Good afternoon all
Its rather a soggy damp afternoon in Elgin which may do some good, or not to the river in the week ahead.
I am back in harness after my trip to the Ewe and I must say it was pretty successful with our party landing 10 salmon and losing 4 for the week, the best being a cracking 22lber. Condiitons were near perfect for the first 4 days of thwe week until the Thurday late afternoon when the thuinder and lightning started, along with torrential rain which say the river river 15inches in 4 hours. Thankfully due to the size of Loch Maree at its head the water remained gin clear for the last two days of the trip however it defintiely switched the fish off, as they bombed upstream.
The garden still is colouring up nicely with borders and baskets springing into bloom, the tomatoes are growing well too but no ripe ones to date. No doubt the grass will continue sprinign in length due to this wet weather which means more cust than normal, thankfully not a big area to mow.
I have no news from the Board this week but Loop Tackle are again putting up a prize for this weeks winner. This week sees a Loop Trak rod of winners choice up for grabs. I fished with one when on the Ewe and thoroughly enjoyed fishing with it and getting it christened on the first morning with a fine 16lber. I can recommend the rod this is backed up by a previous winner who took it to Norway and had success there on one too, reporting back that it was a delight to use.
Right lets see what was happening on the river.
Starting at Gordon Castle/Brae Water an early report from Lewis Webb stated that the week produced agood mix of Summer salmon and grilse this week with the odd older fish turning up too, a real mix of abilities within parties with a few first fish landed. The tail end of the week was encouraging with more sealiced fish caught, here’s hoping that continues!
Next stop this weeek is Orton to see Andy Gunn who reports that this week it was the Reeve Party’s turn to tempt the fish from the river.
Team leader John Reeve got the week off to the perfect start on Monday morning, landing a fresh 13lb salmon from Cooperee.
Tuesday proved to be a blank day, but action resumed on Wednesday. John added a 3lb grilse to the tally, while Richard Owen landed a hard-fighting 10lb salmon from Cooperee. Peter Wilkinson, fishing Green Bank, also enjoyed success with a fine 8lb salmon.
Thursday morning saw top rod John Reeve strike again, landing another grilse from Junction.
On Friday, Peter Wilkinson took his turn on the river and was rewarded with a 5lb grilse.
Saturday rounded off the week in style. Dr Tom Charles landed two fish from Junction in the morning—a fresh 11lb salmon and a 3lb grilse. Later that evening, another 9lb salmon was brought to the net.
Up to Delfur next to see Mark Melville to see how thier week was. Mark reports that this week they had Mr Nicky Mountain fishing and he has fished for over 70 years here at Delfur, starting in 1954.
I don’t suppose there’s anyone else who has fished the river for so long.
He has seen some amazing catches in those times including just short of 300 for his fortnight one year!
He has also landed a fish over 30lbs and once in Hollenbush for an afternoon caught 3 over 20lbs , biggest 26lbs plus a few smaller fish in the teens!
This week we finished just short of double figures…
Let’s hope this coming week is a huge improvement for him,his family and friends though I don’t think we will catch 290!
The grilse should start to build this week and the coming weeks along with some summer salmon.
The rain is falling as a write this and some more forecast for the next day or two. We could do with a good rise to clean the bottom and invite a few more fish in.
Let’s see what happens.
Continuing up the river the next port of call in the journey is Robbie Stronach at Rothes and Aikenway. Robbie advises a quieter week for them with just the two this week. The lucky captors were William Midwood in Carnegie and Robert Hellyer got one from Bluestone. A couple of fish were lost too.
Euan Reid at Arndilly is my next stopping off point to see how their week went. Euan reports that this week we welcomed Nick and Lisa Smith and their lovely team to Arndilly. Nick is the party leader but I’m sure Lisa wouldn’t mind being described as the “Mother hen” who keeps everyone, guests and ghillies alike, in line!
We have a schedule which involves the ghillie on the hut section collecting Lisa from the lodge and driving the length of the beat to see what’s happening. It’s time well spent having a catch up and taking notes of all the things we, as ghillies, see every day but don’t think about.
Nick Smith got us going on Monday with a grilse from the left side of the Bulwark and another, 12lb from the same side of Cobble Pot. Hugo Axel-Berg got a bonny 8lb fish from the right bank of the Bulwark which for various reasons gave him a good runaround but importantly was successfully completed, well done Hugo!
We then struggled until Simon Perkins got his first Spey salmon, 8lb from Cobble Pot.
Nick completed the week with a lovely, fresh 5.5lb summer salmon from the far bank of the Arns.
It was a surprisingly slow week given decent water temperatures, hovering around 60f and decent overhead conditions but we could do with water.
Amongst others this week we were unsuccessful in wishing fish onto both Lisa Smith and Juliet’s fly but despite their diligent fishing and hard work we couldn’t find them a fish.
Foot note from Euan – Coincidentally the daughter of 2 of our anglers this week, Will and Sophie Beardmore-Gray, Eloise was canoeing the river with a group doing their final Duke of Edinburgh trip. I popped down to surprise them.
Upstream next to Easter Elchies where Orn Sigurhansson reports a week of ever changing conditions, salmon and grilse. A week of the four seasons of weather, we started the week with 2 fish landed on Monday afternoon, with Donald MacDonald again successful in Fiddich Mouth. On Tuesday, James Robertson landed his first fish of 3, landing a cracking 15lb salmon from the neck of Red Craig. Wednesday saw 2 fish landed, 1 in Red Craig and 1 in Inverfiddich. Tony Mone and Mark Morrison on top form on Thursday, landing 5 between them, including 3 from Upper Dips. James Robertson again on the score sheet on Friday, landing a fresh grilse. Saturday morning proved productive, with 5 landed, including 2 for Phoebe Linley. Final total for the week, 16 salmon and grilse, a really fun week on Speyside.
Things remain quiet as my journey continues until I reach Malcolm Newbould at Wester Elchies who reports that they finished their week with a further 4 fish to their tally. These were split between 2 rods, Oliver Sutro had 3 and David Murray 1.
Kinermony added a single fish to their tally advises David Brand, with Marc Mcallmont the captor.
Up to Knockando next where Archie Baillie reports that it was hard going for us this week. Mrs Claire Bailey had a very fresh grilse of 5lb from the Long Pool on Tuesday evening. Mrs Sophie Henderson had our second grilse at 5.5lb again from the Long Pool on Thursday morning
That was the end of our catch this week. Given a bit of luck we might have had a few more in the book but unfortunately they refused to come to the net and will be there to fight another day.
My final stopping off point is with with Simon Crozier at Castle Grant who advises that they were comparatively lightly fished last week.
However some sport was had, there is a reasonable head of seatrout with us in both our Castle Grant beats and at Kinchurdy .
Some outstanding seatrout came to the net with two 10 lbers and an 8 pounder caught. Kevin Shanks had the first 10lb seatrout from Shepherds, Jamie Mair had the other from the top Pollowick Sluggan.
Stephen Dawson had the 8lb fish from Greenbank .
Salmon proved less cooperative but some did come to hand.
Stephen Dawson had a 12 lb fish from Pollowick , Garry Grant had a brace of 14lb and 8lb also from Pollowick.
Well as you can see not the best of weeks on the river with fish seemingly scarce on the ground. Hopefully we will see a sustained grilse run over the next coming weeks and perhaps a wee bit of rain would not go amiss to refresh matters.
I am delighted to announce that this weeks winner of the Loop Trak rod is James Robertson, well done and I will be in touch for details and which Trak rod you wish.
Next week looks a wee bit mixed but again a wrom front could push its way in too.
Tight lines
Sandy
