River Dee Media Reports 2013

ken@fishdee · Jun 24, 2013

LAST WEEK

The summer equinox has heralded a significant change with weather systems bringing much needed rain to the catchment-hopefully some Ghillies were singing in the rain this weekend! FishDee beats picked away last week in very low water conditions with 86 salmon reported to 20lbs and a decent catch of sea trout with 81 reported from FishDee beats. In terms of salmon Dess reported 9, Lower Crathes 8, Park, Ballogie and Monaltrie & Lower Invercauld 6 apiece. The sea trout catch was by far the best of the season with Lower Crathes producing 11, Dess 8 and Ballogie 7. In the prevailing very low water conditions anglers have done well to record these catches and so pleasing to hear of sea trout being caught in reasonable numbers. They have been quite scarce so far this season.

Invery & Tilquhillie Ghillie Karl Revel sent me an e-mail with news from the beats commenting ‘Dear Ken, The attached pic is Thomas Johnson-Smith from Kent who caught this 10lb fish on Monday 17th in The Killing Hatch using a size 14 Red Frances. He also caught 2 sea trout. Thomas was delighted with his success on his first visit to the Dee and says he's looking forward to a return visit very soon. Ian Murray Jnr caught a lovely 3lb+ sea trout on Tuesday and late on Friday night/Saturday morning Neil Stephenson landed a 5lb grilse and 3 sea trout. Tight lines! Karl' that's pleasing news to read. Neil Stephenson is a talented and thoughtful angler who will catch fish when others can't.

Thomas Johnson-Smith from Kent who caught this 10lb fish on Monday 17th at Invery using a size 14 Red Frances. He also caught 2 sea trout.

I chatted with Eoin Smith, Dess Estate Ghillie advised he had a great team of anglers from Tweedside fishing last week who are very talented anglers and know how to catch salmon and sea trout. Their success was down to sheer persistence with fish coming to half inch black flies. He also advised they had landed a Grilse this morning covered in sea lice which is encouraging news. I also spoke with Robert Harper, Head Ghillie at Lower Crathes this morning. Robert advised that he had Gordon Dickinson fishing with regulars John and Anthea Fielding who caught 8 salmon and 12 sea trout for their week. Anthea landed a lovely salmon of at least 20lbs and Gordon had a nice 16lber. Given the conditions the anglers fished hard and got their rewards using flies between size 12 and 16. The sea trout were all in excellent order and were nice and fresh.

There is a new award for young anglers; The Callum Mackenzie Cup. The Cup has been provided by Ballogie Estate with the support of the Mackenzie Family. There has been an entry submitted already for Meriel Fisher who I reported last week had a lovely salmon whilst fishing with mum and dad at Lower Crathes.The award for the most notable capture will be to the youngster whose angling success has been selected as the most notable fish by the Callum Mackenzie Award Committee and will be made annually at the River Dee opening ceremony. Rules-Fisher must be under 18 years of age at time of catch for any species of fish within the Dee catchment, including Rivers Cowie and Carron or one of the many trout fisheries in the district. Entries should include a short story about the capture of the fish, Picture, date and location of capture. Witness details to confirm catch. Submissions will receive publicity through the local press and FishDee website. All entries to the Callum Mackenzie Committee should be sent by e‐mail to info@riverdee.org or by mail to River Dee Office, Mill of Dinnet, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, AB34 5LA

News of catches, with or without images are always welcome, so please drop a line to ken@riverdee.org so I can share this news in the weekly report and FishDee blog. It could be another exciting week for anglers and hopefully we shall get some more good news to report next week. Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

Beat Catches Reported

Week ending 14:06 on Mon 17th Jun 2013

SALMON & GRILSE: Tilbouries 1, Park 7, Lower Crathes and W Durris 8, Crathes 3, Invery 2, Lower Blackhall and Kinneskie 2, Upper Blackhall 3, Cairnton 2, Commonty 2, Sluie 1, Ballogie 6, Carlogie 1, Dess 9, Birse 4, Aboyne Water 3, Aboyne Castle 1, Craigendinnie 5, Waterside and Ferrar 3, Dinnet 3, Deecastle 3, Headinch and Cambus O'May 4, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 6, Birkhall 2, Balmoral 2, Crathie 4, Total 87
SEA TROUT: Tilbouries 3, Park 7, Lower Crathes and W Durris 11, Crathes 4, Invery 5, Tilquhillie 4, Lower Blackhall and Kinneskie 1, Upper Blackhall 2, Cairnton 2, Woodend 3, Sluie 1, Ballogie 7, Kincardine 1, Carlogie 5, Dess 8, Birse 4, Aboyne Water 4, Aboyne Castle 2, Craigendinnie 3, Waterside and Ferrar 4, Deecastle 2, Headinch and Cambus O'May 2, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 1, Total 86

PROSPECTS

The weather forecast from the Met Office advises that the first few days of the week will be cool however it will warm up towards the weekend. There will be some outbreaks of rain at the beginning of the week and perhaps on Friday. Air temperature maxima may reach 20 degrees Celsius with overnight lows of 4 degrees curtailing night time sport in the early part of the week. That shouldn't be too much of a problem now as the river has risen significantly overnight with the Sepa gauges reading 2ft 2 inches at Mar Lodge and falling and 3 foot 3 inches at Park and rising. This much needed spate is perfectly timed coinciding with high spring tides this week of 4.5 metres before dropping back to 3.6 metres at the weekend. The jet stream is to the south of the country however will progress further north during the week allowing air pressure to build. All things being equal we could have a super week for anglers this week if there are good numbers of fish offshore waiting to run the river. Conditions are ideal for a good run of fish to come forward into the river. There is availability on the FishDee website so my advice to people who have a bit free time is to stick the rods into the car and come fishing for a few days. You may get some superb sport anywhere on the River Dee and some fish may ascend the falls of Feugh and get their season really going.

Always heed the advice offered from your beat Ghillie as they know best about what tactics and flies to use to give you a chance of some sport. If you don't have a Ghillie to obtain advice from then you may wish to consider the following flies this week as worth a go with. Tosh, Silver Stoats tail, Black or Red Frances, Cascade, Flamethrower, Kinermony Killer and of course the Sunray Shadow is always a good fall back for salmon and sea trout. Full floaters are the order of the day now with a 13-15 foot double handed rods and 9-10 weight lines are more than sufficient with leaders of 5-8 ft in length. If you need more flies or other equipment please visit Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater. Another must visit place at lunchtime is Kincardine O'Neil Post office for a super range of sandwiches and fishing flies.

Popular places to dine out are the Boat Inn Aboyne, Franco's in Banchory, Derbar Indian Restaurant in Banchory, with the Milton of Crathes providing super food,Tor Na Coille Hotel, Raemoir House Hotel and of course the Banchory Lodge Hotel all in Banchory. The Glen Lui and Darroch Learg in Ballater offer superb meals too.

At this time of year with warmer air temperatures day and night please report any suspicious activity you find on your beat. Opportunist rod and line poachers can turn up at this time of the year so it's important you contact the River Office, 013398 80411 any time of the day if you see anyone acting suspiciously on your chosen beat.

Finally an important thing for you to remember when you arrive on your chosen beat. All anglers and Ghillies are being asked to ensure anglers have their waders and any landing nets sprayed with a mild disinfectant prior to commencing fishing, even when they are fishing different River Dee beats during their week on the river. It's a condition of the River Dee Conservation code and must be strictly adhered to; all beats have supplies to ensure this is carried out prior to entering the river. It's a quick procedure that will help the river and prevent ingress of unwanted pathogens and non native species entering any part of the River Dee watercourse. We also want to prevent the transfer of the highly problematic ranunculus from the lower part of the river to the upper part. Please write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

ken@fishdee · Jul 1, 2013

LAST WEEK

The final week of the month saw catches pick up with 145 salmon to 28lbs and 131 sea trout to 5lbs as I write with perhaps some late catches to be added. There was a good lift of water at the start of the week which got the week off to a good start and the river fished well albeit sport slowed down as we got towards the weekend as water levels dropped back to summer level. Crathes reported 12 salmon, Birse 11 salmon and Headinch & Cambus O’May 9 salmon which will have delighted new seasonal Ghillie Craig McDonald and proprietor Clare Carson. Sea trout fishing saw another uplift in catches from the previous week with some nice 5 lbs fish landed at Ballogie and Dinnet. Kincardine had a dozen for the week; Ballogie had 9 and Borrowston 8. If we get a decent rainfall on Tuesday we may see another lift of water to hopefully encourage more fish to run the river. Whilst not many fish are being seen the numbers being caught are reasonable for the time of year. July normally heralds a run of Grilse so hopefully they will not be late this year.

I have received a few e-mails over the weekend and I’m delighted to see some of them containing images of youngsters catching their first fish. As the school holidays get underway it’s a great opportunity for youngsters to get the chance to go fishing with friends and family. Who knows you may read this and take a youngster fishing who may catch a fish and perhaps win the Callum Mackenzie Trophy; presented to the youngster who catches the most notable fish. Details about this are available on the daily catches page on the FishDee website. Denzil Skinner wrote advising ‘Attached please find photo of fish caught by my son, Rory aged 16 years, last Thursday at Symonds pool, Aboyne Castle beat. The successful fly was a black shrimp; time of capture, 11 am. Landed by a somewhat nervous father who has dreamt of catching such a fish for 35 years of trying! But what a moment to share! If you wish to use this on the Dee site please do, delighted to encourage youngsters into the sport, I think you might run a competition too.’ Well Denzil now knows about the Callum Mackenzie Cup and hopefully he will submit this fish as an entry. My good friend and talented angler Dr Phil Fairchild wrote to me advising ‘It was good to see you and hear your news. Keep up the good work on the Dee! It was, we both agreed, the toughest week we have ever had, despite really very good conditions, both overhead and on the river. We ended up with 3 salmon and 15 sea trout between us. Mostly on the perceived wisdom of small flies, but interestingly enough, the liveliest session I had was when in despair, I put on my biggest monkey and stripped it as fast as I could. I had 2 sea trout, 2 other chases and brief contacts and certainly stirred up one or two others, Saturday early hours, I also switched to a big Elver fly and got a fish immediately, had 2 other pulls in 30 minutes. I guess that is just the old trick of doing something different. We had excellent customer service from both John and Bill, as usual.’ I omitted the first sentence as it contained a bit of a colourful phrase from Phil who saw a photo of a lovely sea liced salmon I was fortunate to catch on Friday. The Park Estate staff had their annual outing and it was a pleasure to see everyone again and enjoy a lovely day with them. Ross Macdonald, inventor of the Park Shrimp was also successful on Friday with a sea liced salmon and a sea trout.

Rory Skinner with his salmon from Aboyne Castle

I was also delighted to receive an e-mail from Nigel Lusby who commented ‘Hi Ken, please see below Oliver's first salmon. He is 17 and from Crathes. I promised Oliver (age 17) two days salmon fishing on the Dee last summer as reward for his results in his higher exams. This occurred on the 27th and 28th of June at Crathes. He had never Spey cast or fished for Atlantic salmon before. After the first day he was fishing well, casting a long belly Spey line out into the pools (with an ease that was sickening), and well enough to be left on his own. On the morning of the 28th I set him up at the head of the pool and popped down to a pool below, giving him the following advice; “If you get into a fish, play it from the bank, be gentle and patient, you have a small hook (size 13 double), and you can’t horse these like pulling in mackerel”. Brian Sim said he saw him out on the bank but couldn’t see the rod, started walking over and they both saw the fish as it boiled at the surface. Oliver said at that point Brian broke into a trot (he does not do that for many fish). Anyway, result an 18 lb salmon, (picture attached) biggest fish on the Dee that day, a fish of a lifetime, a great achievement for Oliver. To be honest afterwards, I had trouble getting him out of the water for his piece, and this got worse at close of play. It was a proud moment for me, his dad, and also for Brian, who has known him since he started at Crathes primary school.’ What a delightful experience for father and son and hopefully another candidate for the Callum Mackenzie Cup.

Oliver Lusby with a nice salmon at Crathes

I chatted with Eoin Smith, Dess Estate Ghillie who advised that Stockport angler Barry Hartle had an exciting evenings sport with a 9lb salmon from Pitslug around 9.30 pm. Barry then moved to fish the top of the Island pool where his one and a quarter inch Cascade was taken by another fish-A good One ! Some 40 minutes later the fish had taken him 500 yards down to the tail of McKidds Pool where it was landed at 11.00 pm. The fish was measured at 42 inches and was a silver fresh fish of 28lbs. The joint biggest salmon landed this season. There was a 40 inch salmon landed at Carlogie earlier in the week. I hope to have more details in due course from Ghillie Sean Stanton and include them next week

News of catches, with or without images are always welcome, so please drop a line to ken@riverdee.org so I can share this news in the weekly report and FishDee blog. It could be another exciting week for anglers and hopefully we shall get some more good news to report next week. Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

Beat catches reported
(Week ending 29th June)
SALMON & GRILSE: Ardoe and Murtle 1, Middle Drum 1, Tilbouries 2, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 2, Park 7, Lower Crathes and W Durris 1, Crathes 12, Invery 2, Tilquhillie 3, Lower Blackhall and Kinneskie 7, Upper Blackhall 6, Cairnton 7, Woodend 1, Lower Woodend 2, Ballogie 5, Borrowston 4, Kincardine 2, Carlogie 8, Dess 6, Birse 11, Aboyne Water 2, Aboyne Castle 5, Craigendinnie 2, Waterside and Ferrar 6, Dinnet 5, Deecastle 7, Headinch and Cambus O'May 9, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 8, Birkhall 2, Abergeldie 1, Crathie 8.
Total: 145 Largest: Dess 28lbs

SEA TROUT: Upper Drum and Lower Durris 4, Park 17, Lower Crathes and W Durris 5, Crathes 7, Invery 7, Middle Blackhall 2, Upper Blackhall 7, Cairnton 3, Woodend 1, Lower Woodend 1, Commonty 1, Sluie 1, Ballogie 9, Borrowston 8, Kincardine 12, Carlogie 5, Dess 4, Birse 2, Aboyne Water 4, Aboyne Castle 4, Craigendinnie 2, Waterside and Ferrar 6, Dinnet 4, Deecastle 4, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 7, Abergeldie 1, Crathie 2.
Total: 131 Largest: Ballogie & Dinnet 5lbs

PROSPECTS

As we come into July we normally would expect to see decent runs of Grilse running the river. Nature seems to be running a bit late this year so we hope the Grilse buck the trend and arrive this week. The maritime influence sees tides dropping from 3.7 metres to 3.5 metres before rising again at the weekend to 3.9 metres as tides build during the next lunar phase. The Met Office is suggesting we shall see air temperature maxima around 19 degrees with the probability of a mini heat wave next weekend into next week. There may be heavy showers at time with perhaps a longer spell of rain forecast tomorrow and perhaps Thursday/Friday. Winds will be from southerly directions and should be light to moderate as fronts move through. River levels are running at 6 inches at Mar Lodge and 9 inches at Park. Hopefully rainfall this week may give us enough for a lift in river levels which will encourage fish to get on the move up river to the upper beats. Evening fishing into the wee small hours may be productive if you are able to fish out of office hours.

