Afternoon all
Back in harness this week after being asked by the River Spey Anglers Association to tie flies in their tent at the Gordon Castle Highland Games Last weekend.A great day, albeit the weather was not at all kind to the organisers, competitors and stall holders.
It is hard to believe we are past the mid point of May already and nearly half way through the season, with 15 or so weeks under our belt already.
The weather last week was somewhat mixed with sunshine, torretial downpours, a good breeze and at times it was not too warm with an edge still in the wind. The wind was pretty gusty and I am sure would have caused a few casting headaches on the river.
The countryside is really coming to life, the greens are developing andthe tree canopies are beuatiful on the way to work when the moring subshine catches them. The cereal crops are well into their growing season and the tatties planted in the field near Spynie Palace are well through the ground.
I was priviledged to see a very rare sight yesterday morning on my way to a days fishing at Ness Castle, when a pine marten hopped out of the undergrowth and ran along the grass verge before hopping back through the fence. I may not see another in the wild again.
The Board update this week is from Biologist, Atticus Albright who updated me by advising that their order for Water Quality monitors has been processed and this should be with the Board before the end of June. These will be installed across the Spey to track water quality issues.
The annual smolt Trapping fieldwork finished this week and the results have still to be analysed but Atticus feels it has been a good smolt run within the upper catchment overall.
SEPA are also holding a consultation on Climate resilience within the Spey catchment and the Board belives this to be an ideal opportunity for all stakeholders to make their views known as to the importane of maintaining flows and groundwater levels within the catchment. The consultation ends on 7th June and can be found at the following link. Please take time and complete it.
Climate Resilience in the Spey Catchment
Finally on a more sombre point, more instances of Saprolegnia have been reported within the catchment so Atti urges anyone who spots diseased fish to report to the Board on the following Form:-
Before we head out onto the river, our friends at Loop Tackle are putting up a Loop Trak rod of the winners choice for this week. We are eternally grateful to Loop for this ongoing support for the weekly reports.
OK onto the river- starting down the bottom, Fochabers Angling Association are getting fish in the book with another couple landed during the week. The captors O am lead to beieve were Ian Tennant and visiting rod Mike Mawson.
Up to Lewis Webb at Gordon Castle/Brae Water who reports that they finished this week with catches into the teens with the biggest fish of 20lb landed on Monday.
A respectable result to finish with considering we only had a third of available rods being let this week, we very much look forward to being back to capacity next week!
Slipping upstream to see Andy Gunn at Orton who advises it was a much better week on Orton, starting strongly on Monday with two fish landed from the Junction.
Nigel Lammas got the week underway with a superb 10lb fish before lunch, followed later in the afternoon by Richard Pulleyn, who landed a fine 9lb salmon. Tuesday saw Mark Dean slide an 8lb fish over the net.
Wednesday brought one of the moments of the season when, on his 45th fishing day on the Spey, Steve Andrew finally managed to get a fish to the bank. A lively 7lb licer provided the long-awaited reward and plenty of entertainment.
Thursday belonged to birthday boy Zac Ludgrove, who was gifted a cracking 13lb fish from the Junction after lunch. The fish was safely and happily returned.
Meanwhile, Ed Nesling, searching for his first-ever Scottish salmon, was suitably rewarded with a magnificent 15lb fish from Cooperee. Ed played the fish expertly and had it in the net quickly, although it was so lively that it released itself before a proper photograph could be taken.
My next stop is Delfur to see from Mark Melville how they fared during the week. Mark reports The river dropped away to a good height for Monday at -13” on our gauge with the water temperature at 50f.
Christian Ward-Thomas did his usual and landed a nice 11lb fresh fish from Beaufort. Tuesday Christian continued his good luck with another fish from the ripples of Broom at 10lb.
It was Thursday before we landed another fish after a wee rise from the night before and the water temperature warming each day which kept the fish running through. Henry Mountain landed his nice fresh fish from the Hollenbush.
Friday was blank as the water temperature reached 60f as the weather warmed up.
Saturday we had a fresh sealiced fish from Broom with another lost. A quiet week for us for a change.
We spotted a number of moribund salmon and sea trout with Saprolegnia which I think can put off the fresh fish coming through.
It’s not surprising as we see it every year at this time, it’s just sad when you see such magnificent spring fish in distress with not much chance of survival.
As I continue up the river my next port of call is Rothes and Aikenway where Robbie Stronach advises that they ended up with 5 for the week . All the action was the first two days. Despite seeing fish in the polls for the rest of the week they didn’t want to be caught. Piers Bradley got 3 fish, two of which came from Creeky and the other Town Road. James Bladon also got on the scoresheet with two fish one from Junction and one from Creeky.
