Fishing News for rivers Spey, Avon, Dee and Findhorn - Season 2006
Latest Report
Fishing News Update for October 1st, 2006
Well, that’s it for another season in this part of the Highlands, although the Deveron and Don remain open until October 30th. What a great season it has been once again with a really cracking Spring run through February until early June. Then the grilse and Summer run eventually arrived in the middle of July, a little later than expected; however late they may have been, but they still kept running right up to the very last day! I daresay that most rivers will see fresh runs of fish coming in right through October.
Since my last report it has been a mixed bag really and despite somewhat sub tropical temperature for most of September; it has also been quite wet at times, thus giving the rivers ample water levels for much of the month; in fact, maybe too much water at times!
After a really heavy downpour on September 5th, the Findhorn level rose by over 2 ft on Wednesday the 6th, and with that dark peaty stain was looking quite superb. I was up on the Levrattich and Church beats with the Laird, David Balgonie, and there were plenty of fish on the move. Fishing with a floating line and a small Orjok brass tube, I managed to pull 2 fish, in the Church Bridge pool, but they weren't taking the fly with any conviction. However, the pool was full of salmon and grilse, head and tailing in the tail of the pool. David had been further down without any success, so I suggested that he should definitely put a fly through the Bridge pool. He was fishing with a sink tip line and I tied on the ever deadly Purple Cascade, size 8 double.
Sure enough and right in the very lip of the pool the fly was taken hard and he hooked a somewhat darker grilse of about 5 lbs. I was really pleased with this action shot of him playing the fish with the dogs eagerly looking on! With this result, I too decided to change over to a Poly Leader 10 ft sink tip and tied on a size 6 Orjok double. I moved up and over to fish the Chain pool from the far side and managed to hook another 5 fish with the best, a large slightly pinkish cock fish of 10 lbs. There seemed to be fish everywhere and I must have pulled at least another 5 or 6 fish!
The water fell away over the next few days and as we moved into the week commencing September 11th, I was back lower down on the Altyre beat on the Findhorn. The river had fallen back almost to Summer level and it was indeed feeling very much like mid summer with temperature up in the high 20's C! My guests were Tom Paul and Richard Riley who had booked up a couple of days with me after spending an enjoyable three days earlier in the season at Park on the Dee. The Upper beat at Altyre actually fishes really well in low water conditions being only some 6 miles from the sea pool, there is really nothing to stop fish from running off every tide. We saw a good number of fish throughout the day and pulled a couple of grilse, but the hot and balmy conditions made it difficult to tempt these shy fish. By the 12th, it was still quite warm but with a little more cloud cover, I was far more optimistic of catching fish. Sure enough it was Richard who managed to hunt out three lovely fresh grilse of between 3 to 4 lbs each, two from Pallamore and the other from Pallamore Island and he was clearly delighted with his day.
I was then back on Park on the Dee from 14th-16th. The weather had certainly changed as I drove over the Cabrach to Deeside, with torrential rain falling and it continued to do so for much of the day. After the previous week's amazing 96 salmon/grilse everyone was really hoping for another blazing week! However, the hot weather conditions had also had a knock on effect of catches and with the gauge reading just 3 inches this rain was much needed. Unfortunately, by the Friday, the river had risen by some 69 inches and the gauge was barely visible! With so much muck, trees and debris floating by, fishing was sadly abandoned for the morning. The water fell away slowly through the day to 46 inches, but the colour remained very dirty and most of the day was lost, although one small grilse was hooked in the Lower Kirks later in the day.
By Saturday the 16th, the level was back down to a respectable 25 inches and with good clarity, it looked quite promising. Paul Whitehouse had a really great day and hooked 4 salmon, of 4lb, 5lb, 8lbs and an absolute monster of 22lbs from the Durris Stream, a large cock fish which gave him a tremendous battle.
Meanwhile my friend Nick Armstead of Gamefish in Edinburgh and his friends had booked fishing on Altyre on Findhorn for the 14th-16th. It was really very much the same scenario with drought followed by flood on the Friday! However, they ended their 3 days with 9 fish, all grilse, which was somewhat surprising, as by this time we should have seen some of those larger multi sea winter salmon running on the higher water levels. I think that rather as the grilse runs were later than usual, it appears that the late Summer/Autumn runs are also well behind this season.
I was also back on Altyre for the week commencing September 25th for 3 days, with perfect water levels at plus 2 ft after another downpour the day before. It looked perfect and we certainly saw several salmon/grilse coming through the beats. We ended the day with 3 salmon up to 10lbs all from Roehillock pool. My friend Colin McDonald from Dallas recorded his first ever salmon, a lovely fresh grilse of just over 3 lbs. The water fell away to 1 ft 6 inches by the Tuesday and I accounted for another 2 grilse from Pallamore and Roehillock pools. By the Wednesday, the river had fallen to 9 inches and although still a good level here, it was very quiet and we managed a big blank for the day! The last three days of the season and the weather remained amazingly tropical with bright skies and little wind!
Over on Park, the fishing here was also much slower than normal for the end of September, and Nick Armstead said that the pools had a stock of grilse, but certainly not in any big numbers. Here again, it was very strange not to see a late run of Autumn salmon appearing. Well, I guess that's fishing and as I write this update, it is yet again pouring outside and feeling much cooler. With the forecast of more rain over the next few days, we could see some high river levels. I daresay that the big Autumn runs will appear in all of our main rivers; too late for the anglers, unfortunately, but they will at least be left to run and spawn without any interruptions to their upstream passage. For many of us, it is now time to clean up those reels and lines and tie up those new fly patterns for the 2007 season, which will come around soon enough on February 1st for the River Dee and February 11th for Spey and Findhorn rivers.
I shall be arranging and renewing all of my fishing schedules for Spey, Dee and Findhorn rivers over these next weeks, so if you would like to join me for Speycasting instruction or one of my guided fishing trips, then please do contact me as always: ian@speycaster.net for further information on dates and costs etc.
It has been a really great season once again and I have enjoyed many memorable days on the river with my guests and clients throughout this last season. May I wish everyone success and best wishes for the Winter. I look forward to meeting up with everyone in 2007 and another great salmon season which is just around the corner. Thank you for all of your support and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Ian.
Fishing News Update for September 6th, 2006
It has been a really busy few weeks ever since I returned from our trip to Ponoi in Russia. The week commencing August 14th I was guiding with the Michael Samuel party at Altyre on the Findhorn. It was a really fun week with myself instructing several young and keen Speycasting novices each day. All of them, without exception, soon mastered the art of Spey casting and have now become converts to the salmon fly fishing world! Amongst them were young Benjamin Samuel and Zoe Bearstead who both caught their first ever Atlantic salmon from Soldier’s Hole and Pallamore pools. The water levels remained fairly steady throughout the week at just above normal summer level, around the plus 4 to 6 inch mark. This is a good height for us on Altyre as it is enough water to entice fresh grilse to move up off every tide from the sea pool at Forres.
By Friday the 18th and after some rainfall the river was rising very slowly throughout the morning, but remaining clear. However, by the next morning on the 19th the heavens really opened and the river started to rise by midday. By late afternoon and despite seeing several fresh fish running hard the river had risen by over 2 feet and became totally unfishable! As I mentioned in my earlier report, the grilse runs were certainly on the late side this season, but there has been no shortage of them whatsoever this summer; and still we are catching lovely fresh sea liced fish throughout the lower to middle beats. After a week-end of heavy rainfall in the Highlands all of our main rivers benefited from this rise in water levels and fish were running hard on Findhorn, Spey and Dee by the week commencing August 21st.
