S
Sandy Howie
Guest
Afternoon all
Another week passes us by in 2025, is someone putting the pedal to the metal these days?
Its not too bad a day here in Elgin overcast, warm with a breeze, ideal fishing weather if they all fall into place together but they seldom do. We have seen cool nights, sunny days and wind this week and little to no rain, something that we could definitely do with more of.
The garden and the fields are powder dry and with the stronger winds we are seeing the odd dust storms coming off the prepared fields. The greenhouse is now ready for this years tomato plants, I have them but still to plant them. I do not know if it is just this area or in general but I could not get a standard yellow tomato plant in any of the local garden centres, maybe I am early but it is unusual.
It is easy to see the early mornings are here, the resident seagulls are up at the crack of dawn making a god awful din, will be worse when they have chicks on the go. I would love something to be done about the burgeoning population of them but all pleas seem to fall on deaf ears.
I have seen quite a few pairs of either grey or french partridges over the last week in the verges and edges of fields. I love to see them and they must be doing reasonably well in the Moray climate.
Right the river, where do we start today? The last week saw a river dropping at the beginning following the small rise last weekend but alas no further rain has fallen so river is heading back towards low and summer levels.
At Gordon Castle/Brae Water, David Buley reports that a bookend week for catches with fish landed Monday and Saturday and a bitter, challenging wind making its presence felt between.
An enjoyable week was had with some regular and new faces welcomed to the beats. With a positive start to the week having two to the bank by the end of play on Monday we hoped for a continuation, the north and easterly breeze seemed to soon put a stop to any action until it swung back around to the south on Saturday where we had another pair and notable sightings of fish moving.
Maybe the most surprising thing of all wasn’t that our regulars “The Brae Guddlers” caught fish… but that there was no notable damaged cause by the use of the Kelly Kettle!!
I have no idea what the above is about but I am sure it will mean something to those in attendance.
Brae water success
More Brae success
Guddlers with their fish and an audience
Up at Orton, Andy Gunn advises that it was a quiet start to the week for us until Friday afternoon when Magnus Jepson landed a 9lb fish from Cooperee.
Stuart Yeats fishing on Saturday doubled the week’s catch with a fine 12lb fish from Cairnty.
Magnus Jepson 9lber from Cooperee
Stuart Yeates fish from Cairnty
The weather has definitely been playing havoc with the catches and from Delfur, Mark Melville’s report seems to confirm this as they had another quiet week but we managed to double our score for the week by late Saturday afternoon.
Two sea liced fish was our tally for the week with a few fish lost and an odd pull here and there.
Typical of running fish, we did see them everyday but they weren’t for stopping.
We will see what this week brings as the weather warms up significantly.
On the journey upstream and stopping in by to see Robbie Stronach at Rothes and Aikenway, he reports that they finished with 3 for the week. the lucky captors being David Saunders from Town Road, Richard Doyle got one from Creeky and Karen Reeves got one from Town Road.
Richard Doyle, Creeky
At Arndilly, Euan Reid eloquently sums up the conditions we are seeing in his usual weekly round up from the banks of Arndilly in his following report.
“After the little rise at the end of last week, we began the week with the river at 5 inches on the guage and were rewarded mid-morning with a 6.5lb fish for Tim Wade from the Jocks tail boat.
There was only enough rain this week to encourage the grass to grow so the river dropped away. We lost 5 inches in height between Monday and Tuesday. With the water table being so low, unless we get sustained rain soon, we will be faced with quick drops in height following any rises we get.
On Tuesday, Dr. David Solomon had a long tail sea liced 10lb fish from the right bank of Jocks Tail.
Chris Champion had our Wednesday fish, 10lb from Gilmour. Alistair Ewing caught our first sea trout, 2.5lb from Cobble Pot. Sea trout, unfortunately are becoming a rarity these days, which is very sad to see.
Our final fish of the week was again from Gilmour, caught by Dr. Rodney Owen-Jones, 9lb.
Our last 3 fish this week had sea lice, which has been unusual this season for some reason.
We finished the week at -4 on the gauge, 4 fish in the book and another week spent amongst old friends.”
Rodney Owen-Jones with his fish in the net
Chris Champion with his fish
Beam me up Scotty
Continuing up the river, at Easter Elchies, Orn Sigurhansson reports a week of early summer, low water. We were very pleased to welcome both the McCreath and Waugh fishing parties this week. Water conditions making tough fishing conditions. Highlight of the week, a cracking 13lb fish from Fiddich Mouth.
