Good evening all
Another week has bitten the dust on the 2024 season, time is marching on.
Not too bad a day here in Elgin, a few drizzly showers this morning and then it brightened up into a pleasant afternoon. A chance to do some shifting of pots on the patio and give the tomatoes a good look over. It is nice to see a number of them starting to ripen.
Farmers have been working hard getting the first cut of silage/hay/haylage into the pits/sheds or into plastic wrap. The once yellow fields of cut grass are now starting to green up again and hopefully a second cut will not be too far away. other crops seem to be doing well around Elgin, tatties are growing well and the bits and pieces of carrots are sprouting and looking healthy, certainly the damper summer we are experiencing is paying dividends.
As I mentioned last week the Spey Board have now brought out their Fish Handing and Photography guidelines for anglers, ghillies and angling clubs on the river. i think this is a step in the right direction as we aim to protect our iconic fish and not put them under anymore strain. I know a lot of people will see this “teaching an old dog new tricks” but there is no harm in reinforcing the handling and producing a reference guide. This may mean that some anglers will not have their fish photos uploaded if they do not meet the Boards requirements.
On the subject of the Board they are asking for all anglers/ghillies to inform them as soon as possible should they encounter the interloper that is a pink Salmon. A male was caught at Macallan this week and was dispatched as it the requirement so please be vigilant they are still about. A picture of the fish is below.

OK lets see what happened last week after another mixed week which saw a mid week rise and all seasons in a week.
Simon Crozier at Castle Grant reports that they were lightly fished last week . However some sport was had across our beats. A mixture of grilse and fairly clean salmon . Notable catches were 2 on Tuesday for Chris Jeffers from Pollowick. Max Mackinstrie had a fine fish of 11lb from the March, Scott Mackenzie had a fish of 7lb from Greenbank, 6lb grilse from Slophichar on Saturday a wee grilse from Craigroy . Some nice seatrout to 6 lbs were also caught . With warmer more settled conditions forecast we hope for more sport to come.




Heading down the river my next stop is Archie Baillie at Knockando who advises that they had a steady week catching fish every session. Can’t complain with that. They finished with 9 salmon between 9lb and 17lb, 6 grilse and a sea trout. Here’s the best one of the bunch.

At Carron, Ian Borthick confirms that they caught 11 salmon and 11 grilse for their week. There was one lucky fisher called Bob Walker who caught 15 of them. Well done to Bob, a week not to be forgotten in a hurry.
Across on the other bank, Max McKinstrie at Laggan reports that they finished their week with 10 Salmon and Grilse and 2 Sea trout. It is good to see the odd seatrout coming off the river, especially during the day.


My next port of call heading downstream is Delagyle where David Smillie advises that they had the “boss ” up for the week and his party finished with 7 this week. The lucky captors being J Smith 1 grilse, P DePass 1 grilse, Robert Astor 1 grilse and 1 salmon, a fresh approx 22lbs and David Astor 1 grilse and 2 salmon, 1 of 18lbs. Good to see the big fish are still in the mix and fresh ones too.
Kinermony ghillie David Brand reports that they made it to double figures this week with 7 grisle and 3 salmon added to the yearly tally. The anglers who had success were Mark Mcallmont, Bjorn karlson, Jon Stefan Thordarson, Des Kendal, Vic Wilson and Peter Wilkinson. Well done to all.


Malcolm Newbould who reports for Wester Elchies confirms it was not a good week with just three fish landed but as many lost.
Aberlour Angling club also has a quiet week with only one fish landed and few lost – possibly grilse with soft mouths??? We will never know.
Still heading down the river, Craigellachie is my next port of call where ghillie Dougie Ross advises of a decent week. A mix of grilse and summer salmon. A few more showing up. Hopefully we get some settled conditions.
At Easter Elchies, Orn Sigurhannson reports a week of roller coaster weather and water conditions with salmon, grilse and sea trout landed. The week started with perfect conditions, 8 inches on the gauge and overcast. A good start on Monday saw 3 salmon landed, including a 18lb from Red Craigs. Tuesday was bright sunshine all day and difficult fishing conditions. Wednesday was the start of the biblical 24 hour rain. Andy Brodie landed a grilse from the Boat Pool before the river started to rise and turn dirty. Despite the rain and lift in water, we were able to fish on Thursday and this proved to be our best day with 7 salmon and grilse landed. Friday and Saturday remained good fishing days with 3 and 5 landed on respective days. A final total of19 salmon and grilse and 6 sea trout landed for the week. Salmon up to 18lb and sea trout up to 5lb. A really enjoyable week in varying conditions.