Always heed the advice offered from your beat Ghillie as they know best about what tactics and flies to use to give you a chance of some sport. If you don't have a Ghillie to obtain advice from then you may wish to consider the following flies this week as worth a go with. Tosh, Silver Stoats tail, Black or Red Frances, Cascade, Flamethrower, brown pot bellied pig and of course the Sunray Shadow is always a good fall back for salmon and sea trout when retrieved quickly as it swings across the pool. Full floaters are the order of the day now with a 13-15 foot double handed rods and 9-10 weight lines are more than sufficient with leaders of 5-8 ft in length. If you need more flies or other equipment please visit Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater. Another must visit place at lunchtime is the Kincardine O'Neil Post office for a super range of sandwiches and fishing flies. Popular places to dine out are the Boat Inn Aboyne, Franco's in Banchory, Derbar Indian Restaurant in Banchory, with the Milton of Crathes providing super food, Tor Na Coille Hotel, Raemoir House Hotel, and of course the Banchory Lodge Hotel all in Banchory. The Glen Lui and Darroch Learg in Ballater offer superb meals too.

At this time of year with warmer air temperatures day and night please report any suspicious activity you find on your beat. Opportunist rod and line poachers can turn up at this time of the year so it's important you contact the River Office, 013398 80411 any time of the day if you see anyone acting suspiciously on your chosen beat.

Finally an important thing for you to remember when you arrive on your chosen beat. All anglers and Ghillies are being asked to ensure anglers have their waders and any landing nets sprayed with a mild disinfectant prior to commencing fishing, even when they are fishing different River Dee beats during their week on the river. It's a condition of the River Dee Conservation code and must be strictly adhered to; all beats have supplies to ensure this is carried out prior to entering the river. It's a quick procedure that will help the river and prevent ingress of unwanted pathogens and non native species entering any part of the River Dee watercourse. We also want to prevent the transfer of the highly problematic ranunculus from the lower part of the river to the upper part. Please write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

ken@fishdee · Jul 8, 2013

LAST WEEK

High summer finally arrived last week with the local schools breaking up for the summer and everyone seemingly following Wimbledon with interest hoping for a famous win, which was finally delivered yesterday with Andy Murray winning the men's singles final. Well temperatures rose steadily through the week and river levels dropped with angling effort dwindling through the heat of the day as did the catch returns. FishDee beats reported 92 salmon and 55 sea trout which is a reasonable return given the current prevailing weather and river conditions. Some of the lower beats produced catches with Tilbouries and Ardoe & Murtle sharing just short of a dozen fish indicating new fish creeping forward into the river. Park reported 16 salmon and 5 sea trout with 9 salmon on Tuesday, Crathie reported 11 salmon. River Dee Trust and DDSFB chairman Ian Scott was in true grand slam form last week with success at Park and at Dess. Ian caught a salmon, grilse, sea trout and brown trout at Park and then followed this up with a hat trick of 3 salmon at Dess.

I chatted with Keith Cromar at Park this morning who informed me that visiting anglers Peter Rae and John Hackney had some good sport with 16lbers which wouldn't have looked out of place as spring fish. They also had success with hitched flies which can be deadly in low summer levels. Neil Fraser from Aboyne had a lovely 10lb fish from the House Pool. There are new fish creeping forward and hopefully they will continue to get some results with anglers favouring small stoat's tail flies and perhaps hitched micro tubes. I met Karl Simmons and Mark Bird at Lower Crathes where they enjoyed some good sport. It was tough going but they are wily anglers and managed to temp salmon to their well presented flies.

Mark Bird with a nice salmon at Lower Crathes

News of catches, with or without images are always welcome, so please drop a line to ken@riverdee.org so I can share this news in the weekly report and FishDee blog. It could be another exciting week for anglers and hopefully we shall get some more good news to report next week. Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

SALMON & GRILSE: Ardoe and Murtle 6, Tilbouries 5, Park 16, Lower Crathes and W Durris 6, Crathes 2, Tilquhillie 2, Invery 5, Middle Blackhall 3, Cairnton 3, Commonty 1, Ballogie 7, Carlogie 2, Dess 5, Birse 2, Aboyne Water 2, Aboyne Castle 3, Craigendinnie 1, Waterside and Ferrar 1, Deecastle 1, Headinch and Cambus O'May 2, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 4, Abergeldie 2, Crathie 11, Total 92
SEA TROUT: Ardoe and Murtle 3, Altries and Lower Drum 4, Tilbouries 1, Park 5, Lower Crathes and W Durris 4, Knappach 1, Crathes 1, Tilquhillie 3, Invery 5, Commonty 1, Carlogie 2, Dess 5, Birse 5, Aboyne Water 2, Aboyne Castle 3, Craigendinnie 4, Waterside and Ferrar 1, Deecastle 2, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 2, Total 55

PROSPECTS

We expect a proper summer week on Deeside with warm air temperatures, long spells of sunshine and perhaps the odd sharp shower of rain. The last few summers have been relatively wet however we do seem to be in for a week of high air temperatures which will probable see angling effort confined to day break and dusk. It's looking promising for night time fishers who are looking for sport from salmon and sea trout. Salmon during the daylight hours will be sitting in any deep water they can find and in the necks of pools where there is more of a flow with the river down to its bones now. If you can manage to fish anti social hours you are more likely to get success. The maritime influence sees spring tides during the week with tides at 4.1 metres dropping back to 3.7 metres. River levels are low with the Sepa gauges running at 4 inches at Mar Lodge and 7 inches at Park. Air temperature maxima may reach 27 degrees this week with overnight lows above 10 degrees.

Always heed the advice offered from your beat Ghillie as they know best about what tactics and flies to use to give you a chance of some sport. If you don't have a Ghillie to obtain advice from then you may wish to consider the following flies this week as worth a try in sizes 12-16. The ever dependable Tosh, Silver Stoats tail, Black or Red Frances, gold Willie Gunn, Crathie fly and of course the Sunray Shadow is always a good fall back for salmon and sea trout when retrieved quickly as it swings across the pool. Full floaters are the order of the day now with a 13foot double handed rods and 8/9 weight lines more than sufficient with leaders of 10ft plus in length as stealth is required. With the river running low anglers will need to wade quietly and work their flies. Another option well worth trying is to fish with hitched flies. In low water the hitched fly can produce takes when conventional methods fail. You can read about fishing the hitched fly here this link you can see footage of this at this link this link

If you need more flies or other equipment please visit Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater. Another must visit place at lunchtime is the Kincardine O'Neil Post office for a super range of sandwiches and fishing flies. With the warm to hot weather forecast for the week ahead perhaps anglers may want to visit local attractions during the afternoon such as our many wonderful golf courses, Lochnagar distillery, Deeside activity Park and perhaps some sightseeing in the upper valley. With the school holidays upon us it's an ideal time to take youngsters out to try their hand at fishing. Tullich fishery at Ballater, Raemoir fishery and Mill of Strachan at Banchory are delightful venues to take youngsters fishing where they offer fly fishing ponds and bait fishing ponds.

At this time of year with warmer air temperatures day and night please report any suspicious activity you find on your beat. Opportunist rod and line poachers can turn up at this time of the year so it's important you contact the River Office, 013398 80411 any time of the day if you see anyone acting suspiciously on your chosen beat.

Finally an important thing for you to remember when you arrive on your chosen beat. All anglers and Ghillies are being asked to ensure anglers have their waders and any landing nets sprayed with a mild disinfectant prior to commencing fishing, even when they are fishing different River Dee beats during their week on the river. It's a condition of the River Dee Conservation code and must be strictly adhered to; all beats have supplies to ensure this is carried out prior to entering the river. It's a quick procedure that will help the river and prevent ingress of unwanted pathogens and non native species entering any part of the River Dee watercourse. We also want to prevent the transfer of the highly problematic ranunculus from the lower part of the river to the upper part. Please write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

ken@fishdee · Jul 22, 2013

LAST WEEK

Having just returned from the wilds of Alaska pursuing sport with the Pacific species of Salmonids it was interesting to observe that their rivers were suffering from similar problems to our River Dee-a distinct lack of water due to a warm dry spell of weather-thankfully fishing was productive! With the Sepa river level gauges reading between 1 inch at Mar Lodge and 3 inches at Park angling hasn’t been a productive pastime over the last few weeks. There is light at the end of the tunnel with weather forecasters predicting rain for the latter part of this week continuing into next week. Let’s hope every cloud has a silver lining for anglers coming to fish over the next few weeks with the elusive salmon entering the river in good numbers on the back of a hoped for healthy rise in river levels. FishDee beats have reported 13 salmon and 18 sea trout for the week so far with the largest reported at Dinnet of 18lbs.

Regular River Dee angler and now Deeside resident Phillip Wood came into the River Office with scales to be read of a 9lb salmon he landed at Balmoral. Phillip advised he got this salmon during the heat of the day and lost 2 others. He also lost another fish at Aboyne Castle but redeemed his good fortune with a 6lb fish at Waterside and Ferrar. He advised that Waterside Ghillie Davie Goodfellow was invited for a cast in the evening and had a grilse and a sea trout. I hear Deeside Ghillie Cleeve Cowie also had success. Glentanar Estates Ghillie Colin Espie visited the office and advised that Mike Stevenson and River Dee chairman Ian Scott enjoyed success with fish at Red Brae on Deecastle. Mary Elise Burnett e-mailed me from the United States of America advising ‘Trip of a lifetime…Cork Burnett from Rochester, Minnesota, USA, catching his first Atlantic salmon in the River Dee with Bert from Park; can’t wait for a repeat!’ The image supplied shows a delighted Mr Burnett with his first salmon. Anglers are kindly requested to unhook and release their salmon in the river during the high current water temperatures and forego any stress caused to their catch by taking photographs.

Cork Burnett from USA with his first ever Atlantic Salmon at Park

At this time of year with warmer air temperatures by day and night please report any suspicious activity you find on your beat. Opportunist rod and line poachers can turn up at this time of the year so it's important you contact the River Office, 013398 80411 any time of the day if you see anyone acting suspiciously on your chosen beat.

News of catches, with or without images, are always welcome, so please drop a line to ken@riverdee.org so I can share this news in the weekly report and FishDee blog. It could be another exciting week for anglers and hopefully we shall get some more good news to report next week. Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

Beat catches reported
(Week ending 20th July)
SALMON & GRILSE: Tilbouries 1, Park 1, Crathes 1, Carlogie 1, Dess 1, Craigendinnie 1, Dinnet 2, Deecastle 2, Balmoral 1, Crathie 2.
Total: 13 Largest: Dinnet 18lbs
SEA TROUT: Park 3, Crathes 1, Ballogie 1, Kincardine 1, Dess 4, Dinnet 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 3, Birkhall 1, Crathie 3.
Total: 18 Largest: Dess & Crathie 3lbs

PROSPECTS

The current spell of warm dry weather isn’t predicted to last according to weather forecasters with much needed rain forecast later in the week. Hopefully there will be a good amount of rain to refresh and replenish water levels and encourage fish to come forward into the river for the eager Ghillies and anglers. The maritime influence sees spring tides during the week with tides at 4.3 metres rising to 4.6 metres before dropping back to 4.0 metres at the weekend. River levels are very low with the Sepa gauges running at 1 inch at Mar Lodge and 3 inches at Park. Air temperature maxima may reach 20 degrees this week with overnight lows above 10 degrees.

River Dee Chairman Ian Scott with a nice salmon netted by Mrs Jenny Clayton

Always heed the advice offered from your beat Ghillie as they know best about what tactics and flies to use to give you a chance of some sport. If you don't have a Ghillie to obtain advice from then you may wish to consider the following flies this week as worth a try in sizes 12-16. The ever dependable Tosh, Silver Stoats tail, Black or Red Frances, cascade, Crathie fly and of course the Sunray Shadow is always a good fall back for salmon and sea trout when retrieved quickly as it swings across the pool. Full floaters are very much the order of the day now with a 13 foot double handed rods and 8/9 weight lines more than sufficient with leaders of 10ft plus in length, as stealth is required and very quiet careful wading. With the river running low anglers may work their flies to induce a take from a salmon or sea trout. Another option well worth trying is to fish with hitched flies. In low water the hitched fly can produce takes when conventional methods fail. You can read about fishing the hitched fly here The Riffle Hitch - Fly Fishing Forums you can see footage of this at this link [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0TYgn_oO2Q]Hitching the fly - YouTube[/ame]

If you need more flies or other equipment please visit Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater. Another must visit place at lunchtime is the Kincardine O'Neil Post office for a super range of sandwiches and fishing flies. With the warm to hot weather forecast for the week ahead perhaps anglers may want to visit local attractions during the afternoon such as our many wonderful golf courses, Lochnagar distillery, Deeside activity Park and perhaps some sightseeing in the upper valley. With the school holidays upon us it’s an ideal time to take youngsters out to try their hand at fishing. Tullich fishery at Ballater, Raemoir fishery and Mill of Strachan at Banchory are delightful venues to take youngsters fishing where they offer fly fishing ponds and bait fishing ponds.

