A.D.A.A. Angling Reports 2010

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River Dee 2010 Season review

Salmon Rod Catches for FishDee beats for the 2010 season are as follows.

February 154 salmon,
March 342 salmon,
April 604 salmon,
May 985 salmon,
June 746 salmon,
July 744 salmon,
August 1312 salmon,
September 1762 salmon and
October 703 salmon.

There is no facility from FishPal to separate Grilse catches from Salmon catches. This gives a total of 7352 salmon and grilse catch from FishDee beats. This is a 27.4% increase on last year's catch which was viewed as a very decent season overall.

Sea Trout rod catches for FishDee beats for the 2010 season are as follows.

March 11 sea trout,
April 63 sea trout,
May 493 sea trout,
June 1172 sea trout,
July 455 sea trout,
August 161 sea trout,
September 133 sea trout and
October 44 sea trout.

This gives a total of 2,532 sea trout from FishDee beats which is a significant recovery from 2 years ago when the catch was less than 1,200 sea trout.

River conditions were difficult during the early months of the season due to extreme cold days with quite a number of fishing days lost to the presence of grue causing fishing effort to come to a virtual standstill. The extreme cold conditions persisted until the middle of March which meant early running fish were keeping their heads down. When conditions warmed up fish got on the move and this was helped by regular lifts in water levels. The high snow mass in the mountains certainly helped sustain river levels for a long time and many commented that the spring weather was like the good old days. Having looked at water levels throughout the season we have been remarkably lucky with regular spates and freshets throughout the spring, summer and autumn. This really helped keep fish on the move and ensured anglers were capitalising on the opportunities that the good water conditions provided.

Catches recovered during the spring and by the end of May the catch was 2083 salmon which was an increase of 23.1 % over last year and well ahead of the 5 year average. Considering how tough conditions were this was excellent news and congratulations to all anglers who fished hard during really trying conditions. There were the usual crop of big 3 sea winter fish running throughout March and early April and there were numerous good fish landed from the lower and middle beats. As always there were many visitors to Deeside who arrive from Scandinavia who take advantage of excellent air travel opportunities. The Scandinavian anglers add an extra dimension to Deeside during the spring where they really enjoy the opportunity to fish for springers during their long close season. These visitors are always welcome in Deeside and they fish hard and diligently with their Monkey Flies and Temple Dogs. Some talented Scandinavian anglers like Reid Hagelin and Mikael Frödin have been visiting Deeside for many years and bring many visitors to Deeside who in turn bring their friends over to experience the challenges of fishing for Springers.

Summer came to Deeside and large numbers of fish were on the move to the upper beats with beats reporting really good catches and good numbers being seen running. To cap it all off there appeared to be really good runs of sea trout coming into the river which provided great sport for anglers fishing on into the evening. There were some remarkable sea trout catches in June with beats like Birse and Waterside having real bonanzas. As there were regular rises in river levels in June, July and August conditions favoured anglers and fish seemed to just keep on running with good grilse numbers arriving as well. The catches continued to rise and there was fantastic sport in late summer during August and September which saw salmon catches for these two months exceeding 3000 which would have been very much appreciated by many of the long standing tenants who take fishing on the River.

The season finished on the 30th September and the two week trial fishing extension for scientific research commenced where anglers were able to fish and this allows Ghillies the opportunity to record catches, take scale samples and record the condition of fish. Fish from beats between Banchory and Aboyne were radio tagged by River Dee biologists and readers can follow their progress at www.riverdeetracking.com which is a new website set up to allow people to follow the progress of this year's tracking, as well as reading the full reports from the previous two years. This is very important research which will help the River Dee Board consider if it is appropriate to possibly extend the fishing season. I understand no decisions will be made until the Trust reports to the River Dee Board next spring. As it was the fishing continued for a fortnight and many anglers reported seeing good runs of new silver fish in the lower beats which were running the river. It promises to be a good spawning season with perhaps in excess of 80,000 salmon in the catchment and 20,000 sea trout.

There have been some really big fish reported by anglers and it is frustrating for anglers who land them to find they have no way of having these fish verified because they don't capture good images or take accurate measurements. I would urge anglers to take a pocket tape measure to record the dimensions of big fish they are fortunate to land and if possible have the fish photographed where it can be reasonably accurately scaled against an object i.e. beside a fishing rod and take some scales which can be subsequently read by the River Dee biologists. The Park Trophy is awarded to the angler who catches the largest verified rod caught salmon and it appears that the largest verified rod caught salmon that was accurately verified and measured, was caught by Jesper Holm Nielsen at Lower Dess. The fish was a fraction under 45 inches and was assessed to be 30lbs by Ghillies Colin Simpson and Eoin Smith at Dess. If there is a bigger fish recorded that has not been reported then please write to me with details at ken@riverdee.org

There have been extensive weekly reports with many images provided to the media which can be viewed at the excellent Salmon Atlas website this link as well as many other Fora. We have created a Facebook site for FishDee which has extensive image galleries where images have been supplied by many anglers to me in their correspondence. The site can be accessed here this link Most internet sites I use for media work are free sites but you have to register with them to view content. This does not mean you get inundated with spam, and they are an interesting diversion for anglers wishing to chat and share news. We have also been actively developing the FishDee website where we have a link to a web camera at Potarch Bridge on the river levels page. We also delighted to have launched the FishDee Megastore which has been kindly provided by Mr Paul Devlin and this can be accessed at www.fishdeemegastore.com Proceeds from all transactions are going to the River Dee and helping with much needed restoration projects being carried out throughout the River Dee catchment where the River Dee staff endeavour to restore the river to its former glories. The website provides anglers with a massive range of highly competitively priced fishing products from arguably the largest tackle dealer in Europe. We are delighted to have many guest contributors commenting about what the River Dee means to them and what tackle they choose to use on the River. I would urge all anglers whether UK or Europe to try out the website where I am sure they will be delighted with the value and service provided and in the process help support the well being of the River Dee in the future.

To finish what has been a very good season for anglers fishing the River Dee, I would like to thank many people. Firstly, the directors of FishDee and River Director Mark Bilsby, for their support and help in developing the site and providing encouragement and support. I would like to thank Edward Humphrey, Ian Scott, Shane Christie and other Ghillies and Proprietors who have helped cast a helpful eye on these reports prior to publication, to help ensure we have a good balance to the weekly reports.

Finally I would like to thank all readers who have been ever so kind by writing to me and sharing their news, anecdotes and opinions about their experiences fishing on Deeside. I really cannot thank you enough for your support and for the enjoyment I get on receiving your correspondence. The reports would be a pale shadow of what they are without this most generous support and help. I wish all readers a happy Christmas when it comes and a prosperous new year. The 2011 salmon fishing season will soon be upon us and I sincerely hope the salmon and sea trout runs continue to grow and provide all anglers with much enjoyment. Make sure you keep an eye on the find fishing page to book fishing next year as demand is sure to be high.

PROSPECTS FOR COMING WEEK

River Dee

We enter the last few days of the trial extension where anglers are fishing on lower and middle Dee beats,  assisting our busy River Dee biologists by catching salmon that may be radio tagged and monitored throughout the winter as part of the River Dee Trust's 3 year scientific research programme. The conditions for visiting anglers look really ideal with high pressure dominating and providing calm weather conditions.  Air temperature maxima will b around 12-15 degrees Celsius daily with overnight lows falling to a few degrees above freezing, perhaps there will be overnight frosts as it will turn distinctively cooler when the sun dips below the horizon. There will be very light winds, if any, and these will be from the south with virtually no rainfall worthy of concern. This means the river levels will drop a bit through the week. The Sepa gauges are currently between 7 inches at Mar Lodge and 1 foot 5 inches at Park. The maritime influence sees tides dropping back from 4.5 metres to 3.3 metres which will ensure any fish wishing to come forward into the river will be able to do so.