I was back over on the river Dee at Park Estate for 3 days from August 22nd to 24th and the river was falling and clearing back to 7 inches on the Park gauge, after the spate.
Conditions really looked superb as we arrived at Park South bank just before lunch. Peter the ghillie was really optimistic about our chances for the next 3 days. I was fishing once again with one of my regular favourite guests, Lady Barbara, who only took up Spey casting just last season and has now become a really proficient caster as the next few days were going to demonstrate! I may just have to ask her to marry me.
We decided that we would walk up to the middle of the beat and start in at Cooper’s pool, as Peter thought this would be a good bet. He was right. Fishing a full floating line and a size 10 copper Ally, she had only been fishing some 5 minutes and a fresh fish was on. However, it was a short lived affair and the fish was off. But what a start! I decided to walk up to Park Inn at the top of the beat and once again it wasn’t long before she was into another fish. This was a cracking sea liced fish of about 7lbs, which ran and jumped all over the pool before it was safely released. Shortly after that I followed her down the pool and managed to hook a lovely sea trout of 3lbs. We walked back down to the Bulwarks pool and Lady B. hooked and lost yet another 2 fresh grilse one after the other!
This was already turning out to be a great afternoon of sport. Later on in the evening, I was casting a fly through the Lower Kirks and was taken by a very large fish. It was one of those epic battles that could only end one way really and despite playing this monster for some time following it right to the tail of the pool, the hooks pulled out! One of the hooks had been totally straightened out. We both got a good sighting of this fish at one point when it came close to our bank and it was a really big red cock salmon of who knows how many pounds!! It was a warm and humid evening and after this battle it was mutually decided that a cold beer was called for and so we departed off to the pub and called it a day.
By Wednesday 23rd the river had fallen slightly to 5 inches with excellent clarity. The weather was settled, warm, overcast and no wind, just perfect. Starting up in the Bulwarks pool, Lady B. hooked and landed a really lovely 6lb sea liced grilse, which took off all over the pool. Then moving down into Cooper’s pool she went and hooked another sea liced fish of 5lbs, soon followed by a cracking sea trout of 4lbs. I.N. only managed to lose another grilse and pull another 2 fish back up in the Bulwarks pool. It was an amazing morning’s sport by any standards.
Clearly a big run of fish were coming through these beats. The weather became decidedly warmer by mid afternoon, however Lady B. was on a roll and she managed to hook and land yet another 6lb grilse from Greenbanks, again on the copper Ally, size 10. I.N. was later rewarded with a 4lb grilse also from Greenbanks later in the evening.
By Thursday the 6th, the water level had fallen by another inch despite some heavy rain showers overnight. It was another perfect fishing day and it was I.N.’s turn to get some action with another 4 grilse, 2 from Bulwarks, 1from Cooper’s pool and another from the House pool on a sunray Shadow! The water fell away to 3 inches by Friday 25th and the fishing was much slower with fewer fish to be seen running. I.N. landed a small grilse of 3 lbs from Greenbanks just after lunch. I think that the main run had gone through and another top up of water was really needed once again to encourage more of these later running salmon and grilse to make a move from the estuary in Aberdeen. It had been a really great 3 days and just goes to show that given a little rainfall, then August can be a bumper month to be fishing.
The week commencing August 28th and we were fishing back up on Glenferness beats on the river Findhorn with my regular group staying in the Wooden House on Glenferness Estate. Unfortunately, despite forecasts of heavy rainfall it never really came to anything until later in the week. There was certainly no shortage of fish in the river but trying to catch them was proving difficult in the low water conditions. On Monday 28th, Robert Booth hooked and lost a fish in Lang Tail on Levrattich beat. Ronnie Sneddon managed to hook and land a 5lb grilse from Lower Streenoch on his purple Munro Killer, size 10.On Tuesday he hooked and landed a 12 lb salmon form Upper Streenoch on a #10 cascade, followed by another larger salmon of 14lbs from the Levrattich pool.
On the evening of Thursday 31st, the rains arrived albeit a little late. The river didn’t actually begin to rise until the Friday evening and came up over 1 foot 6”. However, by Saturday morning, it was falling away fairly quickly and was very peat stained. It was a good fishing height, but for some reason the fish just didn’t want to know, despite seeing plenty of salmon and grilse on all beats. However, Robert Booth was at last rewarded with a 4lb grilse from Lang Tail pool on a # 8 purple cascade. Graham Bruce-Gardner was also finally rewarded with a fine 5lb grilse from the Churchyard pool, this also on a # 8 cascade. It was a close call and only just in time before the Fat Lady started to warm up in the wings!!
As I write this latest update, it has been pouring here all day today, September 5th and so this should give all of our 3 main rivers the much needed top up to keep the fish moving in over the next few days. I was down in Forres earlier and I gather that there are still good numbers of fresh fish running into the river from the sea pool and that catches here on the Forres AA remain excellent. I have also just heard from my good friend Nick Armstead, (Gamefish), who is fishing at Park on the Dee right now and they are experiencing some fantastic fishing yet again with 14 landed yesterday, September 4th and 16 landed by lunchtime to-day! The day ended with a total of 26 fish!
It’s hard to believe that the season has only a matter of weeks left here and I am going to be busy fishing with my guests on the Dee and Findhorn until the season closes on September 30th. There are other opportunities to fish on The Deveron and Don until October 31st however, and if anyone would like to take up a guided fishing break with me please do contact me as always: ian@speycaster.net for further information on costs and dates. I shall also be arranging all of my fishing venues and dates for 2007 season from October onwards for the Spey, Dee and Findhorn rivers. If anyone is interested in joining me through the 2007 season, then please do contact me for further information. I look forward to hearing from you and I wish you all tight lines for these last few weeks of the season.
Fishing News Update for Ponoi trip to Kola Peninsular, Russia, for the week commencing August 5th, 2006.
It is amazing how quickly our annual trip to Ponoi comes around. For me, this marks just 10 years of Ponoi fishing, five years as Head Guide and another five years of taking a party of 16 rods with me for what can only be described as some of the best salmon fishing in the World. We always stay at the Ryabaga camp, which is run by Shackleton International and every year my guests see fantastic improvements to this luxury 5-star camp. This year was no exception with the construction and installation of the wonderful Stairway down to Heaven!
We arrived at Ryabaga on Saturday, 5th August with the weather feeling quite cool and cloudy, really looking just perfect for fishing conditions. My group consisted of many regular Ponoi fishers with a handful of new rods fishing here for the first time. We had been informed by Max Mamaev (head guide) that the Fall or Autumn run salmon had already started to run during the previous week with several fish of up to 16 lbs. being landed. There was also still a large number of very fresh Summer run salmon and grilse running the river system. The season has already been amazing with some 8,500 salmon/grilse landed up to the start of our week! I think it was safe to say that we were all very excited at our prospects and couldn’t wait to get started on our beat rotations the following day.
