[Duncan McRae]

I see there was a Brownie of over 8lb caught last week as well, Upper Fintray.

Saw a picture on the ADAA site.That really is some trout!!
It looks to have a fair Kype on it suggesting cock fish but it's difficult to tell from the photo.

Duncan

[Sandy Nelson]

So after chasing a particular fish for 3 weeks and having been beaten up by a few of these big browns that are about at the moment. I finally got one to the net last night.






A new PB for me for the river. Dry sedge again.  I had to put the fish on the bank to unhook it as my net was too small, but it highlighted the size of the fins, especially the adipose , which was massive and the tail was almost 6” across



So I was well pleased as you can imagine. Half an hour prior to this one I had a fresh salmon rise for the fly, it was a thumping fish too and I thought I’d hooked a monster brown until it jumped.  My net was too small for it despite being a 20” pan so I tried to beach it, it didn’t like that and hinges away snapping my tippet but it was a Bonny metallic lilac fish so very fresh. I had thought that was the fish I was after as it was in the same lie, but the brownie started feeding less than 5 mins after I hooked the salmon.
2 otters had moved through the spot too just before the rise started.

So a great night, but the big fish are hard to photograph when you are on your own.

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

Maybe your ghillie should have hung around and helped with the net and photos .... but I was busy downstream catching trout that didn't fill the net to the same level as yours     

Twas a great evening

[Duncan McRae]

Cracking trout Sandy.
Looks like a cock fish from the photos.What do you think?

Duncan

[Eddie Sinclair]

Belting fish Sandy, well done

Eddie

[Sandy Nelson]

Definitely a cock fish Duncan
Damn sharp teeth too. I was just relived to finally get one to the net. I’ve been beaten up properly by the last 5 big boys I’ve hooked. But this time the gods decided I needed a break 

[Sandy Nelson]

Round 2 for the week last night.

The window for the rise was a bit shorter for some reason, but still a good number of nice fish rising for the sedges. A lot less olives on the water last night and i wonder if thats why the window was smaller.

Reality calls after Wednesday....... took the same fly as the Salmon the night before, from a similar looking rise, so you can never tell



with a few to choose from and missing the first two takes, by being too quick to tighten, i eventually latched into this guy which put up a good show.



Been in the river a couple days longer than the one George had earlier in the evening, but quite a few fish in the river and the conditions are near ideal, so well worth a punt.

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

I hear a fish ... where? ... it was about there ... cast ... bang! 

[Sandy Nelson]

Been tricky the last couple of weeks.

After trying early mornings and coming up with a few fish to the nymph and trying some evenings with similar results to the dry I have only managed one good one of late.

However last week we tried an afternoon with the coloured water, the plan was streamers which Colin put to good effect with this cracking fish



However I noticed quite a few BWOs hatching and some good fish rising despite the water colour . So this afternoon I tried again...... however today it was flying ants that got them looking up




A size 18 APT seemed to be the job, Some of the better  Ones turned out to be silver surprise risers again



Good fun on size 18 dries 
So fairly tough going but a few decent rewards for watching the water closely.

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff Sandy 

[James Laraway]

nice one Sandy.
How do you find the rubber scoop net ? I bought one years ago when i was fishing the don but i found the 'mesh' was not deep enough and didnt 'envelope' the fish leading to me struggling to net bigger fish - so i moved back to knotless normal mesh.

I now use the Scierra trout net ( large size). Its the only bit of scierra equipment i have but its a great bit of kit, not expensive and it can swallow even double figure fish with ease. 
Im on my 3rd one now. I dropped one on land while carry my tube to the water and could not find it again. The other i dropped overboard.....My new one now has a float attached 

[Sandy Nelson]

Hi James

The net is custom, it’s a 19” x 14” hoop and the bag is 16” deep. I’ve managed fish up to 8.5lb but it’s a struggle. (Or a laugh afterwards  )



I got it for landing the big browns  it’s been fine for fish up to 5lb and have had them up to near 7lb in there but I can’t unhook them in the water, so I’ve got a 22”x16” one which is 18” deep being custom made just now which should be much better. It’s a special Steelhead design and is probably as big as you can realistically make a wooden scoop net. I’ll keep you updated once it arrives 

I really like the wooden scoop style nets so getting one the right size has been a journey.

Sandy

[Sandy Nelson]

A couple from the bright sun and windy afternoon that was yesterday.