As always, please seek advice from your beat Ghillie, who will advise on tackle set up and fly choice whilst visiting your chosen beat. There are a few rods left on the FishDee for anglers looking for a last cast before the river closes on Friday. The Ghillies have worked really hard to ensure anglers get some success, and it pays to heed their wise advice and counsel as they know their beats intimately and how to  give you the best chance of success. If you don’t have the services of a Ghillie to call on then you should use a sink tip or intermediate line with a stout leader and small tube fly. Popular Fly choices at this time of year include the red or black Francis fly, small monkey fly, Willie Gunn or Cascade or perhaps a Templedog.

Reports suggest the pools are full of fish and cock fish are becoming quite aggressive in the pool tails, where they are establishing territories prior to the spawning season kicking off in about 4 weeks time when the water really cools. All fish need to be handled firmly and returned quickly to the river to ensure minimum stress. Salmon will recover within 24-48 hours if returned promptly to the river properly, and please ensure you do not lift a salmon by the tail, but support it with both hands when removing your fly and returning it to the river. Support it pointing upstream in the current, and hold it until it is ready to swim away strongly; this could take a few minutes.

Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As European rivers are now open to anglers its imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O'Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. For anglers looking for ideal equipment to use on the River Dee then please look into or consult the tackle dealers who advertise on this site as well as our FishDee megastore for products and advice. I would be really most grateful if you would forward any stories or anecdotes and pictures to me at ken@riverdee.org and remember to log onto www.riverdee.org to access our latest newsletters. Copyright FishDee Ltd, October 2010

LAST WEEK                

This is the final weekly report of the 2010 salmon fishing season and the River Dee is still producing good numbers of salmon to anglers from Aboyne to Aberdeen. I have just returned from Prague and was eager to see how the catches have been going for the last few days; the lower beats have been doing extremely well as I had hoped.

FishDee beats have reported so far 328 salmon to 23lbs and 15 sea trout to 4lbs, with Tilbouries reporting 40 salmon, Upper Drum 37 salmon and Lower Crathes 28 salmon. There were other good catches around Ballogie, Commonty and Carlogie, as well as Birse at Aboyne. I was advised by our biologist Dr Lorraine Hawkins that there were a lot of small silver fish caught on middle Dee beats last week that were too small to radio tag. The radio tagging is going well and readers can follow the progress of the radio tagged fish at our new website www.riverdeetracking.com where we are naming the fish after 60 school children from 3 local primary schools who are involved in this year’s project.

There are reports of some big fish being caught with Stuart Yeats from Blairs advising that Rory Campbell had a fine fresh 23lb salmon and that his father Graham had sea liced specimens of 18lbs and 22lbs. Dave Gordon was also successful with a fish of over 20 lbs of which more to follow. I have also heard of really big fish being hooked and lost from lower and middle Dee beats, so perhaps we may see a really big fish landed before the season extension closes on Friday. The Park Trophy is up for grabs for the biggest rod caught salmon from the Dee that is witnessed and verified so please ensure you have your entry submitted to me at   ken@riverdee.org

Dave Gordon from the River Dee Trust had a productive day last week and his detailed report is as follows." I had 3 pulls in quick succession on my first run down the first pool Then I had a really good pull and hooked firmly into a fish of about 10lbs, a coloured hen, which fought really well, a real tough fish. I was just returning it when my Ghillie appeared, flashing the truck lights to stop me putting it back right away. He managed to get some scale and genetic samples from it. I feel that this aids the scientific research during the trial extension to the season. I fished the rest of the morning and had the odd knock but no serious offers.

A leisurely lunch with great craic, and then a change of beat, again south bank, and my favourite casting side.  I was happy about this. However the downstream wind was going to prove difficult. Again plenty of fish about though, and great to see many were residents, to be expected at this time of year. Though some were coloured residents, I saw some bright shiny fish charging upstream; heading for the hills I guess. In the afternoon I had another knock or two then a solid take from a larger fish, probably 14lbs, a silvery cock fish that fought very well taking me well into the backing, loads of jumps and hard runs. I had to walk it well upstream to find a place to land it. It had been in a few days, probably a week or so. It had a tiny kype, and was only just definable as a cock fish to me, so properly fresh. So a 50 / 50 split between fresh and coloured fish, probably what you would expect at the back end any Scottish river in dropping water.

Again I fished my way downstream and I had the odd knock, and then a really solid take and a fish that splashed on the surface and then gave a real dogged fight. The ghillie on the other bank shouted to ask if I needed help and I shouted back that I thought it was a good one, so he phoned my ghillie that drove round to help. The fish gave a really good account of itself, a dogged fight but also with some spectacular runs. I had seen its tail a couple of times, and it was both large and a long way from where my line was entering the water. It probably took 25 minutes to land, expertly netted by my ghillie. Again this was a large hen fish, quite coloured and it weighed 21lbs, an absolute cracker, and my largest on the fly, actually my largest on an anything! We got our genetic and scale samples and took a quick photo. I held the fish gently in the current, supporting it on the bottom. We discussed the fish and its condition, and that it was recovering well. Its dorsal fin rose up and I could see it was recovering fast. Then the fish shot off in a shower of spray, clearly none the worse for its encounter with me. I fished on, but as I was floating a couple of feet above the bank I did not mind what happened next. Mark Bilsby, River Dee Director visited me and during our discussions he watched me expertly miss an obvious take, but who cares, a red letter day, and my last day of the season on the Dee."

I will write a season review once the season has finished, but in the meantime I would like to take the opportunity to publicly thank so many people for assisting me this season with the production of the River Dee fishing reports. Firstly I would like to thank all the anglers who very kindly took time out of their schedules to write to me about their experiences on Deeside. Without their contributions the reports would be a pale shadow of what they are. I would like to thank both River Dee Ghillies and Beat Proprietors, who have worked so hard in looking after visiting anglers to Deeside and accommodating their needs. Anglers have been fulsome of praise for the support and advice given by Ghillies and Proprietor, and there is no doubt that this has helped many visiting anglers enjoy their experiences even more so.

Finally I would like to thank all the accommodation providers, restaurant and hostelries, and service providers, the length and breadth of Deeside for looking after our many visitors, as visitors have been highly complementary about the quality service they have received and enjoyed. We head into the winter months and many beats are embarking on improvements and maintenance prior to the 2011 salmon fishing season commencing next February.

It's been a good year, and all the FishDee team and directors wish all a Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year when it comes, and hope the salmon run in increasing numbers again next year, when once again anglers travel from far and wide to experience the magic of Royal Deeside. Keep in touch during the close season for news by writing to me by e-mail to ken@riverdee.org  Copyright FishDee Ltd, October 2010

The River Don

Prospects for coming week

The River Don Report

The Don has had a really spectacular month, with anglers from top to the tide reporting good salmon catches.
Trout catches have slowed down, although I have a couple of unconfirmed reports of a 7lb trout from the Inverurie area, however with most anglers now concentrating on the large numbers of salmon, the trout activity is bound to slow down. Michal Ostrowski reports “on Friday the 9th it had been raining the day before and the water was dirty.
In spite of that and the discouraging comments of other anglers, I decided to go to the upper part of the River Don ADAA waters at the Manse pool, upper Fintray.
After checking  the water level, I thought there would be better situation, but it wasn't.
I started to fish, using spinning and 5cm long wobbler made  by Polish company Salmo, resembling brown trout.
Two hours without any biting, and then there was a trout, 53cm long, caught near the river bank, released, it weighed 4lb
 
Jeremy Hopkins has also had some success on the ADAA waters, he reports “I guess you must have heard from ADAA members how well the lower Don has been doing these past few weeks. I caught 3 (largest 20lbs sea liced) one day,2 the next and 1 two evenings later at Lower Parkhill 2 weeks ago, another at Kemnay when the water was a bit big lower down last Saturday and lost 3 (one on the rim of the landing net) on Monday within 30 minutes of starting to fish the Goval Pool-yesterday I personally didn't touch a thing (I only fly fish) but saw 6 being caught in the Goval Pool, all on spinner.”
 
