Good afternoon everyone
Its wet and miserable here in Elgin and I do not know what the countryside has looked like over lat few days due to the dense mist and fog that has been hanging about. It has certainly brought and early Autumn chill to the air.
The garden is past its best now and a winter of pruning looms, still have a few tomatoes ripening in the greenhouse but that will start to slow now. I will need t turn my attention to the start of the apple harvest, not in my own garden but on my mothers, as that is normally a start of October task.
The farmers will not be happy at present with the amount of standing crop that still needs to be harvested. I only hope we now get a settled dry spell to allow them to get things finished for this season.
Talking of seasons we are now in the final push to the end with three full weeks left before boats can be brought ashore and stored, along with the various other bits of equipment that need attention. A ghillie’s work is never done as they say.
The Spey Board Auction is now live with over 60 lots up for grabs. Please support the Board in their endeavours and if you wish to see what is available please see the following link.
https://uk.givergy.com/RiverSpey2024
Ok lets see how the fishing has done this week.
Andy Milne at Fochabers Angling Association reports that they were lightly fished but still 8 fish caught after the rise on Monday.
Up at Gordon Castle/Brae Water, Lewis Webb ghiliie at Middle Brae advises that they (4 beats) finished into the 20’s this week after a changeable week of conditions from torrential rain resulting in a rise in river then to an eerie fog looming over the river on Friday and Saturday which seemed to have the fish well and truly switched off.
Heading up the river and calling into Orton, Andy Gunn reports that they had a very enjoyable week with the Taylor party.
Great conditions for most of the time and well over 30 fish hooked but only half of them landed, including a 20lb lump from Cairnty for Steven Yapp and a 19lber for Duncan Hayden from the Willows.
Jeanie Tuckwell, Bill Baker and Zac Ludgrove all landed double figure fish from the Turn.
Kate Baker, Julia Taylor and Elaine Millar all caught double figure fish from Cairnty.
Richard Taylor marked the score card with a 7lb fish from Lower Cairnty and many more Grilse were landed over the week.
The good fishing continued as we stop in at Delfur where Mark Melville advises of another good week at Delfur with Simon Caswells party from Lincolnshire.
Great to have the young Caswell boys with some friends who are so keen turning into really good salmon anglers.We managed another first fish this week and everyone in the party had some great sport.
The usual up and down river conditions we’ve had all season continued with the torrential rain early in the week which lifted the river to nearly two feet.
Friday and Saturday were challenging with the haar putting the fish off a wee bit.
Mostly salmon this week up to 18lbs with a few grilse including one fresh dolphin damaged grilse. Everyone at Delfur was delighted that Euan Reid, head ghillie up river from them at Arndilly was able to join them for a cast one evening and had some great sport in Sourden with one landed, one lost and a couple of pulls.
Robbie Stronach at Rothes and Aikenway is the next port of call and Robbie reports that they finished with 19 for the week. On Monday Micheal French got two from Creeky, David Turtle got one in Geantree and Nigel boardman got one in Creeky. On Tuesday Michael French had one from Jamieson and one from Creeky. The steady stream of fish continued into Wednesday with David Turtle landing two in Junction and three in Burnmouth, Michael French getting one in Creeky as did Richard Nobel and Nigel Boardman tempting one in Burnmouth. Thursday saw three fish landed with Michael French getting one in Burnmouth, Nigel Boardman landing one in Creeky and David Turtle also with one from Creeky. Things slowed down a bit on Friday with Michael French getting the solitary fish from Burnmouth and Saturday saw the same trend with Nigel Boardman getting the only fish landed from Town Road.
As we continue up river, Euan Reid at Arndilly and reports that they welcomed Mike Toone and his team to Arndilly. We had a swap midweek, but both half’s had a mixture of novice and experienced rods.
We had 4 on Monday, with -2″ on our gauge. Hugo Noble from the left side of Bulwark, Mark Miller with a couple from the neck of Cobble Pot, right bank, and team leader Mike Toone with a cracking 19lb fish from the opposite bank.
On Tuesday with the water being up and coloured we struggled initially, but perseverance paid off for Richard Fisher on his first salmon fishing trip with a 12lb fish from Back of the Bog, followed an hour later by an 11.5lb fish from the Bulwark.
Wednesday morning was Charlie Olivers’ moment with his first fish, 7.5lb from the top of Long Pool. Michael Toone had an 8.5lb fish from the right bank of the Soo, and Mark Miller had a 13lb fish from Back of the Bog and a 12.5lb fish from the Bulwark. Richard Fisher had another brace(4 in his first 2 days!), this time 7lb and 6lb from the left bank of the Soo, 17″ on the gauge.
On Thursday, Damian West got his first trip to Arndilly going in style with a 17.5lb and 18lb fish from the Cobble Pot, left bank. Hugo Noble had a 6lb fish from Cobble Pot and an 11lb fish from under the wires in the Piles, Megan Noble had an 8lb fish from Back of the Bog, ably assisted by her mum, Barbara Toone.
The sun came out on Friday and Saturday, whether this was the reason or that coupled with the water dropping away, we struggled with just one fish, 10lb off the concrete path for Michael Toone.
Arriving at Easter Elchies, Orn Sigurhansson reports a real September feel to fishing this week. We had a good rise in water to 22 inches on the gauge on Tuesday, dropping back to -2 today. A slower week in terms of catches however very good to see plenty of fish in all the pools.
As we reach Aberlour, Kenny Davies of Aberlour Angling Club reports that they finsidhe with six fish this week three for Iain Morisson, two for a visitor and one for Jim Reid.
Across the river at Wester Elchies, Malcolm Newbould reports that 5 were added to the season tally.
Up at Kinermony, David Brand advises that they were very lightly fished this week but managed to get 7 in the book. Steve Boyd, Zander Christie, Rob Morrison and Gilbert Tyrrell, all the way from America getting his first Scottish Atlantic salmon. Well done Bilbert.
Carron managed to add 7 to their tally according to Ian Borthwick.
Heading up river Archie Baillie at Knockando reports that they finished up with 6 this week biggest 13lb with the same number hooked and lost. Ian Gordon managed to land a 13lber with this being the only one he managed to land out of three in an hour session.
Up to Castle Grant now where Simon Crozier advises that they were very similar to a number of other beats on the river with a week of two halves. After the big rise on Monday night the residents woke up and good sport was had across the beats, however things slowed up on Thursday and ground to a halt when the heat struck! Notable catches were a 9lb seatrout for Paul Hearson from Pollowick, Andy wood had his first salmon a 7lb fish from Dunbar. Dawn Hearson had a brace of 10 and 5 from Greenbank and Pollowick respectively. We hope with cooler conditions and settled water a few more fish will come to the net next week!
Grantown water finished their week with 6 salmon to 20lb and 8 seatrout and finally Abernethy added salmon, 6 seatrout to their seasons tally.
The week ahead looks as if we will see cooler conditions starting to feed down from the North with spells of rain in the mix too.We will wait and see what sort of impact this has on the remaining few weeks of our season.
Tight lines to those who are out on their respective waters next week.
Sandy
