[Colin Sunley]

I've been fishing the Inverurie beat for the last 4 weeks, mostly at the weekends during the day and have never seen so much as a hatch going on at all, So decided one night to try and fish upstream of my usual spot from about 6.30 to about 10ish and I was met with swarms of flies heading upstream, this would happen on most nights I visited but Interestingly I did not see may fish rising,
On Saturday night while chatting to a chap we heard this big splash upstream of us, then again! and a massive trout was seen head and tail out of the water, then a few seconds later two black heads appeared out of the water, one lay on its back for a few seconds and then they were off, so not sure if they got the fish or not, never saw them again.
It was the fist time I have seen otters actively hunting like that, so was a fantastic sight to see,
Still it renewed my optimism that there was fish in that section and big ones too  but am not sure what's going on with the flies day vrs night time.

[Sandy Nelson]

Its an interesting observation Colin.

in the last 2 weeks i reckon i've seen more fly life on the river than i've seen before, but it does seem to be localised to certain stretches of water.

Ie. over a 400yds stretch, the upper faster 100yds there are a few flies and some rising fish, over the middle 200yds there are a lot of flies and quite a few rising fish and the lower 100yds there are a few flies and almost no rising fish.
I have found you need to sit and watch for at least 15-30mins to spot any feeders and working out the flies can take over an hour.

Mid april we went through a lull in fly life and there wasn't much to be seen on any beats, but this has much improved in the last couple of weeks.

I know Inverurie quite well and do know that there are about 4 small stretches that will fish really well in April and May, because they will see the bulk of the hatching flies at this time of the year, this changes through the year as the hatches change.
Different flies inhabit different types of water, the Weed cover, the substrate or bottom type, the current all affect which insects live in which areas. This is one of the reasons i have always thought that despite the fact you don't need to know fly species in order to catch fish, it does help you to understand what is likely to be hatching in the water you are fishing and when. This is all part of the learning curve and goes hand in hand with reading the water to identify likely spots to watch in the first place (it is frustrating to spend hours watching random bits of water, much better to identify where you think the fish might be and then watch those bits) You can get a rough idea of this from talking to people and reading books, but it is time spent on the water that helps you to put all the aspects together.

Its great to see otters working the water, flushing big trout is a bonus. Just mark where he lives and work out why you think he is there, then you can apply that to other bits and have a leg up on finding others. Moments like that are opportunities to learn from  

Hope i haven't tried to teach you to suck eggs but hopefully that helps a little, PM me if you wish to discuss the beat and i can see, if i can give you any useful pointers

Cheers

Sandy

[Colin Sunley]

Not at all sandy am like a sponge right now trying to absorb and improve my river craft skills, it's an ongoing thing talking and meeting people like yourself. Will PM later as am at work right now
Thanks  colin

[Sandy Nelson]

So today i got a chance to spend a nice afternoon on the middle river.

Lots and lots of flies, Grannoms, Olive uprights, brook duns, LDO's and black gnats and thats just the ones i could identify.
Not sure which ones the fish were feeding on, but they mostly seemed to be nymphing, but none refused a DHE if i got it to drift properly.

So this got me to thinking, how do you illustrate what i'm looking for, i was struggling with how until i made way back up to where i had parked the car. It had decided to stop raining on me by this point so true to the rest of the afternoon, when the rain stopped the fish started to rise again. One was in the classic position of being right on a crease in the water but he was only about 4ft out from my bank, so i took a few pictures as he was feeding regularly, hope it helps to identify the slightly creased water and where you might find something to cast too.



The arrow marks out the rise form

anyway a quick cover with a size 14 DHE and he was mine. Not a monster, but a good solid 10" fish, not the tiddler you might expect from under your feet.



Hope that gives you some encouragement.

Sandy

[Liam Stephen]

Sandy 

Nice little write up. I experienced similar things down my way today. The wind and rain made things hard going though!

I also saw a good number of yellow mays although the fish didn't seem interested in them. 

