[Duncan McRae]

I've witnessed a few of the mature version being caught late season by Salmon Anglers in the Ythanbank area and i'm told that they are caught as far up river as Fyvie.
Does anyone know why they would run the river?

Duncan

[Sandy Nelson]

LDO hatch started at 1pm today and was a good solid hatch right through till 3
Lots of fish rising, nothing any size but lots of them, so i had some fun with a good heap of brownies from 6"-9" all on an experimental fly i was playing with.
So it works too.

FYI tying some waterhen bloa's the other night i had a load of hackle stalks left over with some feather fibres on them, wanting to use them i made up some emergers with a Waterhen bloa body, the waterhen feathers as a wee rolled wing and a Spun Blue dun CDC feather for a hackle. So its effectively a CDC Bloa.
The trout liked it



Once the rising stopped i did a quick change to a size 14 silver stoat and spent 3/4hr swinging it downstream, a couple of finnock and some more brownies
One of the finnock had been through the wars by the look of it, i'm guessing a cormorant or heron (beak type mark just in front of dorsal fin), still he was hungry and sped of fast enough once released



Might try agin later to see if any of their bigger brothers are in the river yet

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

Great photos Sandy

Cheers
Mike

[Jim Eddie]

Fished the  Braes of Minnonie on Friday, It was bloody Baltic  Did manage one fish on a black snatcher, not a monster but it was good to be out on the river all the same.




 

Jim

[Iain Goolager]

Nice trout Jim 

Iain

[Noel Kelly]

Fished the  Braes of Minnonie on Friday, It was bloody Baltic  Did manage one fish on a black snatcher, not a monster but it was good to be out on the river all the same.




 

Jim

Hi Jim
You're right it's not a monster. It's a trout! Baa dum tish
 

[Sandy Nelson]

Spent a pleasant few hours on the river this afternoon, swinging a size 12 black shrimp on the switch rod.
Most enjoyable. Nothing requiring the net but lots of hungry Parr and small trout up to about 9" The water is running at a nice level and is nice and clear with just a touch of colour

Greedy buggers


About 2.30 a steady hatch started and lasted about an hour and a half. I saw a few LDO's but not many...
However the main hatch was these guys



At last some Olive Uprights on the water, this is what the Ythan fish were after.
About time i saw some uprights i was starting to wonder if the hatch would happen, so there is still some mileage in afternoons for those who can get out.
if they are hatching on the Ythan then they will be coming off the Don too

Might wander down again later with the switch to see if there are any tourists milling around in the dusk

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff Sandy

[Iain Goolager]

They are a bonny flea

Iain

[Rob Brownfield]

Does anyone know why they would run the river?

Food and temperature. They are really a brackish water fish, but they will swap between sea and river quite readily.

Winter time they tend to drop out of the rivers/estuaries and head to sea where they can find constant temperatures to spawn. Come spring time the rivers warm and the flatties start to move into the estuaries to feed up post spawn.

They are highly predatory and will move river to feed on the fry of other fish. If access is realatively easy, they will move many miles upstream although they do get over weirs and the like.

You can pick them up on sandeel and shrimp patterns for a bit of fun. There is a bit of a craze sweeping the sea angling lot called LRF (Light Rock Fishing) where small Blennies, Gobies and the like are caught on 5-7 foot rods and tiny lures. Some of the guys are now using 2 and 3 weight fly rods to present flies to these fish, and are catching flatties by the bucket load.

[Sandy Nelson]

Had a few casts this evening.

Lots of Parr and Wee trout playing Lets kill the stoat, again But no sign of anything needing a net.

Water is a touch coloured but clearing slowly, height is nice .

I did see a handful of what looked like Yellow Mays, but couldn't catch one to give a proper ID, still they were very pale, yellowy and about a size 14/16.
First ones i've seen this year if they are May's

Sandy

[Sandy Nelson]

Lovely night tonight, river is clearing nicely and a good hatch of what looked like medium sized olives came off between 9 and 1030pm, lots of wee troot feeding.
Size 14 DHE was happily munched by most who saw it

Sandy

[Sandy Nelson]

Been a long time coming, but i finally have something else to report for the river, well technically the estuary

Today the tide was a nice time in the morning, so my mate and i headed down to the estuary to try our luck.
It was a lovely day with a bit of a breeze but nice and warm and the water was pretty clear.

Our day began with Finnock and we got quite a few with some pushing the pound mark, most were sealiced with a mixture of long tailed and what i surmise to be standard ones?






The second fish was taken on the fly as you can see, i had a few on wee baitfish flies and it kinda made my day getting some on the fly rod
I was fishing with my Switch rod and a Barrio 6/7 switch line with a slow sinking polytip. A great combo for the estuary and the prevailing conditions.



I didn't connect with any sea-trout but my mate had 3, all around the 2lb mark. 2 were starting to turn to breeding colours but 1 was a bar of silver and looked really great against the seaweed



All in all a great day out, between us we had a heap of Finnock plus the sea-trout, lots of fish were showing and splashing around for most of the day.
We fished the ebbing tide right down to its lowest point and the fish only really stopped taking when the tide turned and headed back in.

All good fun.

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

Awesome, looks like fun and some great photos Sandy!

Cheers
Mike

[Iain Goolager]

Nice photo's & sounds like exciting fishing 

Finnock from the brackish...............it seems like a lifetime ago 

Nice


Iain

[Allan Liddle]

Fantastic stuff and great fishing Sandy well done 

[Iain Cameron]

nice stuff sandy. Love the translucence of the fly

[Noel Kelly]

Major catch from the ythan today

[Mike Barrio]

Nice one Noel

Cheers
Mike

[Noel Kelly]

Thanks mike I'm very proud of that foul hooked baby 

[Allan Liddle]

Hope it didn't leave you feeling flat, good to see you were fly fishing though, it's good for the sole.  :X2Sorry guys, pre Shetland excitement, i'll get my coat. 

[Rob Brownfield]

Thats another species to add to the list. I have been fishing Garthdee on the Dee a bit and I am amazed to not only see vast shoals of wee 1" trout, but the river bed is coated in tiny flatties of the same size.

I also had an eel of around 3 pounds nosing around feet from me, lifting stones and snaffling anything that was there. I have never seen an eel feeding at such close quarters and it did not have a care in the world. Facinating to watch.

I did contemplate putting a small fly across its nose and then thought better of the ensuing mess that would happen!

[Sandy Nelson]

Its been rather busy last couple of weeks, but i have managed to squeeze in a couple of trips down the estuary.
With not much happening on the river it seems the best place to go.

Nice surroundings too.



Had quite a bit of fun with a few very fresh Finnock, very aggresive and covered in aliens.



Horrible little buggers



A first for me was Catching a Shoe on the fly, it was beautifully encrusted with very pretty mussels.



After quite a struggle i landed it and as i was unhooking it, out jumped a Butterfish Not sure if this counts as a fly caught butterfish, could be a record if it did Still quite a good laugh was had by all.



At long last i did manage a couple of proper big spotties around the 2 1/2-3lb mark , they were on the turn colour wise despite all the sea lice and the fact they were still in the salty water.






Lots of fun and well worth a cast or two.

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

Excellent stuff Sandy and some cracking photos, I'm not sure if I've seen a Butterfish before

Cheers
Mike

[Jim Eddie]

A couple of bonnie Sea Troot Sandy 

 

Jim