The first two days and conditions were really just about perfect, feeling cooler and the river running at a higher level than normal for this time of year, after many weeks of fairly persistent rainfall through July. The daily catches were pretty consistent for Sunday to Tuesday, averaging around 90 salmon per day to my group of 16. Then we experienced something of an Indian summer for a few days, as the weather turned brighter and warmer, thus bringing our catches down to around 60 salmon per day. However, it was still superb fishing and the big Fall run beauties just kept on coming through every day. These fish are by far the hardest fighting Atlantic salmon anywhere in the World and anyone thinking of going to Ponoi should make sure to have a good large arbour reel, with a reliable drag system and plenty of backing!
By Friday, the weather had turned around once again with low clouds, cooler, and the threat of rain was in the air. Unfortunately, this change meant that we were due to take an earlier departure from camp that evening leaving back for Murmansk, and thus, our usual Friday evening party with all camp staff had to be abandoned or should I say postponed until next year! However, I am certain that the guides and staff all partied hard after we had departed from Ryabaga and they certainly deserved it.
By the end of the week, we had managed to hook and land some 454 salmon and grilse, including 42 Fall run salmon. The average catch per rod was 28.4 salmon. The largest salmon of the week went to first time Ponoi fisher, Kees Westveer, from Holland; with a salmon of 18 pounds off Clough Creek. As Always, it was a really enjoyable week and I know that I speak for everyone in thanking all of the staff and guides for making our stay in Ryabaga so very special. Also, special thanks must go to all of the hard working kitchen staff, who as always, produces the very best of meals every day, including those fantastic picnic lunches which were enjoyed by the river.
One of the highlights of the week for me and Ronnie was a fresh sea trout cooked up by the one and only Boris (Bora Bora) in a foil smoker bag as we sat and watched salmon leaping in front of us all over The Wheel. Life really doesn’t get any better!
If anyone is interested in joining my group for 2007, which departs from the UK for the week commencing August 3rd, please do contact me for information on costs: ian@speycaster.net
Fishing News Update, August 20th, 2006
It has been a really busy time for me over these last couple of months and I realised that an update was long overdue, so I apologise for the lack of news recently!
First of all, the grilse run which is normally expected in late June to early July was amazingly late this year for some reason. On Monday, July 3rd, the Findhorn river rose quite dramatically; some 4 feet after heavy rain had fallen way up over the Monadhliath Mountains. This was the first decent rain fall in weeks and unfortunately the river was fairly dirty for several days; and the grilse and salmon must have taken advantage of this water by running into the middle and upper beats. Certainly Glenferness, Lethen and Logie beats managed to pick up a good number of these early and somewhat smaller grilse throughout the first few weeks of July; and continued to catch these fish despite the river levels falling away as we settled into a period of unusually hot and dry weather for much of July. I was enjoying a pint of beer with Andrew Shaw sitting outside the Kimberly Inn one evening in late July; as we watched salmon, grilse and sea trout leaping out all over Findhorn Bay. All we could do hope for this hot spell to end soon. The weather forecasts were certainly beginning to sound a little more hopeful as darker clouds started to roll in over the next few days.
I was on Altyre, Findhorn for the week commencing July 24th with the Susan Hahn party and for the first 3 days of the week long happy picnics were enjoyed by all with occasional cooling off dips into the river at the Roehillock and Pallamore pools. Despite the very low water conditions there was certainly no shortage of grilse running in off every tide from the sea pool and up into the Forres AA water. On several occasions, we witnessed these pods of fish literally scooting past in the shallow necks of pools, pushing upstream with all their might, with backs and tails out of the water and disappearing into the pools above. It was quite a spectacular sight indeed. Andrew Shaw was also fishing Altyre for the first 3 days and managed to pull a fish in the neck of Soldier’s Hole on Wednesday. In fact, the low water can often be a benefit to us on the Upper beat; and by the 27th July, we were certainly seeing more fish showing in these Upper beat pools. Susan Hahn and husband Duncan both caught a grilse each on the 27th from Soldier’s and Roehillock pools. Susan’s fish was a really solid grilse of 5.5 pounds and covered in sea lice. Her brother, David, then caught another 4 lb grilse on the morning of the 28th, again from Roehillock Stream taken on a # 10 Ally shrimp fly. On that Friday evening, those dark clouds produced some heavy rain at last and the river had risen a spectacular 4 inches! However, it was enough to move a lot of fish into our beat. The pools were alive with fish and it was somewhat frustrating, as we could only manage to tweak, pull and briefly hook 8 of these fish all morning. Then in the afternoon, David Hahn hooked and played a bigger fish of some 8-9 lbs in the Soldier’s Hole before this also fell off. He was later rewarded with a small grilse from the Soldier’s Stream. It was certainly a fun way to finish the week and by now a dramatic turn around in the weather, as it began to feeler much cooler and fresher altogether. The long range forecast for the week ahead seemed really promising, with spells of heavy persistent rain to come for most of the following few days. This time the boys in the Met office were right on the money, just spot on!!
It poured with rain heavily throughout Tuesday, 1st August and the river started to rise. By the following morning, the Findhorn had come up by over 4’6” at Shennachie. By Thursday, 3rd August, it had started to fall away to around 2 ft. and with good clarity. David Balgonie called to ask if we would like to go up and fish on Glenferness for the day. I was at the time packing to get ready for my annual trip to Ponoi in Russia, but this was not an opportunity to be missed, whatsoever! By the time Barbara and I arrived at Glenferness House, it was a little after 11:00 a.m. and David was running a little late himself, so instructed us to go and start fishing on Mini Daltra, which is really my favourite high water beat. The water looked just perfect as we tackled up by the Island Stream. It was still quite cloudy and felling fresher once again. We walked up to the Island pool and saw fish showing almost immediately. I waded into the middle section above the narrow draw and fishing a floating line with a small Orjok brass tube, was taken on the second cast with a real bang. It was a lively dark hen fish of around 9 lbs and safely returned. I decided to move further up to the neck of the pool and wade down, which in high water is often superb. I hooked into 2 really acrobatic grilse and lost both of them after a good long fight. Then Barbara hooked and landed number 3, a bar of silver of around 4lbs. Wading back into the pool again I hooked and beached another 2 bigger hen salmon of around 9 & 10 lbs each. This was turning out to be an amazing morning’s fishing by any stretch of the imagination! The water level was holding up well and hardly falling by lunchtime. Lady B. and I decided to picnic at the Lady’s pool where we enjoyed a well earned glass of cool white wine! We saw a couple of fish head and tail as we sat and enjoyed our lunch. Shortly after, it was Barbara’s turn to hook another salmon, this was a big fish which really gave a great account of it self. Just when we thought it was ready to land, it suddenly threw itself into the air and the hook simply dropped out. I decided to wade into the tail of the pool and the second time down, briefly hooked and lost yet another grilse of around the 3-4 lbs. mark.
At this point, we were joined by David and decided it would be well worth while going back to the Island pool where I was sure he would get another fish. How wrong I was!! I waded into the pool with him and almost within a couple of casts he hooked and lost a good fish. Wading back in again, he hooked and landed a cracking sea trout of around 4 lbs. followed by another 2 beautiful silver grilse, both around 4-5 lbs. I decided that I was going to go and finish back down on the middle of Island pool and left him to it. In the meantime, continued to land another larger salmon of around 8 lbs. and lost another 3 fish in the same pool. Time was marching on for me and I still had to finish packing for Russia. However, I couldn’t resist just one more cast and again I hooked and landed yet another cracking silver grilse of about 5 lbs.
