[Sandy Nelson]

Awesome stuff Geoff

Bonny fish too i bet it was a whole lot of fun on a 4wt TXL

Sandy

[Noel Kelly]

Hi Sandy. I'm glad it wasn't just me. I fished a lot this week, good day sat and Sunday and then it all got very difficult! Had my first don blank of the season quickly followed by my second! Good flush of rain would be a big help.

[Rob Brownfield]

Sunday saw me heading for a Pike fly trip before I realized Cass had my permit in her car...so home, change the 9 weight for a 4 weigh and off I went to the Don.

It was 9 degrees when I left the house, 6 when I got to the river and -1 when I finally got back to the car!!

However, managed a few small fish, including a few Finnock (??) on a Klink and Dink setup before the snow really came down.

At that point I switched to a much underused wet fly cast and down stream swing. I was plabued by small fish around 4-6 inched hammering a spider or a March Brown wet so come 3.30, I had had enough and headed home.

There were tiny pale coloured flies coming off most of the day in very low numbers and before the snow started, the odd fish was rising, but only once or twice. As soon as the wind touched the water, the fish were gone.

At 3pm there was a reasonable hatch of Olives, but by then the snow was hammering down and nothing was moving at all.

[Scott Cumming]

Headed down to the river on Sunday around 1pm, conditions were far from ideal with heavy rain and a strong upstream wind. It was difficult trying to spot a rising fish never mind follow a dry fly on its drift. At 1:30 there were quite a few olive uprights coming off and I tuned into some nice trout on the move.

Shortly after I hooked into this cracker on a size 14 DHE­­­




The trout were rising to olive uprights all afternoon and after a few smaller fish I got hold of this one at the tail of the next pool.



Had a great afternoon, well worth the effort!

Here are a few more pics from recent trips...










....its been a great start to the season.

and well done to the rest of you,­­­ great stuff!

Cheers
Scott C

[Sandy Nelson]

Awesome stuff Scott.

Cracking photo's too, looks like there have been a good number of decent fish getting caught on the dry, superb

Sandy

[Rob Brownfield]

Hit the river yesterday afternoon, starting around 12.30. As the wind was howling and the rain teeming, I took a switch rod and streamers.

Within 15 minutes I had a 3 pounder on the bank that took a black Woolly Bugger fished round on a big down stream mend to get the fly side on to any fish laying in the stream.

The rain kept coming as did the hits, but I kept missing them! I think I was getting so cold and wet that I was losing concentration, and could not see a thing thorough steamed up glasses . lol

I made my way to a long, slowish, deep pool and had a swing. BAM! the line tightened and the fish took off down stream. Now, I don't mess about with fish and my drag was set pretty tight, but I was flat rodded on a 7 weight switch. The fish took a whole line and 20 odd yards of backing before I had to clamp up hard to stop it going over the rapids at the end of the pool. The fish turned and started to run back and as I caught up with it, the hook popped out!

I never saw the fish and I suspect it was a salmon because if I believed it was a Brownie, I would still be sitting on the bank weeping!!

I will be back though, just in case

[Scott Cumming]

Cheers Sandy

I see you've also had a great start to the season

Scott C

[Geoff Gill]

Great stuff Scott, cracking fish 

Aye sandy it was good fun on the TXL, really nice rod. 


Geoff

[Iain Cameron]

Hi Scott - some cracking trout and great photos in there. superb


iain

[Mike Barrio]

Cracking day on the river in good company

We had some good hatches for most of the day ( from about 11-ish till about 3-ish ) and saw some very nice trout enjoying them

I had a few nice fish and broke off on a 'real stonker' ...... but I was net-less, due to the current net going in the bin

Cheers
Mike

[Sandy Nelson]

It was a cracking day to be on the water.

Great fun with a good few pound+ fish rising freely to the olive uprights in the lovely clear water



Some really nice rod benders in amongst them too, i had a few like this today, awesome river



but the best one was taken off skinny water and was nosing the flies, i couldn't tell if it was a big nose or a small fish, so i tried anyway, good idea, first Trophy off the Don for 2015:z16



Great conditions and the fish were in fine fettle, the Netless wonder was good company too, although dropping a monster seems to have invigorated his dryfly addiction and might encourage him to use proper weight nylon

Cheers

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

the Netless wonder was good company too, although dropping a monster seems to have invigorated his dryfly addiction and might encourage him to use proper weight nylon

    

[Rob Brownfield]

Left work at three to be met with a cold wind so picked up my switch rod and box of streamers and headed for the river. First mistake! The river was heaving with flies and more importantly, fish! Where is the dry fly rod when you need it...at home!