Picked out some risers in amongst all the  willow herb seeds



BWO’s this time
 


Good fun on light weight Japanese glass.



Sandy

[Duncan McRae]

Nice sub surface photo Sandy.Bonny trout.

Duncan

[James Laraway]

Hi James

The net is custom, it’s a 19” x 14” hoop and the bag is 16” deep. I’ve managed fish up to 8.5lb but it’s a struggle. (Or a laugh afterwards  )

I got it for landing the big browns  it’s been fine for fish up to 5lb and have had them up to near 7lb in there but I can’t unhook them in the water, so I’ve got a 22”x16” one which is 18” deep being custom made just now which should be much better. It’s a special Steelhead design and is probably as big as you can realistically make a wooden scoop net. I’ll keep you updated once it arrives 

I really like the wooden scoop style nets so getting one the right size has been a journey.

Sandy

I ( like you) like the wooden net handles - they are very classy. Cant wait to see your new custom one.

One evening, just as it was getting dark I hooked a good fish in the tail of a pool at ardhuncart. Tried to get it into the rubber meshed net and of course it would not fit. Ended up beaching the fish using the net a 'barrier' to stop the beached fish from escaping the shallow water  . After that episode the net had to go...

[Sandy Nelson]

So after what feels like an age of not seeing any decent size rising fish, i finally managed to get the timing right last night.

The last couple of weeks i've tried early mornings and seen hatches of Yellow mays! in August! but no rising fish



Had some to the nymph but nothing exciting.
I've tried afternoons and on some days its been next to nothing rising despite good hatches of BWO's and some days there have been steady feeders, and on one afternoon some of them were getting there enough to warrant using the drag.



Last night i went down after dinner just to see what was happening and i stumbled straight onto a good pod of decent size fish rising very regularly to take the BWO's that were hatching. they were tucked into the a small lie in the nose of some streamy water. water temp being 18 degrees doesnt help and makes good sense for where they were lying.



Just a matter of patience and a CDC spider and i picked out 5 from what i reckon was 7-8 fish all of them worth the effort, some of them starting to change into their very impressive dating suits.



so finally a night worth the effort and the best sport of the month so far.

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

Nice one Sandy 

August can be a funny, frustrating month on the river and I guess this unsettled weather won't be helping.

[Sandy Nelson]

 A wee wander down last night for a few cast with a newly finished toy.

quite a few rising fish, but nothing big, there was a selection of BWO's in a couple of colours coming off (dark and light) and some bigger upwings, which i tried my best to catch and photograph but they kept getting away from me.
However using my guide at home i identified them as Autumn Duns and they look like a size 12 brook dun (as opposed to the brook dun being an 8 ) so a size smaller than a march brown also, but quite similar and very fast!

Managed to christen my new Demo rod with a nice 12" fish on the CDC Spider



probably the best fish we saw all night, but it was a nice evening to be out, although the temperature did drop quite a lot later on.

Sandy

[Sandy Nelson]

Finally had a good afternoon today.
It was like being back in April, half eleven to half two, awesome hatch of LDO's



CDC spider was in its element and i found a good stretch with some decent rising fish, some fat boys 



At last in amongst some good ones as well as the recent standard 10-12"





Great fun on 4wt glass..... as was the one i had on the nymph 



Not what i expected on a size 14 PTN and quite a scrap, fortunately there was a kind soul who came up the river to give me a hand as i was struggling with the bank and the net. Succesful in the end though and not too coloured for a back end fish.



So good fun all round mixed with the recent norm, so probably my best day since July




Sandy

[James Laraway]

bloody salmon - you can never catch them when you try, but when your not trying.....

I remember when i was a teenager me and a pal fishing a loch in the south of scotland. He was fishing a dead rudd below a float for pike. When he was reeling in to recast the rudd was 'swiming' nicely as he retrieved - and a salmon took it !

Turns out the salmon run up a tiny tiny burn from the river cree into the loch ! Who knew....

[Eddie Sinclair]

Looks like a great day Sandy some decent locals in there and well done on the unexpected tourist

Eddie

[Duncan McRae]

Visited my favourite Don beat after work and took a decent sized Hen fish not long after starting to fish.
My luck must have been in as i saw and touched nothing for the rest of the evening.

Water looked great tonight so will be back again tomorrow.




Duncan

[James Laraway]

Looks pretty clean for Oct. Well done

[Eddie Sinclair]

Cracking fish Duncan, well done

Eddie

[Mike Barrio]

Nice one Duncan