Les Tyson 13lbs Fiddichmouth
Dougie Ross at Craigellachie confirms the same story as other beats with a solitary fish in the book
Things continue to be quiet as we paddle upstream, in more ways than one and at Macallan, Richard White advises of an enjoyabl, busy and lively week at The Macallan beat, with guests fishing hard each day and making the most of the beautiful conditions. Although we had a couple of encouraging connections and offers from salmon, none were landed this week. Despite the very low water levels for the time of year, spirits remained high and the beat fished well throughout with fish seen every day and, we remain optimistic that a change in conditions will bring fresh opportunities.
Tight lines to all those heading out.
Lower Wester Elchies added another fish to their tally with visiting rod Knut Skjolden landing a crackiing 12lber.
Knut Skjolden with a cracking 12lber
I am not aware of anything being landed across the river at either Aberlour Angling Club, nor indeed Kinermony but Wester Elchies landed one for the week, reiterating that the bright sunshine and a cold wind made conditions difficult till it clouded over on Saturday. Simon Mellard saved the blank with a fish from the Boat Pool.
Simon Mellard in the Boat Pool
David Smillie at Delagyle reports a single fish for them with one fish this week. A nice 8lbs to local angler Mark Braidwood from the Gean Tree.
Mark Braidwood with his fish in the sun
I am aware from posts on social media that fish were landed in the Knockando area but these are not reported to myself by the beat ghillie so I cannot verify numbers, sizes or indeed which pools proved successful.
Carron were also on the scorecard this week with a brace in the book according to ghillie, Ian Borthwick. The rods lucky enough to connect with and stay attached to fish were Dan Niko and another one was caught by Didrik Martens.
Dan Niko with his Carron fish
Continuing up the river my last stop is with Simon Crozier who gives me the weekly updates for Castle Grant, Abernethy and Grantown water.
Simon advises that at Castle Grant, it was a week of bright sun and dropping water levels making fishing tough, several fish were encountered in the early part of the week but none came to hand. Fish were seen in reasonable numbers across the beats also some seatrout starting to appear. Takes were hard to come by in the bright conditions however as the cloud returned Toby Metcaff got on the board with a fine fish from Slodischair , he followed it up with another fish from Craigroy .
We look forward to next week.
Toby Metcaff’s fish from Slodischair
Toby on the scorecard again in Craigroy
Abernethy finished their week with two in the book.
The week ahead looks warm and bright with little or no rain in the forecast, which is what we do not want to see at this time of the year. We can only hope that we see the gulfstream move a wee bit and we start to see warmer westerly weather which will bring in the rain.
Tight lines if you are out and about.
Sandy
The post Week Commencing 21st April 2025 appeared first on River Spey.
Continue reading...
Another week passes us by in 2025, is someone putting the pedal to the metal these days?
Its not too bad a day here in Elgin overcast, warm with a breeze, ideal fishing weather if they all fall into place together but they seldom do. We have seen cool nights, sunny days and wind this week and little to no rain, something that we could definitely do with more of.
The garden and the fields are powder dry and with the stronger winds we are seeing the odd dust storms coming off the prepared fields. The greenhouse is now ready for this years tomato plants, I have them but still to plant them. I do not know if it is just this area or in general but I could not get a standard yellow tomato plant in any of the local garden centres, maybe I am early but it is unusual.
It is easy to see the early mornings are here, the resident seagulls are up at the crack of dawn making a god awful din, will be worse when they have chicks on the go. I would love something to be done about the burgeoning population of them but all pleas seem to fall on deaf ears.
I have seen quite a few pairs of either grey or french partridges over the last week in the verges and edges of fields. I love to see them and they must be doing reasonably well in the Moray climate.
Right the river, where do we start today? The last week saw a river dropping at the beginning following the small rise last weekend but alas no further rain has fallen so river is heading back towards low and summer levels.
At Gordon Castle/Brae Water, David Buley reports that a bookend week for catches with fish landed Monday and Saturday and a bitter, challenging wind making its presence felt between.
An enjoyable week was had with some regular and new faces welcomed to the beats. With a positive start to the week having two to the bank by the end of play on Monday we hoped for a continuation, the north and easterly breeze seemed to soon put a stop to any action until it swung back around to the south on Saturday where we had another pair and notable sightings of fish moving.
Maybe the most surprising thing of all wasn’t that our regulars “The Brae Guddlers” caught fish… but that there was no notable damaged cause by the use of the Kelly Kettle!!
I have no idea what the above is about but I am sure it will mean something to those in attendance.
Brae water success
More Brae success
Guddlers with their fish and an audience
Up at Orton, Andy Gunn advises that it was a quiet start to the week for us until Friday afternoon when Magnus Jepson landed a 9lb fish from Cooperee.
Stuart Yeats fishing on Saturday doubled the week’s catch with a fine 12lb fish from Cairnty.
Magnus Jepson 9lber from Cooperee
Stuart Yeates fish from Cairnty
The weather has definitely been playing havoc with the catches and from Delfur, Mark Melville’s report seems to confirm this as they had another quiet week but we managed to double our score for the week by late Saturday afternoon.