Barbara and I walked back down to the car with David to the Island Stream and as we were taking our tackle down he hooked into yet another salmon in the tail of Island Stream, which also got off after quite a tussle. It was only around 5:00 p.m. by now, but as I also had to be at Aberdeen Airport for 4:00 a.m. the following morning, I decided it really was time to make my leave. This had indeed been a red letter day and I calculated that between all of us, we had hooked a total of 18 salmon/grilse and 1 sea trout and had landed 10 of them. I later heard from David that the day ended with a total of 27 salmon/grilse hooked and landed for the day from the Estate beats. This is really as good as it gets, but as I have already mentioned in previous reports, just goes to show how our salmon and grilse runs continue to improve here in the North East of Scotland.
I am just about to write an update about our superb trip to the Ponoi River on the Kola Peninsular in Russia where we ended the week with a total of some 454 salmon and grilse for the week. At the moment, I do still have a few openings for fishing on Glenferness and Altyre beats of the Findhorn in September, so if anyone wants to take up a last minute opportunity of a fully guided fishing break of 3-6 days before the season closes, please do get in touch with me: ian@speycaster.net for further information on costs and dates.
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FISHING NEWS UPDATE - July 3rd, 2006
Since my last update in the middle of May, the Spring salmon fishing has remained very strong especially on the middle beats of Findhorn from Logie, Glenferness, Lethen and Drynachan beats. In last few days of May, I was fishing with the Wendy Dawson party who were staying at Dallas Lodge and had taken fishing at Glenferness and Logie. The weather remained very changeable throughout this period with regular falls of rain topping up the river every few days kept the river at a good height for fishing and also encouraging fresh runs of fish from the sea pool down from Findhorn bay.
After another heavy spell of rain on Wednesday 24th, the river was running at a perfect +9” with excellent clarity by the morning of the 25th. Wendy and Helen Dawson had a really fantastic morning’s fishing on Logie with a total of three salmon landed between them. Wendy caught a cracking salmon of 10 lbs. from Little Stronach on the Relugas beat, whilst daughter Helen fishing downstream on Logie landed one fresh salmon of 7 lbs. from the Garden pool and one, weighing 8 lbs. from Craigiehall pool, both on a double size 8 Cascade. Later on after lunch, Helen made it 3 for the day with another cracker of 9 lbs., this one from Secret Spot up on Glenferness, Mini Daltra beat.
By the 26th, the river had fallen slowly to 4” and still looking in good ply. Malcolm Maxted, a member of the Dawson party, was fishing on Logie in the morning, however, never expected the battle of his life when he hooked a monster salmon in the tail of the Garden pool just before 1:00 p.m. This salmon decided that it was time to head back to the sea and turned into the rapids below the pool heading down towards the Mill pool at great speed with Malcolm and Ewen Manson, his ghillie, in hot pursuit; as they clambered over huge granite rocks, with Ewen spending much of the time up to his chest in water handing the rod back up to Malcolm from time to time! This epic battle lasted for an hour and a half, as they continued to follow the monster salmon downstream and at just about 2:30 p.m., the hooks finally pulled out. By now, the fish had taken them all the way down to Red Rock, which is most probably a half mile downstream from the Garden pool. They saw the salmon several times and, indeed, nearly had it to the net at one point! It was a large fresh cock salmon and estimated at around the 30 lb. mark. Malcolm was very philosophical about losing the salmon, but I think that despite the final result, it was an experience of a lifetime and one that he will never forget! After more rain on the Friday, the river was again in spate as the levels rose to 1’6” by Saturday 27th and running somewhat on the dirty side.
June is often a transitional month, with the best of the Spring run over and awaiting the grilse and summer run salmon in early July. However, these last few years has seen runs of big multi sea winter Springers still running in large numbers through June particularly on the Findhorn. I see that the week commencing June 19th, saw some exceptional catches on the middle beats, with Drynachan landing 29, Lethen Estate 27 and Glenferness recording 31 salmon with a magnificent best of 25 lbs. This is indeed exceptional sport by any standards.
The River Dee has still been ticking along quite nicely with salmon, grilse and sea trout being caught from the lower to upper beats. There were over 310 sea trout recorded off the Fish Dee website this last week, which is really great news. Many of these have been taken by rods fishing for salmon throughout the daylight hours. However, there were some hardy all night anglers fishing for the sea trout this last week and were, indeed, rewarded with some good results and with sea trout averaging over 3 lbs. Great fun indeed!
I was back on Park just this last week for a few days guiding Tom Paul and Richard Riley from North Yorkshire, who were experiencing Park for their first visit. The river was running at a fairly low 5” last Tuesday on the Park gauge, but with perfect clarity. The weather was quite settled and warm, but there were certainly fish to be caught. Tom and Richard both caught 5 grilse, all lovely sea liced fish and several sea trout, which they were both delighted with and are now making plans with me for a return trip in the Spring of next year. I know that they will not be disappointed!
I hear that the Spey has also been picking away with salmon and a few early grilse. I have also heard that there are also good numbers of sea trout which have been running steadily since May. My good friend Nick Armstead was fishing up on Kinchurdy with his chums for their annual sea trout pilgrimage to the Spey. He tells me that fishing was a little slow mainly because of falling temperatures overnight down to 6 degrees C. Thus, the fish were a little reluctant to take the fly later on in the night. They ended the week with 1 grilse and 29 sea trout, with a best of 8 lbs. landed by Tim Franklin. Head ghillie at Kinchurdy, Hugh Adcock, said that there had certainly been a big improvement of earlier sea trout runs this year over the last couple of years; so hopefully, this trend will continue.
As the season now moves into July, I am looking forward to my first summer week back on Altyre on the river Findhorn and hopefully, if we see a little lift of water levels, this will surely encourage the grilse and summer salmon to run the system. Rain is forecast, so it is all in the lap of the Gods now!
I still have a few availabilities for guiding and instruction on the Findhorn and Dee in September, so please contact me: ian@speycaster.net for further information on dates and prices.
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FISHING NEWS UPDATE - May 21st, 2006
As we moved into the last week of April, the weather began to change with several very warm days over the weekend of April 29th-30th. Thus, the water temperature started to rise up to a very respectable 49 degrees F. This rise in both water and air temperatures certainly began to encourage the fish to run up into the middle beats from Logie, Coulmony, Glenferness and Lethen. All we needed was a little rise in the water levels now and fishing would surely begin to turn on.
The first of my regular Spring group arrived at Dallas Lodge on April 30th to bask in the warm Spring sunshine that had now settled into North East Scotland. However, the forecast was for rain to come and so our group of anglers were all in high spirits as always. Over the next 6 days they would be fishing on Glenferness, Coulmony and Logie beats.
On Monday, the 1st of May, the water level was running at plus 1 inch on our gauge and clarity was perfect. David Clark hooked and lost a couple of fish that day from Churchyard and Kennel, but not many fish were seen elsewhere. By Tuesday, the weather began to change with colder air, cloudy and threatening rain! The fishing also started to turn on, with five fabulous Spring salmon hooked by Roger Pardoe, Peter Grimwade, Peter Angus, David Clark and Iain Ross landing best fish of the day, 12lbs from the Princess pool. The rains arrived and by Wednesday the water level had risen up to 2’ 6”, but was running very dirty. Only one fish was hooked that day, by my good friend Mike Leach; a 10 pounder from the tail of Island pool on a PP cone head.
