[Hamish Young]

For all your news and reports from the Dee in 2014

H

[Eddie Sinclair]

First cast on the Dee for me tomorrow. Looking at the weather outside I hope the river is still fishable when I get there.

Cant wait.

Tight lines to anyone else on the river tomorrow.

Eddie.

[Hamish Young]

Tight lines Eddie 

[Mike Barrio]

Enjoy

[Andy Wren]

 i want reports ,will be there on thursday !
thats assuming london is not totally flooded!

[Eddie Sinclair]

ACW,
here is my report from todays efforts on a well known beat just below Banchory. We had 6 rods fishing over the 3 beats that this is split into. Water was rising during the day but remained clear. Water temperature was 36 degrees and air temperature was 37 so reasonable conditions for this beat at this time of the year. One slight issue was an extreme lack of fish. so far since the start of the season there have been zero springers from Park Bridge up to the beat we were fishing. It was good to have a cast but I only managed 1 small kelt for my day in the afternoon. The other rods had 4 kelts between them and one rod played a fish of some description briefly before it fell off.

I am  not sure where you are fishing next week but if it is above Banchory there seems to be a reasonable head of fish in some of the beats. I am fishing a beat lower down near Aberdeen next week so hopefully some fish will be in the lower river next week with the colder temperatures maybe holding them up. It was unusually quiet today even the kelts were not showing.

Tight lines for next week,

Eddie.

[Rob Brownfield]

Saturday saw me slipping and sliding my way to Sluie for a days fishing. Why oh why did it have to snow!

RSS met me on the bank and gave a great run down of the pools, where he expected fish to be, what flies to use and so on. His knowledge of the beat is fantastic and meant I could concentrate on fishing rather than wondering if I was in the right spot fishing the right methods.

Extremely slippy snow made getting to the waters adge rather interesting and I ended up on my backside more than once.

There was a tremendous downstream wind with regular gusts that nearly had me toppling head first into the rising river.

Casting was difficult, even when casting odd my left shoulder so after several hours battling the wind in the most likely pool, I was forced to retreat round the bend and fish a lower pool where the wind was slightly more forgiving.

I managed a pull, but that was it for the day. With the river rising and the snow melting fast I headed the mile home. I had a great day out, really enjoyed my first ever "proper" salmon beat and I can't wait to get back once the river settles.

[Eddie Sinclair]

Well,
first full week of fishing on a lower Dee beat. 2 rods fishing every day except Friday when the river was huge and Thursday when it was rising at an alarming rate.

On Monday myself and the Ghillie saw one fish move in the tail of one of the pools and that was that for the week. The only other movement was an otter on the Tuesday who I photographed with my phone as he stood on the bank with an expression which appeared to be asking me if I knew where the fish were as he could not find them either. The fishers on the middle river seem to having all the fun whilst the lower river from Banchory down is having a really lean time. That is 8 days out so far with one kelt so far to show for my efforts. Roll on March and our usual 3 days on a beat just below Banchory which is usually productive but this season, who knows.

Eddie

[Ben Dixon]

Out on Monday Eddie, here's hoping.  A fairly large party of Scandinavians arrived today so if there are fish about then I'm sure we'll see the evidence next week.

Cheers

Ben

[Eddie Sinclair]

Ben,
you are right if there are fish about those guys will find them. It is going to be interesting when the upper river opens in March, I have a sneaking feeling that they will have some fun. All this high warmish water has allowed the fish to be further up the river than normal. Even though the lower river is struggling the catches from the middle river are on a par with usual which is pretty encouraging despite the river levels that we have experienced so far this season.

Tight lines for Monday.

Eddie.

[Andy Wren]

Back from 3 days on L blachall and Inchmarlo.The house had one fish on the monday .
i saw 2 fish in the roepot end of story yesterday seemed near perfect conditions and nowt .
Where are all the fish.Last time on that beat some 4 years ago same time of year there were fish showing regularly .
Still good casting practice for the Wye season when it kicks off
Also thanks for all the trvel recomedations ,

[Ben Dixon]

Looking massive big just now, hoping it comes down a little overnight........

[Rob Brownfield]

Looking massive big just now, hoping it comes down a little overnight........

Over the banks pretty much all the way in this morning. Was up Loch Muick yesterday and the water coming down the river there was amazing! River also over at Ballater.

