Week Commencing 3rd April 2023

Afternoon everyone.

Hope you are enjoying your Easter weekend and possibly the long weekend too if you are lucky enough to get both bank holidays.

Its a bit breezy here in Elgin and the temperature is down a couple of degrees from earlier in the week. It turned out not too bad a week with conditions suiting those who live in country as many a farmer has been hard at it getting this years crops sown. Brown fields will soon be green again with new life.

The week gone by gave reasonable fishing conditions, with settled water levels and temperatures fluctuating slighty. We did see the odd glimpse of sunshine but the wind did keep the temperatures at bay.

Lets see how everyone fared in the week gone by.

Heading up river Andy Milne advises that Fochabers Angling Association did not have any success this week down to the fact that their water was very lightly fished in near perfect conditions. On a positive note fish were seen pushing through the water.

At Gordon Castle and Brae Water ghillie David Buley reports that a few more rods were fishing the beats, a few more fish showed up. Three fish were landed this week on our beats, the biggest was around 8lb. Conditions look reasonable for the coming week and there’s also still some availability please get in touch with the estate office to book.

Next on our journey is Orton where Andy Gunn reports a couple of fish for their wee, both taken in the Wee Pool.

Mark Melville at Delfur advises that had a single fish for their week. It was landed on Tuesday by Jim Ferrie. This fish did have long tailed liced still on it so it must have been pushing up river a a fair rate of knots.

Rothes and Aikenway had a good week this week with 7 landed according to head ghillie Robbie Stronach. It was however the Ronnie Fraser show with him landing numerous fish over the week. Would love to know how you do it Ronnie.

At Arndilly head ghillie Euan Reid was sure after the good end to the previous week that that was them up and running for the season but alas it proved to be a bit of a false start.

I think we need, as a river, to look to other rivers, especially the smaller ones which used to have tremendous runs of fish but now have none. Those declines have fallen under the wider radar but are a major loss locally to them. These same declines on the small rivers are happening on the bigger ones, and we need to have an adult, non science led conversation as to how we fix it.
Anyway, on a brighter note Joe, not Jake(!)hHad a lovely 12lb sea lice fish from the Soo in the boat with Blair, having briefly been in contact with a bigger one minutes earlier on Friday afternoon. Johnny Jowett had a 7lb fish from the top of Long Pool in the evening. Stuart Lang had a 9lb sea licer at the culvert in the Long Pool on Saturday morning. Only two swimmers this week, no need to say any more, you know who you are Johnny and Stuart.

At Easter Elchies ghiliie Orn Sigurhansson reports a week of more settled weather and water height. Gauge now at 0. Highlight was a cracking 15lb salmon for Andrew Semple from Smiddy Pool.

At Craigellachie Dougie Ross advises that they only had one fish for the week and it was a beauty. Former Ghillie Bert Webster was the lucky captor.

Aberlour Angling Club only have one fish to report, a fine 20lb fish landed by Rob Morrison.

Across the river at Wester Elchies Maolcolm Newbould reports just a couple of fish in the book for them.

Kinermony had three fish for their week reports David Brand. The lucky captors were Mike Roden, Paul Smart with his first ever salmon and Bob Newton.

David Smillie at Delagyle advises three fish the week for the Gordon Angling group. Graham Ritchie approx 9lbs out of Gean Tree, Kevin James also nine pounds out of Gean Tree and Alan Hill six pounds out of Pol ma Cree.

Laggan had a quiet week reports Max McKinstrie with nothing added to their seaons tally.

Knockando Home beat was quiet reports Archie Bailiie with Sam Jarman landing a 10lber and had another one on and off. Other than that it was a quiet week with not a lot of fish being seen

Euan Clive at Phones also reports a quiet week with just one fish in the book but a good number of running fish were seen too, making their way upstream.

Talking of upstream Tulchan had another 20lb plus fish. I do not ahve any details on the lucky captor nor indeed other landing for the week but as you can see from the smile on the rod’s face his 27lb bar of chrome is a fish of a lifetime. the fish was taken from Tulchan D on Friday.

Castle Grant had a week of fine spring weather saw sport across all the beats reports Simon Crozier. The Brown party started of the week with 2 fish on Monday, a 12lb fish from the Dipper followed by a 10lb fish from Craig Roy. On Tuesday a fine 13lb fish was taken from Number1 Burn by Brian Anderson . Another 9 lb fish was taken from the Dipper on Thursday. On Friday Alison Taylor had a cracking fish which was weighed in the net at 16lbs in Delliefure, after a great tussle it was landed 60 yards downstream. The week was finished of with a 9lber from the Garra. Fish were showing across the beats and we look forward to next week.

Good to see Abernethy getting off the mark with a 9 lb fish on Tuesday

Grantown had a 9lber on Wednesday, caught by Robert Buchan from the cemetery pool at Inverallen.

Next week looks a bit mixed with weather a bit of light rain, some sun and temperatures sitting in the low teens. It will be good to see an uplift in the numbers being landed but only time will tell.

Tight lines

Sandy