The ADAA’s Don waters certainly have been spectacular, with a rough count of well over 230 salmon for the month this is excellent fishing, and with fish ranging from 2-3lbs to well over 20 lbs the Don certainly is on top form. What is surprising is that even with these large number of fish being taken the river is still not being hard fished. Some pools are busy but in general you can have miles of water to yourself and with large number of fish in the river this could be the cream of the dons fishing
 
I also hear that the Grandhome fishings have been doing well, with over 60 in one week, again with fish in excess of 20lbs.
 
Continuing up river Alistair Macintyre tells me of a good day he had earlier in the month, when he had 3 fish in an evening session in kintore.
“All three fish were taken on a 9cm countdown rapala (silver/black). The water on the Wednesday was high following a spell of heavy rain and quite coloured. The wind was a fresh NWesterly and I phoned the wife to say I would not be out long as it was quite cold. Within five minutes I was taken close to the bank and actually thought the fish was larger than 10lbs but I think this was due to the extra flow of water. I also lost another fish soon after.
 
Again on the Saturday there had been a spell of heavy rain the night before and the river had risen a wee bit. The interesting thing was the 7lb fish. I was at the neck of a pool that has a fast run to the far bank that goes into deep water. I had fished this for the first time on the Friday and identified it as a likely spot for future reference.
 
I casted to the far bank and let the rapala fish in the fast flow before starting to reel in as it hit the deep water. You know how the rod tip twitches as the rapala swims? Well it kind of felt as if it was swimming wrong so I looked to where the lure was in the water and saw the flash of flank. I continued to reel in when I saw another flash in the coloured water and the fish took.
 
I actually think the fish had the lure in its mouth when I felt it was swimming wrong and saw the first flash. This makes sense to me as I remove the tail treble and double up the split ring on the middle hook so that hook goes just a wee bit further back along the body as the lure swims. I must admit this is a first for me to actually see a salmon take a lure and I found it very exciting and the anticipation of whether it would come back for another go was great.


Reports from the Inverurie area and above show again excellent sport, and at castle Forbes Ian Walls, or River and Green told me of a part he had fishing with him there:
My clients did well on the Don. They were supposed to have fished 4 rods for two days, but as it turned out the Friday was unfishable due to the water having come up and coloured. On the Saturday, only two rods fished and they had two fish - both reasonably fresh fish of about 8lbs and 10lbs. I fished for 20 minutes on the Saturday and managed one coloured hen fish of about 12lbs. All fish were returned. We were on the Forbes Castle water (Beats 1 and 4)


So the Don is in top form, best for many years. I expect that the good sport will continue into next month, with each raise in levels bringing in new fresh fish, it could easily be a record season.
 
Jim Kerr, river superintendant reports;
It has been one of the best months of the year with between 800-900 salmon landed for the month of September. Anglers all over the river Don system have had a terrific month, on the ADAA waters alone over 300 salmon were recorded. Grandhome fishing’s on the lower river managed to land just over 100 salmon for the month; there were some nice size class fish of 20lb 18lb and 16lb salmon. The paper mill waters of Mugiemoss and Stoneywood mill fishing’s have also done well, The Town waters of Kintore, Inverurie, and Alford have had great success for the month, with many individual anglers landing 6 salmon for their day. On the Monymusk estate fishing’s, the Phillip wood party had 24 salmon, largest 19lb. On the Castle Forbes waters all visiting angling parties have done exceptionally well for the month. The Castle are not prepared to release figures or names of their guests for any publication, all they have said is that they have had a excellent month for catches. Two fishing guests on the Littlewood estate waters landed 11 salmon for their two days fishing. The estate waters of Brux, Ardhuncart, Kildrummy, Towie, Glenkindie have all had reasonable catches for September as has Semeil fishing’s at Strathdon. There are many beats and individual anglers that have done well but do not wish to be mentioned.

 STOP PRESS
Iain Morrison, River Don Trust Chairman had a fine 6lb grilse this morning, it was one of two he hooked in an hours fishing.(4th.) it was taken in high water at the bottom of the Kemnay beat and although it was not sea lice it was sparkling fresh. It was expertly netted by my good self, I am still awaiting my tip!
 
 
Please keep the reports coming, I enjoy reading and sharing them, you can report to me at reports@riverdon.org.uk

Donsider

The River Dee

Prospects for coming week

The River Dee

Recent Catches

Another solid weeks sport last week for anglers fishing the River Dee with FishDee beats reporting so far 360 salmon to 25 lbs and 22 sea trout to 5 lbs which is over 6,200 salmon, and 2450 sea trout for the season, and there are still rods available for anglers to come and fish the river during September, and the season extension fortnight until the 15th October for scientific research. As we head into the last few days of the salmon fishing season there is no doubt that there are good stocks of fish in the river as they are visible, with the cock fish becoming more aggressive and territorial. Now to individual beats results; Park reported 53 salmon for their week, Kingcausie reported 38, Upper Drum reported 30 for the week and Tilbouries had another excellent week with 28 fish, giving the beat their best seasons total for many years. The river is full of fish from top to bottom which is really encouraging to see for visiting anglers, with many commenting favourably about their experiences on the river. We all hope that the fish go on to spawn successfully and start the lifecycle again for another generation of River Dee salmon.

Now to the reports which have arrived over the weekend and this morning. Firstly Mr Robert Fuller wrote 'The Hawkins Week- I thought you might like to attach the following report concerning the activities of the 11 members of the Hawkins Week (named in memory of the late Richard Hawkins who died in 2008).This relates to our week’s fishing commencing 13th September through to Saturday 18th September last. The 11 rods fish on 5 beats being Birse, Carlogie, Ballogie, Borrowston and Park South (Durris) rotating so that each member fishes different water every day. We managed to land 27 salmon and 4 sea trout which very much reflected the difficult conditions
experienced with the water rising and falling with effect from Monday evening through to Thursday.  The best sport was had on Monday morning, Friday and Saturday with Peter Stovold landing 4 fish to his own rod at Ballogie and Borrowston during Saturday.

The recipient of the Hawkins Trophy for the largest cock caught before Friday evening went to Graeme Dixon with his 16 ½ lb fish which he took out of the Gannets at Ballogie Unfortunately Richard Taylor managed to better this on Saturday with the largest fish of the week being a 20lb cock taken out of the Greenbanks at Borrowston which didn’t qualify. Unfortunately 4 of the team managed to blank all week (possibly as a result of extended lunches) with  Messrs Peter Stovold and Paul Saunders catching 5 each and the team leader Robert Fuller catching 7 and a sea trout even though he only fished on 5 days. All in all another wonderful week and it is so exciting to know that the salmon fisheries of Scotland are returning to their former glory. Regards, Robert Fuller.' It sounds like they had an enjoyable week with some successful and some not so. How true the motto of the Fly fishers club 'PISCATOR NON SOLUM PISCATUR' (It is not all of fishing to fish).

I was also delighted to receive an e-mail from Raymond Drysdale who had a very enjoyable time visiting Sluie for a few days and he advised ' Dear Ken, On only my 2nd visit to the Dee I had fantastic sport catching salmon each day and a Sea Trout, I had salmon of 9lb - a bar of silver, 6lb, and three 3lb grilse and a 2lb Sea Trout. On the Saturday I also had a magnificent cock salmon of 20lb which put up a terrific fight making this a visit I will never forget, catching most on Stoats tail flies and the 20lb one on a Park Shrimp. I must add I received good advice from the beat owner Richard Strang Steel when the river levels rose. I have enclosed some pics of the 20lber, all were safely returned. Regards Raymond'  I have to agree the photographs indicate a truly impressive salmon in full 'wedding dress'- if you didn't know the lifecycle of salmon you could be forgiven for thinking that the Spring Atlantic salmon and autumn Atlantic cock salmon were two different species of fish. Where for example, the appearances of the Atlantic salmon can be compared to the Pacific Coho salmon in the spring, and the Pacific Chum salmon in the autumn as it approaches sexual maturity.

