Good afternoon and welcome to the report for the third week of June.
A challenging week on the river – where despite good water levels for the time of year, the fish don’t seem to be running the river in the numbers we might expect.
The quality of the fish is high, but while welcome, this isn’t necessarily something to drive optimism. The fine specimens in the pictures below are a sample of the fittest one or two percent of their smolt year class. The elite of the elite.
And they need to be lucky as well, as can be seen by the percentage of fish showing signs of attempted predation as they make their way back into the Moray Firth.
The hope is that the grilse are making their way back in numbers in the coming weeks.
Thankyou once again to Loop Tackle who have kindly provided a G5 reel for the angler landing the Fish of the Week.
Choosing a winner was a difficult decision with several high quality multi sea winter salmon coming to the net.
We begin this week on the lower River with a fine catch from Fochabers Angling Association water.
Daniel Clark was fishing on Wednesday and landed this splendid fresh fish of around 15lb.
Daniel Clark’s pristine 15lb fish from Fochabers
Moving upstream to Gordon Castle, Lewis Webb sums up the last six days as follows:
“Another good week on the river with some top-quality fish being landed across the beats. The biggest salmon measured 40 inches, with a couple of grilse appearing amongst a mix of fresh sea-liced fish and some slightly older residents.
It was also fantastic to see the elvers running again, only a couple of days different from the timing of last year.
One unusual feature of the week was that every fish landed came during the morning sessions, while the afternoons produced only losses despite plenty of action.
We finished the week just shy of 30 fish landed, plus a couple of sea trout. Saturday’s rise in water seemed to put the fish off, with every hooked fish across the beats being lost before reaching the net—one of those days, but that’s fishing!”
Ian Mattioli with his first of the week
Ian with another fine Spey salmon
Chalie Campbell with one of his three for the week.
Another for Charlie
40 inch fish for Charlie Campbell. Sadly no weigh net on hand. A fantastic fish regardless!
Wocky Whitworth with a fine silver fish.
Dr Sandy Scott continues his good run of form.
Rory Anderson
The good Doctor on the scoresheet once again.
Tim Manners and a furry friend helping with the release.
Craig Pollard with a fine summer salmon.
Ian ‘Fudge’ Fojcik with one from the Ewe Pool.
As mentioned last week, Laura and Ollie tied the knot over the weekend. They didn’t let the small matter of a wedding get in the way of the fishing. A massive Congratulations to the Happy Couple!
“This week saw a split party on the beat, with some excellent fishing throughout”
writes Andy Gunn from Orton.
“Harry Cragoe and his guests got off to a flying start on Monday morning when Harry landed a fresh 13lb salmon from Cooperee. Not to be outdone, Guy Pearson Gregory, fishing the beat for the first time, landed a fish of a similar size from Greenbank later that afternoon.
Guy was back in action on Tuesday, landing a 10lb fish from Cairnty, while his teammate, Giles Patterson, also enjoyed success with a 10lb silver bar from Junction.
Wednesday proved another productive day. Harry returned to Cooperee and landed his second 13lb fish of the week. Giles Patterson added his second fish, an 8lb salmon from Cairnty, while Guy rounded off his trip in style, hooking and landing a superb 14lb fish from Cooperee on his final cast.
Thursday was quieter, with only one fish hooked and unfortunately lost.
Friday morning provided a memorable highlight. Fishing Junction and casting exceptionally well, 12-year-old Annabel Cameron hooked and landed her first-ever salmon – a magnificent 15lb sea-liced beauty.
Congratulations Annabel, a worthy winner of this week’s prize, the G5 reel from Loop.
Later that evening, Robert Ropner landed a fresh 10lb fish.
Just before lunch on Saturday, Julian Bayne produced a fine 8lb salmon from Island Point.
A 10lb fish was landed on Saturday evening.
A very enjoyable week on the beat, with several fresh fish landed and some memorable firsts along the way.”
Harry Cragoe with his first of the week – 13lbs from Cooperee
Guy Pearson Gregory with a fish from Greenbank
Giles Patterson’s fish from Junction
Harry with another from Cooperee
Guy with his third of the week
Annabel Cameron with her first ever salmon – a beautiful 15lb fish from Junction.
Julian Bayne in Island Point
“It was great to welcome Olivier Devictor back for his 30th year at Delfur,” writes Mark Melville.