By Thursday 4th, the water level had fallen away to 9” and clarity was again perfect. It was another great fishing day and five more salmon were landed. Ronnie and Alan Sneddon both hooked a fish each in the Princess pool before lunch. David Clark landed an absolute cracker of around 14lbs from the Lang Tail pool. Ronnie Sneddon managed a second from his favourite Levrattich pool of 9lbs on an orange bottle brass tube. Success was also there for Peter James, who after going to the airport to pick up his wife June, returned back to Coulmony in the late afternoon to hook and release a lovely sea liced 10 pounder from the Logie pool on a # 8 Ally shrimp fly.
By Friday, the 5th of May, it was a return to bright and clear skies with air temperatures soaring into the high 70’s F. Water levels were still good, but the hot sunshine made fishing conditions very difficult. Ronnie Sneddon found another fish willing to take his fly in the shade of Secret Spot, a fish of 8 lbs taken on a # 8 Cascade. On Saturday 6th May, David Clark also landed another fish of 10lbs from the Levrattich pool. Considering the weather conditions it was a really superb week with a total of 21 Spring salmon hooked with 13 being landed.
As we moved into the week commencing May 8th, the high pressure continued to dominate the weather conditions across the North East of Scotland and the river levels fell away dramatically. My guests this time were the Simon Race party from Hertfordshire in England and he had taken 4 rods up on the Glenferness Estate for the week. Monday and Tuesday were scorchers and despite some hard effort put in by Simon, Susie and their guests, both days were blank with few fish even seen. However, the picnic lunches provided by our own Frances, at Dallas were exceptional. The cold beers and chilled wine complimented the long lunch breaks spent basking in the sunshine down by the Island pool each day! The arrival of Jeremy and Mary James on Tuesday evening changed our fortunes the following day.
I took Jeremy to the Hawk Stream before the sun had got onto the pool in the morning. We saw a fish moving in the stream three times; and after a change of fly and second time through the pool, Jeremy hooked a cracking 10lb salmon, which after some great sport was safely released to the river. The chilled bottle of champagne in celebration was quite simply superb! On Thursday 11th, Owen (The Welsh) Williams went up to the Upper Streenoch whilst it was still shaded and hooked a lovely fish of around 8lbs, but was sadly denied the pleasure of landing his prize, as it threw the hook and escaped and since referred to as an LDR or long distance release! By Friday 12th, the water had fallen away even further and sadly very little in the way of snow melt to top it up now. However it had become decidedly cooler with rain clouds gathering all around and we all hoped that maybe, just maybe we might be rewarded with a small lift in water levels for Saturday to finish off the week with one good day of fishing. I decided to take Simon and Susie up to the Lairds pool, where we saw several fish splashing and showing half way down the pool. Fishing a floating line and a very slow retrieve with a #8 purple cascade did the trick. Simon hooked a magnificent fresh fish of around 8lbs, which was again safely returned after a great fight.
The much hoped for rainfall came to nothing and we faced the river looking even lower by Saturday 13th. The cooler weather had certainly livened the fish up and we had seen several fresh fish showing in the Island Stream. After lunch and with no success in the morning, Simon decided to fish a bead head weighted nymph through the pool, fishing it upstream on a floating line. He had only been fishing for a few minutes and he was suddenly into an absolute cracker of a cock fish, which was around the 12 lb mark. It was an ingenious piece of angling and after whoops of joy and photos taken was also returned to the river.
Earlier this week and I was back on the Dee at Park and Crathes Castle for 3 days with regular clients Mike Powell and Raimonda Lanza Di Trabia from Italy. The river level was reading 8” on the Park gauge and running gin clear and water temperature had fallen back to 48 degrees F. On Monday 15th, Mike hooked and landed a fresh salmon of 8 lbs on a Sun Ray Shadow from the Park Inn pool before lunch.
Raimonda was unlucky to miss two fish both hooked briefly in the Upper Kirks pool on a small #10 Ponoi Green double. She unfortunately missed another one after lunch in the House pool! Tuesday was a little quieter with fewer fish showing especially on the lower beats.
However, Mike did manage to get a sea trout on the deadly Sun Ray in Greenbanks and had another salmon swirl at it just moments later.
By Wednesday, the weather was much warmer as we moved up river to Crathes Castle beat. The river was holding nicely and Brian Simm, the ghillie, was enthusiastic about our prospects as the pools seemed to be stuffed full of fish on both upper and lower beats. He was absolutely spot on too, as Raimonda was soon hooked into a really fantastic salmon that was around the 12 lb mark and just so very strong. Yet again, taken on the deadly Ponoi Green # 8 double from the Birkenbaud pool in the morning. Later on, after lunch, we were on the upper beat and it was Mike’s turn to take another fish of about 9lbs from No Man’s Land, just above the Floating Banks pool. Once again, he had tempted this fish to take the Sun Ray Shadow stripped over the surface, having already had another take on a small # 10 cascade first time down through the pool.
By Thursday the 18th, the river had risen several feet after heavy overnight rain and was running very dirty. By lunchtime, it was starting to rise again and not looking very promising whatsoever, and it was time to head for home. The weather is still very unsettled and much colder in this part of the Highlands now and it looks like more rain to come, which will certainly suit my guests fishing on Glenferness, Findhorn and Park, Dee this coming week. I still have some guided fishing opportunities through the summer months of July to August at Park on the Dee and Altyre on the Findhorn. There are also a few spaces for my two weeks up on Glenferness, Findhorn from the w/c August 27th through to September 10th with full board accommodation taken in the delightful Wooden House fishing lodge on the Glenferness Estate. If anyone would like more information on any of these forthcoming trips please do contact me as always: ian@speycaster.net
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FISHING NEWS UPDATE - May 1st, 2006
Since my last update in early April, the fishing on the Lower Findhorn at Altyre has been really impressive with good numbers of large Spring salmon being caught regularly. The water levels have remained very consistent each day as amounts of snow melt has been gradually released from high up in the Monadhliath mountains. It has also remained pretty chilly throughout April and, therefore, water temperatures have also remained fairly low, averaging from 38°F to 42°F. just recently. This has at least now allowed salmon to start moving up through Poolie Falls at Sluie and into the middle beats of Logie, Glenferness and Lethen where fresh salmon have been caught this last week.
I was on Altyre for the week commencing April 10th for 3 days with regular client Simon Lewin and his guest Paul Humphreys. The river level was reading a perfect 1 ft 9” on the Fish Findhorn gauge with good clarity. Paul managed to catch two beautiful fresh salmon of 14 lbs. from Roehillock pool and then another of 10 lbs. from Pallamore.
Both of these fish were his first and second ever salmon and both hooked on the deadly Purple Cascade, #6 double. Simon Lewin also managed a lovely sea liced fish of 7 lbs. from the Roan pool a little later on, this on a #6 Orajok double.
Simon went on to land another two salmon of 12 lbs. and 10 lbs. the following day from Pallamore and Soldiers Hole. By Wednesday, the river was up to just over 3 feet, but still excellent clarity.
Simon was again rewarded with an absolute bar of silver of 14 lbs. from Roehillock on a small Orajok brass tube.
