Good evening everyone
Apologies for the lateness of the hour in producing this weeks report but I had a wee while out today fishing for rainbows which was a good session.
That’s us into the last 3 months of the season already as we have now entered June. The time is really passing by quickly this year, probably an age thing!!
Out and about this week, I noticed for the first time the ripple effect the wind has on the growing crops, watching the green change colour as the breeze bends the stems. I have definitely lost sight of the family of brown hares that play in the fields when I walk the dog. They now have to be on their hind legs to be seen, but that is their hiding mechanism and I just love to see a hare lying flat and motionless. I find the remains of a jay carcass this week, a meal had by some predator but unfortunately the blue feathers used as a throat hackle on certain flies were too badly damaged for me to be able to harvest them for my flyting kit!!
Well the weather in the last week has not been what could be called summer, I think we had four season on more than one day, with snow lying on the tops of the hills. This should not be a surprise as I have seen blizzards in May when salmon fishing.
What impact did this have on the fishing, lets us see.
We will head up river today, starting at Fochabers Angling Association when Andy Milne reports a 5 fish week for them. Ian Tennant had one on Tuesday and another yesterday, visitors Shane Fraser and Chris Boyle had one each on Wednesday and Allan Crook had one the same day. The Pot, Upper Pot and Lower Quarry were the hotspots.
At Gordon Castle/Brae Water, Lewis Webb advises a decent week on the river for us this week getting into double figures despite the challenging, changeable conditions, you couldn’t ever stray more than 6ft away from your waterproofs!
Big tides this week seemed to encourage a good numbers of fish to enter the river with our busiest week of sightings, which kept both guests and ghillies motivated. Along with the fish landed we are still seeing a frustrating amount of losses presumable from the fish still running hard, but that’s all part of the sport!
Our next stop is Orton where Andy Gunn advises that fish were landed every day this week, 9 netted and 6 lost.
We welcomed the Waring party back for a June week this year and it started well with Paul Still on Monday morning landing a stunning 13lb sea liced fish from Wee Pool after having lost one earlier.
Colin Hollis managed to get in front of one of the many fish showing in Cairnty on Tuesday just before lunch with a nice 8lber and on Wednesday morning Colin got into another in Cairnty, this time a sea liced 10lb beauty.
Stuart Waring then landed an 8lber in Wee Pool and continued his good run into Thursday with a cracking 13lb fish from Couperee and a 5lb Grilse in Island Stream.
Paul Still was back on form in Wee Pool with his 2nd from there, this time a nice fish of 12lb.
Bill Cooper finally got on the score sheet with a cracking 12lb fish from Couperee on Friday afternoon.
Another fish of 8lb was landed from Island Stream on Saturday evening.
The Wee Pool seems to be producing a number of good fish this season so far a hidden gem on the beat.
As we continue up the river we meet up with Mark Melville at Delfur who reports that they had a great week here at Delfur catching some magnificent hard fighting Atlantic Salmon between 6 and 18lbs.
The fishing conditions including height, water/ air temperatures and overhead cloud cover was pretty much perfect all week. The Malcolm Newbould party started off with a very good Monday. All the rods caught at least one fish in the morning, it doesn’t have to be much better than that but it was!
We continued all week with consistent and good catches with a big bumper last day of 17 fish! Malcolm celebrated his birthday on Saturday with 5 fish to his own rod and fished well all week.
Graham Ritchie as usual was hauling them out everyday and finished with over 20 fish to his own rod for the week! Dave Sadowski was his usual consistent steady self and caught some cracking fish throughout the beat.
Charlie Harman had a good start and finish with some quality fish.
We were also joined by Rick Lamb for 3 days who enjoyed his first visit to Delfur and caught a few. Allan Brown replaced Rick and had some good battles on and off the river the second half of the week!
It was good to see all the pools producing fish from top to bottom. Interestingly we only caught a half dozen sea liced fish but the rest were very fresh plus an odd resident. A tremendous week with 57 fish caught!
Let’s hope it continues for the whole river next week as the forecast looks settled again.
Robbie Stronach at Rothes and Aikenway confirms 24 fish landed for the week. Monday we landed 3 fish , Mr S Bladon getting one in Geantree, Mr Houldsworth with one from Carnegie and Mr Winters with one from Geantree. On Tuesday we also landed 3 with Mr S Bladon with one from Carnegie, Mr green with one from Geantree and Mr Houldsworth with one from Long Pool. Wednesday saw 7 landed with Mr S Bladon with one from Junction, Mr R Hellyer one from Geantree, Mr B Green with two from Creeky, Mr J ruck-Keene one from Long Pool and Mr S Bladon with two from Creeky. On Thursday 3 fish were landed Mr S Bladon one from Carnegi , Mr C Richmond-Watson one from Creeky and Mr C Keith one from Geantree. Friday saw 3 landed again Mr W Midwood 2 from Creeky and Mr P Gaynor one from Townroad. Saturday saw the week finish with 5 landed Mr C Richmond-Watson one from Geantree, Mr W Midwood with one from Carnegie and two from Geantree and Mr C Keogh one from Creeky. Well done to all the rods.