Finally an important thing for you to remember when you arrive on your chosen beat. All anglers and Ghillies are being asked to ensure anglers have their waders and any landing nets sprayed with a mild disinfectant prior to commencing fishing, even when they are fishing different River Dee beats during their week on the river. It's a condition of the River Dee Conservation code and must be strictly adhered to; all beats have supplies to ensure this is carried out prior to entering the river. It's a quick procedure that will help the river and prevent ingress of unwanted pathogens and non native species entering any part of the River Dee watercourse. We also want to prevent the transfer of the highly problematic ranunculus from the lower part of the river to the upper part. Please write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

ken@fishdee · Jul 29, 2013

LAST WEEK

A glorious summer week on Deeside started with the joyous news about the birth of His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's first son, and third in line to the throne. The glorious weather coinciding with the school holidays has seen lots of local children taking the opportunity to have a swim in the river during the heat of the day. Anglers and Ghillies no doubt were doing rain dances all week and their prayers were answered with a day of continuous rainfall on Sunday 28th July. Not only does this raise their spirits it also raises river levels, which is good news as it will encourage a run of summer salmon and grilse into the river where many fish have been waiting to run. This welcome rainfall will also see a lowering of water temperatures which were getting really too warm for salmon to co-operate with fishermen at 20 degrees Celsius plus. As fishing weeks go, last week saw anglers fishing in vain for scant reward during daylight hours and any realistic opportunities for sport happened during the wee small hours. FishDee beats reported 27 salmon and 28 sea trout for the week. Catches should pick up significantly this week, not only on the Dee, but also on the Feugh where anglers and proprietors have waited patiently for a lift in water levels to encourage fish to ascend the Falls of Feugh. The Heughhead beat should see some sport this week and let's hope they do well.

Ade Bristow with a nice sea liced salmon at Lower Crathes

News of fish catches has been as rare as finding a taking fish however I managed to chat with Gavin Brown, Junction Beat Boatman on the River Tweed, who enjoyed a busman's holiday to the Dee and managed to catch 3 salmon at Dess on a tiny fly. Gavin really enjoyed his time fishing the Dee and thought it a pretty river and joy to fish. I received an e-mail from Ade Bristow commenting ‘Hi Ken, I thought you might appreciate these images of my first Salmon caught on the Dee, in the company of seasoned rod Gordon Dickinson and the inimitable Robert Harper, on the beautiful Lower Crathes and West Durris Beat. It was my first trip in search of a salmon (w/c 8th July) and I had low expectations against a backdrop of rising temperatures and a rapidly falling gauge. Therefore I was thrilled with my three salmon for the week, including the two fresh, sea liced fish in the attached photographs. All fish fell to a sparsely dressed size 14 Silver Stoat. I can't express my gratitude deeply enough to Gordon, Chas and Robert. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and hope to return again when the river is carrying more water and the pools have regained their full character. Best regards. Ade Bristow.' I also was very saddened to hear the news about a tragic accident in Russia where it's reported a helicopter turned over killing two anglers and a highly respected guide Alex Tus, who had disembarked from the helicopter. Retired top corporate lawyer Rupert Beaumont and fine art dealer Mark Robertson, I'm informed were anglers who fished the River Dee at Lower Crathes and will be sadly missed; sincere condolences to the families of the anglers and guide.

I just received a phone call from Ian Murray from Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld, who many have commented has a sixth sense about all things! Ian had thought I might need some copy for this week's report and was right of course. Ian advised ‘Well it's been a tough week for anglers but we got 6 salmon and a sea trout from Monaltrie/Lower Invercauld and a salmon from Glen Muick, which is good going considering the conditions. We have had fresh fish creeping through daily and we caught these fish on small silver stoat's tail flies using light tackle and great stealth.

At this time of year with warmer air temperatures by day and night please report any suspicious activity you find on your beat. Opportunist rod and line poachers can turn up at this time of the year so it's important you contact the River Office, 013398 80411 any time of the day if you see anyone acting suspiciously on your chosen beat.

SALMON & GRILSE: Tilbouries 2, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 1, Park 4, Lower Crathes and W Durris 1, Crathes 1, Upper Blackhall 1, Ballogie 1, Dess 3, Birse 4, Aboyne Water 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 6, Crathie 1, Heughhead 1, Total 27
SEA TROUT: Park 4, Ballogie 3, Kincardine 1, Carlogie 1, Dess 4, Birse 7, Aboyne Castle 1, Dinnet 4, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 1, Crathie 1, Mar Lodge Estate 1, Total 28

PROSPECTS

During the dog days of summer it's difficult to write a prospects column with any degree of confidence about good sport unless a change in weather is on the horizon. Well thankfully writing this week's prospects column is a pleasure as there has been a significant change in the weather with virtually a solid 12 hour rainfall yesterday culminating in a rise in river levels overnight.

What anglers like Ade Bristow love to catch-sea liced River Dee salmon

The Sepa gauges are sitting this morning at 5 inches and steady at Mar Lodge and 1ft 7 inches at Park and rising, with the River Feugh seeing a 2.5 foot rise in water level which will encourage salmon and sea trout to ascend the Falls of Feugh, providing visitors to the viewing platform with excitement as fish battle their way up through the torrent. The weather forecasters are also suggesting there could be more rain today, tomorrow and on Thursday, which if it materialises will set us up nicely for a good weeks sport. Air temperature maxima will perhaps reach 20 degrees Celsius plus however water temperatures will have dropped back quite a bit which should encourage more fish activity and get them on the move. Tides are dropping back from 3.9 metres to 3.5 metres before rising at the weekend to 3.7 metres as Spring tides build again. There is plenty of rod availability on the FishDee website and conditions being what they are I would encourage people to book fishing as their chances of good sport have improved significantly.

With fresh fish anticipated to be on the move this week it's important to heed the wise counsel from your Ghillie about where to fish and what flies to use. Chances are there will be a bit of turbidity in the water and anglers may well be fishing with bigger flies than last week perhaps sizes 8-12. Popular flies to use this week will include Cascade, Park Shrimp, Flamethrower, Calvin's Shrimp or any other that is flashy and bright. Anglers will in all probability be fishing with floating lines with sink tips or poly leaders. There may well be some bigger summer salmon coming forward so don't fish with terminal tackle that is too light; nothing worse than losing a good fish because your leader material is too weak. Some anglers will also fish a sunray shadow or monkey stripped squarely across the pool encouraging salmon to aggressively pursue and snap at the fly. Pot bellied pig tube flies fished a bit down in the water may also be productive during the week.

If you need more flies or other equipment please visit Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater. Another must visit place at lunchtime is the Kincardine O'Neil Post office for a super range of sandwiches and fishing flies. Finally an important thing for you to remember when you arrive on your chosen beat. All anglers and Ghillies are being asked to ensure anglers have their waders and any landing nets sprayed with a mild disinfectant prior to commencing fishing, even when they are fishing different River Dee beats during their week on the river. It's a condition of the River Dee Conservation code and must be strictly adhered to; all beats have supplies to ensure this is carried out prior to entering the river. It's a quick procedure that will help the river and prevent ingress of unwanted pathogens and non native species entering the River Dee watercourse. We also want to prevent the transfer of the highly problematic ranunculus from the lower part of the river to the upper part. Please write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

ken@fishdee · Aug 5, 2013

LAST WEEK

Its Highland Games time up on Deeside and there certainly was some fun and games on the riverbank last week for anglers and Ghillies alike. Salmon fishing can be exciting at times as the fortunes of anglers improved dramatically during the last week on the River Dee. FishDee beats have as I write reported 221 salmon with more to be added and 56 sea trout, with Park reporting 43 salmon and grilse, Lower Crathes 26, Carlogie/Ballogie 23 with Birse, Dess and Altries also in double figures. What a difference a bit of rainfall can make after weeks of low warm water and high air temperatures. The River Dee saw a number of much needed rises in river levels during the week and stocks of fish that had been building up in the Aberdeen area took their leave and migrated upstream quickly giving anglers and Ghillies some great sport. On Tuesday and Saturday 41 salmon were reported each day and Thursday saw 81 salmon reported; sport would have undoubtedly been better had the river not coloured up on Thursday night through Friday. High winds on Friday put a lot of debris from trees into the river and this debris and turbidity in the water put fish off the take considerably. We cannot grumble though as the expected summer run of fish is taking every opportunity to come into the river now in good numbers. Spring tides are building during the week and more fish will come forward, hopefully in ever increasing numbers.

I spoke to the Park Ghillies Keith Cromar and Bert Webster this morning to get news from the beat. I had visited the beat during the week and caught up with anglers Ron Low, David Cronshaw and Major Simon Poett. Keith was optimistic and looking forward to Thursday where he predicted a good day’s sport; the beat reported 18 for the day and 13 on Tuesday. I was delighted to hear that Major Poett had 3 salmon on Thursday. We had dinner the night before and he was so looking forward to Thursday. Marcus Kemmer from Germany had 5 salmon and a sea trout for his 3 days. Bert Webster reported that the south bank of the beat had 30 salmon and grilse for the week with anglers making the most of their opportunities and fishing hard. He advised visiting anglers Nick Drake and Tim Hart from London had 17 salmon between them for their annual visit. He advised that some of the fish were so well conditioned that they could easily have been taken for February spring fish. Bulwarks, Coopers and the Long Pool all fished well from the south bank with floating lines with intermediate tips popular and the ever reliable size 10-12 cascades on the business end coming up trumps. He advised that visiting angler from the Findhorn David Cronshaw had two excellent 14lbers and Andy Roskill had the biggest of the week at 17lbs, a very fresh fish. Great to hear the Park beats doing very well where they have a lot of fine holding water for salmon and grilse. Surely now the beat will see more and more fish being landed as we head into the autumn and hopefully some really big fish too.

Visiting angler from Oslo Chris Paus with a fresh salmon at Park which reported 43 salmon and grilse last week

I just received a phone call from Robert Harper at Lower Crathes where anglers Paulo Cesana and Alberto Notarbartolo had 19 salmon and 7 grilse between them for their week. Paulo landed 18 and Alberto 8, mostly on small cascades fished just under the surface. They had a blank day on Monday and two fish on two of their other days with the bulk of their action during a hectic 3 day spell of marvellous fishing. Paulo was over earlier in the season and had a very productive spell then and he couldn’t have timed his visits any better. I spoke to the anglers on Wednesday and they were very happy and looking forward to their remaining days. I also spoke to regular River Dee visitor Ade Warburton who had the rods for the week at Carlogie and he advised he was delighted with the sport during the week. He advised Robin Sproull had his first ever Dee fish from the Mill Pool. Other successful anglers were his partner in crime Dr Patrick Taylor, Bill Cook, Dave MacDonald, Neill Sproull and Paul McIntyre. Ade had 7 to his own rod with one of the salmon being coloured carrying sea lice!

Please remember I need your help to write this weekly column, write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

Beat catches reported
SALMON & GRILSE: Culter 2, Altries and Lower Drum 10, Middle Drum 3, Tilbouries 8, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 2, Park 43, Lower Crathes and W Durris 24, Knappach 1, Crathes 8, Lower Blackhall and Kinneskie 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Middle Blackhall 3, Upper Blackhall 6, Cairnton 6, Woodend 6, Commonty 5, Ballogie 10, Borrowston 9, Kincardine 3, Carlogie 13, Dess 10, Birse 12, Aboyne Water 4, Aboyne Castle 3, Craigendinnie 2, Waterside and Ferrar 3, Dinnet 7, Deecastle 8, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 4, Crathie 1, Heughhead 2, Total 221
SEA TROUT: Culter 1, Altries and Lower Drum 1, Middle Drum 2, Tilbouries 3, Park 4, Lower Crathes and W Durris 3, Crathes 3, Lower Blackhall and Kinneskie 1, Middle Blackhall 1, Woodend 1, Commonty 1, Ballogie 5, Borrowston 2, Kincardine 1, Carlogie 5, Dess 2, Birse 3, Aboyne Water 2, Aboyne Castle 3, Craigendinnie 2, Waterside and Ferrar 2, Dinnet 2, Deecastle 1, Headinch and Cambus O'May 2, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 1, Heughhead 2, Total 56
TROUT: Heughhead 2, Total 2

PROSPECTS

Following on from last week’s regular lifts in river levels and lowering of water temperatures fresh summer salmon are taking every opportunity to enter the river and make their way upstream. There have been some good catches made of late with 81 salmon and grilse reported on Thursday. It’s been a tough season for many anglers but there can be no doubt that good numbers of fish are now running the river and there are plenty rods available on the FishDee website for anglers looking to catch salmon before the season draws to a close in a couple of months time. The Lower beats are seeing runs of bright new fish running through them every day and these will take an anglers fly if he’s in the right place at the right time. We normally see big multi sea winter fish entering the catchment during august and September.

The week ahead sees weather forecasters suggesting sunshine and afternoon showers for the week ahead with an air temperature maxima of 18 degrees Celsius and overnight lows getting down to perhaps 7 degrees Celsius. River levels have dropped back following last week’s rises and the Sepa gauges are currently between 4 inches at Mar Lodge and 9 inches at Park. Tides will be building during the week from 3.8 metres to 4.3 metres. The water quality will be ideal for anglers and Ghillies will encourage their anglers to fish hard, especially when they see activity in their pools. Listen to the advice offered by your Ghillie and fish the spots they recommend diligently. Last week saw a lot of fish caught on small cascade patterns, sizes 10-12 typically as the water was coloured at times. No doubt, Cascades, Park Shrimps, Stoats Tail flies along with small black and red Frances flies will catch fish this week. If you need more flies or other equipment please visit Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater. Another must visit place at lunchtime is the Kincardine O'Neil Post office for a super range of sandwiches and fishing flies.