On Thursday, April 13th, I was joined by Lady Grant from London and after heavy overnight rain the river had risen by some 4 feet and was really very dirty, so fishing was abandoned for the day. By the Friday the 14th, it had fallen to 3 ft 6”, but clarity was much better and I was also rewarded with a lovely silver Springer of 15 lbs. from Roehillock pool.
Then, on the 15th, the water level was back to a respectable 2 ft 4” and looked superb. This time it was Judy’s turn to hook into a really big fish of around 19-20 lbs., just an absolute lunker of a salmon, hooked on a half inch Purple Cascade from Roehillock.
The week commencing April 17th was the turn of the Don Milne party; fishing for three days and another astonishing week was about to begin. Don’s party landed 7 salmon for the three days. The water levels were just perfect each day with small rises of snow melt to keep the fish coming in off the tides at Findhorn bay. The last three days were just as good, with the John Wraight party managing to land another six salmon up to 14 lbs. This gave the beat a really very respectable total of thirteen salmon for the week to four rods. With such good fishing through March and April, it looks like yet another fantastic Spring season on the Findhorn so far. I am now preparing for my two big Spring Dallas Lodge weeks and we start to move up river with fishing on Glenferness, Coulmony and Logie beats.
As I write this, the weather has certainly improved over the last few days with warm sunshine persisting. This will certainly lift water temperatures for sure and the run of salmon will now move a little faster from the Lower beats upstream. I hear that there are still ample amounts of snow up in the mountains, so with warmer conditions we could just get another lift in water levels, which is much needed right now. Rain is also forecast this week, so I am really getting excited at the prospect of more superb Spring fishing for my guests over these next few weeks. For any further information, costs, etc for guided fishing breaks, Speycasting instruction or vacancies for later Lodge parties, please contact me: ian@speycaster.net .
FISHING NEWS UPDATE - April 7th, 2006
Amazingly, the cold weather has kept its grip on this part of the Highlands since my last report several weeks ago. As we moved into the week commencing March 20th I was really looking forward to being back at Altyre with one of my regular guests, Andrew Shaw from Charlbury in Oxfordshire. It was a really chilly day and the river was reading at 2 feet, clear and perfect. The water temperature was a low 34º F. I was feeling really confident, especially as I had heard of at least 10 fish coming off the Forres AA in the previous couple of weeks and several others from the Meads beat on Darnaway.
A keen fly tyer, Andrew soon produced a selection of large double hook creations lovingly tied up over the winter months! I spotted the very fly which resembled a likeness to the Purple Cascade and tied it on for him. First time down through Pallamore and he was into a fish briefly before it parted company. Then after lunch, another pull in Pallamore and this one stayed on, a really cracking sea liced fish of 7lbs, Andrew's first ever Spring salmon, taken on the fly which was now to be known as The “ShawtobeShaw”!! After photographs were taken it was carefully returned back to the river.
On the Tuesday, the water had fallen back to 1'6” due to the bitterly overnight frost, but still looking in excellent ply. It was another cold day but persistence paid off this time another corker of 9lbs from Roehillock pool late on in the afternoon taken on a Cascade size 6. I had been joined by my good friends Bill Currie and Nick Armstead for a couple of days, but unfortunately they only managed to hook into a couple of kelts from Roan pool.
By Wednesday, the water had really fallen away to 1' on the Fish Findhorn level and it was hard going all day with little action. With the onset of more heavy snow by late afternoon, it was time to head back to the Hotel for a well earned large dram!
I was back on Delfur on the Spey for March 23rd, instructing first time salmon fisher Kevin O'Gorman from Warwick. The weather had improved slightly and it was a milder day with the level at -6” on the Delfur gauge and water temperature of 35º F. Runs on the Lower Spey beats had been picking up recently with all of these beats landing fresh fish every day. Robbie, the ghillie, hooked a 10lb fish in the morning from Sourden and after lunch Malcolm Newbould managed a super 12lb sea liced fish from The Bridge Pool. Kevin O'Gorman was fishing upstream on the Saturday 25th on Wester Elchies and was rewarded with a fantastic 12lb salmon, just one of 5 fresh fish to be landed from the beat on the day.
Monday 27th March, and I was fishing with regular guests, Peter Grimwade and Colin Brook on Altyre beat of the Findhorn. The weather had become slightly milder and wetter, resulting fromthe inevitable snow melt flood. When we arrived, the river was a brown torrent running at some 4' high and just hopeless for fly fishing. However, they persisted through the day as the water began to slowly fall away and clear a little.
Back on the river for Tuesday the water had cleared substantially although still running very high. Colin Brook managed to hook a lovely sea liced salmon of 9lbs from Pallamore pool. Another guest of regular rod Cammy Chapman, Brian, also hooked and released 2 more fresh sea licers during the same day, again both from Pallamore pool. These salmon were his first ever Spring fish.
I was back over at Park on the Dee briefly for the day on Wednesday 29th, where here, also, the river was still running high, but falling and clearing slowly. It was showing at 48” on the Park gauge and looking very good. The sun was even shining despite a brisk N.W wind blowing. Park is an amazing beat and can fish from very high water conditions to very low. As long as the water clarity is good, then there is always a chance of a fish or two here. My friend Malcolm Newbould had been fishing with a group of 4 Swedish gentlemen on the previous two days. The Monday had been hopeless with big dirty snow melt. However, by the Tuesday 28th despite the high water, the clarity improved and the beat landed some 12 fresh salmon up to 15lbs; six of these fish had been landed by Malcolm's group.
I was instructing my own guest, Stuart Moberley, on the Wednesday and we had only been fishing off the bank in Castleton pool, fishing a Black and Yellow Dee Fox tube, when he got a pull off a fish within a couple of casts, but didn't connect. We saw several fish just creeping up the edge of the pool during the morning, but alas, no more offers. Later in the afternoon, he hooked into a lively kelt from the Cellar pool, taken on a Sun Ray Shadow. It had been a somewhat slow day for some reason and it was only around 5:00 p.m. when the other rods were also having action and 3 fresh fish were landed on the beat within a short period of each other. Stuart was offered a rod for the 30th by Simon Lewin, who was not going to be able to fish on and Stuart was only happy to oblige! He was also rewarded with a super sea liced salmon of 7lbs from the Durris Stream taken on the deadly Dee Fox tube. I hear from Keith Cromar, the head ghillie at Park, that by the end of the day the North bank total had reached a staggering 100 salmon for February and March. This is really quite a fantastic result for so early in the season. Hopefully, with the prime Spring months of April to May still to come, it will only get better and better.
By the 31st, I was back on Altyre, Findhorn. I was instructing first time Speycasting guests, father and son, David and James Venton from Canterbury in Kent. Despite several blank years of trying to catch a salmon, they decided to come and spend a couple of days on the delightful Findhorn. They were both very keen and soon mastered the technique of the double Spey cast. The river was still running very high with snow melt, but with perfect clarity at 2'6” and the water temperature had risen a little to 38 F. I was really hopeful of a fish, but James was at least very excited to hook into a kelt from the Roan pool later on in the afternoon. Their casting after just one day was really impressive easily covering all of the pools. Saturday, April 1st, the water had risen once again to 3 feet on the Altyre level reading, however, the colour was still very good. They both fished hard all day and I was feeling very confident of a fresh fish. especially after lunch, when we were to move up to the Upper beat. James fished through the Roehillock without a pull. I couldn't believe it, especially as we had seen fish showing. I then asked David if he would like to fish through it and he duly obliged. I changed his fly to a #6 Purple Cascade. He was just putting out a short line and then suddenly a really hard pull followed by a long run and he was into his first ever Salmon. It was a really lovely sea liced fish of around the 10lb mark and both father and son were clearly delighted.
