[Steven Kidd]

Hello,

I had a lovely evening last night, out with a plan to target Sea Trout.  I tied up a fly from the 'Gloaming' section of Robert C. Sharps Clyde Style book called the Magpie Tail.

From years ago, I also remember having success with a Cinnamon Gold during sedge hatches, so with that in mind, a size 14 went on the dropper.  I then lazily fished down and across for a change.

A very sparse hatch of sedge appeared at 2250, during this I caught a few of good wee half pound brown trout, including a double hook up which was entertaining, .........saw two Sea Trout splashing about.....

Then at 2320, I connected with my quarry......a cracker of a 2lb SeaTrout which gave a great account of itself, (great on a glass rod), landed and safely returned.  Very satisfying to execute a plan.... ;-)

No fish photos I'm afraid......but I do have a picture of the Magpie Tail.



Steven

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff Steven ..... and a nice looking fly 

Cheers
Mike

[Steven Kidd]

Mike,

Cheers Mike, night fishing is not my favourite thing, I hate Bats you see.....

On the plus side, on the way home I seen a  Pine Marten, good time to be out in the countryside.

Steven

[Sandy Nelson]

Nice stuff Mr Kidd

Stevie, the streamer in the fishes mouth is a Martins Minnow. Probably the best streamer I use on the river

Sandy

[Steven Kidd]

Sandy,

I have a thought to try some streamers this year, out again Friday night so might give them a blast.

P.S. The Dusty 6wt is just ace!

Steven

[Stevie Rennie]

Cheers for the info Sandy, I’ll hunt it down and give it a try.

That magpie tail looks a stunning fly too Steve and I’d happily fish that with confidence.

A light attempt earlier tonight resulted in what I thought to be a pull from a 1/2lb’er but on lifting the rod turned out to be an almighty fish on my streamer with a big surface splash & then off.
I’m assuming it was a hefty seatrout but will scout the spot again in the hope it was a big brownie revealing his lair.

Other than a small but bonnie 3/4lb’er later on a greenwells spider and a few pulls, it was pretty hard going.  As soon as I thought the sedges were making an appearance the wind picked up and changed direction, killing any late evening surface activity.

My thought is that the water temperature has the fish in an extra sluggish condition and I don’t want to cause them any additional stress or harm.
Not that I stress too many .

I also saw today that loch venechar had postponed fishing for a few weeks due to low water levels and high water temperatures of 18 degrees and after reading 17 myself last week, can only assume our river is nearing that.

Any thoughts on a water temperature you guys would consider not fishing?

[Sandy Nelson]

Hi Stevie

My personal feelings on this are usually I wouldn’t fish in daytime when the water temp gets over 18degrees but evening are still fair game as the layers cool later on and the fish move into shallower water so are on cooler water, if the temp hits 20 I stop altogether.
The light rain we are getting has dropped the water temp back a decent bit, I was measuring 15-16 over the weekend and cooler at night, which is great and hopefully continues. A couple of years back the river sat at over 20 for 3-4 weeks during the summer and I missed going out but when you catch a fish that’s really warm to the hand it just doesn’t feel right and makes you feel rotten for causing it such stress.

So here’s to some regular showers to keep the temp where we want it, 16 deg is about perfect for evening sedges 

Sandy

Ps I get some huge takes on the streamers but very rarely manage to hook up any big fish. I still get most of them on the dry, at least I can hook and land them

[Stevie Rennie]

Sandy,

That makes a lot of sense to me and was pretty much my thinking too. Avoiding the daytime highs and hoping for some drop in the evening to gee them up.

Although it seems we’re in for a scorcher the rest of this week 


Hoping to get a bit of sedge action yet but usually dabble away before hand with wets, nymphs and small streamers like gold head damsel nymphs.
One observation from me on those was that the short hooks result in plenty attacks but much less hook ups and cutting the tail a bit worked wonders.
Obviously with the tail being a big part of the attraction, I now source them with longer shank hooks, which seems to be the balance of the two.

Here’s to the sweet 16 

[Steven Kidd]

A very big Salmon......

More about that soon, once I've stopped shaking.

Steven

[Steven Kidd]

Hi,

So.....not for the first time I decided to try something completely different on the river.  I'd been watching videos on streamer fishing and thought it would be a great tactic for big brownies, so off i went........4wt glass rod, Skagit line set up and a size 8 black and white minnow type pattern with big ugly eyes......dirty fishing I thought, 

Well the night ended with an 18lb Salmon, which I attempted to tail a few times, (trout net useless), eventually getting the fish beached and safely unhooked.   It was in perfect condition, bright silver and had most probably came up the river when the water rose on Wed / Thurs.  I held the fish a good 5-10 mins and it swam away strong.

One of those surreal moments on the river.  I never slept a wink Friday night after.

Believe it or not that was my first Salmon.