With the good level of rod availability on FishDee if you are considering a visit for a few days then please remember to look at the good range of accommodation on offer in the where to stay section on the FishDee website. Remember to ask for Fishermans rates if you are coming in a group of 3 or more anglers for stays of 3 days or more. There is a quick online survey about hotel accommodation provision on the FishDee daily catches page and the feedback from this indicates that anglers are being very well looked after and getting excellent value for money so take advantage of what’s on offer and come and fish the Dee.

Finally an important thing for you to remember when you arrive on your chosen beat. All anglers and Ghillies are being asked to ensure anglers have their waders and any landing nets sprayed with a mild disinfectant prior to commencing fishing, even when they are fishing different River Dee beats during their week on the river. It's a condition of the River Dee Conservation code and must be strictly adhered to; all beats have supplies to ensure this is carried out prior to entering the river. It's a quick procedure that will help the river and prevent ingress of unwanted pathogens and non native species entering the River Dee watercourse. We also want to prevent the transfer of the highly problematic ranunculus from the lower part of the river to the upper part. Please write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

ken@fishdee · Aug 12, 2013

LAST WEEK

The week started reasonably with fish being caught throughout the catchment and we were hopeful that there would be some significant heavy showers throughout the week that would keep the river levels topped up nicely. Alas rain showers did occur frequently during the afternoons anglers were fishing however the volume of precipitation was not enough to keep the river levels topped up. As the river levels fell so did the catches with Friday and Saturday seeing just over 10 salmon reported each day. FishDee beats have reported 136 salmon and 29 sea trout for the week as I write with Park reporting 25, Altries and Lower Crathes 9 apiece and Dess 8. The largest fish reported was 21lbs from Aboyne Water. The week ahead sees weather forecasters all suggesting rain showers and heavy ones at that, however some are suggesting there may be some thunder and lightning on Thursday. If that materialises hopefully we will get a very much needed lift in river levels.

Correspondence has come this week from Michael Jensen from Denmark advising ‘Just wish to report my catch of a coloured 10lbs cock fish Saturday 10th Aug, on the Deecastle water. The fish took a “Hitched” slim dressed tube of app. 1.5”. We saw a little activity in the morning and midday hours with a few fresh grilse jumping, but in the afternoon it all went dead. Another few very coloured fish showed interest to the “Hitched” tube but no further takes!’ There was also correspondence from Nick Drake who enjoyed success at Park commenting’ Hi Ken yes a great week very lucky with the water, no secret just a healthy dose of persistence and a generous amount of fortune, I did lose another eight fish so it could have been better! Best Nick’. Now mentioning Park, I visited the beat on Friday afternoon for a cast as a guest of Graeme Arthur who had a few days fishing with Richard Thomas. I was delighted to meet up with Bill Stephen and Edwin Whyte from Fraserburgh who are excellent anglers. Alas sport was really quite slow in the afternoon albeit a torrential rain shower stirred things up. Just after it had finished Graeme managed to catch a small fresh salmon from the Long Pool. Edwin was unlucky having hooked 3 fish only to see them come unattached. He was using a self tied shrimp fly which has been very successful for him; last year he had over 60 salmon on this fly. I hooked many parr on my small fly and seemed to hook them every other cast.

A first ever fish for Edward Gledson at Abergeldie

I would also like to extend congratulations to Edward Gledson who was out for an evening’s cast at Abergeldie with father Richard Gledson. Richard had been in the River Office during the week and had said he was going to catch a fish that evening. He wrote the next day advising ‘Ken, I joked yesterday about sending you details of the fish I would catch last night. Sadly I did not catch a thing, but as you can see from the attached photo my son Edward managed to catch his first ever salmon in the Coynach pool on Abergeldie. I was fishing Dalraddie further up the river and got a call from Edward saying he had hooked a fish. What great excitement! the fish was released after a couple of photographs - we reckon it was about 3-4 lbs but you are probably a better judge than me. Richard’. Well it’s always pleasing to hear of young anglers fishing the Dee and catching their first salmon and I am sure Richard was over the moon when sharing that special moment on the river bank with Edward. Another candidate for the inaugural Callum Mackenzie cup.

Please remember I need your help to write this weekly column, write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

Beat catches reported
SALMON & GRILSE: Ardoe and Murtle 5, Kingcausie 5, Culter 3, Altries and Lower Drum 9, Tilbouries 1, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 7, Park 25, Lower Crathes and W Durris 9, Crathes 1, Tilquhillie 2, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 3, Upper Blackhall 2, Cairnton 2, Woodend 2, Commonty 2, Sluie 1, Ballogie 7, Borrowston 1, Kincardine 5, Carlogie 4, Dess 8, Birse 3, Aboyne Water 6, Aboyne Castle 1, Craigendinnie 4, Waterside and Ferrar 1, Dinnet 1, Deecastle 3, Headinch and Cambus O'May 4, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 3, Abergeldie 2, Crathie 4, Total 136
SEA TROUT: Ardoe and Murtle 2, Kingcausie 1, Altries and Lower Drum 1, Park 3, Crathes 2, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Cairnton 1, Kincardine 1, Dess 2, Birse 2, Aboyne Water 2, Craigendinnie 1, Waterside and Ferrar 1, Dinnet 1, Deecastle 2, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 3, Crathie 2, Total 29

PROSPECTS

A well known river watcher was telling me on Saturday that he is seeing good numbers of salmon entering the river on the high tides however where they are running to is anyone’s guess. The River levels are lower than we have been used to over the last few years at this time and hopefully we will get much needed lift in river levels to freshen things up this week. Our chairman had been fishing on a neighbouring river and they had a 1 foot rise during the week which saw him getting some reasonable sport; he wore a big grin in the office this morning. I suspect there are more fish in the bottom beats with not a lot of angling effort going on. This may changes this week as anglers capitalise on the fishing availability on FishDee and fish the lower beats.

The week ahead sees weather forecasters suggesting sunshine and afternoon showers for the week ahead again with an air temperature maxima of 18 degrees Celsius and overnight lows getting down to perhaps 5 degrees Celsius. River levels have dropped back slightly with potential for rises in river levels if localised thundershowers occur. The Sepa gauge data has been problematic this weekend due to them upgrading to a new server. They are currently between 3 inches at Mar Lodge and 7 inches at Park. Tides will be falling during the week from 4.1 metres to 3.7 metres. Listen to the advice offered by your Ghillie and fish the spots they recommend diligently. Last week saw a good number of fish caught on small gold hooked red Frances flies, sizes 12-16, as red will become a colour that more salmon switch onto over the next few weeks heading into autumn. No doubt, Cascades, Park Shrimps, Stoats Tail flies will catch fish this week and really make an effort to tie a half hitch to your fly, which alters the presentation to the fish and does seem to make them interested when they see it. If you need more flies or other equipment please visit Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater. Another must visit place at lunchtime is the Kincardine O'Neil Post office for a super range of sandwiches and fishing flies.

With the good level of rod availability on FishDee if you are considering a visit for a few days then please remember to look at the good range of accommodation on offer in the where to stay section on the FishDee website. Remember to ask for Fisherman's rates if you are coming in a group of 3 or more anglers for stays of 3 days or more. There is a quick online survey about hotel accommodation provision on the FishDee daily catches page and the feedback from this indicates that anglers are being very well looked after and getting excellent value for money so take advantage of what’s on offer and come and fish the Dee.

Finally an important thing for you to remember when you arrive on your chosen beat. All anglers and Ghillies are being asked to ensure anglers have their waders and any landing nets sprayed with a mild disinfectant prior to commencing fishing, even when they are fishing different River Dee beats during their week on the river. It's a condition of the River Dee Conservation code and must be strictly adhered to; all beats have supplies to ensure this is carried out prior to entering the river. It's a quick procedure that will help the river and prevent ingress of unwanted pathogens and non native species entering the River Dee watercourse. We also want to prevent the transfer of the highly problematic ranunculus from the lower part of the river to the upper part. Please remember to write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

ken@fishdee · Aug 19, 2013

LAST WEEK

Many years ago a well respected Dee Ghillie said to me ‘when we have water we catch lots of fish, but when we have low water then salmon become very difficult to catch'. I have never forgotten this comment and it then leads you to another matter of consideration, are there many fish? Well the feedback from my sources suggests that there are salmon and grilse coming in on high tides but they are not being captured in good numbers; salmon fishing can be a fickle sport at times. FishDee beats have reported 70 salmon and 13 sea trout for the past week. Park reported 11 with Ballogie and Crathes reporting 5 apiece. In low water angling effort is considerably reduced and with the fine summer weather there are a lot of other attractions in Deeside that visiting anglers take the time to go and visit, perhaps concentrating their fishing effort to a few hours in the morning and evening.

Correspondence has come this week from Clive Miles commenting ‘Hi Ken, I wanted to share another excellent week with you and the FishDee website. Our hosts, Leslie and Geoff Lockett both took several fish between them, the highlight being Lelly's fish caught with a full audience on Lummels Pool. The core guests (including 6 kids and 3 dogs!) were Colonel Angus and Rachel Philp, Patricia and Clive Miles staying at Ballogie House - fantastic accommodation and just a short trip to the beat. Geoff caught a fresh 5lbs fish on a Silver Stoat, 10lbs stale fish on a Pot Belly Pig and 2 Sea Trout, Clive caught 3 fish, all fresh, 6.5lbs, 21lbs (his record to date), 6lbs and 1 Sea Trout all from Lummels, all on Park Shrimp! Embarrassingly, he also lost 2 fish in Irrigation on a Silver Stoat. Colonel Angus took a Sea Trout for the week. A fantastic week on Aboyne - thank you so much to our wonderful hosts and all those on Deeside who make it such a great community for a family Holiday.' I asked Clive if he could provide information about the 21lb salmon and he advised' 21lbs cock very slightly coloured, measured rather than weighed, caught at approx 0930 on Monday morning, floating line, really gentle take followed by a steady fight using the faster water to put the pressure on me when playing it. I was determined to release in the water and was by myself when I caught the fish, so no photo, just measured from butt to join 1 on rod.'

Please remember I need your help to write this weekly column, write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

SALMON & GRILSE: Ardoe and Murtle 1, Kingcausie 2, Culter 2, Altries and Lower Drum 3, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 4, Park 11, Lower Crathes and W Durris 3, Crathes 5, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Upper Blackhall 1, Cairnton 3, Commonty 2, Sluie 1, Ballogie 5, Carlogie 1, Dess 4, Aboyne Water 3, Aboyne Castle 1, Craigendinnie 3, Waterside and Ferrar 3, Dinnet 1, Deecastle 2, Headinch and Cambus O'May 2, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 4, Crathie 3, Total 71
SEA TROUT: Ardoe and Murtle 1, Culter 1, Tilbouries 1, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 1, Park 2, Woodend 1, Carlogie 2, Craigendinnie 1, Waterside and Ferrar 1, Deecastle 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 1, Total 13

PROSPECTS

At this time of the year when sport is slow we need something to change for the salmon to become more responsive. Ideally a good lift in river levels brings new fish forward and gets other fish that have been resting a while to continue their upstream migration. Ghillies are suggesting that numbers of fish this year are not as plentiful as we have enjoyed the last few seasons during our wet summers. Will we see any significant change for the week ahead? The week ahead sees weather forecasters suggesting sunshine and some rain on Wednesday and perhaps Saturday/Sunday with an air temperature maxima of 20 degrees Celsius and overnight lows getting down to perhaps 7 degrees Celsius. River levels have dropped back to low summer levels. The Sepa gauges are currently between 4 inches at Mar Lodge and 7 inches at Park. Tides will be building during the week from 4.1 metres to 4.7 metres-big spring tides which should see new fish coming forward.

Always observe the sound advice offered by your Ghillie and fish the spots they recommend diligently and stealthily. No doubt small Cascades, Park Shrimps, Stoats Tail flies and red Frances flies will catch fish this week and really make an effort to tie a half hitch to your fly and fish it more square than a conventional 45 degree downstream cast. This alters the presentation of the fly to the fish and does seem to make some respond when they see it. Long leaders and small flies are really necessary to help winkle some out. If you need more flies or other equipment please visit Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater. Another must visit place at lunchtime is the Kincardine O'Neil Post office for a super range of sandwiches and fishing flies.

With the good level of rod availability on FishDee if you are considering a visit for a few days then please remember to look at the good range of accommodation on offer in the where to stay section on the FishDee website. Remember to ask for Fisherman's rates if you are coming in a group of 3 or more anglers for stays of 3 days or more. There is a quick online survey about hotel accommodation provision on the FishDee daily catches page and the feedback from this indicates that anglers are very well looked after and getting excellent value for money so take advantage of what's on offer and come and fish the Dee.

Finally an important thing for you to remember when you arrive on your chosen beat. All anglers and Ghillies are being asked to ensure anglers have their waders and any landing nets sprayed with a mild disinfectant prior to commencing fishing, even when they are fishing different River Dee beats during their week on the river. It's a condition of the River Dee Conservation code and must be strictly adhered to; all beats have supplies to ensure this is carried out prior to entering the river. It's a quick procedure that will help the river and prevent ingress of unwanted pathogens and non native species entering the River Dee watercourse. We also want to prevent the transfer of the highly problematic ranunculus from the lower part of the river to the upper part. Please remember to write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

ken@fishdee · Aug 28, 2013

Last Week

I wrote last week about conditions needing to change which might encourage a good run of new fish into the river. Well reports from Aberdeen suggesting fish are moving forward have been borne out by Ardoe and Murtle reporting 16 salmon for the week. FishDee beats reported 88 salmon and 15 sea trout in very low water conditions with the water getting warmer during the week. I hear it rained hard on Saturday but this only put 1 inch onto the Park river level. As I write on Tuesday evening after spending time in the river with visiting biologists doing research it was fascinating to hear of the numbers of salmon they were finding in some of the pools. In one top river pool close to 90 salmon were clearly observed, however above the water nothing stirred suggesting there may be very few fish in the pool. In low warm water getting salmon to respond is extremely difficult and frustrating for anglers and Ghillies alike. It’s the dog days of summer and we expect to get summers like this from time to time. Before long it will be windy, wet and cold and the salmon will get on with the business at hand; starting the next generation of salmon in the autumn.

