[Sandy Nelson]

Been busy this week with various things but I did get out a couple of times
Early on before we had the mini flash flood, there were good hatches of Uprights and still plenty LDOs, they never really dissappear and can still get the trout rising



Some nice fish to be found, but not in the usual spots, many had moved into the pocket water and it took a bit is spotting to see them



I caught this guy again. Despite his war wounds from either a sawbill or the Osprey he rose freely in a different area to last time



Speaking of Osprey I watched this guy for a while before he settled in the top of this tree and then dove like a kingfisher to take a nice fish from the pool below. Never seen an Osprey do this before 



Some Bonny silvery trout about too. Not sure if they were finnock that had been in the water for a while or just silvery browns. They were too big for smolts



Some nice fish though in the pockets



As the week warmed up I saw a couple of these guys. Common lizards, but not often you see them. This one was particularly friendly



Towards the end of  week there were noticeably less decent fish rising and an increase in the amount of smolts taking your fly. So I guess that fresh water on Monday moved a lot of them downstream and the Smolt hatch is well underway.
Probably means evenings are on the cards very soon for finding the better fish on the surface. Or big streamers 

[Sandy Nelson]

Had a look down Saturday evening rather than doing the warm day.
Quite a few fish moving but mostly smaller ones, loads of flies with various spinners and sedge on the go plus a few olives and yellow mays hatching.



So I figured maybe a morning might be better, it was overcast this morning but from 9-11am there was a decent fall of spinners and a nice hatch of Olive uprights.
Pocket picking with a spent spinner to rising fish was a lot of fun



The water was beautifully clear and the light was great for photos





Some chunky ones too



All in all a great morning on the dries. I went home as the sun came out from behind the clouds as the rising fish disappeared.

Saw a few of these small copper butterflies, beautiful wee bugs

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff Sandy - some really bonnie pics too 

[Nick Thom]

While fishing the rising river yesterday at Keithall, I noticed a small localised hatch of Mayflies, maybe 20-30 in total within a few minutes. I think they’re Green Drakes but you maybe able to clarify. The trout didn’t seem that interested.

In this theme, Several volunteers, including Fred Hay and myself have been trained by the Riverfly Partnership and we monitor the health of the River Don fly life population at 2 sites around Inverurie. This is done on a monthly basis to establish water quality and any dip in a particular invertebrate species may indicate an issue.   We are finding an abundance of Shrimp, cased and caseless Caddis, flat bodied stoneclingers, olives and blue winged olives. We have had some massive Stonefly nymphs too but we haven’t found any Mayfly nymphs suggesting that they like particular substrate.

Anyway, I’m fast becoming an insect anorak and if you would like to be involved in this monthly exercise, don’t hesitate to contact me and I will put you in touch with the coordinator for this area.   

[Mike Barrio]

Nice one Nick, always interesting stuff 

[Sandy Nelson]

Great stuff Nick

Good fun playing with bugs and yes they are Ephemera Danica  the “green drake”
The nymphs like a silty bottom. There’s a couple of  areas around inverurie where they are established

[Nick Thom]

Thanks Sandy - we thought you might know!

[Sandy Nelson]

So on Monday past it was my first day off so I thought I’d try and beat the thunderstorm and go find some mayfly.
I spotted just one mayfly but did manage to find some nice fish tucked in the riffles picking off olives



Some cool wee beetles kicking about too, along with huge numbers of stoneflies



When the thunder started in earnest I decided to go home before I got soaked.
Glad I went out though as that was the only real chance I had all week. So I know how this guy feels



Last night it looked lovely so I went for an after dinner amble along the river without a rod.
Thousands of spinners and I saw a decent amount of rising fish. The water looked great and from some angles it was a fairytale



Roll on Tuesday when I can get back out

[Robert MacDonald-Lewis]

The last picture is stunning.

[Mike Barrio]

Nice one Sandy, great photos 

[Matt Clark]

Saturday evening, early on lots on Invicta, then on sedges when the sun went down with a mental 2 mins of big splashes. The following night, very quiet and only a few just as the sun went down in a 10 minute frenzy with sedges. 

[Sandy Nelson]

The weather is proving interesting, but I will take this over last years drought.
High water temps and low water meant I lost June and July last year, this year we have water and sensible temps of around 14-15degrees and the regular rain is keeping it there.

So I’ve managed a couple of sessions on recent evenings and I’ve been finding a few rising fish late afternoon and early evening
Some nice ones in amongst them



Mostly the 10-12” size though, which are still fighting pretty hard



Olive upright spinners seem to be the key food
Spiderwebs are a great place to get a hint if you can’t work it out , pick the flies that are still alive. I rescued this one



This one wasn’t so lucky



Some fish are showing signs of the white patches we see in summer



Just a matter of picking a window when the water is clean

[Mike Barrio]

Nice one Sandy 

Yes, quite a difference in conditions compared to last year.

[Sandy Nelson]

So I managed a lovely evening and a couple of afternoons this week. It was an interesting comparison.



The evening was just beautiful to be out and although there were a few fish I saw more of olives and spinners than sedges, seems to be the order of the day on the upstream beats



The first afternoon I found a good number of rising fish happily taking either Blue winged olives or small dark olives and the spinners of both.





Most were in the tails of pockets, which made presentation interesting.