Olivier is a passionate salmon conservationist who has always cared deeply about the future of our iconic species.
Only fitting that he got the week underway with a fine 12lb fish from Beaufort on Monday morning. Adrian Latimer also caught a good fish from Broom.
Tuesday Olivier managed another fish, this one was from Sourden.
It was the Olivier show again on Wednesday with his biggest of the week at14lb from Beaufort in the afternoon.
Thursday we blanked!
Friday we managed 3 fish, 2 for Johnny Gray in Bridge and Beaufort and a fish from Hollenbush for Brian Lovering.
Johnny Gray managed a fish from the ripples of Broom just before the water went a bit dirty due to the rises from the Feshie, Dulnain and the A’an from the night before.
Let’s hope the fresh water has pulled some fresh fish in as they were in short supply this last week.
Olivier Devictor casting in Twa Stanes, Delfur
Thirteen fish came to the net this week for Robbie Stronach at Rothes.
“Monday was the best day of the week. Mrs Bladon got one from Creeky, Cathy Atkin got one from Geantree , Barry Green had fish from Junction and Bluestone and Matthew Atkin got one from Creeky
On Tuesday Mrs Bladon got one from Junction and one from Carnegie and Matthew Atkin landed a fish from Bluestone.
Wednesday saw Cathy Atkin on the scorecard again, this time from Creeky and Christopher Oughtred got one from Bluestone .
Mrs Bladon had another fish from Geantree on Thursday .
Cathy Atkin and Mrs Bladon got one each from Geantree on Friday, which brought the week to a close.”
Cathy Atkin with her fish from Geantree
Moving upstream to Arndilly where Head Ghillie Euan brings us news of a fast start to the week.
“As we approach mid summer’s day it doesn’t really feel like it. But generally the weather has been good for fishing. Bad holiday weather is good fishing weather.
We began this week not knowing what to expect after a slow end to the previous week. Monday we had six by lunchtime!
Brian McLean had three and lost a couple in Back of the Bog, best 14lb. Alistair Crawford,12lb in Jocks Tail, Hugh Law,12lb, Bulwark left and lost one. David Bonnington from the tail of the Long Pool, also losing one were the who and where. Minus 2″ on the gauge.
In the afternoon David Bonnington had a fish out of the Arns and David Clarke had a bonny 11lb fish from the top of the Long Pool.
We had five on Tuesday. David Clarke, 13lb from the Arns and a 3lb grilse from the very top of the Piles in the boat. Brian completed the morning with a 12lb fish from the left bank of Cobble Pot just before Peroni time.
Hugh Law, 11.5lb , Piles left, and David Bonnington, 14lb Cobble Pot right completed the score.
From there it slowed down a bit with just a fish a day and a Saturday blank. David Bonnington had our Wednesday and Thursday fish, 13lb from Back of the Bog and 7 lb from the tail of the Long Pool and Patrick Burns had our Friday fish, 5lb from the right bank of Jocks Tail.
The water rose 5 inches on Saturday morning quite quickly and that put the brakes on us. Other than a few offers there was nothing exciting happening.
The rise will have disappeared by tomorrow morning I would imagine but although the water is fairly low it is certainly not too low and we just need some new fish to arrive, as they did at the start of last week.”
David Bonnington
Midsummer sunset
Orn Sigurhansson reports a week of warmer conditions at Easter Elchies – and some well earned fish.
We were delighted to welcome both the McCreath and Wood fishing parties again this week. Very much a family affair with the McCreaths – Abi and Ben starting the fishing journey.
Of the brothers, David coming out on top, landing two fish for his efforts. The second half of the week, Jonny Caswell again into the fish, with a well deserved catch on Saturday night.
We also had a first fish this week, Jason Downie from Upper Dips. Final total – nine salmon and one sea trout.
A really fun week at Easter Elchies.
David McCreath with his fish from Red Craig
Jonny Caswell with a Fiddich Mouth resident.
Mark Aitchison – Red Craig
David McCreath again, this time from Fiddich Mouth.
“The Macallan beat was lightly fished during the latter half of the week as we welcomed Edward Cumming Bruce and his party,” writes Head Ghillie Richard Whyte.
“Unfortunately, we were one rod short as one member of the party was unable to attend.