Finally I would like to mention Roy Anderson who was fishing at the productive Kingcausie beat last week with some success who commented to Henry Irvine Fortescue 'Many thanks to Ghillie Gordon Welsh for being on hand to net my big fish for me. Couldn't believe I then went on to catch another one around 15lb and finally a grilse about 6lb but just out of the sea. I had a brilliant day.' I am delighted to see anglers enjoying good back end sport at Kingcausie and hope many more fish are caught before the fishing season finally concludes.

Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As European rivers are now open to anglers it’s imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O'Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. For anglers looking for ideal equipment to use on the River Dee then please look into or consult the tackle dealers who advertise on this site as well as our FishDee Megastore for products and advice. I would be really most grateful if you would forward any stories or anecdotes and pictures to me at ken@riverdee.org and remember to log onto www.riverdee.org to access our latest newsletter Copyright FishDee Ltd, September 2010

Prospects

As we enter the last few days of the 2010 River Dee salmon fishing season we are delighted to have reasonable weather conditions forecast for our anglers. There will be a two week experimental extension until the 15th October to allow scientific research to be undertaken. Any fishing undertaken during this period is strictly fly only and all fish must be returned to the River-Bailiffs will be patrolling the River to ensure these guidelines are adhered to. The air temperature maxima will be between 11 degrees Celsius during the days and dropping back overnight to a few degrees above zero. There are some showers forecast with perhaps heavier rain on Wednesday and again later in the week. It will be reasonably calm for the first few days of the week however winds are expected to to get stronger as we head in to the weekend. Current river levels are between 9 inches and 1 foot 7 inches on the Sepa gauges which are really ideal now that they have dropped back from a significant rise last week. The maritime influence shows high tides dropping back from 4.2 metres to 3.5 metres and rising again at the weekend to 3.7 metres.
There has been a web camera installed at Ballogie beat overlooking the Potarch bridge which has gone live so people with access to the internet can look at current conditions by visiting http://www.farsondigital.co.uk/potarch_bridge/live.php We have also set up a Facebook site with hundreds of images and video links related to angling on Deeside and readers can visit this site at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15517&id=112852245438009#!/pages/FishDee/112852245438009?ref=ts

With decent conditions for angling forecast, it is hoped catches will continue in the same vein as the last few weeks, promising good end of season totals. We have been most fortunate to have been blessed with reasonably good water levels for most of the season and this pattern appears to be continuing. With water temperature now around 5-6 degrees then it is advantageous to seek the advice from your Ghillie on how you fish the beat with falling water temperatures. The River Dee Ghillies will give advice on what flies to use and where to fish on your allocated beat. The Ghillies are extremely knowledgeable and can enrich the value of your fishing experience on the Dee. If you do not have the services of a Ghillie then you will want to fly fish and the patterns to use will be Flamethrowers, Park shrimps, Ally's shrimps, Pot Bellied pig tube flies, Monkey tubes or Sunray shadows fished with a slow retrieve. Make sure you wrap up well as the air does feel significantly cooler these last few weeks. River Dee biologists and bailiffs are out radio tagging rod caught fish and tracking them, so you may encounter the River staff during the course of the week. You can follow progress of radio tagged fish migrating upriver throughout the winter at our new website www.riverdeetracking.com Please ensure you handle fish very carefully as they need all their strength to see them through the arduous spawning process over the next few months when the spawning season commences.

Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As European rivers are now open to anglers it’s imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O'Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. For anglers looking for ideal equipment to use on the River Dee then please look into or consult the tackle dealers who advertise on this site as well as our FishDee megastore for products and advice. I would be really most grateful if you would forward any stories or anecdotes and pictures to me at ken@riverdee.org and remember to log onto www.riverdee.org to access our latest newsletter Copyright FishDee Ltd, September 2010

Don Prospects

The grilse are still arriving in good numbers, and with a river in the river expected late in the week I believe this is going to continue. The autumn run of larger salmon should start soon as well, so the fishing soon could be spectacular

I am seeing a number of anglers having 3, 4 5 and 6 fish days in the river from Netherdon to Inverurie and number will be building up well. Any of the ADAA, Shire council, Inverurie waters are a good bet but Semil, Kildrummy and Cottown will also be holding good numbers of fish
Alistair McIntyre tells me “On Wednesday of last week (25th August) I caught a 10lb cock salmon and on Saturday of last week (28th August) I caught salmon of 7lb (hen) and 6lb (cock). These fish were taken in the Kintore area and returned safely.

Brown trout are still being caught, with reasonable numbers of fish to about a pound being encountered, the larger fish will again begin to be encountered towards the ends of the season, but like their larger cousins, at this time of year they are best left to visit the redds!



I am grateful for the fishing reports I have received to date, these will all be included in the end of month report.

Please keep them coming, send them to : reports@riverdon.org.uk

Dee Prospects

After the best weeks catches for the season last week I would pray for the same again this week. Whether these prayers are answered is a different matter-time will tell. We have a real autumn feel to the weather now with a strong depression homing in on Scotland over the next few days with strong winds forecast and the potential for some really heavy rain at times during the week. If it is not too much then it will be a blessing as the River levels have dropped to between 4 inches and 8 inches on the Sepa gauges.

Air temperature maxima will be around 18 degrees however the winds will make it feel considerably colder. This may well put a lot of fish in the mood to respond to a well presented fly. The maritime influence sees high tides rising from 4.0 metres during the week to 4.8 metres on Friday and Saturday which should bring new fish forward into the lower beats which are really starting to see really good sport. There will be a mixture of Grilse and big back end salmon and perhaps we may see some real big ones landed this week. I would urge anglers to snap up what fishing is available as there will be really good potential for some good sport. Jim Coates for example has had over 20 salmon during his last 4 days on the River fishing in the lower reaches.

Finding yourself on the riverbank with pools full of salmon is tremendously exciting, but to get them to take your fly can be a different matter. To give yourself the best opportunity of success then listed to the wise counsel from your beat Ghillie. Our expert team of Ghillies can really make the difference and ensure you have the best chance of good sport by providing advice on fly choice, line selection, and where to fish in your allotted beat. I always listen to their advice and am always delighted to report to them successes based on their suggestions. If you do not have the services of a Ghillie to call on then you should select your equipment to suit the conditions, which may be changeable through the week. I would think a floating line with sink tip would be useful to utilise with fly, perhaps a size 8-12 hook. Popular patterns at this time of the year are Park Shrimp, Allys Shrimp (in orange or red) Flamethrower, Silver Stoats tail, small sunray or monkey fly. Another option would be to fish a small heavy Willie Gunn or Pot Bellied pig tube fly, and work it across the stream a little faster than a conventional down and across cast. Fish will be found in greater numbers in the pool tails now as well as in the main taking lies. Mornings and evenings may see the best movement of salmon and perhaps the best opportunities for catching fish with lower beats seeing fish coming off every tide and entering the river. I would urge anglers to handle fish carefully and return them quickly to the river.

Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As European rivers are now open to anglers its imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O'Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. I would be really most grateful if you would forward any stories or anecdotes and pictures to me at ken@riverdee.org and remember to log onto www.riverdee.org to access our latest newsletter Copyright FishDee Ltd, September 2010

Recent Catches

As I write I am delighted to advise it has been the best week of the salmon fishing season for catches on the River Dee, with so far 395 salmon and 34 sea trout being reported by FishDee beats and perhaps a few more to come once Saturday evening numbers are reported. There were some excellent daily results with days of 99 and 95 in midweek. Well done to the party of anglers fishing at Cairnton who had 21 salmon to 22lbs which will have pleased expert Ghillie David Cowie. Park reported 73 salmon for their week, Lower Crathes reported 35 to 2 fishermen for their week which delighted Ghillies Robert Harper and Robert Fettes, and Jim Paton's Upper Drum beat reported 24 salmon. Good to see catches over the 20 mark also reported from Altries and Ballogie. We had good falling river levels last week which encouraged fish to get on the move and it appears there were good runs of new salmon and grilse. Some milestones were achieved last week with Karl Revel commenting 'Hi Ken, I'm glad to report that our 200th salmon of the season was caught on Friday 3rd Sept. It was a small grilse, one of four salmon caught by regular Dee visitor Jim Reid from Edinburgh. All of the fish were taken on Carron Shrimps neatly tied by himself. Tight lines! Karl'. Ballogie Ghillie Sean Stanton also reported catching their 200th salmon of the season to his own rod. Edward Humphrey wants to congratulate Aboyne Castle Ghillie, the popular Alec Coutts, who so far this season has had his best ever season since he joined in 1989 with 170 salmon beating his previous best year of 165 salmon. Edward mentioned 'All our anglers will want to recognise Alec's fine achievement in reaching this milestone and we are homing in on the all time beat record now' There will have been many happy anglers and Ghillies on the river last week. All these fine catches last week take FishDee beats through the 5,000 mark for the salmon season with a good few productive weeks to follow, where there are still rods available on the FishDee website. I would urge anglers to book fishing now as there are good numbers of fish throughout the catchment with some super back end beats in the lower river offering rods.

I was very pleased to receive an e-mail from well known fisherman Richard Donkin, who's an excellent writer and is published widely. He is a regular Deeside visitor with his wife Gill, and he reported 'Just back from the Dee after a good week at Ballogie. I had six fish but my wife Gillian, had the big ones - 20 lb, 19lb and 16lb. I lost a very big one, but there we are. I wrote up the catches on my blog and there are other pictures there. I would be happy if you wanted to use any on the FishDee site. Best regards, Richard' Like all keen salmon fishers it's always exciting reading stories of peoples success, even more so when big fish are involved. Richard sadly lost a huge fish and you can read fully about his dramatic exciting encounter on his entertaining blog http://donkinonfishing.blogspot.com/2010/08/big-salmon-and-one-that-got-awayagain.html .I will give you a little sample to digest, lifted from his blog, which I always find highly entertaining. Richard writes 'There were some big fish about on the Aberdeenshire Dee last week. Really big ones, the sort you dream about, that entice you back to the river time and again in the hope of hooking in to one. I did just that a few years ago. It tore off down the pool with such power and at such a rate I felt utterly helpless to stop it, and when, finally, I put on the pressure in an attempt to turn it, it took my hook. It was a little after 7 pm when I waded to the top of the pool and cast in to the spot that I knew held some good fish. I could see the boil around a submerged rock and it was around that boil, just two casts later that my line stopped dead. The thought that I might have snagged the rock had barely formed in my head as in a swirl of water, a great fan shaped tail broke the surface and the biggest salmon I have ever hooked began to run, stripping line from my reel at an alarming rate.' He also comments in his article 'How big was it? It was very big; into the forties I would guess, knowing this is bound to attract the sceptics. It was fresh too and full of fight. I've had several fish around the 20 lbs mark, some of them springers - the biggest running to 23 lbs - and none of them came remotely close to this one' So there you have a flavour of a tremendously exciting encounter for Richard on the River Dee with one of our big back end salmon. I know only too well how he felt after playing a salmon myself this June, estimated to be between 35 and 40 lbs, which sadly slipped the hook after a dramatic 30 minute encounter which left me numb for some time . This fish made a run of over 250 yards where I was astonished at the raw power of this freshly run salmon. To see a leviathan of this size cart wheeling about the pool 3 times was just astonishing to observe, and my guide commented 'very special fish!' To this day It still haunts me.

Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As European rivers are now open to anglers it’s imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O'Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. I would be really most grateful if you would forward any stories or anecdotes and pictures to me at ken@riverdee.org and remember to log onto www.riverdee.org to access our latest newsletter Copyright FishDee Ltd, September 2010

River Don Prospects

This week’s prospects are summed up in a word..............Grilse

Although the river only rose slightly last week, this coupled with the full moon really got the grilse running, with large numbers being seen and , by a very few, caught in good numbers. Most beats reported large numbers of fish running hard, but they must have stopped somewhere. The river is still a good height, and fish will certainly be entering the river all week. As the Don enters late summer / early autumn fish numbers should now start really building up, as the Don is still an autumn river. Many fish, particularly in the upper river will be colouring up, and best returned to continue their journey. But with fresh grilse and autumn salmon entering the system now silver fish should be arriving in good numbers.

Brown trout are still being caught, with reasonable numbers of fish to about a lb being encountered, the larger fish will again begin to be encountered towards the ends of the season, but like their larger cousins, at this time of year they are best left to visit the redds!

The Don District salmon Fishery Board is looking for a new bailiff:

Full time River Bailiff required by the Don District Salmon Fishery Board. Experience preferred but not essential as full training will be given, full driving licence required. Successful applicant will be subject to disclosure Scotland check. Wages dependent on experience.

Applications including two references to be sent to

Don District Salmon Fishery Board 17 Norman Gray Park, Blackburn, Aberdeen AB21 0ZR

I am grateful for the fishing reports I have received to date, these will all be included in the end of month report.

Please keep them coming, send them to : reports@riverdon.org.uk

Last Week’s Catches River Dee

Having just returned from a busman’s holiday to Iceland I was delighted to see anglers enjoy another steady weeks sport reported from FishDee beats, with 254 Salmon and Grilse to 24 lbs reported as well as 24 sea trout. Park reported 41 Salmon and Grilse, Tilbouries reported 24 Salmon and Grilse, Both Upper Drum and Lower Crathes reported 22 each which indicates that new salmon took advantage of the good water levels to come into the river and run upstream. I was really most pleased to hear that Park Estates proprietor John Foster and his wife Clarinda had caught 3 fish each whilst fishing for a day last week and they enjoyed the pleasure of simultaneously catching fish at the same time which must have given them tremendous fun. Willie Banks at Tilbouries reported ' We had steady sport through the week from reasonable river levels for our syndicate rods with good runs of salmon and grilse observed'.

Ian Murray was delighted to report 'We had some nice fish last week at Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld with an 18 lb salmon landed and a hefty 24 lb cock fish also landed. The big fish was landed by Mrs Catherine Dennis on a size 10 silver stoats tail, which was her first fish on her new rod. This was netted expertly by Martin Thompson with images to follow.' Mr John Pelly also reported to River Director Mark Bilsby 'Two young anglers both caught their first salmon last night (Thursday 26) on Drumnagesk. Brothers Nicholas and Jonathon Astor on their first attempts of fishing landed fish within 15 and 30 mins of their first casts. Both were delighted. Visitor John Gordon-Smith commented 'I had a great week fishing Park (south) in Graham Watson's party with my best ever 5 in the week. Keep up the good work and hope to see you next year. Best wishes'
Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As European rivers are now open to anglers it’s imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O'Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. I would be really most grateful if you would forward any stories or anecdotes and pictures to me at ken@riverdee.org and remember to log onto www.riverdee.org to access our latest newsletter Copyright FishDee Ltd, August 2010