Down at Arndilly, Head ghillie, Euan Reid advises that they welcomed Simon and Katie Browne and their party, which now includes grandchildren Otis, Cassie and little Poppy. We had a great week both in terms of fun people and catches.
We had 5 on Monday, George Browne, 12lb from Cobble Pot, Simon Browne 14 and 9, Jocks Tail, James Dixon 4lb, and Georgia Browne, 7lb ,both Back of the Bog.
We had 2 grilse on Tuesday, Charlie Browne and George Browne from Long Pool and Cobble Pot.
The rain came on Wednesday, and Bill Tyser had a couple of 5lb grilse from Bulwark, and Michaela Browne had her first fish from the concrete path.
Despite the 4ft rise overnight, we had 6 on Thursday with Jim Browne, 6lb Jocks Tail, Lucy Bardwell, 9.5lb and Paddy Peake, 6lb both Long Pool. Charlie Browne, Bill Tyser, and Michaela with her second ever were the others to score from Piles left and Cobble Pot (2).
Friday was odd in that if we’d landed what we hooked, we’d have had 20 in the morning! As it happens, we had 2 grilse from Bulwark and Long Pool for Jim and George.
We finished with a nice day on Saturday with 7.
Simon had 3 on a cascade variant(!) from Soo left and Cobble pot, Georgia, 7lb from Cobble Pot, Bill Tyser, 5lb jocks right , James Dixon 11.5lb from Piles, and Jim had a grilse from Cobble Pot.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t get fish for Katie Browne, Wendy Tyser, or Holly Browne this week, although all had a grip of fish, but they didn’t stay on. Holly lost 2 on Saturday afternoon! We’ll get you one next time, Holly.







Rothes and Aikenway is my next stop off point where Robbie Stronach reports that they ended up with 21 for the week . On Monday Mrs Green landed one in Creeky, Mr Green got one in Burnmouth and Mr Oughtred got one in Creeky. OnTuesday Mr Oughtred and Mr Munro-Ferguson both got one from Creeky. Wednesday saw a single fish landed with Mrs Bladon getting one from Creeky. Thursday was a two fish day with Mrs Bladon landing one from Jamieson and Mr Munro-Ferguson had one from Creeky.
Friday saw both Mr and Mrs green land fish in Burnmouth, Mr Bladon and Mr Barstow both landed from junction, Mr Bladon had a further fish from Town Road and Mr Barstow had one in Creeky.
Saturday was a good day with Mrs Bladon getting 3 from Burnmouth and another from Junction, Mr Munro-Ferguson had one from Carnegie and one from Creeky. Aaron, the under ghillie also had a fish in Burnmouth to finish the week
As we get nearer to the end of the weekly journey down the river, Mark Melville at Delfur confirms another good week catching just short of 50 fish with 2/3rds multi sea winter salmon up to 16lb and a 1/3rd of great conditioned grilse with some reaching 6lb in weight. Everyone caught fish led by longtime tenant Mr Nicky Mountain who started his week with 3 on Monday morning up to 14lb!
It was a privilege to celebrate Mr Nicky’s 71st fishing season here at Delfur with his family and friends.
He has been fishing here every year since his father Sir Brian Mountain bought the beat back in the early 1950s!
Listening to his stories of days gone by with phenomenal catches at times is a real pleasure.
Hopefully the coming week is another productive one as the river settles away.















Andy Gunn reports that they had a great week at Orton with catches dominated by young anglers. Their enthusiasm was wonderful to see. They have come on a lot since last year. In particular Georgia Dobbs who by the end of the week was throwing a fabulous line. Despite torrential rain and a rise in water mid week we managed to make it into the twenties with a mixture of fresh grilse and salmon.
All the pools produced fish with pods of fish spotted throughout the week. The weather and water temperature was particularly cool and may be a reason for the fish running hard through the beat. Notable catches included the first of the week landed by Donald Ogilvy Watson in Cairnty, 3 fish for young angler Sophie Dobbs with 2 of them being 13lbs, 4 fish for young Ollie Dobbs, and a beautiful 12 pounder for his younger cousin Geoffrey Dobbs. Paddy Corcoran had the best of the week, a 14 pounder from The Willows. David had a lovely 12 pounder from Island Stream and Ginny Webb had a sea trout and grilse from the Willows.
Georgia had 2 offers but neither stuck. If the running grilse had taken with more conviction results would have been better, as a lot of fish lost with many brief encounters keeping the anglers on their toes.











Our penultimate stop is Gordon Castle and Brae Water where Lewis Webb advises a week of two halves for them.
Starting slower than we would have liked with Wednesday certainly testing the waterproofs and a good wind to test even the most avid of fishers. We battled through and were rewarded with some fish until the coloured water wrote off the river late afternoon. We finished the week strong with Friday being our busiest day of the week ending up with 24 fish to the bank by the end of play. We continued catching on Saturday finishing the week in the 50s
A great mix of grilse, summer salmon and the odd older fish being caught.


















We’ve had some amazing experiences with a young team this week great to see the next generation coming into the sport with such open views on what the sport stands for, not just numbers Had 12 year old Edward Clough not lost his first fish just seconds from the net on Friday, it would have been the perfect week!
It is so pleasing to see that both Orton and Gordon Castle/Brae Water entertained younger rods, with a good number of them catching their first fish, this is the generation we need to encourage into the sport, get them hooked and have them come back to the river in future years.
Our Final stop of the week is Fochabers Angling Association where Andy Milne confirms a quiet start to the week where they had nothing until Friday but then ended up with 4 grilse and 4 salmon the best of which was 17lb caught by Ian Tennant.
Next week looks a bit mixed again but the hope is for another settled week where we could hopefully see similar numbers returned.
Tight lines to those out and about.
Sandy