[Sandy Nelson]

Stonkers

Pete , at 29" thats a fish of a lifetime, i hope you manage to better it

There seem to be some very big brownies about at the moment

A bit bright today, but one or two rising here and there.

Sandy

[Dorlo]

Went out Saturday. Fantastic hatch that lasted from around 1-3pm... had trouble getting the fish to pick out my fly among the naturals as a few others have noted. A few big flies coming down, March Browns or similar?

Had success on a Size 14 DHE, 5 fish in total but two worth mentioning, a 19" sea trout kelt, and a 19" fat brownie which was a beautiful fish and great fight.

Unfortunately I went for a swim with my phone so couldn't get photos. Thought the phone was stuffed but it fired up again today. seems fitting for an Easter Sunday Resurrection!

A good start to the season for all it seems.

[Rob Brownfield]

And there was me thinking I had a good start, and I then see the two cracking fish others have caught! Oh well..lol

Saturday saw me get out for a few hours late afternoon. Got to the river about 4 to be told by two salmon anglers that I had just missed a hatch...grrr. Managed to spot a fish hugging the far bank that was rising every now and then. Managed to entice it with a size 16 DHE, lovely Browne weighed at 1lb 9oz.

Headed out Sunday at the same time, again, seemed to have missed the hatch so did a little nymphing. Managed a fish on a gold headed Hares Ear. That one was 1lb 4oz. On the way back to the car, just as it was getting dark I spotted what I thought was a small fish taking "something" off the top about 2 feet from the near bank. Crept up and plonked a DHE on its nose to be met with a very very angry Brownie that went airborne a dozen times before shooting off downstream. That one was 2lb 3oz.

From now on I am going to cast at those tiny dimples that I thought were small fish...

[Simon Bruce]

Was out on Saturday for a wee while, plenty of life on the water and lots of fish rising all over the place. Second cast in and hooked into this beauty.

Caught a few more all on a DHE.

Simon

[Rob Brownfield]

looking at all those fish I think I am going to need a bigger rod!!!

[Noel Kelly]

Got on the water bout 11:30 yesterday to a hatch of olives in full swing. Few trout rising. First few offerings were refused but an olive comparadun did the trick. Landed 3 in quick succession all between 1 and 1.5 lbs and then the hatch died and thst was basically it. Despite hanging around for another few hrs I could have gone home at 12:30 quiet happy.
Heading back to work now so no fishing for me for at least a week. Shame, it would be a great week to have off for fishing!

[Sandy Nelson]

Had the bairn out today

Every decent fish we covered turned out to be a Seatrout Kelt, still in bonny nick and some decent sizes too.




a few smaller brownies as well but the rise had already started when we arrived at 1130 and there were still fish popping up for the odd march brown at 3 when we left. So a great time to be out on the river

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff Sandy ...... by the way, "the bairn" is bigger than you

Cheers
Mike

[Sandy Nelson]

by the way, "the bairn" is bigger than you

not quite......... although he thinks he is

[Mike Barrio]

It's great to see some photos of leaner early season trout, this gives a nice picture of how our fishing changes throughout the year

Cheers
Mike

[Rob Brownfield]

River was quiet last night, no real movement, no real hatch. Quite a cool wind was ruffling the surface and making a 4 weight hard work. Missed a fish on a Klink and Dink rig when searching a piece of water I had seen a fish working on Sunday. Then tried some nymphing but the upstream wind made things hard, so sat on the bank and waited for the wind to drop

Spotted a fish rising to the odd fly so covered it, and missed it! So, another half hour sat watching before it started to rise again. Bingo, another wee 2 pounder. I remember the days when a 2 pounder would be a big fish, these days it seems to be an average lol.

Headed back to the car and had a chuck at what I thought was a good fish 2 foot from the bank...but it turned out to be a hand sized Brownie.

[Liam Stephen]

Some pics from the last 2 days! 

[Liam Stephen]

Last ones for a while I promise. 





I'm off the river for a few days so Tightlines everyone!

