Week Commencing 19th September 2022

Good afternoon all

Well we are nearly there, 5 fishing days to go and the Spey season is over for 2022.

Yet another season which has been very mixed in how the fishing has been. There was concern in the early part that the lower river was not fairing very well, with the middle and upper river getting fish. The hope that a good summer would follow was dashed with the extended period of heat we have all experienced and when it did break the fishing picked up but not in a consistent manner, we saw good weeks interspersed with poor weeks.

Even the backend of the season has not been great with low water and sporadic catches to date so many will be hoping that the season end with a bang so we will need to see what the final five days bring.

Last week saw a rise in water at the start of the week so lets see how the beats fared.

Heading downstream this week sees Abernethy landing a solitary 7lb fish for the week but Grantown fared better with 20 fish to 18lb and 5 seatrout as they close in on the end.

Simon Crozier at Castle Grant reports the week got off to a good start with the Zahner party from France getting 3 fish to 13lbs on Monday. A similar story on Beat 2 where the Taylor Party had 4 , unfortunately it quietened down after that with picking away the best way to describe things. A notable fish however was caught by John Mark Zahner from Pollowick on Saturday, It was comfortably 20lbs. Gareth McMillan from Northern Ireland had his first fly caught salmon from the Garra on Beat 1, we hope for a good last week to the season.

Downstream at Aberlour Angling Club they finished with 4 for the week following the lift at the start of the week.

Malcolm Newbould confirms that Wester Elchies finished their week with 3 fish, the best being 20lb

Robbie Stronach reports a week of 10 fish with one good one at 17.5lbs for Rothes.

Next in our journey is Delfur where Mark Melville reports a mixed September week with the first half good then two blank days when they switched off before switching back on yesterday. We finished in the mid 20s with some first fish and a 20lber. Hopefully the cold forecast will keep them switched on for the last 5 days of the season.

Andy Gunn at Orton advises 20 for the week, good start after the wee lift on Sunday but the catches fell away from Thursday.
Plenty fish showing with the odd clean one amongst them.

On Gordon Castle/Brae Water, David Buley reports the last full week of September was tricky to say the least. The fish were really switched off, all tactics and methods were thrown at them with very little reward. Only 10 fish landed with 8 of them being caught on Monday. With only 5 days left I hope something changes and we finish with a bang.

Our final stop is Fochabers Angling Assocation water where Andy Milne reports only one fish for their week.

Well that’s it as we head into the final five days, the weather looks set to stay colder if not a wee bit colder so this may keep the fish switched on a few will be landed.

The River Spey Anglers Association are at Upper Arndilly on 28th/29th for the second Rural Skills Workshop for 8 pupils from Speyside High School. This is done in conjunction with the generous support of the owners of Easter Elchies and Upper Arndilly, support of the Spey Board staff and under the organisational skills of John Trodden who keeps us all right. A number of local volunteers will be on hand to support the youngsters on and off the river, along with school staff, as without all of this events like this could not take place.

The program for the 2 days mixes salmon fishing, flytying, electrofishing, talks from Ghillie/Bailiff and Scientists, along with sessions of knots etc. Here’s hoping we can get one of the youngsters to hook into a fish.

So for the last time this year tight lines to those out and about.

Sandy