Prospects

The prospects for the next weeks fishing on Deeside look very encouraging following recent rises in river levels keeping fish on the move. The weather forecasters are predicting a spell of mild, calm days with high pressure building during the week which will suit anglers for the next few days. Air temperature Maxima will be around 18 degrees Celsius with overnight lows to around 3 degrees in the upper valley producing some overnight frosts. Winds are forecast to be reasonably light with sunny spells interspersed with light clouds. Air pressure will be between 1016 and 1025 mb’s. The maritime influence is indicating tides of 4.0 metres falling to 3.5 metres on Thursday rising to 3.9 metres at the weekend. Current river levels are running between 1ft 1 inch at Mar Lodge to 2ft 3 inches at Park and falling slowly. There is a slight peaty tinge to the water which will clear over the next 24 hours or so. There will be a continuation of fresh Grilse and Summer salmon entering the river providing good sport with the earlier running large cock fish hopefully coming on the take again.
With the river running at a good level it is important to listen to your Ghillies advice as to what flies to use and where on your allocated beat to fish hard. In all likelihood the conditions suggest that mornings and evenings could be the most productive times this week. If you do not have the services of a Ghillie to call on the perhaps you may wish to fish with a floating line with sink tip and fish with a variety of flies. You may choose a Park Shrimp or Ally's shrimp, Flamethrower, Red Frances or silver stoat’s tail. The Sunray or Willie Gunn tube fished square and fast may deliver some aggressive takes too if given a go. There is some availability on the FishDee website so please look in and book fishing if you can manage to visit the river.
Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As European rivers are now open to anglers it’s imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O'Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. I would be really most grateful if you would forward any stories or anecdotes and pictures to me at ken@riverdee.org and remember to log onto www.riverdee.org to access our latest newsletter Copyright FishDee Ltd, August 2010

River Don Prospects

As predicted last week saw a small rise in water levels, and this allowed the grilse to continue to run the system, with good numbers being caught in the lower reaches. The sport with brown trout was also good, and I hear of surprisingly good numbers of these iconic Don fish being caught. However, as the rain is flooding Aberdeen I expect the river to start rising soon. My contacts up the river tell me it is raining heavily throughout the valley, so this will undoubtedly start a welcome rise in the river levels. Hopefully this will make for excellent fishing later in the week, with the river slowly dropping and fish continuing to enter the system.

The Don District salmon Fishery Board is looking for a new bailiff:

Full time River Bailiff required by the Don District Salmon Fishery Board. Experience preferred but not essential as full training will be given, full driving licence required. Successful applicant will be subject to disclosure Scotland check. Wages dependent on experience, applications including two references to be sent to
Don District Salmon Fishery Board
17 Norman Gray Park, Blackburn,
Aberdeen
AB21 0ZR


I am grateful for the fishing reports I have received to date, these will all be included in the end of month report.

Please keep them coming, send them to : reports@riverdon.org.uk

Prospects for coming week River Dee

Last updated: Monday 23rd August

A changeable week of weather with predominantly sunshine and showers, along with the possibility of heavier periods of rain. This should mean good flows being maintained throughout the week although if the heavier rain does come to Deeside then the river may colour up.

With these changeable conditions in mind the services of a ghillie are extremely helpful as they can often be the difference between catching and not catching fish. For beats without a ghillie the advice from one of our esteemed ghilles is for floating lines with small flies such as stoats tails or cascades or perhaps something larger if the water does colour up.

Fish are well dispersed throughout the catchment, with catches last week from Altries up to Mar Lodge above Braemar. There is no reason to expect this to change for the coming week apart from fresh fish running in off the tides on the back of the good flows in the Dee.

Please be aware that Gyrodactylus salaris (GS) is the greatest threat to the well-being of salmon on the Dee, so please read and act upon the GS declaration forms available from every beat.

Ken is back next week so please contact him with any stories, anecdotes or pictures on Ken@riverdee.org or telephone 013398 80411. Tight lines, Mark Bilsby. Copyright FishDee Ltd, August 2010.

Prospects for the coming week River Don

Last updated: Tuesday 3rd August

I wish the weather forecast would make up its mind about this week, every time I look at it it is wildly different! What we do know is that the river is running at a steady and low level and we really could do will a raise in water to draw in the grilse, which will be stacking up offshore by now. I am hearing of good numbers of grilse being caught, and with some water the fishing for these spirited fish will improve dramatically.

The trout fishing is still quite good. Late evenings and early mornings are still the best and I am hearing of plenty of trout in the 1 - 2lbs range being caught.

At this time of year small flies and light tackle are the order of the day, but given a welcome raise in water levels we should expect the summer salmon to start to run and we are often surprised by some very large fish being landed.

The Don Board staff are still very busy at the moment, there have been regular poaching incidents on the lower river. If you see any activity you suspect to be poaching, contact the board's bailiff team, contact details can be found on the river website, www.riverdon.org.uk, consider putting them into your mobile phone.

I echo what my colleagues on Deeside are saying. A word of caution, at this time of year there are a lot of visitors to Donside, and some are opportunists looking to take some fishing without booking.

If you see anything suspicious please contact the river board emergency hotline on 07836645510 which is managed 24 hours a day, where river bailiffs will respond to any reports of unauthorised angling.

Can we remind restaurant owners and hotel owners that it is illegal to buy rod caught salmon and sea trout in Scotland, so please refuse any that are offered to you.

I am grateful for the reports I have received to date, these will all be included in the end of month report, for next weekend.

Please keep them coming, send them to : reports@riverdon.org.uk

Donsider

Prospects for coming week River Dee

Last updated: Monday 2nd August

The same again would do nicely and if we have more fish then that would be a bonus. Given the number of novices who have been catching their first fish last week it is encouraging that a lot of fresh fish are coming forward and entering the catchment. The weather forecast is similar to last week's which will probably suit anglers as it should be changeable throughout the week. Air temperature maxima will be in the region of 18 degrees with rain showers a regular occurrence throughout the week, perhaps some localised heavy thundershowers. Wind will generally be from the south swinging round to the north later in the week before reverting back. Barometric pressure will start high and drop a little before rising again towards the end of the week. Just in time for the Aboyne Highland Games where a crowd of around 9000 visitors may attend this highly popular annual event. The maritime influence is indicating tides of 3.8 metres dropping to 3.4 metres and rising again to 3.8 metres by the end of the week. The river levels are quite good at present with the Sepa gauges showing levels between 7inches at Mar Lodge and 10 inches at Park.

There should be enough water if levels hold up to encourage new fish to come forward if they choose to. I expect Grilse numbers to build and these fish should move quickly through the lower beats to the middle and upper beats. We may also see a few big multi sea winter salmon arriving and hopefully we will be notified of some big fish captures for the Fish of the month prize. I have not received any submissions for some months now so hopefully people may wish to submit entries that are verified captures

Water temperatures are around 16 degrees Celsius which is really quite cold for the local school children going for a dip as they while away their summer holidays but the temperatures are good for anglers, and of course the salmon and sea trout which are cold blooded animals. Anglers fishing the river should heed the wise words offered to them by their Ghillies as they know their beats intimately and know where the fish lie, what tactics to use and what flies to utilise. Floating lines with a small poly leader seem to be popular at this time of year. I prefer just now to use a 13 foot rod with an 8/9 weight Rio AFS shooting head system. Depending on where you are fishing in the valley the advice offered by Ghillies may differ. I know some suggest very small lightly dressed flies, and further down the catchment there is a advice to use shrimp type patterns like the Park Shrimp, Smiths Shrimp, Cascade and Calvin's Shrimp.

Some anglers hedge their bets by using a small silver stoat's tail as a dropper, and use a small shrimp fly on the point. Whatever fly you do use, it’s important to persevere as running fish can appear one minute and seem to be gone the next. As its high summer, a word of caution, at this time of year there are a lot of visitors to Deeside, and some are opportunists looking to take some fishing without booking. If you see anything suspicious please contact the river board emergency hotline on 013398 80411 which is managed 24 hours a day, where river bailiffs will respond to any reports of unauthorised angling. Can we remind restaurant owners and hotel owners that it is illegal to buy rod caught salmon and sea trout in Scotland, so please refuse any that are offered to you. This helps the rivers security and fish stocks which are recovering slowly after years of declining numbers. Looking at availability over the next few weeks it is clear that there are a good number of rods on the river and I would encourage anglers to book fishing now as opportunities to fish on the well stocked beats don't come up very often.

Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As European rivers are now open to anglers it's imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O'Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. I would really like to hear of your angling successes and share these with our readers, so please write to me with your news and pictures to ken@riverdee.org. Copyright FishDee Ltd, July 2010

Prospects for coming week on the Don courtesy of Donsider

Last updated: Monday 26th July

The river rose last week, and this rise took in large number of grilse, according to river board staff.

The catches of these were however low, so hopefully we will so more of these spirited fish appearing over the next few weeks. The forecast for next this week is overall bright and sunny, though hopefully we will see small amounts of rain topping up the system.

The trout catches are steady it seems, with large brownies still being encountered throughout the system, however the sea trout catches are slowing down.

The Don Board staff are still very busy at the moment, there have been regular poaching incidents on the lower river. If you see any activity you suspect to be poaching, contact the board's bailiff team, contact details can be found on the river website, www.riverdon.org.uk, consider putting them into your mobile phone.

I echo what my colleagues on Deeside are saying. A word of caution, at this time of year there are a lot of visitors to Donside, and some are opportunists looking to take some fishing without booking.

If you see anything suspicious please contact the river board emergency hotline on 07836645510 which is managed 24 hours a day, where river bailiffs will respond to any reports of unauthorised angling.

Can we remind restaurant owners and hotel owners that it is illegal to buy rod caught salmon and sea trout in Scotland, so please refuse any that are offered to you.

I am grateful for the reports I have received to date, these will all be included in the end of month report, for next weekend.

Please keep them coming, send them to :reports@riverdon.org.uk

Donsider

Dee Prospects by kind permission of Ken Reid River Dee Development Officer

I am very optimistic we shall see good catches continue this week with many aspects that contribute to our sport being favourable. Firstly the weather forecast looks very reasonable with most days being a bit overcast and warm with showers a regular feature throughout the week. Winds will be predominately weak sou'westers and will not hamper casting for newcomers to Deeside who are looking forward to the opportunities of casting into pools with fresh running salmon and grilse. The predicted rainfall through the week looks reasonable and should ensure that the river levels stay reasonably consistent as they are currently running between 7 inches and 1 ft 1 inch on the Sepa gauges. The maritime influence is also favourable with high tides between 4.2 metres and 3.9 metres encouraging new shoals of returning salmon and grilse into the river. Barometric pressure is also looking steady throughout the week with it perhaps dropping a little on Saturday. If you are able to come and fish then please book a rod from FishDee where River beats are showing their rod availability. There are plenty of opportunities to come and fish and there are good stocks of new fish in the river.

If you are fortunate enough to be fishing this week on Deeside and I hope as many anglers as possible do, then ensure you speak to your Ghillie for advice. We have a team of extremely talented Ghillies who are very knowledgeable and can perhaps help you achieve your goal- a fine Dee salmon caught on the fly. Your Ghillie can advise you about what rods, lines and flies to use, as well as where taking fish are likely to be located on your chosen beat. If you don't have the services of a Ghillie to call on you will be best advised to use a floating line with perhaps an intermediate tip or poly leader. As to fly choice well I don't look beyond the Park shrimp but many other flies are popular. River Dee chairman Ian Scott positively enthused about the sport he had last week on a lightly dressed thunder and lightning pattern. Other anglers swear by the silver stoat's tail, Ally's shrimp, Silver shrimp and the black Frances fly. In the fast necks of pools a sunray shadow fished fast and square can also be tremendously exciting, with fish at times hammering these flies at pace. Such a visual piece of action to behold, but it can also lead to many poor hook ups. As it's high summer, a word of caution, at this time of year there are a lot of visitors to Deeside, and some are opportunists looking to take some fishing without booking. If you see anything suspicious please contact the river board emergency hotline on 013398 80411 which is managed 24 hours a day, where river bailiffs will respond to any reports of unauthorised angling. Can we remind restaurant owners and hotel owners that it is illegal to buy rod caught salmon and sea trout in Scotland, so please refuse any that are offered to you. This helps the rivers security and fish stocks which are recovering slowly after years of declining numbers. Looking at availability over the next few weeks it is clear that there are a good number of rods on the river and I would encourage anglers to book fishing now as opportunities to fish on the well stocked beats don't come up very often.

Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As European rivers are now open to anglers it’s imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O'Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. I would really like to hear of your angling successes and share these with our readers, so please write to me with your news and pictures to ken@riverdee.org. Copyright FishDee Ltd, July 2010

Loch of Loirston
Rainbows up to 2lb, Blues up to 3lb.

Parkhill Fishery
Rainbows up to 3lb.

Lower Fintray
Sea trout 3lb, 3lb, 3lb, 5lb.

Upper Parkhill
Salmon 6lb, 4lb.
Brown trout up to 1.5lb

Lower Parkhill
Salmon 16lb, 14lb, 4lb.
Sea trout 4lb, 2lb, 2lb.
Brown trout up to 1lb

Cruives
Salmon 6lb

Netherdon
Salmon 5lb
Sea trout 3lb.

Ythan
Machar Pool - Sea Trout 3lb.
Ardlethen - Sea Trout 3lb

Dee
Banchory Devenick
Salmon - 5lb
Sea trout - 1lb, 3lb

Tom's Fush!!

Don
Kemnay  - Sea trout 2lb

Upper Fintray -
Sea trout 2lb, 3lb, 3lb, 4lb, 3lb.
Brown trout up to 1.5lb

Lower Fintray
Grilse 2lb
Sea Trout 3lb

Upper Parkhill
Salmon 6lb
Sea trout - 2lb, 3lb, 3lb.
Brown trout up to 4lb

Lower Parkhill
Salmon 9lb, 9lb.
Sea trout 4lb
Brown trout up to 2lb

Parkhill Fishery - Rainbows up to 5lb
Loch of Loirston - Rainbows up to 2lb

Ythan
Machar - Sea trout 2lb, 2lb.

Dee
Garthdee - Sea trout 2lb

Don

Upper Fintray
Sea trout 3lb, 3lb
Brown trout up to 2lb.

Lower Fintray
Sea trout 3lb

Upper Parkhill
Salmon 5lb
Sea trout 2lb, 3lb, 3lb, 3lb, 3lb, 4lb, 2lb, 4lb.

Lower Parkhill
Sea trout 4lb, 3lb.
Brown trout up to 3lb.

Cruives
Salmon 13lb, 10lb.
Sea trout 3lb

Netherdon
Sea trout 3lb

Loch of Loirston
Rainbows up to 3lb, blues up to 2lb.

Parkhill Fishery
Rainbows up to 7lb

Ythan
Machar Pool
Sea trout 4lb, 4lb, 3lb, 3lb, 3lb, 5lb, 4lb, 2lb, 5lb, 3lb, 4lb, 5lb,

Ardlethen
Sea trout 2lb

Don

Kemnay
Brown Trout up to 5lb

Upper Fintray
Sea trout 4lb
Brown trout up to 1lb

Lower Fintray
Grilse 4lb
Brown trout up to 1.5lb

Upper Parkhill
Salmon 7lb, 3lb.
Sea trout 3lb, 3lb, 4lb, 2lb, 4lb, 3lb.
Brown trout up to 5lb

Lower Parkhill
Sea trout 3lb, 4lb, 3lb, 3lb.

Cruives
Salmon 8lb
Sea trout 3lb, 2lb, 2lb, 3lb, 4lb, 3lb, 3lb, 2lb.

Parkhill Fishery - Rainbows up to 4lb
Loch of Loirston Rainbows up to 2lb

Loch of Loirston
Rainbows up to 3lb

Parkhill Fishery
Rainbows up to 2lb

Ythan
Ardlethen
Sea trout 2lb, 4lb, 3lb

Machar Pool
Sea trout 3lb, 2lb, 3lb, 4lb.

Don

Kemnay
Salmon 7lb, 9lb.

Upper Fintray
Sea trout 2lb.

