Afternoon everyone
June now gone, into July which can only mean the schools are on holiday so no more school run chaos in the mornings!!
It was Scottish Game Fair weekend at Scone Palace this weekend which was hope fully well attended and is a permanent fixture in the country calendar. This year it was great to an attempt to revive the anglers corner with a dedicated Flytying tent housing a number of the best Tyers in the business. other tyers were also on show in the Flyfishing and Flytying tent. I hope all went well as I was asked to join them but alas due to my injury was unable to make it, there is always next year.
A bit of a mixed week has just gone on the weather front but everything was needing the rain that fell, especially the river which saw a couple of rises throughout the week.
As a result of the weather conditions just gone, who flicked the switch? Lets look at how the beats fared as we head downstream.
Abernethy Water had a reasonable week with 5 salmon to 14lbs and also 15 seatrout to 11lbs. Once again the beats in the area recording good seatrout catches.
Grantown Water also had a good week with 5 salmon and 14 seatrout.
I must again thank Simon Crozier from Castle Grant for providing me with the above information each week. It is great to get these details for parts of the river we really do not hear about.
At Castle Grant, Simon Grant reports a difficult week on the salmon front, with fish proving very difficult to come by. Fish were caught on all the beats but it was tough. The seatrout however continued to soften the blow with some fine sport across the beats. Dr Sandy Scott fishing beat 3 with only two rods managed a grilse, 2 salmon and 23 seatrout to 10lb for the week. Hopefully the rise on Saturday will liven things up.
Downstream at Knockando Home Beat, Archie Baillie reports a week of 5 salmon to 22lb, 4 grilse and a sea trout. Very dour during the day with most of the excitement in the evenings. Three big fish lost as well after being played for some length of time.
At Laggan, Mike Murdoch advises another tough week finishing with 3 salmon and their first seatrout of the season.
David Brand at Kinermony advises that landed 6 grilse for the week, 5 of which were very fresh and some were sealiced. Two lucky rods Robbie Finnie and Mark Holmes with three each. Well done gents.
Malcolm Newbould confirms Wester Elchies finished with 8 this week, pretty much evenly spread between salmon and grilse, even a couple of sea trout.
Aberlour Angling Club had another quiet week with nothing to report.
Continuing our journey downstream, Orn Sigurhansson warmly welcomed the Erskine fishing party to Easter Elchies and the Davies party to Upper Arndilly. Conditions improved on Tuesday with 3 fish landed, 2 to Alistair Erskine and 1 to Hazel Erskine. Both beats fished steady all week and we landed 2 grilse on Saturday morning before the welcome rise in water. Another good week with 17 salmon and grilse landed and another cracking 5lb sea trout. Fisher of the week was no doubt Hugh Law, landing 2 salmon and 1 grilse in a space of 40 minutes in Fiddich Mouth – great sport!
At Arndilly head ghillie, Euan Reid reports another lovely week on Arndilly with Nick and Lisa Smith and their party. As the season progresses we begin to see grilse making up a significant part of our weekly total and this week we had the same number of grilse as salmon. We finished with 12 for the week with the usual number of others lost. We had fish of all sizes between 2lb and 22lb and the 12 fish were shared between 8 different rods.
Mark Beatty had a lovely 16lb fish from Cobble Pot on Monday and followed it up with a 22 on Tuesday from Back of the Bog. Martin George had a 12.5lb fish and Amanda Beatty had a 4.5lb sea trout also from Back of the Bog. Wednesday gave us 4, Nick Smith 12.5lb, Sophie Beardmore-Gray, 3.5lb from Back of the Bog, Juliet Cameron 13lb from Bulwark left and Richard Summers 4lb off the path in Cobble Pot.
Juliet got a 2.5lb grilse from the opposite side of Bulwark on Thursday, David Sanderson, 3.5lb from the Arns and Joe Rich from Atlanta, Georgia had an 8lb fish off the path in Cobble Pot.
Friday and Saturday were a little disappointing with only a grilse each day, Richard Summers had both, one from Back of the Bog and the other from the middle of Long Pool.
With the fish that have been caught below us this week I am confident of a good week ahead. The river is still carrying colour today from yesterdays rise, I hope the colour goes before the height does!
Robbie Stronach at Rothes reports 19 fish landed this week and others lost . Had a good day on Tuesday with 6 fish caught and picked away the rest of the week . Couple of the fish were sea liced and were seeing some grilse .
Delfur Head ghillie, Mark Melville reports a good week here with 26 fish, all fresh salmon bar 3 grilse and 1 older fish. Duncan Fletcher’s party fished well and we had some decent fishing conditions all week until yesterday. We ended up with a double rise, Saturday morning and afternoon. Some real good quality fish and grilse were caught. Interestingly enough Delfur experienced their first flying fish during the week when a poor wee grilse decided to try and catch a lift upstream in one of their Boats!!!
The ghilles at Orton report their best week in a long time with 28 fish in the book, two thirds of which were grilse to the Reeve party. Lucky angler Dr Tom Charles landed 10 of the fish to his own rod, well done Tom.
At Gordon Castle/Brae Water David Buley reports a slightly better week with over 20 fish caught on our beats. Grilse have started to show up now and a few more fish finally starting to settle in the pools. Almost all fish caught were very fresh. Half grilse, half salmon. David also advises that there have been some cancellations this month do get in touch with Gordon Castle Estate Office if you fancy some fishing. You can contact the Estate via the website or on the following emial address factor@gleco.co.uk
Finally Fochabers Angling Association contact Andy Milne cofirms 2 fish last week, 8 lb salmon from Cumberland’s Ford and a 5lb fish from the Quarry caught by visiting angler Tim Kirkwood. Most would put this down as a grilse but from the shape of it I would say it’s a small salmon.
The week ahead looks quite settled with little rain in the local forecast but looks as if it could be a good week, if the water clears and does not drop too quickly.
Tight line for the week ahead.
Sandy