The river was a lot clearer than I thought it would be so mistake number two was picking up the "bright streamer" box!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, if I had the right gear I think I would have had some nice fish but I did manage to fluke one of about a pound and another about a pound and a half on a wooly bugger I found tucked away in a pocket.

What I did find out though is that even a streamer fished fast across fairly shallow water will produce. Both fish came from areas I would not normally bother with, so at least I learned something.

[Duncan Inglis]

I'm thinking of giving the Don a go for the first time for browns, staying in Carnoustie the upper river is probably easier for me to get to, any recommendations etc?

Thanks

[Mike Barrio]

Hi Duncan,

In my experience there are some nice trout on all the beats throughout the river system, just take your time and look for rising fish

Best wishes
Mike

[scottishtrout]

Just back from a few days up above Bellabeg - Good fly life and lots of beautiful Trout - nothing huge although lost a couple of bigger ones. Flies that did the trick were Waterhen Bloa and Deer Hair Emerger. Seemed to be catching the most fish between 2 and 4 pm.

[Sandy Nelson]

Hi Duncan

As Mike says any of the beats are good, although early season you are better on the lower/middle river, we are now in the window for the upper river too, so from now on pick where you like.
It may depend where you want to stay, For example if you based yourself in Inverurie then you have easy access to Kintore, Inverurie, Manar, Fetternear and Kemnay water on day tickets. Monymusk is not far away and you can get day tickets for some of the ADAA water.
Wheras if you stay in Strathdon/kildrummy area, you get strathdon, bellabeg, kildrummy, semeil, etc in easy reach.

Loads to choose from, so I think finding where to stay is probably the first port of call

Sandy

[Rob Brownfield]

A few more spotties on Saturday evening whilst accompanied by Cass. Yet another cold wind that kept the fish down but managed 3 smallish fish on DHE's.

[Iain Cameron]

Had a very quick session on the river last night, as it seemed mild after a warm afternoon. First evening session of 2015. Got onto river about 7.15, a couple of fish rising here and there.


One sporadically rising to occasional uprights with a small splash; another steadily sucking down goodies in a little slick of current.
The first one wouldn't play ball, but tempted the 2nd one, which turned out to be a solid 2lber that gave me a scrappy scramble across the rocks.





Still feels a little too cool for proper evening rises, but worth a dibble.

[Gavin Stevenson]

also on river last night and similar experience, couple of fish 1lb mark and missed couple of decent fish. All on a black klinghammer

Did see otter when leaving river that brightened the mood

[Rob Brownfield]

No fish for me on Tuesday evening Rain and wind made things rather unpleasant and the lose of two good fish on streamers really capped off a crap session!

However, earlier in the afternoon I managed a Sea trout from the Dee

[Rob Brownfield]

10 or so fish, nothing big, average size probably a pound. Various methods from klink and dink with a HUGE DHE and gold head hares ear through to wooly buggers. Also a few on tiny DHE's as the light faded.

Where I expected to see fish, nothing, where I experimented in water I would not normally fish, I caught.

An interesting night.

[allabootthetroot]

Troot seemed to start rising last night about half nine where aye was. Nothing doing before then.

[Mark Zhang]

Went to middle river last night from 9.30pm to 11pm. Only saw a couple of rise, the wind was heavy on that beat, so didn't try the dry fly. Put on a stoat's tail and had a fish hooked after 10min. After a few run, just before went in the net, the hook came out.  The best thing is I saw the fish, the worst thing is the fish is definately over 2lb. I have never hooked something over 2lb in the past. After that, it went quite, but I had first fish on fly this year, it's a salmon parr just before I went home. A lovely evening, hope I can go back again soon.

[Mike Barrio]

but the best one was taken off skinny water and was nosing the flies, i couldn't tell if it was a big nose or a small fish, so i tried anyway, good idea, first Trophy off the Don for 2015

A reminder that watching the river for a while from the bank, rather than wading straight in is a good idea.

This trout was in very shallow water and only a couple of steps from the bank ..... and precisely where we would have entered the water!

Cheers
Mike