Correspondence has come this week from Prof Eaton commenting ‘Dear Ken, A fish from Ballogie. We did catch some bigger ones. It has been a difficult season on the Dee! This one comes from Ballogie. It was caught by regular visitor Richard Eaton and is envied by his son Noah; it was caught on a stoat’s tail and was returned safely. Prof Mike Eaton.’ Frank McWilliam advised ‘Thoroughly enjoyed fishing at Birse although no fish caught. We had 2 pulls in Belwade which we believe were sea trout. Our Ghillie was very helpful and tried very hard for us to get a fish.’ Better luck next time Frank.Mr Bomphrey fishing Middle Drum advised’ A most enjoyable two days. A fish or three would have been the icing on the cake.’ Mr Bruce fishing the pretty Morven beat commented ‘We had a wonderful day on the river. We did not see any fish but the location was beautiful.’

Richard and Noah Eaton admiring a juvenile salmon

Please remember I need your help to write this weekly column, write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid Â© FishDee Ltd.

Beat catches reported
(week ending 24th August)
SALMON & GRILSE: Ardoe and Murtle 16, Kingcausie 3, Culter 2, Altries and Lower Drum 1, Tilbouries 1, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 3, Park 6, Lower Crathes and W Durris 5, Crathes 2, Tilquhillie 2, Invery 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Cairnton 7, Commonty 5, Sluie 1, Ballogie 3, Kincardine 3, Carlogie 1, Dess 6, Aboyne Water 2, Aboyne Castle 2, Craigendinnie 3, Waterside and Ferrar 1, Dinnet 1, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 4, Crathie 5.
Total: 88 Largest: Carlogie 20lbs
SEA TROUT: Ardoe and Murtle 6, Lower Crathes and W Durris 1, Cairnton 1, Ballogie 4, Carlogie 1, Dess 1, Craigendinnie 1.
Total: 15 Largest: Ardoe and Murtle & Cairnton & Ballogie & Dess & Craigendinnie 2lbs
TROUT: Ardoe and Murtle 2. Total: 2.

Prospects

The week ahead sees weather forecasters suggesting very little precipitation which we really need and an air temperature maxima of 19 degrees Celsius and overnight lows getting down to perhaps 6 degrees Celsius. River levels have are currently at low summer levels. The Sepa gauges are currently between 4 inches at Mar Lodge and 7 inches at Park. Tides will be falling during the week from 3.9 metres to 3.3 metres. It’s going to be another difficult week for anglers however the valley is looking beautiful with the heather in bloom and the landscape a marvellous tapestry of colour.
Listen to the sound advice offered by your Ghillie and fish the spots they recommend diligently and stealthily. Cascades, Park Shrimps, Stoats Tail flies and red Frances flies will perhaps catch fish this week and really make an effort to tie a half hitch to your fly and fish it more square than a conventional 45 degree downstream cast. This alters the presentation of the fly to the fish and does seem to make some respond when they see it. Long leaders and small flies are really necessary to help winkle some out. If you need more flies or other equipment please visit Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis in Banchory, Strachan's of Aboyne and Countrywear in Ballater. Another must visit place at lunchtime is the Kincardine O'Neil Post office for a super range of sandwiches and fishing flies.

The King of the rivers returns home to spawn the next generation of salmon in the autumn

With the good level of rod availability on FishDee if you are considering a visit for a few days then please remember to look at the good range of accommodation on offer in the where to stay section on the FishDee website. Remember to ask for Fisherman's rates if you are coming in a group of 3 or more anglers for stays of 3 days or more, so take advantage of what's on offer and come and fish the Dee. Congratulations to Phillip J Fleming and all the team at Tor Na Coille who were awarded their Visit Scotland 4 star rating last week. The Hotel, a popular haunt for anglers has really worked hard to earn this award and they must be justifiably proud to have won this accolade. I am sure many visiting anglers will be delighted to hear this news.

Finally an important thing for you to remember when you arrive on your chosen beat. All anglers and Ghillies are being asked to ensure anglers have their waders and any landing nets sprayed with a mild disinfectant prior to commencing fishing, even when they are fishing different River Dee beats during their week on the river. It's a condition of the River Dee Conservation code and must be strictly adhered to; all beats have supplies to ensure this is carried out prior to entering the river. It's a quick procedure that will help the river and prevent ingress of unwanted pathogens and non native species entering the River Dee watercourse. We also want to prevent the transfer of the highly problematic ranunculus from the lower part of the river to the upper part. Please remember to write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

ken@fishdee · Sep 2, 2013

Last Week

It’s been interesting hearing news from the river this week and hearing of anglers and Ghillies really thinking outside the box when looking for sport in very low water conditions. On Deeside the farmers will be thrilled at how well weather conditions have been for harvesting their crops. Anglers trying to get fish are all praying for some really heavy rain to encourage fish to run the river and attack angler’s flies with purpose. At this time of year it is quite common; given good angling conditions to catch over 70 salmon per day, however last week FishDee beats reported 79 salmon for the week and 11 sea trout. Well anglers have to put up with all sorts of conditions during the fishing year and there are no guarantees when dealing with wild animals that they will co-operate. I am sure the anglers who did have good sport last week will be very pleased with themselves and quite rightly so.

Some of the snippets of news received during the week include a delighted Sean Stanton at Ballogie who had fishing this week. ’That’s my week over at Ballogie; I finished with 10 Salmon/Grilse for my week which is superb considering the conditions. I didn't use a fly under 1 1/2" long and all were tied on brass tubes! Most people would have been on micro flies and floating lines but I'm not most people!’ Well I am sure all Ballogie anglers would give credit to Sean for his ingenuity and cunning which helps them catch fish from the beats he manages. Sean is a very talented angler and Ghillie. Flemming Binnerup enjoyed some good sport at Dess recently commenting on Facebook ‘River Dee beat Dess, what a day. Two salmon took the fly without being hooked, lost a good one estimated to 16 pound! Got a nice grilse and closed the day with a salmon. Thanks for the advice, got all the fish in the fast water and my own variant of the monkey fly did the work.’ Well that sounds like Flemming had a very enjoyable day on the river.

A delighted Flemming Binnerup enjoys success at Dess

I also received an e-mail from Greg Stokes who has just finished a week at Craigendinnie with Ghillie George Murray. For Greg it was a case of lightning striking twice for him and I’m delighted to receive this news. Greg advised ‘Hi Ken, I thought you might like to hear of my week on the Dee at Craigendinnie. I was up for the week fishing under the expert guidance of ghillie George Murray. This was my second visit to the beat and the last time I fished it I was lucky enough to land my first 20lb salmon along with another 4 fish for 3 days fishing, though given the tough conditions this season I was feeling like I would be lucky to land anything for the week! Well I got off to a good start on Monday morning with a freshish grilse from Tanar mouth within 10 minutes of starting which certainly took the pressure off! That was it for the day but on Tuesday morning I got off to a good start again hooking a strong fish in Symonds. I was on my own and in an awkward spot to try and land the fish, but at the third attempt I managed to tail it and that’s when I realised it was another big fish, measured at 37 inches, a real solid cock fish around 20lbs so this beat has served me well with larger fish! Apologies for the quality of the photo but as I say I was on my own and wanted to get it back quickly. I managed another grilse and lost another quickly after the same morning. 1 more fish on Thursday took my total to 4 landed and 1 lost for the week, so all in all far better than I was expecting given the very low water and bright sunshine most days. 1 thing I did differently this week was fish a dropper, I’m not sure why I chose to do this but it paid off with 3 of the fish taking the dropper. The cast I fished all week with was a size 13 red Frances on the point and a size 13 silver stoat or size 15 red Frances on the dropper. Many thanks to George for all his help and I’m already looking forward to my week next year.’ Well a bit of thinking out of the box to use a dropper appears to have been the recipe for success at Craigendinnie. Fishing with a dropper in low water conditions is not without risk as one of the flies can easily snag a rock in low water while fighting a feisty salmon. Well done to Greg on his success and successive 20lb salmon in two years is something to really appreciate.

Visitor Paul Hainey had two fish at Park South on Thursday 29th August; one at 6-7 lbs and a grilse of around 3 lbs. The bigger fish was caught on a small cascade and the other on an unknown pattern. Well done Paul. Alex Robertson from Portsoy also had 2 salmon at Park South with an 8lber caught on a Kinermony Killer and a 12lber on a Black Bear Flamethrower. Please remember I need your help to write this weekly column, write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

Beat catches reported
SALMON & GRILSE: Ardoe and Murtle 1, Kingcausie 4, Altries and Lower Drum 6, Tilbouries 1, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 2, Park 11, Lower Crathes and W Durris 1, Crathes 1, Tilquhillie 1, Middle Blackhall 1, Upper Blackhall 3, Cairnton 5, Commonty 4, Ballogie 11, Kincardine 1, Carlogie 1, Dess 5, Aboyne Water 7, Craigendinnie 4, Deecastle 1, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 6, Heughhead 1, Total 79
SEA TROUT: Ardoe and Murtle 1, Culter 1, Tilbouries 1, Park 1, Tilquhillie 2, Upper Blackhall 1, Ballogie 1, Aboyne Water 1, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 1, Total 11

Prospects

Well Autumn has arrived on the first of September and we are enjoying some lovely late summer weather on Deeside with air temperature maxima forecast today to reach 25 degrees Celsius. It’s not too long ago that we were bemoaning the length of the cold winter weather on Deeside. Summer does move on and the next few weeks will see a very noticeable shortening of daylight which usually subsequently impacts on air temperatures. Weather forecasters are suggesting we will see temperatures cooling down through the week and there should be some rain around Wednesday/Thursday. The maritime influence sees tides building through the week from 3.7 metres to 4.4 metres. We really need a good flood to get the river in good heart for the remaining weeks of the fishing season; whether that materialises is in the lap of the gods. River levels are currently 2 inches at Mar Lodge and 4 inches at Park and minus 2 inches at Heughhead on the Feugh.

I wrote last week advising anglers to listen to the advice from their beat Ghillie which it always pays to do so. However I must comment that news reports about anglers success last week indicates success was enjoyed with tube flies fished deep and tiny size 15 flies fished off a dropper. Two extreme ends of the scale here and I can only say its horses for courses. If your fly isn’t in the water it won’t catch a fish and catching fish will not be easy in the near future given the prevailing low water conditions. Visiting anglers know that they can get a year that is a little tougher than others and they know how to make the best of it and enjoy their time on the river, enjoy nice lunches and relaxing on the river bank with other anglers. There’s more to fishing than catching fish.

With the good level of rod availability on FishDee if you are considering a visit for a few days then please remember to look at the good range of accommodation on offer in the where to stay section on the FishDee website. Remember to ask for Fisherman's rates if you are coming in a group of 3 or more anglers for stays of 3 days or more, so take advantage of what's on offer and come and fish the Dee. I would like to welcome the Coo Hoose from Aboyne who have just joined the FishDee website. Mine Host Catriona Elson advised me ‘The warm cosy Coo Hoose is stylish and contemporary. It has two bedrooms, accommodating 4 people and is well equipped. After a day on the river this really is the place to stay as it’s a very special cottage in the heart of Aboyne, Royal Deeside. The River Dee is a stone's throw away and the popular Boat Inn is just 10 minutes walk. All you need to do is come and enjoy some of the best fishing the North East of Scotland has to offer. See our super website www.thecoohoose.co.uk for availability or phone Catriona 07500 832545.’ I really enjoyed visiting the website and I am sure anglers who look in well enjoy visiting the website and of course a very enjoyable stay at the Coo Hoose.

Finally an important thing for you to remember when you arrive on your chosen beat. All anglers and Ghillies are being asked to ensure anglers have their waders and any landing nets sprayed with a mild disinfectant prior to commencing fishing, even when they are fishing different River Dee beats during their week on the river. It's a condition of the River Dee Conservation code and must be strictly adhered to; all beats have supplies to ensure this is carried out prior to entering the river. It's a quick procedure that will help the river and prevent ingress of unwanted pathogens and non native species entering the River Dee watercourse. We also want to prevent the transfer of the highly problematic ranunculus from the lower part of the river to the upper part. Please remember to write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

ken@fishdee · Sep 9, 2013

LAST WEEK

As autumn approaches farmers are finishing their harvest of arable crops, leaves are just beginning to change colour as daylight hours shorten and air & water temperatures fall. Well it's been another challenging week for anglers who make the best of current low water conditions and fish stoically in the hope of catching a salmon before the fishing season closes. FishDee beats report 77 salmon to 22lbs and 11 sea trout for the week. Park reported 13 salmon, Ardoe and Murtle 10 salmon, with Birse reporting 9 salmon. We did have a bit of rain on Saturday but not enough to encourage fish to run the river in good numbers. If we get a decent heavy, prolonged rainfall the results will improve significantly as water temperatures drop, fish instinctively know they want to get to their spawning grounds by late autumn.

