[Noel Kelly]

Sea trout kelt Geoff.

[Geoff Gill]

Cheers Noel, wasn't sure. That's a first for me, well chuffed.
  guys sorry for posting so much, but my fishing in the last two seasons has come on immensely since joining forum.
  again.
Geoff

[Iain Goolager]

Fished a new section of water for me yesterday.
Was out for 3 hours in the afternoon, fished for maybe 10 minutes. 
Wind appeared to be subduing the hatch as there was a dismal show of upwings.

Saw three rises and managed to lift 2 of them, sure I put the third down by poor choice of casting position. 

The best one I'm afraid.....



Iain

[Iain Cameron]

Was out for 3 hours in the afternoon, fished for maybe 10 minutes.
Wind appeared to be subduing the hatch as there was a dismal show of upwings.

kinda the same for me, was out between 1 and 5. Enough upwings on water from 1-2 for a few rises, but nothing serious.

Got myself into position to target one little trout, and caught the tree behind me. Twice. Moved elsewhere to where a better fish (I think I hooked it 2 weeks ago, so I reckon near 2lbs) was moving. Raised it again, too much slack on  my line, schoolboy error. It didn't stick. Doh!!!! MUch cursing and shaking of head. Caught the tree behind me, lost a fly, went for a wander and watched the water. Saw no rises or hatches at all after 3pm, though it felt warm enough. ah well, always tomorrow

GOod reports from Eddie, Bruce, Gilly - nice to see some folks out catching

cheers
iain

[Sandy Nelson]

Good reports from Eddie, Bruce, Gilly - nice to see some folks out catching

  Definatley

I've spent the last couple of days up at Strathdon with the Loops Bash. Friday night after a day of casting, sitting in the bar, some of the guys had been out fishing the upper river. So the reports from a mix of some of the best casters on the continent contained some Cracking trout on the dryfly, 3 @ 2lb+, 1 @3 1/2lb and 1@ 4lb. All targetted fish and the general consensus reflected what we have all been finding, that the fish are difficult to locate, but once you find them they will take the dryfly quite readily and seem to be running at quite a high average size, could be one of those years .

So i had to give it a go, having pretty much sated any casting desires we spent most of the day on Kildrummy Yesterday and i never saw a fish rise all day, it was cold in the wind and tricky for casting so it turned into a casting day anyway . The water had a bit of a peat tinge which didn't help but there was a good enough hatch. Still there was 4 of us out and no-one saw a rise, 1 salmon was spotted and and one of the other guys got a nice fish about 2lb while searching with nymphs and spiders. So one good day and one very tough day, back to back in almost the same conditions, yet again the caught fish was a good size.

I had forgotten just how much lovely looking water there is up at the upper river

Sandy

[Iain Cameron]

Some of you might know or have known Nicolas, a french chap who was in ADAA until leaving scotland. He returned, with sons, to be reunited with his beloved Don brownies.



 I'll copy one of his pics here, and point you at the rest at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.449957478423362.1073741825.291103120975466&type=1

Just some terrific examples of beautiful Don inhabitants
cheers
iain

[Rich Knoles]

Loverly Broown Troot!

[Sandy Nelson]

Cracker , i saw some of the other photos elsewhere, they had quite a trip

I recognise the bit of water too


Sandy

[Allan Liddle]

Cracking fish. 

[Iain Goolager]

Stonking returns,
Tres Bon

Aye 'streamer central' Sandy

Yen

[Iain Cameron]

and if you speak french, then see more fish porn at http://www.nicolascarles.com/
and if you don't speak french, then just drool at the fishy pics.

I only ever bumped into this man once, the season before he left scotland. Shame, would have been interesting to pick his brain and talk fish tish

iain

[Scott Cumming]

I bumped into Nicolas a couple of times on his recent trip and wasn’t surprised to hear about his success on the Don, he’s an excellent fisherman.

Well done Nicolas & sons,

absolute crackers

Cheers
Scott

[Mike Barrio]

Nice ..... he certainly caught some cracking trout

Cheers
Mike

[Iain Goolager]

Waiting for Orvis to open this morning I popped into WH Smith and bought Trout & Salmon.

PP had an article on river Dry fly fishing tips or something of that nature.

There was a bit on leader degreasing/sinking & he 'never bothers with that'  What?? and here's me with OCDEF or whatever it is called when it comes to applying tippet sinkant. He recommends running the leader through a blade of grass to remove shine ??? IS he for real?

Well, with my newly acquired SuperStrong tapered leaders and tippets I did exactly that, and caught 3 of the 3 rising fish that I saw, result! 2 were in very fast water so I could discount the leader being seen but one was in flat calm and took with confidence so I was chuffed.

One of the peas in a pod...


not what I was after but it was the manner in which he was caught that made me happy.......


Coupled with the fact that I have finally decided to use the simple but effective Davy Knot it was a successful day even though the hatches (if you could call then that) were poor.

Iain

[Liam Stephen]

Nice wee report Iain 

Liam

[Sandy Nelson]

He recommends running the leader through a blade of grass to remove shine ??? IS he for real?

Going to have to try this now, i've the same OCDEF as you well know , anything that helps as therapy for that is good in my book .

Still picking up Kelts? in May still nice on the dry though

Sandy

[Noel Kelly]

Nice wee report Iain 

Liam

He's alive!!! Hello young un

[Liam Stephen]

Hey Trig 

How's it going? Yes alive and well in Thailand. I've been lurking for a while. However nothing to report on the fishing front at least not on the fly rod.

Hope you're enjoying the season.

Liam

[Iain Goolager]

Hi Liam,
good to hear that you are doing fine.

Yes alive and well in Thailand

I hope some American sugar daddy is not paying for your fishing 

Iain

[Liam Stephen]

Iain 

Good to hear from you.

Haha no not quite, I'm living with my dad.

Good luck for the season

Liam

[Jonathan Kerr]

After all the talk of spiders and technique on another thread I decided to have a play this afternoon. Really enjoyed it, I've definately not been letting my flies move 'naturally' enough in the water. It's great when folk share technique of what works for them on here..cheers guys   

Fished for about an hour, connected with three fish..biggest got away whilst I was getting ready to net. Not huge only about a 1lb so not to bothered. Someone kindly left a dry greenwells in the side of one of the fish...used to see that a lot at fisheries but not so much in the wild. All fish went for the size 14 hares ear nymph.

Nice day, glad to finally be getting some fish.

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff Toshkerr

[Sandy Nelson]

good stuff Jonathon

did you see anything rising?

Sandy

[Jonathan Kerr]

Not much rising to be honest, there was quite a bit of fly life in the air but not so much on the water.
I had a dhe on for half hour or so, covered a couple small rises but nothin touched it.

[Irvine Ross]

Action at last. It has been a long wait for the river to come alive above Alford Bridge but I finally saw a few LDOs drifting down the river this afternoon. One fish rose twice and then a third time to the DHE. When I got it to the net it was a nice 2 1/2 lb broon troot. Took a little 1/2 lb a while later and that was it. At least my season has started.