Patience and perseverance were rewarded eventually this week. On Saturday, Clarissa enjoyed an exciting start to the day when a spirited 3lb sea trout from the Tunnel Pool briefly had everyone thinking it was a grilse. Later, just before lunch, Julian St Lawrence landed a bonnie fresh salmon of around 14lb from Lower Slabs.
While sport was hard-earned, the week was marked by plenty of good food, good company and good fun, making for an enjoyable few days on the river.”
Julian St Lawrence with a fine fish from Upper Slabs at Macallan
“Just the one fish this week from Wester Elchies” writes Malcom Newbould.
Richard Banks with a nice silver fish from Dalbreck, Wester Elchies
“Another week passes without much change” reports Neil Borthwick from Carron.
“Fish are hard to find and water levels remain stubbornly low for our beat although there was a 6 inch rise on Saturday.
The scorecard for the week was two salmon & three sea trout. A slight improvement on previous weeks but still really tough for the time of year.
Both salmon fell to the rod of Bob Walker, the first on Tuesday out of the Slabs & the second on Wednesday out of the Stream.
All three sea trout fell to the rod of Michael Trafford with the biggest being 7lbs which gave him a great fight during the hours of darkness.
We keep our fingers crossed for next week that the slight rise in water on Saturday moves some new fish into our beat.”
Our next stopping point on our journey upstream is with Archie Baillie at Knockando.
“A good start to the week with a strong 8lb fish from the Long Pool on Monday morning.
Monday evening produced two fish of 8lb and 10lb for Richard Bailey from the Draw of Vrennan.
We had to wait until Tuesday evening for our next captures both from the Long Pool at 12lb and 10lb followed by a sea trout of 4lb from the Draw of Poleck.
Wednesday just before lunch gave us a chrome bright 8lbr from the Long Pool for Thomas Boyd.
Last cast on Wednesday afternoon saw Mark Godman land an 11lbr again from the Long Pool.
Wednesday evening wasn’t so productive with the only fish caught being a nice sea trout of 3lb.
Thursday and Friday apart from a couple of fish hooked and lost was blank.
On Saturday after a lift in the river. Stuart Wilson landed a very strong sea liced 12lbr from the Long Pool.
Another couple of fish were hooked and lost on Saturday.”
A bright fish from the Long Pool at Knockando
A fine Knockando summer salmon
And away!
Back of the net!
“We had another steady and enjoyable week with pretty stable conditions at Lower Pitchroy” writes head ghillie Andrew Hall.
“The river rose 7 inches on Saturday which carried a fair bit of sediment and debris.
We caught fish everyday apart from Saturday which kept the enthusiasm and moral up.
Despite being very lightly fished we finished the week with 7 salmon and 8 sea trout with the biggest trout at 10lb.”
A fine summer fish from Polarder, Lower Pitchroy
And another from Polarder
A cracking Spey sea trout of around 10lbs
“It was a slow week with plenty fish seen but takes hard to come by,” writes Simon Crozier in this weeks final report from Castle Grant.
“We started with a fish for Sean Tighe from Polchraine on Monday morning. Wednesday saw a fish for Di Orson from Pollowick. David Swain had a fish from the Wash Pot .
A few more encounters and the odd seatrout made up the sport for the rest of the week.”
A very happy Di Orson with a good fish from Pollowick
Prospects
Thankfully the extreme temperatures currently being experienced in the South of England aren’t forecast to extend as far North as the Spey valley. There is also the potential for some more rain to prevent river levels dropping away. It will still be warm for a couple of days.
The grilse are starting to arrive, with the main runs anticipated to build into the early weeks of July. Fishing early and late will enhance your chances and as always it’s worth consulting your ghillie about tactics on a regular basis, especially if conditions change through the week.
If you are lucky enough to encounter a Spey salmon, please remember the fish handling guidelines. Water temperatures are likely to increase, and removing a fish from the water, even for a few seconds for a photo can be detrimental.
Hold the fish in the water with its head upstream facing the current, and wait for any bubbles to escape from the gills before letting it go. This can take a few minutes, so take your time and enjoy the moments spent with one of these amazing fish.
Thankyou once again to Loop for supporting this report, and also to all the ghillies who take time out from their only day off to provide their accounts of the weeks events.
Tight lines to everyone casting a line this week.
Sam Jarman