I received an e-mail from Lawrence Hunt who was fishing at Park South on Saturday where he had some success. Lawrence commented ‘Hi Ken, Hope you are well. I went to Park South today with my son, Joshua. Expectations were low with no real water to speak of for months now, so we were delighted when a nice fish took a size 15 Editor in Greenbanks (not a fly I've often used in September!). Joshua had a good tussle with the fish, which was duly landed without fuss. We were well looked after by Bert, who was very considerate to allocate pools suitable for a 6 year old to be at, and a great day was had by all. Off to do a rain dance now. All the best, Lawrence.' I also spoke to Stuart Buchan who had a day's fishing at Park South and also had success with a 5lb fish at Bulwarks on the smallest fly he could find in his fly box. I spoke with Keith Cromar, head Ghillie at Park who was pleased to report a few fish landed this morning and a few lost as the river temperature has fallen to 53 degrees Fahrenheit overnight. He reported a mixed bag of fish last week with a mixture of coloured and fresh fish with the biggest landed 39.5 inches at the Long Pool. He cited the drop in water temperatures as the catalyst for the fish becoming a bit more co-operative. Michael Bittner, who was fishing at Morven commented saying ‘ lost a salmon and a sea trout, the hook hold failing on both occasions. Water levels the lowest I've seen in the times I have fished the Dee.'

Joshua Hunt with a salmon he enjoyed having a lively tussle with at Park

I was delighted to receive an e-mail from Spanish angler Miguel Aguilar which I am sure will interest River Dee Anglers. Miguel commented ‘Hello Ken, This is Miguel Aguilar from Spain. We were in contact 4 years ago when I published an article about Dee in a Spanish fishing magazine. Flymage.net has just published a new article about Dee, a Black and white photographic essay, mostly focused on Lower Crathes. Go to the weblink this link I'm sure you will like it. Best, Miguel.' I had a look at this article which is a very enjoyable read with some great photography. Its articles like this that emanate from around the world that helps show how highly regarded the River Dee is as a top global angling destination.

Please remember I need your help to write this weekly column, write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

SALMON & GRILSE: Ardoe and Murtle 10, Culter 6, Altries and Lower Drum 4, Tilbouries 4, Park 13, Lower Crathes and W Durris 3, Upper Blackhall 3, Cairnton 1, Commonty 1, Kincardine 4, Dess 3, Birse 9, Aboyne Water 1, Aboyne Castle 1, Craigendinnie 1, Dinnet 2, Headinch and Cambus O'May 2, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 4, Morven 1, Crathie 4, Total 77
SEA TROUT: Ardoe and Murtle 5, Park 1, Lower Crathes and W Durris 1, Birse 3, Aboyne Water 1, Total 11

PROSPECTS

The BBC weather forecaster this morning advised viewers that air temperatures in rural parts of Scotland got below zero degrees Celsius overnight and it was noticeably cooler this morning. Weather forecasters are suggesting we will continue to see temperatures cooling down through the week and there should be some rain showers, but not any significant rainfall forecast. The maritime influence sees tides falling through the week from 4.4 metres to 3.7 metres. We really need a good flood to get the river in good heart for the remaining weeks of the fishing season. River levels are currently 3 inches at Mar Lodge and 7 inches at Park and minus 2 inches at Heughhead on the Feugh. The river is currently carrying a bit of sediment and weed following a small rise on Saturday morning. When this settles I'm sure anglers will have some sport however anglers will have to work hard for their success.

Anglers fishing the river during an autumn week for the last few years will have been used to seeing the river with higher water levels. Well this year fish will be more condensed because of lower flows and as a result they will have seen all the usual popular flies for the autumn passing overhead. At this time of year red becomes a much more popular colour in the dressing of flies given a swim in the river. If your fly isn't in the water it won't catch a fish and catching fish will not be easy in the near future given the prevailing low water conditions. Anglers may enjoy success with Red Frances flies, Flamethrowers, Calvin's shrimp, Crathie fly, Silver Stoats tail and perhaps a totally different tactic-a well sunk tube fly. Visiting anglers know to make the most of their holiday and many of the bars, hotels and restaurants will be delighted to receive visiting anglers.

With the good level of rod availability on FishDee if you are considering a visit for a few days then please remember to look at the good range of accommodation on offer in the where to stay section on the FishDee website. Remember to ask for Fisherman's rates if you are coming in a group of 3 or more anglers for stays of 3 days or more, so take advantage of what's on offer and come and fish the Dee. Our accommodation providers have been working hard to ensure anglers are being well looked after. An on-line survey, currently hosted on FishDee for anglers to participate in has been providing excellent feedback from anglers. This is so helpful in ensuring hoteliers know their business model suits visiting angler's needs-there are some helpful suggestions from the survey which will help enterprising managers source more visiting anglers by taking on-board their suggestions. Over 97 % of anglers are reporting they are receiving good service at the hotels they are residing in throughout Deeside.

Finally an important thing for you to remember when you arrive on your chosen beat. All anglers and Ghillies are being asked to ensure anglers have their waders and any landing nets sprayed with a mild disinfectant prior to commencing fishing, even when they are fishing different River Dee beats during their week on the river. It's a condition of the River Dee Conservation code and must be strictly adhered to; all beats have supplies to ensure this is carried out prior to entering the river. It's a quick procedure that will help the river and prevent ingress of unwanted pathogens and non native species entering the River Dee watercourse. We also want to prevent the transfer of the highly problematic ranunculus from the lower part of the river to the upper part. Please remember to write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

ken@fishdee · Sep 16, 2013

Last Week

A much better week for salmon anglers fishing the River Dee with 159 salmon and 14 sea trout reported from FishDee beats. There were some good catches made at Park where the beat reported 41 salmon for the week. Crathes reported 17, Monaltrie & Lower Invercauld had 12 and Crathie were also in double figures. This was a notable week considering the river level was extremely low and real craft was needed to get salmon to respond. There would have been a number of Ghillies feeling really delighted with the increasing catches and if anglers were in the right place at the right time, they could enjoy some great sport.

I was delighted to meet up with Paul Whitehouse who visited the River Office staff at the DDSFB AGM on Wednesday night at the Potarch Hotel. Paul was beaming from ear to ear after landing a 26lb salmon n the Monday. The fish measured 40 inches and gave him a great fight. I was delighted to receive an image of the fish from Daryl Ewer. Paul has had some remarkable success with big fish at Park over the years and this keeps his run of big fish going for another year. River Dee Trust director Jim Coates was also visiting Park for the last 3 days of the week and he reported he had 14 salmon to 15lbs for his visit. Jim was using a 7 weight rod fishing heavy black flies nymph style and had 7 for his day on Saturday. Jim is a very thoughtful angler and will experiment with tactics to find what will make the salmon respond best to his well presented fly.

Paul Whitehouse with a 40 inch long salmon at Park

I caught up with Ian Murray this morning who was pleased to see his catches pick up at Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld. Ian advised the slight rise in river levels on Thursday encouraged a bit of activity and fish were on the move. With the water temperature falling back quite a bit fish were coming to bigger flies, with 1 to 1.5 inch coneheads doing the business. Gary MacDonald’s party did well at Monaltrie with Gary catching a 15lber in Mitchells. Ian Gordon’s party at Lower Invercauld also enjoyed some good sport.

Please remember I need your help to write this weekly column, write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

Beat catches reported
SALMON & GRILSE: Ardoe and Murtle 7, Kingcausie 9, Culter 2, Altries and Lower Drum 5, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 6, Park 41, Lower Crathes and W Durris 1, Crathes 17, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 1, Commonty 3, Sluie 1, Ballogie 7, Borrowston 6, Kincardine 3, Carlogie 1, Dess 6, Birse 2, Aboyne Water 4, Aboyne Castle 3, Craigendinnie 4, Dinnet 3, Deecastle 3, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 12, Crathie 10, Total 159
SEA TROUT: Ardoe and Murtle 4, Altries and Lower Drum 1, Tilbouries 1, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 1, Park 1, Ballogie 2, Birse 2, Dinnet 1, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1, Total 14
TROUT: Ardoe and Murtle 4, Total 4

Prospects

The weather forecasters had created a bit of excitement with forecasts of a stormy tempest blowing in from the North Atlantic this weekend however this turned out to be a false dawn and the sun was shining and winds were a lot lighter than predicted and of course there was very little precipitation. There must have been a bit of water in the far western catchment as the river level at Mar Lodge has come up about 6 inches this morning but the other gauges are not showing any significant activity. Last night saw a much cooler night than the last few days and there was a fair grass frost this morning. The SEPA River gauges are currently 7 inches at Mar Lodge and 6 inches at Park with very little chance of there being much precipitation this week according to the Met Office. Air temperatures are dropping back with maxima of around 14 degrees Celsius this week. There may be strong winds at times as we head towards the autumnal equinox. The marine influence sees tides building through the week from 3.9 metres to 4.6 metres which may bring some new fish forward.

There is still a fair amount of fishing availability on the FishDee website so please take every opportunity to come and fish the river and catch a salmon before the season finishes. There are also a good range of accommodations available for anglers to stay in the length of Deeside so please look at the range of accommodation provision on the FishDee website. As the river is running much colder it is prudent to ensure you bring warm clothing with you for your visit. There is nothing more dispiriting for anglers than being very cold on the river bank; it does nothing for the powers of concentration.

Finally an important thing for you to remember when you arrive on your chosen beat. All anglers and Ghillies are being asked to ensure anglers have their waders and any landing nets sprayed with a mild disinfectant prior to commencing fishing, even when they are fishing different River Dee beats during their week on the river. It's a condition of the River Dee Conservation code and must be strictly adhered to; all beats have supplies to ensure this is carried out prior to entering the river. It's a quick procedure that will help the river and prevent ingress of unwanted pathogens and non native species entering the River Dee watercourse. We also want to prevent the transfer of the highly problematic ranunculus from the lower part of the river to the upper part. Please remember to write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

ken@fishdee · Sep 23, 2013

LAST WEEK

A few vital inches of water during the week really helped encourage fish to move upriver and this had the effect that I had hoped when I wrote the media column last week. FishDee beats have reported 349 salmon and 30 sea trout for the week with the biggest reported at Kincardine which was a 25lb salmon. Some of the lower beats really did well with Park reporting 46 salmon, Ardoe & Murtle 36, Altries 33 and Kingcausie 24. I mentioned that Jim Coates did well in last week's column with 14 fish for his 3 days at Park. Jim made a return to Park on Saturday and managed to catch 11 salmon for his day. He advised ‘Hi Ken I had a productive day at Park, all on the 7 weight rod which was cracking sport, 2 were sea liced and the rest a mixed bag up to 18lbs which went like stink on the light rig. The Ghillie Bert was ecstatic! I had one in the morning and ten in the afternoon. I was fishing the same fly and set up as last week. I was fishing beats one and two on the south bank.' People who know Jim appreciate he is an angler with supreme skills and very thoughtful about how he sets out to catch fish.

I got a message from Paul Whitehouse who had enjoyed some good sport with a big 25lb salmon at Park recently. Paul commented ‘Hi Ken, It was a funny old week with not much water, we were picking away and I was thrilled with the big fish which you jokingly disputed the weight! I had another couple of fish and we saw sport improve in the latter part of the week with beats like Greenbanks giving sport. Hope all is well.' James Craig visited Ardoe and Murtle on Saturday and reported one salmon, one sea trout and two brown trout on a red shrimp fly. Malcolm Anderson visited park and reported' A fantastic 2 days, Keith was his usual upbeat self and looked after us extremely well. I give him eleven out of ten for looking after Ian Wilson and myself and we look forward to next season. Ian had 4 salmon on his red Dee pig fly and I had 2 salmon on a red shrimp fly.' Graham Dawes visited a couple of beats recently and advised ‘I would make a booking to fish the Aboyne Water beat again. I fished the beat once before back in 2011 and enjoyed the fishing then as I have done this time. The Ghillie was very helpful and tried his best to get me into a fish. So no luck this time and I guess that's why we call it fishing and not catching! I had 4 fish take the fly but sadly none stayed on. I then fished at Dess and had a good two days, catching 3 fish the first day and losing 2, and on the 2nd day catching 1 and losing 1 at the net. I would book again hopefully next year. The 4 fish caught on the fly were from 10lbs to 14 lbs. The river was low and it limited the number of pools to fish, but lots of fish in the pools I fished.' Ian Coghill fished Aboyne Water and landed 4 fish on the fly.

Rob Fuller wrote about his party's annual trip to the Dee advising ‘Dear Ken, the Hawkins Week have had another highly enjoyable week despite the atrocious fishing conditions ending on Saturday 14th September. 13 of us fished on 5 beats notably Birse, Carlogie, Ballogie, Crathes and Park South. Conditions were very difficult and the river showed signs of being subjected to summer levels since the end of May. However, we persevered and managed to catch 15 salmon and grilse up to 17lb and 2 sea trout in the week. As per last year there was a shortage of cocks with only 3 being caught up to 5lb in size. This made it very difficult for us in finding suitable candidates for our annual contest for the largest cock and in fact we decided that to be eligible for this great award the fish must be in double figures! As I write a storm should be hitting Scotland which I hope will do something to the river levels although I suspect that you will need a month's rain to wash the river through. With all good wishes for the rest of the season. Rob Fuller' as always I look forward to hearing the report about the Hawkins party week and they always seem to have a great time fishing a selection of River Dee beats.