I was back fishing on Delfur yesterday with our usual gang with the river running at -6” and clear. It was a cold biting wind gusting up to 60 mph at times and really a little uncomfortable! However, that certainly didn't stop Malcolm (GB) Newbould from landing two sea liced fish of 10lb and 12lb both from the Collie pool in the morning. It appears that all of the Lower Spey beats have seen improving catches this last week and suggestions of a better Spring run are already being seen on these beats, which everyone is really very happy with here in Speyside.
We are steadily seeing each year improving with bigger runs and higher catch returns on all three of our main rivers here in the Highlands. I am indeed very optimistic for our future salmon fishing now and as we move into our two prime Spring months I hope this trend will continue. Good river management and sensible conservation policies are indeed showing returns. We have ample reserves of snow in the hills now and indeed it is still very cold outside. As I have been writing this report more snow continues to fall outside my front window.
Please do contact me as always: ian@speycaster.net if you would like to join me on any of my forthcoming fishing trips to the Dee, Spey, Avon or Findhorn. I do have some Summer and early Autumn availabilities on these rivers, so please contact me for information on costs etc.
FISHING NEWS UPDATE - 20th March, 2006
Since my last update a few weeks ago, I am delighted to report that the Spring run seems to be well under way, especially on the Lower to Middle Dee. The winter weather continues to keep a firm grip on the Northeast of Scotland and snowfalls have almost been a daily occurrence in this part of the Highlands. The Grampian, Cairngorms and Monadliath mountains are all heavily snow clad at last and as long as we don’t get a sudden warm spell, which looks unlikely at the moment, then we will have a good supply of snow melt water to keep our rivers topped up over the forthcoming weeks.
The week commencing March 6th and I was back at Invery and Upper Crathes on the Dee with one of my regular fishing clients, Robert Booth from Cambridgeshire. It was a raw cold morning and we had to wait whilst the grue cleared off the water. Fishing on this beautiful bright and sunny day was a little slow and even the kelts were hard to tempt. However, other rods on the beat were lucky and some five (5) fresh fish were landed during the day. At this time, the river was running extremely low at just 7” (summer level) on the Invery gauge and few fish were seen. By Wednesday March 8th the river had risen by 4” with snow melt and looking a little dirty coming out of the Feugh River just above us. It was good, however, to see the river looking a little more lively and more promising with fish showing in most pools. Just at about 3:30 p.m. and fishing on the Upper beat, Robert was rewarded with a good solid pull which turned out to be a beautiful fresh 10 lb salmon, which he was delighted with; taken on the deadly Black and Yellow 1” Dee Fox tube.
Reports from most of the lower beats were suddenly looking more encouraging with this extra fresh water melting slowly away from high up in the mountains; and thus, inviting these fantastic fresh Spring salmon to move into the river from the sea at Aberdeen.
I was fishing over at Park on the Dee earlier this week from Monday to Wednesday, March 13th-15th. I think that Monday was most probably one of the coldest, windiest and wettest days I have fished in for many a year. It really was atrocious with heavy snow and sleet falling all day. However, despite it all, Brian Canale from Fife still managed to pick up four (4) fresh salmon up to 15 lbs off the South bank. He deserves a medal for endurance alone! The river was running at 28” on the Park gauge and a little cloudy with snow melt in the water.
The heavy snow persisted through the night, but the water level just fell away a little, to 26” by the Tuesday. The weather settled a little and fishing conditions were far more favourable with very little in the way of wind. Another seven (7) salmon were hooked and released including two (2) cracking sea liced fish of 10 lbs and 8 lbs to my own rod. These were both hooked within ten minutes of each other at 5:00 and 5:10 p.m. in the Cellar pool, on a black and yellow 1” Dee Fox tube. By the Wednesday, the level was still perfect, just falling away very slowly to 24” and becoming clearer.
Another six (6) salmon were taken from the North and South banks, including a really fantastic 16 lb salmon covered in long tailed sea lice, to the rod of Paul Barnard from Edinburgh. Water temperatures remained very steady throughout the week at around 34-36 degrees F. and air temperatures climbing to around 38 F. The fish were obviously running into the beat steadily every day, although very few were seen jumping.
Usually the first fish one saw was the fish that had been hooked. The salmon seemed to be quite intent on not moving very fast and indeed were beginning to settle into most of the slower moving pools from the tail of Park Inn right down to Bakebare. Thursday was another good day with six (6) salmon taken from the beats. However, little did anyone ever realise what Friday was about to produce! Conditions were just excellent and by the end of this perfect Friday some twenty-seven (27) fabulous sea liced salmon had been landed and returned with the best fish of 22 lbs. This is simply just the very best of Spring salmon fishing for many a year and another fifteen (15) were landed on the Saturday; making a total of sixty-six (66) Spring salmon for the Park beats. Staggering!
There were also some very hefty fish being caught. I see that Lower Crathes landed a twenty-three (23) pounder and Middle Blackhall caught a twenty-six (26) pound monster. An amazing total of one hundred seventy-six (176) Spring salmon were recorded off the Fish Dee beats for this middle March week. This is really fantastic fishing for so early in the season; and with April and May ahead, who knows how many fish may be running the Dee beats over the forthcoming weeks.
The Lower Spey beats have also been picking up some good early Spring salmon with a thumping great 28 lb salmon taken off one of the Brae water beats, which was unfortunately tapped on the head! I hear that most of the lower to beats have been taking fish from the Brae beats up to Knockando. Mel McDonald from Deskford has been having success landing three (3) salmon to his rod in one day from the Brae water and then another two (2) from Rothes the day after.
Anthony Tinsley was out fishing with our fishing group on Delfur this last Thursday and he caught a super 12 lb Spring salmon from the Bridge pool. Again, here on the Spey with these cold water temperatures the fish seem to be moving up in pods quite slowly. It is still very early days on the Spey, which is not normally noted to produce such big numbers at this time as does the Dee.
I am looking forward to fishing my first full week at Altyre on the Findhorn this coming week with another group of clients and I think that it should be the same story here with cold water temperatures keeping the fish back on the lower beats. I have just been chatting with Sandy McClachlan, who looks after the Forres AA water on the Findhorn and he informs me that seven (7) salmon have been landed off the town water already. Bill Bartlett hooked a fantastic 17 lb fish in the Railway pool and Donald McBain landed a 12 lb salmon from the Red Craig pool last week. I shall be updating with my latest news as always in a few weeks time.
I still have some availabilities for guided fishing, lodge parties and Speycasting instruction on the rivers Dee, Spey and Findhorn through the forthcoming Spring and Summer months, so please do contact me: ian@speycaster.net for any further information on any of these fishing opportunities. Good luck and tight lines.
FISHING NEWS UPDATE - 28th February, 2006
The first salmon of the Findhorn season was landed just over a week ago from the Red Craig Pool on the Forres Angling Association water, a lovely sea liced fish of 6lbs. I heard that another salmon of 9 lbs. was caught off the Meads beat at Darnaway just a couple of days ago. With this news, I was keen to start some serious fishing on my own beat at Altyre on the lower river just above Forres town.