[Ben Dixon]

Was fishable just below Banchory today by about 10:30, fished a Skagit iflight, 15' of T20 and 2 2" copper Willie Gunn tubes and only hung up once, water was tearing through but clear enough.  Had a serious bang an brief on and off from a fish I presume to be fresh and another good rattle which amounted to nothing.  That is as close as I have come so far this season!

Cheers

Ben

[Rob Brownfield]

and 2 2" copper Willie Gunn tubes

Are you challenging Hamish for the biggest fly? A 22" copper tube probably would need a Skagit line

At least you had a rattle. Impressive after having seen the water over the fields on the way to work in the morning!.

[Ben Dixon]

That was 2 x 2" copper tubes Rob 

Ben

[Rob Brownfield]

That was 2 x 2" copper tubes Rob 

Ben

Imagine that! And there was me thinking you had been raiding the local plumbers 

[Hamish Young]

That would be 4" overall - impressive 

[Iain Cameron]

Hi all,

well, had my first blank of season 2014, but a cracking day on the water near Banchory with Edfish (thanks Ed!). Great stretch of the river, good water conditions, some good banter on the bankside. Apparently all the fish have run further upstream... at least we were in good company as all 6 rods blanked today, with some experienced anglers among them. And me.

Good to catch up with Eddie, and get a guid brew of bankside coffee thanks to his latest toy. Now, back to the trout for the next blank outing

[Rob Brownfield]

well, had my first blank of season 2014,

What sized Thingamabobber did your use for a copper tube?

Unlucky though, maybe next time.

[Eddie Sinclair]

After yesterdays outing with Iain it was back to the same beat again today. The water had risen 8 inches from yesterday and the water temperature was up from 38 f yesterday to 42 f today. to cut a long story short it was basically another day of casting practice rather than fishing albeit I did actually see one definite springer show in one of the pools briefly as it waved goodbye and headed upstream to join its mates in the middle beats with every other fish in the system this spring.The other rod with me did manage to get a small sea trout kelt which is the only thing to come off the beat this week so far. So that is a total of 9 full days on the river for me so far plus a day on the Tay and 1 solitary kelt to show for it. Back again tomorrow. Maybe with a little bit of luck a fish might take pity on me.

Still it is great to be out and having a cast.

Eddie.

[Eddie Sinclair]

Well,
last day of the fishing on my favourite spring beat. Arrived at 08.30 and went for a look at the gauge. Even more snow melt and it is up another foot from yesterday. Consider going home already but the other rods have not arrived yet. Whilst have a coffee I thought I was hallucinating as a very long very deep fish head an tailed right in front of me close to the bank, ok we will be fishing after all.

Once again all 6 rods thrashed the water to a foam and it was another day of casting practice in a very gusty wind. Apart from one of the other rods who had a brief encounter with a good fish on the bottom pool of the beat that was it. We did see a couple of fish showing in the afternoon so at least there was some encouragement.

I hope the guys who were out for the opening of the trout had more luck than we did.

Tight lines for the season ahead.

Eddie.  

[Rob Brownfield]

Fished Sluie again on Wednesday, and once more RSS came down and gave me some great advice, but alas no fish for me, just a pluck and a good pull.

A Swedish chap I was sharing the beat with picked up an 8 pounder on a tiny copper tube. The tube itself was a 1/4" and the dressing, all black, was about 1/2".

Water relativly warm at 11 degrees and the fish were  running pretty much the whole day. Saw one resident fish of about 10 pounds that stayed put all day but refused everything thrown at it.

[Iain Cameron]

So.... I had a rare treat of a day on the Dee at Carlogie today. Been looking forward to it for a while, as a change from brown trout fishing. I love fishing for brown trout, and have had a great season with a few nice fishes.... but a wee change of scene is always good.

So, out with the switch rod and Barrio switch line; on with wet flees and across and down tactics.

And I caught two cracking, beautiful, lovely, pristine fish.
Here was the second one which took in fast necky water:




Errr...  funny looking salmon that... looks a little like the funny looking fish from the morning too. Aye, 12 hours on the Dee chasing silver. And I end up with two brownies of 3 & 2lb to declare. Doh!!! At least the lightning didn't get me

Beautiful brown trout - but I'd say noticably skinnier than their Don cousins

cheers
iain

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff Iain
You didn't really want a salmon, did you? .......... I reckon it was all just a plan

Cheers
Mike