Please remember I need your help to write this weekly column, write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

SALMON & GRILSE: Ardoe and Murtle 36, Kingcausie 24, Culter 5, Altries and Lower Drum 33, Tilbouries 8, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 5, Park 46, Lower Crathes and W Durris 11, Crathes 10, Tilquhillie 2, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 3, Middle Blackhall 3, Upper Blackhall 11, Cairnton 1, Woodend 7, Lower Woodend 2, Commonty 1, Sluie 5, Ballogie 22, Kincardine 8, Carlogie 9, Dess 16, Birse 16, Aboyne Water 6, Aboyne Castle 3, Craigendinnie 7, Waterside and Ferrar 3, Dinnet 7, Deecastle 5, Headinch and Cambus O'May 8, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 10, Crathie 15, Mar Lodge Estate 1, Total 349
SEA TROUT: Ardoe and Murtle 10, Kingcausie 1, Culter 5, Altries and Lower Drum 2, Tilbouries 1, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 2, Tilquhillie 1, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 1, Woodend 1, Kincardine 1, Birse 2, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 2, Total 30

PROSPECTS

It's the start of the last week of the season for Upper beats from Aboyne Bridge up river and from the 1st October beats below Aboyne Bridge fish until the 15th October. There has been an overnight lift in river levels which I'm sure did not come from rainfall but water from Loch Muick which was blown out of the Loch on early Sunday morning when winds were very strong and warm from a southerly direction. This water was noted by some Ghillies yesterday and perhaps will keep fish on the move from lower beats. The SEPA gauges are reading 6 inches at Mar Lodge and 8 inches at Park. Yesterday saw us basking in 23 degrees Celsius which was very enjoyable for visitors arriving in Deeside for their forthcoming week. It's the Aberdeen holiday today and this fine weather has continued with temperatures forecast to be similar, after today temperatures will cool significantly as a couple of weather systems pass over Scotland. Different weather websites are suggesting rain on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday but not really in agreement in what volume, however they are suggesting that next week will see a lot of rain falling which will set us up nicely for the last two weeks of the season. The maritime influence sees tides falling back from 4.4 metres to 3.3 metres before tides build next week which hopefully will coincide with a much needed spate.

There is still some fishing availability on the FishDee website so please take every opportunity to come and fish the river and catch a salmon before the season finishes. There are also a good range of accommodations available for anglers to stay in the length of Deeside so please look at the range of accommodation provision on the FishDee website. It is important to listen to the wise counsel of your Ghillies and some are suggesting the pool tails are seeing fish numbers building so make sure you give pool tails a bit of attention. Feedback from anglers are suggesting red flies are now really coming into their own now however small black tube flies are also reported to be doing well. If you don't have the right flies then pay a visit to Orvis in Banchory, Somers in Aberdeen or the ever popular Kincardine O'Neil post office where there are a great selection of locally tied flies from Sean Stanton's vice and arguably the best sandwiches in Deeside prepared daily by Susan Brooks.

Finally an important thing for you to remember when you arrive on your chosen beat. All anglers and Ghillies are being asked to ensure anglers have their waders and any landing nets sprayed with a mild disinfectant prior to commencing fishing, even when they are fishing different River Dee beats during their week on the river. It's a condition of the River Dee Conservation code and must be strictly adhered to; all beats have supplies to ensure this is carried out prior to entering the river. It's a quick procedure that will help the river and prevent ingress of unwanted pathogens and non native species entering the River Dee watercourse. We also want to prevent the transfer of the highly problematic ranunculus from the lower part of the river to the upper part. Please remember to write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

ken@fishdee · Sep 30, 2013

Last Week

A challenging week for anglers as water temperatures rose during what was a lovely late summer week on Deeside which saw temperatures rise to levels above what we normally associate for the time of year. I recall a couple of years ago heavy snowfall in the 3rd week of October yet the air temperature on the way to work this morning was 12 degrees Celsius. FishDee beats reported much less fish last week compared to the week before, with a total of 137 salmon and 26 sea trout as I write , with some beats still to report their final weekly totals. Dess reported 16 salmon, Park 15, Carlogie 13 and Ballogie 12 salmon. The biggest fish of the week has seen Ballogie and Dess both reporting salmon of 19lbs in their totals.

I chatted with Sean Stanton; Ballogie Estates Ghillie this morning who advised Peter Lonsdale’s party had both Ballogie and Carlogie for the week, and was pleased to catch 25 salmon with 3 fresh silver fish in their tally. River levels were very low and very little sport was encountered by using floating lines. Anglers who fished a bit deeper got fish on Francnsnaelda, Frances flies and Sunrays. Everyone in the party caught fish during the week which pleased Peter, who finished top rod for the week. Sean also advised that Peter managed to get a MacNab on Monday with a salmon at 5pm and then a Grouse and Stag before 7.30 pm when it gets dark-quite an achievement. I can also advise that Lower Woodend proprietor Ruairidh Cooper also achieved a MacNab. Ruairidh achieved the MacNab challenge on Finzean estate on Wednesday, 18 September 2013 by hooking a salmon in the Suicide Pool on the estate’s Commonty beat on the River Dee at 6pm. This was his second successful MacNab in only three attempts and he said, “I just love to be out on the hill and the scenery on Finzean is superb and it is always nice to fish at Commonty.”

I received a text from Jim Coates who advised he had 5 salmon at Park on Saturday and lost a fish whilst fishing beat 4. Stuart Buchan and Trond Norskog were fishing at Birse for a few days and I caught up with them for a chat and bite of dinner on Thursday evening. Trond had a couple of fish and proudly declared it was 2 nil for Norway against Scotland. I received a text message from Stuart on Friday advising Scotland staged a late recovery and it was now 4-3 to Scotland. Fishing across the river at Dess were some Swedish anglers who also enjoyed some success with salmon. I chatted with Eoin Smith, Dess Estate Ghillie who advised that all anglers had a fish or two during the week with a few fish in the mid teens in weight, mostly hen fish. Fish were caught on a variety of flies from ½ inch to 11/2 inches, mostly black and silver. Regular Dess anglers Steve Morrice from Aberdeen had a few fish during his time on the beat. John Grant from Bannockburn reports the 2 rods had 2 salmon at Morven on Saturday of 8 and 12lbs.The 12lb fish was caught and released in the Fir Tree Pool and the 8lb fish was caught in the Streams of Gairn. They reported they had an excellent day with another 3 fish hooked and lost. Richard Slocock visited Morven and advised it was a lovely setting and thoroughly enjoyable trip. Adam Marr reported he had a 10lb salmon and 2lb sea trout at Park on Frances flies. Ian Scott has Aboyne Castle water for the week and they had 3 fish for their week. I am sure many Aboyne Castle anglers will want to extend sincere best wishes to beat Ghillie Alex Coutts who retires today; the final day of the season for upper Dee beats.

Please remember I need your help to write this weekly column, write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

Beat catches reported

SALMON & GRILSE: Ardoe and Murtle 5, Kingcausie 8, Culter 5, Altries and Lower Drum 4, Tilbouries 3, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 7, Park 15, Lower Crathes and W Durris 6, Crathes 2, Tilquhillie 1, Invery 1, Upper Blackhall 1, Cairnton 1, Woodend 1, Commonty 1, Sluie 3, Ballogie 12, Carlogie 13, Dess 16, Birse 4, Aboyne Water 1, Aboyne Castle 3, Craigendinnie 1, Waterside and Ferrar 1, Dinnet 3, Deecastle 4, Headinch and Cambus O'May 4, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 5, Crathie 6.

Total: 137 Largest: Ballogie & Dess 19lbs

SEA TROUT: Ardoe and Murtle 4, Kingcausie 2, Culter 5, Altries and Lower Drum 2, Tilbouries 2, Park 4, Lower Crathes and W Durris 2, Upper Blackhall 1, Woodend 2, Ballogie 1, Waterside and Ferrar 1.

Total: 26 Largest: Ballogie 4lbs

Prospects

Today sees the last day of the salmon fishing season for upper Dee beats above Aboyne Bridge and the last fortnight of the season for the lower part of the river. I have been studying the weather charts looking for signs of much needed precipitation. The last time we saw the Park gauge at over 3ft was on the 25th of June! Today sees the SEPA gauges reading 3 inches at Mar Lodge and 4 inches at Park and there is some rainfall forecast for the latter half of the week. One of the websites is suggesting quite a bit of rain on Friday and we may see rain from Wednesday through to Friday. Well I suppose it’s better late than never; if it materialises. Air temperatures will remain on the mild side for the time of year with maxima around 15 degrees Celsius and no sign of overnight frosts. Winds will breezy at times midweek coming from a south easterly direction and it shall predominately be overcast. The maritime influence sees tides building during the week from 3.4 metres to 4.5 metres. If the promised rain does produce a decent rise in river levels then we should see fish get on the move and put the river in good heart for next week.

There is still some fishing availability on the FishDee website this season so please take every opportunity to come and fish the river and catch a salmon before the season finishes-it’s a long close season. There are also a good range of accommodations available for anglers to stay in the length of Deeside so please look at the range of accommodation provision on the FishDee website. I visited Banchory Lodge Hotel this week and was shown around the really wonderful new fishing lodge at the side of the hotel. This is perfect for groups of visiting anglers looking for a great base with private dining, and is delightfully furnished with quality furniture and fittings, with drying facilities for wet clothes and a secure rod box in front of the hotel. I am sure this will be hugely popular with anglers as there is a need for this type of quality accommodation on the riverbank. Now mentioning fine dining and hotels brings me to another piece of news which may be of interest to local anglers and of course Ghillies. There will be a dinner at 7pm on Friday 1st November at the popular Tor Na Coille Hotel for River Dee Ghillies, family and friends, with a super 3 course menu and wine at a very reasonable rate for all who can manage along. General Manager Phillip Fleming wishes to show appreciation to the Ghillies who do a great job looking after visiting anglers. There will be some spaces available for anglers who are friends of our Ghillies, so if you want to attend this dinner please contact Shane Christie, secretary of the Dee Ghillies Association. Please write to shanechristie@btinternet.com to register your interest in attending what promises to be a very enjoyable evening for all who can manage to come along. There will also be very good rates for rooms for the evening if anyone wishes to stay overnight.

It is important to listen to the advice provided by your Ghillies. If you are fishing without a Ghillie be careful you don’t fish too deeply and foul hook fish as river levels are extremely low for the time of year and there is a danger of this happening where fish are concentrated in big numbers; salmon can stack up at differing water heights when lying in large shoals. Floating lines with intermediate poly leaders are more than suitable, with size 6-8 flies or small aluminium tubes ideal. Fly choice will include Frances flies, Red Ally’s shrimp, Black and Red Francnsnaelda and the Calvin’s shrimp.

Finally an important thing for you to remember when you arrive on your chosen beat. All anglers and Ghillies are being asked to ensure anglers have their waders and any landing nets sprayed with a mild disinfectant prior to commencing fishing, even when they are fishing different River Dee beats during their week on the river. It's a condition of the River Dee Conservation code and must be strictly adhered to; all beats have supplies to ensure this is carried out prior to entering the river. It's a quick procedure that will help the river and prevent ingress of unwanted pathogens and non native species entering the River Dee watercourse. We also want to prevent the transfer of the highly problematic ranunculus from the lower part of the river to the upper part. Please remember to write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

ken@fishdee · Oct 7, 2013

Last Week

A week of changing fortunes for anglers on the Dee with FishDee beats reporting 195 salmon and 27 sea trout; fishing now confined to beats below Aboyne Bridge and on the River Feugh. Everyone will be aware on Deeside how dry this summer has been so we were all delighted to see some heavy rainfall on Thursday that put a foot of water in the main stem and 3 feet of water on the Feugh. This seemed to get the fish on the move and stirred up long slumbering residents. Park finished the week with 31 salmon and grilse, Lower Crathes reported 20 with both Tilbouries and Carlogie reporting 16 and a number of bottom beats fished reasonably well. The biggest fish of the week was reported at 21lbs from Lower Crathes where a visiting party of Spanish anglers were fishing the beat. There were also large groups of Scandinavian anglers fishing many Dee beats now that their rivers are closed. Mattias Helde and his team enjoyed mixed fortunes, but when the fish came on song the anglers did well. You can read more at his informative blog which has an English translation facility here River Dee 30 sept - 5 okt | fiskebloggen.com you will see many nice images showcasing their week and you can see the passion they have for the River Dee established by their many visits to Deeside year after year.

I received an e-mail from Thomas Christensen from Denmark advising ‘Hi Ken, We visit the River Dee this last week and had a wonderful time at Lower Crathes from Monday to Wednesday. Very low water but I got this 5 pounder at Bulwarks on Tuesday on a big Frances and my mate Erwin got his first Dee salmon, a fantastic 14 pounder in the Mill pool in the afternoon and a 3 pounder in the evening, also in Mill pool. On Thursday before the rise in river levels he got a 3 pounder at Park in the pool below Durris stream on South side. On Friday he got a 5 pounder in Long Pool at Park. We had a very nice week on Deeside; both Erwin and I can’t wait until next year to come back to the wonderful river and meet the nice people around the river. We didn’t hit the run on Saturday while fishing Kingcausie, but hope to do it next year. Special thanks to Robert and Charlie on Lower Crathes who do all they can in difficult conditions; Superb Ghillies! Best regards, Thomas Christensen and Erwin Nielsen, From Denmark.’

Frede Hognestad was over from Norway with a highly experienced group of anglers who have been coming to Deeside for many years who were fishing at Cairnton, Sluie, Ballogie and Middle Blackhall on a late season holiday. Geir Magne Johnsen had booked 4 rods at Heughhead on Friday where 3 anglers paid a visit to fish this water for the first time. They were well rewarded with 7 salmon, 2 sea trout and many abortive takes from running fish at the beat. Gareth Headland, Wayne Gibbens, Thomas Berggren, John, Garry and Andy Hutson were back fishing at Carlogie and had a very enjoyable week. Gareth sent me a message advising ‘We had 16 off Carlogie for week; Wayne had 5 in first few days but was then laid up in hotel bed from Thurs-Sun with Gastroenteritis. The last 3 days saw me, Andy and Thomas just filling the 4 rods up, Thomas had 3 and Andy had 2 with yours truly getting 3 with 2 in 2 in consecutive casts. Considering water levels and bright sun all day Sat, 16 for week as good as any Dee beat over the week I think ref. rods/fish. The fish were all laying deep, so we had to get the fly deep to them. Red Francis with bright butt (swing tube) and Mini Monkey took nearly all our fish.’ I do hope Wayne has recovered and he did very well to catch 5 fish while feeling poorly.