Euan Reid at Arndilly is next to give his update on the week gone by and reports as follows:)
“This week we welcomed John Mackie and his team for the first couple of days and the Duncan family for the rest of the week and surprisingly it was a tough week given the conditions were pretty good albeit the wind was a bit of a pest at times.
We saw very few for the first 4 days but on Friday and Saturday we saw good numbers of fish, leading us to believe, rightly or wrongly that they were beginning to hold with us again after the previous week’s rise and clear out. If this was the case we were puzzled as to why we weren’t catching them but I guess that’s just another of the mysteries of salmon fishing!
We had two fish for the week and typically, we were playing them both at the same time on Thursday afternoon, Olly Lyon with a wild 10lbr in Back of the Bog, supervised by Fred and Kathleen Duncan with a beautiful 16lb fish from the boat in the Piles with Keith.
This week’s team have all been at it long enough to know the game and understand that in wild sport sometimes things don’t go your way.
I think the middle to upper river has done fairly well which is nice to hear, it’s good if everyone gets a turn.
Easter Elchies is my next port of call where Orn Sigurhansson reports a week of cooler weather, dropping water and pods of fish moving through. We were very pleased to welcome the Cutmore fishing party again this week to Easter Elchies. Highlight of the week Tor Cutmore with nice 14lb salmon and an 18lb fish landed by John Macginnes on Saturday night. Today, -1 on the gauge and temperature starting to rise. 5 salmon for the week.
Things are quiet until I call in with Malcolm Nedwbould to see how Wester Elchies fared. Malcolm reports that they finished with three fish for the week, with success in the early part of the week. Tom Wood started the week well with 2 on Monday and Paul Sharp added the 3rd.
As I head upstream I call in to see David Brand at Kinermony who reports that they managed to land 5 fish, up to 18lb Olivier and Benoit the captors.
My next stop on the journey up river is to see Neil Borthwick at Carron too see how they got on during the week. Neil reports that this week it was the turn of Guidelines Paul Davidson & friends to fish at Carron. It was a week where we lost as many as we landed but it was still great to be getting in front of a few more fish with Monday being our only blank day.
Tuesday produced the first fish of the week, John Hill landing a slightly older fish from the Bridge Pool. Paul Davidson caught Wednesday’s fish from McGregors. Paul also had fish on Thursday & Friday. Thursday’s fish caught in the Carron Pool & Friday’s from the Horseshoe.
The week was rounded off on Saturday afternoon when John Hill caught his second fish of the week this time a sea liced fish from the Big Griggle.
Up to Knockando next where Archie Baillie advises With the river running at 3” on our marker, Monday started with a nice 11lb fish from the Long Pool. Apart from a couple of fish lost that was the only fish landed until Thursday. With the river up on Wed morning our expectations were hopeful. Unfortunately with us we found a lot of weed suspended in the water and none of the fish we saw showed any interest in our offerings. With the river dropping back to 3” on our marker things were looking good. Almost immediately and after a strong battle we had landed a sealiced 12lber. Not long after that another strong fish of 11lb was netted. Not finished there we had one of 8lb all before lunch from the Long Pool. Things slowed until later in the afternoon. Edwin Whyte had a 10lb fish from Slioch followed by a couple at 8lb and 9lb later in the evening from the Long Pool. Friday was dissapointingly quiet after Thursday. Saturday gave us the best fish of the week weighing in at 16lb from Craigsteele another fish on Saturday evening from the Draw of Vrennon at 6lb rounded of a good week.
My final stop of the week is with Simon Crozier at Castle Grant who gives me his weekly update, advising of a quiet and frustrating start to the week , with plenty fresh fish seen entering our pools but little to show for it.
The sense was they were running hard, this was backed up when 3 fish were caught on our beat at Kinchurdy some 10 miles upstream!
However on Tuesday Chris Dickinson intercepted a fine fish in Polchraine of 8-9 lbs .
All was quiet untill Thursday when that Wiley spey veteran Danilo Assolari had a fine brace!
First 12lb liced from Polchraine then a cracker of 8lbs from the croy race.
Sam Shepherd rounded of a good day with a cracker from Craigroy.
It was the late late show again on Saturday night with a cracking bright fish from Pollowick taken at 11pm followed by a truly stunning seatrout of 10lbs!
A cracking end to the week.
I am also awrae of a fish of 20lbs plus being landed at Tulchan but due to the beats not reporting in I am not aware of anyhthing else being landed.
The week ahead looks to be a mix of conditions with a coouple of warmer days towards the end so we will just need to keep a eye onconditions to see what effect the increase in temperature has.
It has been another tough week to pick a winner from but this weeks winner of a Loop Trak Rod of their choice is Callum Imray– well done and I will be in touch.
Tight lines if you are out in the week ahead
Sandy