Liam

[Sandy Nelson]

No yellow mays on the middle river during the day today. but loads of other stuff.

Sandy

[Sandy Nelson]

This was another shot of the same fish's riseforms. You see less of the crease in the water (the important bit) and a bit more of the riseform itself.



Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

Great thread

[Sandy Nelson]

Been messing about with a decent Ythan photo i have to try and give you an idea of where to look and which areas are worth spending some time watching.

So The pink arrows represent an ideal spot for a good fish to lie and always worth a look, can be tricky to cast to because of the different currents, but learning how to do ariel mends will help with this. These bits of water will look similar but be much larger on the Don. This is probably the most obvious area to watch.

The Blue arrows are pointing at a short run next to the bank, where the flies are likely to get pushed, this section would probably have 3-4 decent sized fish feeding during a hatch, much easier to get a decent drift. You will find short runs like this all over the Don, they are always worth watching for a few minutes.

The red arrows show creases in the water, these usually come off underwater features and there will often be a good sized feeding fish either in front, beside or behind them, sometimes more than one. You will find these feature in almost ever stretch of any river. Again time spent watching them will yield positive results.



You will probably notice there is a rising fish in the photo and it is nowhere near any of my arrows, thats because it is a Parr and they will rise anywhere.

I'm sure there is a lot more that could be said, and i'm sure some of us will do this slightly differently, but i think as a starting to point in things to look for this should be of some use .

All i would add, is don't get too tied up with staying in the same place, i covered about 3 miles yesterday but give some time to watching each bit that has the right features, you can often do this during the walk towards it, you will spot the risers from quite a distance once you get used to spotting the riseforms. However if you think you have seen a monster then obviously you will stop and wait

Hope it helps

Sandy

[Colin Sunley]

Master class stuff sandy perhaps this kind if stuff should be "sticky" as in reference post for others, it's certainly opening my eyes and if It catches fish then it's down to posts like this . 👍😎
Col

[Noel Kelly]

Quality posts sandy 

[Liam Stephen]

Amazing post Sandy. 

Liam

[Mark Zhang]

Thanks. Sandy. Excellent report. Hope there are more coming. Cheers.

Tight lines,

Mark

[Sandy Nelson]

Too much unwarrented flattery

However today whilst wandering i found a great example of rising fish on a Crease.

Now this was a special situation as it was immediatley downstream of a tree and with the breeze, there was a steady fall of hawthorn flies falling into the water.
The fish were sitting picking them off as they drifted down, they also nailed every olive upright that floated down too.

However it illustrates just how much you can learn by sitting and watching, even just for 1 minute

You should be able to work out which 2 fish are the 2 better ones and which one of the two, snapped my 6lb tippet. First snap of the season
It was an awkward bugger of a cast, with high banks and reeds and a head wind. Ideally i should have been on the other side of the river and i probably would have a had a lot easier go at it. I did however get the other one in.



<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/95435624" width="500" height="375" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p> from Alexander Nelson on Vimeo.</p>



I had two attempts at them, the first time round i had picked off the one you see on the left, it was 16" and pushed the net to the 2lb mark. Ace fun on the glass rod, especially satisfying with the tricky cast. Second time round was when i got snapped.






I have another wee video and it shows the hawthorn if you watch very carefully and you'll see it get munched right at the start of the film. The movies aren't great resolution, so i'm sorry, but you get the idea

<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/95439164" width="500" height="375" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p> from Alexander Nelson on Vimeo.</p>



This was quite a special wee bit, but there were fish feeding in this manner in all sorts of areas today

Cheers

Sandy

[Eddie Sinclair]

Sandy,

very informative. This shows the importance of reconnaissance and patience rather than just casting blind, good stuff. Pity about the snap off.

Eddie

[Allan Liddle]

Superb stuff Sandy and highlights just how important watching the water can be before diving in and casting blind.  Nailed plenty trophy troots from water exactly like that on a river near me.