Two sea liced fish was our tally for the week with a few fish lost and an odd pull here and there.
Typical of running fish, we did see them everyday but they weren’t for stopping.
We will see what this week brings as the weather warms up significantly.
On the journey upstream and stopping in by to see Robbie Stronach at Rothes and Aikenway, he reports that they finished with 3 for the week. the lucky captors being David Saunders from Town Road, Richard Doyle got one from Creeky and Karen Reeves got one from Town Road.
Richard Doyle, Creeky
At Arndilly, Euan Reid eloquently sums up the conditions we are seeing in his usual weekly round up from the banks of Arndilly in his following report.
“After the little rise at the end of last week, we began the week with the river at 5 inches on the guage and were rewarded mid-morning with a 6.5lb fish for Tim Wade from the Jocks tail boat.
There was only enough rain this week to encourage the grass to grow so the river dropped away. We lost 5 inches in height between Monday and Tuesday. With the water table being so low, unless we get sustained rain soon, we will be faced with quick drops in height following any rises we get.
On Tuesday, Dr. David Solomon had a long tail sea liced 10lb fish from the right bank of Jocks Tail.
Chris Champion had our Wednesday fish, 10lb from Gilmour. Alistair Ewing caught our first sea trout, 2.5lb from Cobble Pot. Sea trout, unfortunately are becoming a rarity these days, which is very sad to see.
Our final fish of the week was again from Gilmour, caught by Dr. Rodney Owen-Jones, 9lb.
Our last 3 fish this week had sea lice, which has been unusual this season for some reason.
We finished the week at -4 on the gauge, 4 fish in the book and another week spent amongst old friends.”
Rodney Owen-Jones with his fish in the net
Chris Champion with his fish
Beam me up Scotty
Continuing up the river, at Easter Elchies, Orn Sigurhansson reports a week of early summer, low water. We were very pleased to welcome both the McCreath and Waugh fishing parties this week. Water conditions making tough fishing conditions. Highlight of the week, a cracking 13lb fish from Fiddich Mouth.
Les Tyson 13lbs Fiddichmouth
Dougie Ross at Craigellachie confirms the same story as other beats with a solitary fish in the book
Things continue to be quiet as we paddle upstream, in more ways than one and at Macallan, Richard White advises of an enjoyabl, busy and lively week at The Macallan beat, with guests fishing hard each day and making the most of the beautiful conditions. Although we had a couple of encouraging connections and offers from salmon, none were landed this week. Despite the very low water levels for the time of year, spirits remained high and the beat fished well throughout with fish seen every day and, we remain optimistic that a change in conditions will bring fresh opportunities.
Tight lines to all those heading out.
Lower Wester Elchies added another fish to their tally with visiting rod Knut Skjolden landing a crackiing 12lber.
Knut Skjolden with a cracking 12lber
I am not aware of anything being landed across the river at either Aberlour Angling Club, nor indeed Kinermony but Wester Elchies landed one for the week, reiterating that the bright sunshine and a cold wind made conditions difficult till it clouded over on Saturday. Simon Mellard saved the blank with a fish from the Boat Pool.
Simon Mellard in the Boat Pool
David Smillie at Delagyle reports a single fish for them with one fish this week. A nice 8lbs to local angler Mark Braidwood from the Gean Tree.
Mark Braidwood with his fish in the sun
I am aware from posts on social media that fish were landed in the Knockando area but these are not reported to myself by the beat ghillie so I cannot verify numbers, sizes or indeed which pools proved successful.
Carron were also on the scorecard this week with a brace in the book according to ghillie, Ian Borthwick. The rods lucky enough to connect with and stay attached to fish were Dan Niko and another one was caught by Didrik Martens.
Dan Niko with his Carron fish
Continuing up the river my last stop is with Simon Crozier who gives me the weekly updates for Castle Grant, Abernethy and Grantown water.
Simon advises that at Castle Grant, it was a week of bright sun and dropping water levels making fishing tough, several fish were encountered in the early part of the week but none came to hand. Fish were seen in reasonable numbers across the beats also some seatrout starting to appear. Takes were hard to come by in the bright conditions however as the cloud returned Toby Metcaff got on the board with a fine fish from Slodischair , he followed it up with another fish from Craigroy .
We look forward to next week.
Toby Metcaff’s fish from Slodischair
Toby on the scorecard again in Craigroy
Abernethy finished their week with two in the book.
The week ahead looks warm and bright with little or no rain in the forecast, which is what we do not want to see at this time of the year. We can only hope that we see the gulfstream move a wee bit and we start to see warmer westerly weather which will bring in the rain.
Tight lines if you are out and about.
Sandy
The post Week Commencing 21st April 2025 appeared first on River Spey.
Continue reading...