Please remember I need your help to write this weekly column, write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDeeLtd.

Beat catches reported
SALMON & GRILSE: Ardoe and Murtle 6, Kingcausie 10, Culter 9, Altries and Lower Drum 7, Middle Drum 3, Tilbouries 16, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 4, Park 31, Lower Crathes and W Durris 20, Crathes 13, Tilquhillie 2, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Middle Blackhall 2, Upper Blackhall 2, Woodend 1, Lower Woodend 1, Commonty 3, Ballogie 7, Kincardine 8, Carlogie 16, Dess 9, Birse 5, Aboyne Water 4, Dinnet 2, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 4, Crathie 1, Heughhead 7, Total 195
SEA TROUT: Culter 6, Altries and Lower Drum 1, Tilbouries 3, Park 5, Lower Crathes and W Durris 1, Crathes 1, Upper Blackhall 2, Cairnton 2, Lower Woodend 1, Ballogie 1, Dess 1, Aboyne Water 1, Heughhead 2, Total 27

Prospects

Today sees the last full week of the salmon fishing season for the lower part of the river. We needed some rainfall to lift River levels and were rewarded with a rise last Thursday into Friday. This has encouraged some fish to move slowly upriver. The weather forecasters are suggesting it should be warm today with air temperature maxima of 18 degrees Celsius; however there will be a bit of a change from midweek with winds from the Arctic bringing air temperatures down dramatically to remind us winter is just around the corner. Air temperatures will be as low as 4 degrees according to the Met Office. The maritime influence sees tides falling back from 4.5 metres to 3.7 metres through the week. River levels have dropped back after last week’s rise in river levels with the Sepa Gauges reading 4 inches at Mar Lodge and 8 inches at Park. It’s pleasing to hear that Culter have landed 4 fish this morning before 10.30 am. With water temperatures sure to drop dramatically this week there is a fair chance that some of the very big fish that have been in the river for some time, will come back on the take. We could see the biggest fish of the season landed this week with 2 salmon of 28 lbs being reported so far this season at Dess and Lower Crathes.

There is still some fishing availability on the FishDee website for the last 7 days fishing, so please take every opportunity to come and fish the river and catch a salmon before the season finishes-it’s a long close season. There has been a good run of fish that has gone over the Falls of Feugh so Heughhead will be well worth a visit. There are also a good range of accommodations available for anglers to stay in the length of Deeside so please look at the range of accommodation provision on the FishDee website. There will be a dinner at 7pm on Friday 1st November at the popular Tor Na Coille Hotel for River Dee Ghillies, family and friends, with a super 3 course menu and wine at a very reasonable rate for all who can manage along. General Manager Phillip Fleming wishes to show appreciation to the Ghillies who do a great job looking after visiting anglers. There will be some spaces available for anglers who are friends of our Ghillies, so if you want to attend this dinner please contact Shane Christie, secretary of the Dee Ghillies Association. Please write to shanechristie@btinternet.com to register your interest in attending what promises to be a very enjoyable evening for all who can manage to come along, myself included. There will also be very good rates for rooms for the evening if anyone wishes to stay overnight.

It is important to listen to the advice provided by your Ghillies. If you are fishing without a Ghillie be careful you don’t fish too deeply and foul hook fish as river levels are still low for the time of year and there is a danger of this happening where fish are concentrated; salmon can stack up at differing water heights when lying in large shoals. Floating lines with intermediate poly leaders are more than suitable, with size 6-8 flies or small aluminium tubes ideal. Fly choice will include Frances flies, Red or orange Ally’s shrimp, Black and small black monkey tubes. Please handle salmon sensibly and carefully as the spawning season is a month or so off and we need our fish to reach the Redds to produce another generation of salmon. River Dee Ghillies have the utmost respect for our salmon and will be eager to see fish returned very carefully.

Finally an important thing for you to remember when you arrive on your chosen beat. All anglers and Ghillies are being asked to ensure anglers have their waders and any landing nets sprayed with a mild disinfectant prior to commencing fishing, even when they are fishing different River Dee beats during their week on the river. It's a condition of the River Dee Conservation code and must be strictly adhered to; all beats have supplies to ensure this is carried out prior to entering the river. It's a quick procedure that will help the river and prevent ingress of unwanted pathogens and non native species entering the River Dee watercourse. We also want to prevent the transfer of the highly problematic ranunculus from the lower part of the river to the upper part. Please remember to write with any news of catches or anecdotes with images to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all! Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

ken@fishdee · Oct 14, 2013

Last Week

The final week of the salmon fishing season has come to an exciting end with well over 400 salmon landed for the week and 22 sea trout. FishDee beats, as I write have reported 388 salmon, however there are a good number of fish still to be added to the reporting system. I met up with the Lars Terkildsen party who were fishing a number of beats last week, at Ballogie house on Saturday evening for dinner, prepared beautifully by Harriet Milligan, daughter of Mike Milligan. This dinner emphasised the global draw the River Dee is to salmon anglers these days as there were 7 different nationalities in the fishing party, with myself as the only UK representative at this end of week celebratory dinner. I mentioned last week that we may have the biggest fish of the season landed during the week and this almost happened after Lars Terkildsen battled a big fish at Birse which was lost after his colleague, who had two hands round the tail of the fish, saw it slip from his grasp and swim back into the river-Lars said it was a huge fish. Some of the catches reported so far include Park and Ballogie with 35 salmon apiece, Altries reported 32, and Birse will have over 30, Tilbouries 28 and Carlogie 27, with many other beats reporting good catches. The lift in river levels on Thursday helped boost catches considerably and it’s good to see the fishing season coming to an end on a high note for all anglers, Ghillies and proprietors.

I received an e-mail from Neil Donald with an image of a coloured cock fish where Neil comments ‘Hi Ken, Had a fantastic Friday and Saturday at Middle Blackhall with Davie Gibbon, who was a fantastic help being available to land all four of the fish caught. I had a very coloured but nice 11lb salmon on the Friday (picture attached) and one of my buddies Chris Robertson had three lovely fish on the Saturday. Chris is a very experienced trout fisher but this was only his second day fishing for salmon with a double hander rod so an excellent result. He had 5, 6 and 15lb salmon and also lost another after it swam around a rock and cut the line. Bad news was, as he was getting out of the water at the end of the day, he fell and snapped his rod, but the three fish softened the blow. After 40 years fishing he said it was his best ever day, so I think he'll be back to the Dee next season. This was all off the back of a few days fishing in the west coast where we had one salmon, a sea trout and several trout. A great finish to the season end. We are all local to Deeside. Cheers, Neil Donald.’ Well done Chris and Neil and hopefully Chris can claim on his insurance for the broken rod. Well I can report that Chris wasn’t the only angler to suffer a mishap. I was having a cast on Saturday where I took a header into the river, in the Fawn Pool. The same thing happened to me last year at Dinnet at the end of the season. As I trod from the riverbank soaking wet I could only chuckle and think how glad I was no one witnessed my mishap.

Neil Donald at Middle Blackhall

Some other feedback received included Fabio Federighi, from Firenze, Italy, fishing at Park South who commented ‘3 old salmon, and many fighting and lost, with very heavy red Frances.’ Well done Fabio. I also have feedback from John W Fraser, who was fishing at Aboyne Water advising ‘Jim the Ghillie advised to use a small stoat’s tail and lo and behold that's what the fish took; no substitute for beat knowledge. Catch details: 2 fish caught small stoat’s tail, full floating line, both in the stone pool which took nearly all our fish.’ Stuart Buchan who was fishing at Blairs informed me last night that he had 3 salmon and a nice fresh sea trout on Saturday morning. The biggest salmon weighed an estimated 18lbs. I received an e-mail from Ian MacKay commenting ‘Hi Ken, Ghillie Jim Couper asked me to send this photo of our friend and novice angler Ako Sabir-Ali from Kurdistan. He was fishing the Stone Pool on Aboyne Waters and landed this little grilse - his first ever. This was caught on Friday 13th September 2013.’ I’m delighted to hear of Ako’s first fish and pleased it was a Dee fish. I am sure many people will want to extend best wishes to Aboyne Water Ghillie Jim Couper who is retiring at the end of the fishing season. Many people have expressed their admiration over the years fishing at Aboyne Water for being well looked after by Jim. We all wish you best wishes for a happy retirement Jim and thanks for all your years of fine service.

Ako Sabir-Ali from Kurdistan with his first ever salmon at Aboyne Water.

Now some items of news for our readers. Firstly there will be an online auction to raise funds for the River Dee Trust commencing on 1st November. There will be a lovely selection of auction lots so please look into www.riverdee.org and www.fishdee.co.uk to make sure you get a chance to be the highest bidder for these auction lots. All monies raised from the auction go into helping the River Dee. There will also be ‘A celebration of the River Dee event’ held in the Savile Club, 69 Brook Street, London on Wednesday 6th November between 6.30 pm and 8.00 pm. This will be an informative drinks reception showcasing the work of the River Dee Trust for the river, its anglers and the work that will be delivered in the future. All visitors are most welcome, and anyone who is interested in coming along to this event should send an RSVP to info@riverdee.org. This will enable us to organise catering for this event. This promises to be a super night and I do hope many people will take the opportunity to come along and meet the River Dee Trust team in London. Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

Beat catches reported
SALMON & GRILSE: Kingcausie 26, Culter 18, Altries and Lower Drum 32, Middle Drum 12, Tilbouries 28, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 15, Park 35, Lower Crathes and W Durris 27, Crathes 20, Tilquhillie 5, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 2, Middle Blackhall 7, Upper Blackhall 3, Cairnton 11, Woodend 4, Lower Woodend 1, Commonty 10, Sluie 2, Ballogie 35, Kincardine 21, Carlogie 27, Dess 9, Birse 15, Aboyne Water 19, Heughhead 4, Total 388
SEA TROUT: Kingcausie 1, Culter 4, Altries and Lower Drum 1, Tilbouries 3, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 1, Park 2, Lower Crathes and W Durris 1, Crathes 5, Middle Blackhall

Prospects

There are only two days remaining for anglers and no doubt there will be a lot of local anglers hoping to catch a fish before the fishing season draws to a close on Tuesday evening. River conditions are good following last Thursdays lift in river levels. It has been raining overnight but the Sepa gauges are all running steady this morning. There appear to be a good amount of salmon willing to take a fly given the results of the last few days and it’s heartening to see the season finish on a high note. Let’s hope we get some more water this month to enable all our salmon to reach the spawning grounds safely, where they intend to produce the next generation of River Dee salmon.

Jim Couper of Aboyne Water who retires at the end of this season

Now some items of news for our readers. Firstly there will be an online auction to raise funds for the River Dee Trust commencing on 1st November. There will be a lovely selection of auction lots so please look into www.riverdee.org and www.fishdee.co.uk to make sure you get a chance to be the highest bidder for these auction lots. All monies raised from the auction go into helping the River Dee. There will also be ‘A celebration of the River Dee event’ held in the Savile Club, 69 Brook Street, London on Wednesday 6th November between 6.30 pm and 8.00 pm. This will be an informative drinks reception showcasing the work of the River Dee Trust for the river, its anglers and the work that will be delivered in the future. All visitors are most welcome, and anyone who is interested in coming along to this event should send an RSVP to info@riverdee.org. This will enable us to organise catering for this event. This promises to be a super night and I do hope many people will take the opportunity to come along and meet the River Dee Trust team in London.

There will also be an end of season dinner at 7pm on Friday 1st November at the popular Tor Na Coille Hotel, Banchory for River Dee Ghillies, family and friends, with a super 3 course menu and wine at a very reasonable rate for all who can manage along. General Manager Phillip Fleming wishes to show appreciation to the Ghillies who do a great job looking after visiting anglers. There will be some spaces available for anglers who are friends of our Ghillies, so if you want to attend this dinner please contact Shane Christie, secretary of the Dee Ghillies Association. Please write to shanechristie@btinternet.com to register your interest in attending what promises to be a very enjoyable evening for all who can manage to come along, myself included. There will also be very good rates for rooms for the evening if anyone wishes to stay overnight.
Please remember to write with any news of catches to ken@riverdee.org Tight Lines to you all over the next two days. Copyright FishDee. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

ken@fishdee · Nov 4, 2013

River Dee Trust On-Line Auction 2013 is now live with over 30 auction lots available to bid for.
Catalogue of lots.http://www.riverdee.org.uk/auction/catalogue.asp

ken@fishdee · Nov 25, 2013

The River Dee on-line auction comes to a close on Saturday 30th November and its important to get your bids registered before the auction closes. It would be so easy to miss Saturday’s deadline if you are out all day doing important things such as Christmas shopping, visiting friends and family, enjoying the countryside etc. There are a host of wonderful auction lots including great fishing opportunities overseas and on some of the River Dee’s top beats in 2014, and many more, which could make ideal Christmas presents for friends.

1. Fishing Lots include fishing in Iceland, Sweden, Norway and a number of top River Dee Beats.

2. Fishing Equipment including vintage and modern fly rods, fishing reels, made to measure wading jacket and a number of fly selections which come in a variety of fly boxes, including a clear CF Design fly box and a mahogany box.

3. Food & Drink lots include a commemorative single malt whisky, a case of vintage Pol Roger champagne, Dinner at the 4 star Tor Na Coille Hotel, luxury picnic for 8, Cairnton Beef and a Yelled Hind from Gen Tanar

4. Artworks include a River Dee oil painting by renowned artist Howard Butterworth and an Aberdeen River Dee scene provided by Mary Butterworth-both of these lots are really excellent.

5. Miscellaneous items include a bespoke kilt, Activity day at the famous Lochter activity centre, Video sunglasses and a beautiful Dalvey gentleman’s hip flask.

So remember to visit the site and get your bids placed as there are some great bargains to be had at http://www.riverdee.org.uk/auction/catalogue.asp

River Dee Media Reports 2013

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