After my last report, it seems that winter has finally returned to this part of the Highlands. I am pleased to say that heavy snowfalls have been falling steadily over this last day or two and it looks as though this week is to remain very cold with more snowfalls blowing down from the Arctic. It was an interesting trip from my cottage at Dallas to the river, which is normally just a 10 minute trip. We arrived at the river in a blizzard with a strong north easterly wind blowing upstream, but the water was running clear and reading at just over a foot on the Fish Findhorn gauge, just about perfect for fishing the fly. I started to fish from the top pools on the Upper beat working my way downstream, but with no pulls forthcoming. It was, indeed, hard work with a combination of strong upstream winds; and of course, the rod rings were freezing up with blocks of ice, making it somewhat tricky to shoot a good line! However, I persisted, moving down into the more sheltered Pallamore pool, which looked just perfect.
I fished through it carefully with a bright yellow and orange Par Palm conehead tube, but without success. I then changed onto one of my old favourite Findhorn patterns, the Orjok tied on a small brass tube. This brightly coloured orange fly looked much better in the somewhat dirty snow melt water.
I started in at the top of the pool again, and after just a few minutes as the fly drifted back towards my bank, it was taken with a savage pull; almost as I was about to lift off and re-cast. It was a strong hard fighting fish and I was pretty confident that it was one of those beautiful February Springers that we often dream about. Sure enough, it turned out to be a lovely short and deep salmon of about 9 lbs. and safely returned back to the river.
There is something so very satisfying about fishing in such Arctic conditions and then being rewarded with the ultimate prize. I am feeling confident that this is just the start of yet another big Spring run on the Findhorn; and I shall be taking a few more days at Altyre this week and hoping for more success, assuming we can get through the snow drifts! March is always a busy month for me and I shall be fishing with clients on Spey, Dee and Findhorn Rivers. I still have some really great fishing opportunities available, so please do contact me as always: ian@speycaster.net for information on any of my forthcoming guided fishing trips, Speycasting instruction and Fishing Lodge parties through the Spring, Summer and Autumn.
FISHING NEWS UPDATE - 12th February, 2006
What a difference three days makes. After a disappointing start on the opening day at Park on the Dee, I was back there again on February 6th and conditions were really perfect with the river showing 9 inches on the Park gauge and just gin clear. The air temperature was 34 degrees, as was the water temperature.
I was fishing up on beat one in the morning and Park Inn was quiet with few fish showing. However, it was just in the Boat hole at the tail of the pool, Park Inn where I got my first pull of the day and it turned out to be a fine mid-winter fish of about 8 lbs. and played hard before being quickly released. It is not often that the first fish of the season turns out to be a clean run fish, without having hooked a handful of kelts beforehand.
On the Tuesday 7th, I had invited Ronnie Sneddon and Nick Armstead to join me. It was another perfect day, although somewhat breezier. We were also seeing more fish showing in all of the beats. Just before lunch I was fishing in Bakebare and after hooking several kelts, I hooked into a super fresh fish, which hit the fly with a terrific pull. After a good five minute fight and just knowing it was not well hooked, it fell off.
After lunch, Nick went down to Bakebare and after a few casts, hooked into a silver bright salmon of about 6 lbs. shortly followed by a second of 7 lbs. (see photo) and then a third of 8 lbs. This is just amazing sport on a cold February afternoon, more like mid-spring fishing than mid-winter. Just above him on Durris Stream Ronnie also hooked a fine bright silver fish on one of his favourite small bottle brass tube creations. So suddenly the season has taken off and I see that the week ended with a total of 18 for Park beats, which is truly remarkable for this time of the season. Many of the other lower and middle beats were also into the fish and I see a total of some sixty (60) fish were recorded off the Fish Dee website for this last week.
The Season opened on the Spey and Findhorn on the 11th February and according to Malcolm Newbould’s update from the Fish Spey website some five (5) fresh fish were recorded for the opening day. These fish were well spread out with salmon being taken from the lower beats up to D beat on Tulchan near Grantown on Spey. I ventured off to the Findhorn on Altyre for a few hours, but unfortunately it was quiet and the water level is still fairly low for this time of season. As I mentioned before, we need some serious snow falls or even some heavy rain would help right now.
I still have some exciting fishing opportunities available on the Findhorn and Dee through the months of June/August, so please contact me: ian@speycaster.net for further information on these various availabilities. Due to a cancellation I still have availability for a prime week on Glenferness, R. Findhorn for up to 6 rods with full board accommodation to be taken in the Wooden House at Glenferness Estate for the week commencing September 3rd, 2006.
FISHING NEWS UPDATE - February 5th, 2006
The new season opened at last on February 1st on the Aberdeenshire River Dee, after what had seemed like a very long close season. Despite the long range weather forecast, back in November of the coldest winter to be recorded for many years, it has so far, not happened! January had been amazingly dry with very little in the way of winds, rain and more importantly snow! The weather has been very settled here in the Highlands with high pressure dominating the North East of Scotland, especially through this last week or so. Therefore, it was no big surprise to see the river at somewhat lower than a normal opening day level. With night time temperatures dipping to minus 6 degrees C, it was also no surprise to see the river partly iced up and with large chunks of ice and grue flowing downstream. It was a very cold and raw day when we arrived at 9:00 a.m. at Park Estate to see the river level frozen on the Park gauge at a mere ten inches. My usual team of guests were Mike, Ronnie Sneddon, Graham B.G., Willie Mair and Malcolm Newbould. It was a little disheartening to see the river in such a frozen state, however, our ever cheery ghillie, Keith Cromar and Lady Barbara soon formed an ice breaking team working from House Pool down to Durris Stream. Unfortunately, their gallant efforts to break the ice away from the banks were in vein. No sooner had they cleared the ice, new wedges from the ice flow were forming on the banks right behind them. So sadly, by mid afternoon we decided it was time call it a day and head for home. I hear that water temperatures have risen somewhat and that the beats were clear of ice and all fishing by the 2nd February and that two (2) fresh Spring salmon were recorded, one from Ardoe of 10lbs and the other from Invery and Upper Crathes.
Looking ahead over the next few months, we will really be wanting to see the much needed snowfalls way up in the Cairngorms and Grampian mountains to give us the reservoirs of snow melt, as and when the weather warms up over the Spring months, keeping all of our rivers topped up with the much needed water levels to entice the salmon to run. At the moment, the lower and colder water temperature will certainly suit the lower beats as the fresh fish will not be keen on running hard in these conditions. There is certainly plenty of time left to see the snowfalls arrive as February/March can indeed be very changeable. So as we always say, hope springs eternal! I shall be back at Park early next week for a few days, and therefore eagerly looking forward to hooking into a fine bright bar of silver to start the new season in style. The new season begins here on the Spey and Findhorn on February 11th and I shall be updating a full report on the events of these first few days. As always, I shall be updating the Fishing News page every two weeks throughout the season and may I wish everyone a very successful fishing season ahead. Please do contact me as always, ian@speycaster.net for all information regarding speycasting instruction, guiding and Lodge party holidays.
Stop Press...
I have just heard from Keith at Park that they just caught their first Spring salmon on Saturday 4th February - 9lbs from Durris Stream on the south bank.
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