Our next port of call is Arndilly where Euan Reid reports what a wonderful week of weather we had, I know the sunseekers didn’t enjoy it, but as a ghillie wearing waders over a woollen suit, cold is good!
Our catches were back a bit from last week, but again, we didn’t have a blank day, so we’re happy with that.
Nick Warren had our first of the week on Monday from the tail of the Long Pool at 2″ and 60°f.
On Tuesday, Ian Cox had a 12lb fish from the right side of the Spout. The Spout has changed this year, and it looks like it may provide us with more fish than usual.
Joe Sansom had a lovely 10lb fish from Back of the Bog just before lunch. Just as Joe was enjoying the limelight, Nick Warren had not one, but two 18lb fish. One each side of the Cobble Pot. Well done, Nick.
On Wednesday, Ian Cox had a 10lb fish from his favourite pool, Gilmour and Richard Hollingbery had a lovely 8lb sea trout from the Bulwark as the light went.
Will Templer had a 7.5lb fish from the tail of the long pool on Thursday and a 10lb fish from Gilmour on Friday. Mr Fitzwilliam-Lay had our second on Friday, 10lb from in front of the hut.
The Doc( Apthorpe) was the star of the show on Saturday afternoon, 10.5lb from the tail of Long Pool, and lost another. I can give you his number, he’d love to tell you the story!
Yet another great fun week, the numbers don’t tell the whole story.
At Easter Elchies, Orn Sigurhansson reports a week of low water and northerly winds. We were very pleased to welcome the Price fishing party this week. Week started off well with 3 fish landed on Monday. Slowed as the week progressed. Good to hear some good numbers being caught further downstream. James Griffiths, Andy Brodie and David James all on the score sheet for the week. Water height starting at -4 dropping to -6 on the gauge by the end of the week. Water temperature 52-56. 7 salmon and grilse for the week.
Craigellachie finished up with 8, largest 18lb advises Dougie Ross. He also advises that they lost as many as we caught. Also first grilse of the year.
Continuing upstream Aberlour Angling Club advise just a single fish for Billy Anderson for the week.
Across the river Wester Elchies finished with 6 fish in the book for the week.
David Brand at Kinermony reports 4 this week but a lot of fish lost. Liz Murphy, Nick Plumb, and Mark Leach in the action- well don to the lucky captors.
Delagyle finished with two this week for the Nardine party, one 9lbs and sealiced and one about 10lbs. A few lost.
Up at Carron, Ian Borthwick confirms that they ended up with 5 fish for the week. Of those four were caught by Kevin Clayton and the other by Bill Connolly.
On the other bank at Laggan, Max McKinstrie reports 4 for the week at Laggan, with the best a 13lbs fish for Mr Alistair Rogers from the Stream.
Onwards and upwards to Knockando where Archie Baillie advises 12 salmon from 6lb to 13lb. A few of them sea liced, in great condition, and very energetic, and a first sea trout at 7lb for Peter Denison-Pender, a high bar to set.
Up to Castle Grant next where Simon Crozier reports an unseasonably cold week saw some difficult conditions with strong winds and evenings more like April than June. However sport was had across the beats despite very few fish showing. Monday saw Patrick Reeve get an 8lb fish from Congash, Tuesday saw James Reeve get a fish of around 15 lbs from the Garra, a fish of around 12 came from the Croy race, Patrick Reeve had another of 7lb from Congash. On Wednesday Sean Tighe had a fresh fish of 10lb from Pollowick. Thursday saw Patrick Reeve have an 8 on fish from Congash, brother James had a 9 lb fish from the Garra sluggan. On Friday James Reeve had a 9lb fish from the Garra. An older fish was taken from the Manse. Sean Tighe had a fine seatrout of 8lbs from Pollowick in the evening in less than textbook conditions, Saturday saw Andrew Tighe have an 11lber from the March and we finished with a 12lb cracker from Slopichar.
Grantown finished their week with 12 Salmon to 17lbs, club bailiff Shaun Grant says all but 4 were fresh but they saw a few other than what was landed.
Finally Abernethy finished 5 fish to 12 lbs.
Next week looks to be bringing more of this unseasonably cold weather down from the arctic so it should hopefully benefit the fishing on the river.
You will be glad to hear that you will not have my usual ramblings for the 2 weeks, as I am off on my annual pilgrimage to the River Ewe, with the Ewe Crew. Water conditions look to be considerably better than last year, so all we need is for the fish to play ball. Paul will be standing in for me as normal.
Tight lines to those out and about.
Sandy