Liam

[Colin Sunley]

Nice one Liam, you been enjoying your self way to much 😀😀😀

[Sandy Nelson]

Windy today

A pleasant walk with Colin ended with him getting himself off the mark for the season

Well done dude and a bonny fish to boot, 18" and around the 2lb mark according to the net.



Eventually the hatch started, pretty late after 1pm, the fish i found were hugging banks, both near and far, only 3 spots with a handful of feeding fish. A long walk for not much action.
But they were willing if you managed to cover one Slim fish today, which is interesting given the condition of the ones over the last couple of weeks. My best of the day was about 17" and bonny colours




Sandy

[allabootthetroot]

Tricky conditions the day. got 1 thin sea trout kelt and hooked ma self twice  .
Good hatch tho just a pity aboot the wind.

[Allan Liddle]

Just the one sea troot kelt for me on Sunday, missed a fish on dries (schoolboy error) missed two on spiders and one on duo.  Very hard day, hardly a rising fish and those that did come up were 'oncers'.
Acht well always next time.

[Sandy Nelson]

A wee dander out this afternoon for a couple of hours.

Fished a favourite very technical piece of water, always a big challenge and usually a few big fish about.
Today was no different, not helped by an upstream breeze, but i got a couple  when i managed to get the fly to drift drag free.
I seemed to waste the best part of the rise using the wrong fly, Yesterdays Dark DHE is yesterdays news on the Don, today it was Rusty olive Spiders.
Nice hatch of Olive uprights in bursts amongst the LDO's, i fancy the bigger fish were after the uprights. best was between 12 and 1 with fish rising in spots to the uprights through to 3.

Finally one of the better ones was golden and not a Sea-trout kelt



Back to work for a few days now Have fun over the weekend

Sandy

[allabootthetroot]

Aye could only manage another sea trout kelt with razor like teeth  , Then i went to assist a fella fishing near by who hooked a belter of a broonie 4lb + i think and safely returned.

[Liam Stephen]

Back to basics yesterday....... I revisited an old favourite method of mine the klink and dink/duo. The flies weren't fancy just a size 12 indicator klink and a size 14 PTN with 2.5ml tung bead. I had a blast best day of the season yet.

A few pics of my best 2 fish.












All that remains from a batch of 6 PTNs.



Liam

[Eddie Sinclair]

Well done on the troots Liam, very jealous from Dubai, I am currently sitting in the airport at Accra in Ghana. only another 4 years and I can retire to Scotland and fish happily ever after.

Eddie.

[Steven Sinclair]

Well done on the troots Liam, very jealous from Dubai, I am currently sitting in the airport at Accra in Ghana. only another 4 years and I can retire to Scotland and fish happily ever after.

Eddie.

In four years time you will be fairly getting on a bit and will require my services for such functions as driving you to the river (you must supply the car) carrying your net (you're a lot shorter than me which in turn means it always gets hung up on bushes) and casting to those difficult risers (I do not feel I need to explain this one).

With this in mind please inform mother that as of 2019 I shall also be retiring of sorts and that you will be financially supporting me (it would all disappear in inheritance tax otherwise).

Your loving son,
Steven.

[Sandy Nelson]

Really tough conditions this week.

Few rising fish and even harder to hook, exactly like my trips to the deveron i found the fish had to be struck ultra quick to stand a chance of hooking up and then they were very easy to loose. In fact i didn't manage to get one in all week
I'll blame the bright conditions and the doldrums all the rivers seem to be in. A change in the weather this week might help, might make it worse we shall see...

Still its good to be brought back down to earth from time to time

Anyone else have any joy?

Sandy

[Geoff Gill]

I've had a great start to the season so far.
Last week the fish were getting a bit trickier to spot and getting spookier too, but i did manage a few nice fish.



A few nice ones like this throughout the week




On thursday i tried my new Sage TXL-f #4 as river is low and trout were getting trickier to catch, not much happened all day until i was heading back to car and spotted a nice rise. I covered it and christened the rod with style.
A really nice 24" trout



All in all a great start to my season, back to work now so wont be back for a few weeks.

cheers

Geoff

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff Geoff ..... and cracking photos

Best wishes
Mike