I had my favourite bamboo out and managed to get some decent bends into it



Some beautiful wild orchids too



Yesterday I had only an hour or so to kill so stayed very local and found some shelter from the wind, not much to be found except for one wee bit where a few fish were lined up close to the bank under some trees. Again a challenge but one the glass was more than up for



So not much upriver to found taking sedges late on, but plenty taking spinners and duns mid afternoon to early evening . They take a bit of spotting though

[Mike Barrio]

Cracking photos Sandy, the second Brownie is just stunning 

And that fly looks very fishy indeed 

[Sandy Nelson]

 Well I’m pleased I’m at work this week. This rain should see some fish moving through though 

I did manage a couple of sessions last week. First one was an afternoon exploring more pockets . With BWOs and SDOs hatching I tried a tweeked version of the v wing dry, this one has a double wing in the style of the triple wing spinner I’ve been using



Was doing the business nicely both as a search fly and to rising fish



The weather kept me at bay for a couple of days but when it cleared up a bit I decided I fancied a streamer afternoon



Couldn’t resist taking the dryfly rod too, just in case. I had fish on both and as seems to be the norm for me, the streamer eaters were barely twice the size of the fly 



I actually did better with the dry but it was a nice afternoon to be out and that was the first fish I’ve caught on something other than a dry since mid March

[James Laraway]

It's amazing what wee fish will try and warm . Tiny pike are even greedier and will take a fly the same size as them 🤣

[Sandy Nelson]

So its been patchy few weeks, between weather, water and work.
But I have managed a few sessions here and there, mostly on an evening and we have a had a few nice ones of those.



I've a new toy in play too as my Tom Morgan 3wt was finally ready to go and use, Many thanks to Luke Bannister for building it for me, I enjoy using things folk have made for me.
It proved the ideal companion for the slightly smaller flies and calmer conditions of a summer evening.



I found a few like this in the many pockets on several beats of the upper river



Some with a nice greenish hue too, which is unusual for the Don



Plenty flies about, with fairly steady BWO and SDO hatches and some reasonable Spinner falls later on, little black things about to.
There are still some bigger spinners about, which I think might be large green dun , spinners as its too late of the Uprights and brook duns to be about and the spinners of all 3 are pretty similar



Most of the spinners I've found on the water in recent weeks are more dirty yellow than rusty red, so I tweaked the Double wing dun from the previous post to be a bit closer to the natural spinners, I mixed the rusty orange with the lt olive and used pepperbox around the wings



Works a treat as a search pattern as well cast at rising fish, it has been my top fly for most evenings and has picked up some cracking fish, which I was surprised for August. Missed quite a few too. But it has been a really interesting few weeks for sticking with the dry and I haven't had to go below a 14 to pick them up, which is handy in failing light and with aging eyes.



This fine lady is an old friend , this is the 3rd time i've knowingly caught her in the last couple of years and she gets a little bigger and little prettier each time.

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff Sandy, some cracking fish, and I like the tweaked fly 

I imagine today's rain will see the river out of sorts for a day or two, but this will be keeping things nice and fresh compared to recent years.

[Sandy Nelson]

So another couple of weeks and just one chance to get out for a couple of hours last night.
Turned out to be a decent descision as there was a nice spinner fall



Large dark olives by the look of them and plenty in the webs to suggest there were a few about. So on with the trusty size 16 triple wing spinner



I bought myself a classic John Bradford bamboo last month after selling several of my other rods in the quiver. I’ve been after one for years and finally there was one I like the look of in the size I wanted. So this was its first outing



I’m well impressed , the nicest casting bamboo I’ve had and it will become a firm friend . It came with some cool history and I think John would have approved of my evening. He passed back in 2014 I think but we had a wonderful evening together last night.  I never bumped a fish all night which is a first for me on bamboo.



The fish are starting to wear their dancing clothes and are looking stunning. These two were twins with one a bit slimmer and a touch longer. Both went mental and were found in a couple of large pockets.



So it might have been changeable of late but last evening was worth the wait and was a great way to  introduce a new friend to the river

[Mike Barrio]

Nice one Sandy, always fun to play with a new rod, especially when the fish are playing ball too 

Can't see any rings on the rod in the photos? First one must be a fair way up the blank?

[Sandy Nelson]

Its a 2pc 7’6” rod and I think the stripper is just out of the shot. It doesn’t seem to be that high up the rod. It casts like a dream so if it is it doesn’t affect it.
Maybe you think the fish is bigger than it looks
 

[Mike Barrio]

Maybe you think the fish is bigger than it looks
 

That'll be the answer 

[Sandy Nelson]

Another week or so but now the river is running very low, its made things interesting



Lots of butterflies around, i've seen Small Coppers, Meadow browns, Peacocks and one of the Fritillaries (I didn't get a decent photo of one to identify which one it was)



The fishing wasn't so hectic, with lots of wee ones but no sign of anything significant



I think we need a bit of rain for the upper river to encourage the better ones to feed, that last good evening came on the back of 3 days of rain and the water was a few inches higher than it is just now. Seems it makes more of a difference the higher up the river you go.
Decent hatches of LDO's during the afternoons and evenings



But nothing really showing other than hungry little devils around the 8" mark. which explains why I spent loads of time chasing butterflies