Steven

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff Steven 

The Don is like that, I've had more than a few encounters over the years, on #14 dries, Sedges, and I think the most memorable was one around 18lb on a wee Black Pennell.

Cheers
Mike

[Eddie Sinclair]

Excellent, well done Steven. I fished hard on the Dee on Friday and Saturday with normal salmon fly tackle and caught the sun total of zero😂

That must have been a great scrap 👍👍

Eddie

[James Laraway]

Great stuff Steven

If your starting streamer fishing I'd suggest a bigger net !

The scierra trout net can swallow monsters ( its 38cmx50cmx55cm). Ive had 3 of them now and wont look at anything else.

Ive used for for double figure 'bows and salmon.....

I take it that you tried to take a picture of your salmon with an iphone then ???

[Sandy Nelson]

Well done Steven

I’ll bet that was amazing  on that rod/line combo.  I’ve had a few tourists on streamers, lots of fun 🤩

Sandy

[Steven Kidd]

I take it that you tried to take a picture of your salmon with an iphone then ???

Second time that has happened to me this year James........the damn thing gets wet or something and won't let a picture be taken or it might be the dark / flash, who knows... ........worked first time flash an all when i got back to the car!....

Anyway it made me think, why we catch fish?.....is it for a trophy photo to share on Instagram? or to etch in the memory selfishly?.......this one was way too good for Instagram I tell myself...., so the latter applies.......only the River Knows,

Steven

[Steven Kidd]

That must have been a great scrap 👍👍

It was fairly calm actually, more a strong pull here and there,no real violence.......made me wind the drag on though a couple of times and fear for my surgeons loop attached to my brand new skagit head / tip........

Steven

[Stevie Rennie]

One of those surreal moments on the river.  I never slept a wink Friday night after.

Believe it or not that was my first Salmon.

Steven

Congratulations on your first salmon Steven, certainly one you’ll never forget and what a way to do it 

I can only imagine what an 18lb’er felt like on a #4.

 

[James Laraway]

I wonder if the low light and gentle pressure meant it didn't really know what was happening.
I had a 20lb + croc on a #10 single hander at Arduncart and it fought like an angry cat. My arm ached for about 2 days afterwards...

It was fairly calm actually, more a strong pull here and there,no real violence.......made me wind the drag on though a couple of times and fear for my surgeons loop attached to my brand new skagit head / tip........

Steven

[Sandy Nelson]

Finally got out this morning after a 2 week Hiatus due to weather and work.
Not quite as pretty as the last early morning a fortnight ago, when the river looked like this



And the world was fresh and ready to begin



That morning and this morning fished in similar ways though, with lots of wee brownies to the nymph and even the odd reasonable one to the Dry
this one was an interesting colour for a Don fish.



I picked my way through pockets and riffles and had a great time, best of the morning today was a lovely finnock.



Just nice to be out again after the wee break.

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff Sandy 

What was the water height and clarity like today? I'm guessing the temperature is down quite a bit.

Cheers
Mike

[Sandy Nelson]

The water is a lovely height, running at 14/15 degrees and is the colour of weak tea.  Ideal conditions 

[Sandy Nelson]

After blanking on Monday when I limited myself to dries and couldn’t find any decent rising fish, today I took the nymph line as well and worked a PTN through some of the runs.
Well rewarded with a good number of lovely conditioned wee fish , they don’t get much prettier



This was the average stamp for the afternoon not all as compliant for the camera



Had a moment where I was walking past a section I usually walk past and my gut said get in the river and run the nymph through the far side.



Worth listening to that gut, best one of the month.
So lots of fun and a nice way to spend the afternoon 

Sandy

[Stevie Rennie]

Bonnie fish Sandy,

Similar sizes to the ones I’ve been encountering lately, although I did manage one or two of a better size earlier in this dour month of august.



Fly fishings been minimal as I managed to snap my fairly cheap but loved 5wt scierra srx v2 rod a few weeks back on both mid sections.
With a bit of a height increase in the river, I opted for using my 7wt for heavier brownie type stuff and light spinning in pursuit of silver until I found a replacement.

Some success around 10lb and a 5lb loss in the silver department alas on spinner and a real surprise on the 7wt 



I found a scierra hmx 9’ 5wt and thought it likely to be suitably similar enough to the srx, so grabbed it but on trying it out tonight discovered that although very pleasant to cast, it’s super delicate and not the sturdy all rounder the SRX is.

If anyone happens to have a 9’ #5 SRX available, I’d happily jump through hoops to buy it.

On another note, if anyone happened to see someone in what might’ve looked like distress with a 13ft double hander just below the kintore bridge, being more of a risk to wild fowl than the fish, do not worry, that too was me.
Practicing

[James Laraway]

Is that a gudgeon????

[Stevie Rennie]

Is that a gudgeon????

I believe so 

Bonnie little fella was very lightly hooked just under the gill plate while retrieving a gold head nymph.