Chris also had a most enjoyable day at Crathes where he landed a 15lb salmon. The 2012 season finishes today and I shall write a season review in the next few weeks once all the catches and correspondence are in. To finish on a positive note though I am pleased to report that the current FishDee beat total for the entire season exceeds the 5 year average once again. Congratulations to all the anglers and beat Ghillies for achieving this remarkable milestone following two exceptional fishing seasons in 2010 and 2011. As always please write with any comments about your fishing experiences to ken@riverdee.org

SALMON & GRILSE: Culter 13, Altries and Lower Drum 8, Middle Drum 8,
Tilbouries 8, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 20, Park 45, Lower Crathes and W
Durris 32, Crathes 13, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 14, Cairnton 1, Woodend 6,
Commonty 10, Sluie 6, Ballogie 59, Borrowston 5, Kincardine 18, Carlogie 32,
Dess 8, Birse 76, Aboyne Water 17, Heughhead 15, Total 414
SEA TROUT: Altries
and Lower Drum 1, Crathes 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Cairnton 1,
Commonty 1, Ballogie 2, Borrowston 1, Kincardine 1, Carlogie 1, Dess 1, Birse 2,
Heughhead 1, Total 14