Lower Fintray
Salmon 4lb, 10lb

Upper Parkhill
Salmon 15lb, 7lb, 9lb, 8lb.
Sea trout 3lb, 2lb
Brownies up to 1lb

Cruives
Sea trout 4lb, 3lb, 3lb, 3lb, 3lb.

Dee
Banchory Devenick
Sea trout 3lb

Feugh
Sea trout - 3lb

Dee
Banchory Devenick
Sea trout - 3lb

Ythan
Machar Pool
Sea trout 2lb

Loch of Loirston
Rainbows and blues up to 2lb

Parkhill Fishery up to 5lb

Don
Kemnay
Salmon 7lb, 6lb, 7lb
Brown trout up to 2lb

Upper Fintray
Brown trout up to 3lb

Lower Fintray
Salmon 3lb, 5lb, 11lb, 10lb.
Sea trout 3lb.

Upper Parkhill
Salmon 9lb
Sea trout 3lb, 4lb, 4lb
Brown trout up to 4lb

Lower Parkhill
Sea trout 3lb, 2lb.

Cruives
Sea trout 2lb, 2lb, 3lb, 3lb, 2lb

Netherdon
Sea trout - 4lb, 3lb, 3lb, 3lb, 2lb.

Dee

Prospects

After the mini heat wave that lasted a few days on Deeside culminating with Thunder showers we see a return to cooler conditions which are coming from the north. The forecasters are predicting frequent rain showers throughout the week with air temperatures below normal. The air temperature maxima will be 14 degrees Celsius with minima of 0 degrees perhaps bringing a touch of ground frost in some sheltered spots and perhaps hill snow. River levels are currently at a good height with Sepa gauges showing heights from 1 ft 1 inch to 1 ft 8 inches throughout the catchment. The maritime influence shows spring tides rising from 3.9 metres to 4.1 metres which should encourage new fish to come forward on incoming tides. Taking all this into the consideration catches should continue strongly with sea trout catches increasing along with salmon and grilse.

There is a good migration of smolts underway so please ensure you handle this precious resource carefully when returning them to the river as they are the next generation of returning adult salmon. Ensure you heed your Gillies wise counsel as they will be able to give you sound advice about what tactics to use when fishing your beat. If you do not have the services of a Gillie to call on then you should fish with floating lines with perhaps a 5 ft poly leader and small flies. Patterns to try with real confidence are Smiths Shrimp, Silver Shrimp, Arndilly fancy and stoat's tail with perhaps the cascade or Park shrimp for streamier flows. Fly sizes in the range of size 10-14 will be suitable. To finish I would advise that persistence is called for whilst conditions are showery and ensure you are prepared to try different tactics including square casts with a figure of eight retrieve, slow and deep, riffled hitched tubes and perhaps a stripped collie dog or sunray shadow where beats allow this. Full Spey lines and shooting heads seem to be the popular choice just now with leaders of 8- 10 feet in length, perhaps 12-15 lbs breaking strain. Careful casters will use long leaders with a dropper and point fly.

For anglers visiting Deeside and fishing onto the evening I can advise that the Boat Inn are doing late evening dining so please pay them a visit for a nice hot meal at the end of your evenings fishing. As always can you please write to me with news of your catches and pictures if you have some you want to see on the FishDee website to ken@riverdee.org Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, May 2010

Last week

Catches again were reasonable with 159 salmon and 82 sea trout reported so far from FishDee beats and would have been significantly higher had we not received a deluge from the Gairn on Friday following a torrential thunderstorm. Many parts of Aboyne were also submerged with significant flooding with quite a visual display of lightening interspersed with tremendous clatters of thunder. I was fishing on Friday and was almost caught out in shirt sleeves when the rain deluge arrived; thankfully I managed to seek shelter in the hut beside Dinnet Bridge. Talking about Dinnet I can advise that their catches with Dee Castle and Cambus O'May and Headinch were the highest for the week with both producing 19 fish for the week. Crathie's numbers increased strongly and they were just a few behind. It's good to hear of fish now running into the upper beats in good numbers and sport could be excellent there this week. No doubt the Gillies will be busy with their landing nets ensuring fish are landed for their guests.I also believe there was a 29lb salmon landed at Borrowstone and hope to get more details about this capture.

I was pleased to receive correspondence from Blairs tenant Stuart Yeats who reported 'Hope you are keeping well and good to see the Dee producing good numbers of fish over the last few weeks. My Dad and I booked at Lower Woodend on Saturday and planned to have an evening session for Sea Trout and then fish the first few hours of daylight for Salmon, as the forecast was for a hot sunny day. My Dad and I turned up at the beat around midnight to be met with a murky river sitting at 2ft 6" on the beat gauge. We headed home and returned at 6am to be met with a river at 3ft 7" and the colour of a Caramac. I had another look on the website at 8pm and noticed the river had fallen to 2ft, so decided to try a third attempt to get a cast. The river was still carrying colour but fishable and within 20 minutes of starting I landed and nice bright fish around 6lb and still carrying some sea lice (photo attached).' As Stuart mentions the river was heavily coloured on Saturday and to all intents and purposes was mostly unfishable. I can report that there was some catches at Dinnet with Tony Conroy and Serena Humphrey reporting catches as well as noting there were catches at Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld as well as Crathie. The river in the upper beats was a little bit clearer than the water I observed at Banchory lodge when visiting for breakfast with Jim Coates. A word of congratulations to our Gillies who are doing a great job with our fishing guests. The feedback forms that anglers are submitting are very complimentary which is great to hear with many anglers achieving success following good advice from their Gillie.

Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers from Europe to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As some European rivers are now open to anglers its imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There is a risk of this parasite coming into our river from anglers arriving from Europe for example, where the salmon stocks from many European rivers are resistant to this parasite. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O'Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. I would really like to hear of your angling successes and share these with our readers, so please write to me with your news and pictures to ken@riverdee.org. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, May 2010

Beat catches reported
(week ending 22nd May)
SALMON & GRILSE: Park 10, Lower Crathes and W Durris 6, Knappach 1, Crathes 2, Lower Blackhall 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 6, Middle Blackhall 5, Cairnton 3, Lower Woodend 1, Commonty 2, Sluie 1, Ballogie 8, Borrowston 5, Kincardine 6, Carlogie 8, Lower Dess 1, Upper Dess 5, Birse 2, Aboyne Water 1, Aboyne Castle 5, Craigendinnie 6, Waterside and Ferrar 4, Dinnet 12, Deecastle 7, Headinch and Cambus O'May 19, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 10, Birkhall 2, Abergeldie 6, Balmoral 2, Crathie 13.
Total: 160 Largest: Borrowston 29lbs
SEA TROUT: Altries and Lower Drum 5, Middle Drum 4, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 3, Tilbouries 3, Park 7, Lower Crathes and W Durris 4, Invery 6, Lower Blackhall 2, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 1, Commonty 2, Ballogie 3, Borrowston 3, Carlogie 3, Lower Dess 1, Upper Dess 1, Aboyne Castle 7, Craigendinnie 10, Waterside and Ferrar 1, Dinnet 1, Deecastle 2, Headinch and Cambus O'May 4, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 4, Crathie 3.
Total: 82 Largest: Altries and Lower Drum & Tilbouries & Park 4lbs
TROUT: None reported

Dee

Prospects

After a fine weeks fishing on the River Dee last week I see no reason why the prospects should be any poorer, in fact catches could be even higher with the improving air temperatures. The weather forecast is for sunny spells throughout the week with the odd local rain shower, some may be heavy. Air temperatures could possibly reach 19 degrees Celsius with overnight lows to 4 degrees Celsius. Winds will be predominately light and from a southerly direction which will ensure anglers fishing will feel quite comfortable. The maritime influence is indicating high tides of 4.1 metres falling back to 3.6 metres by the weekend. There will be an excellent chance of good sport in the evenings and anglers should ensure they fish in the evening if at all possible as fish will be on the move around dusk. There are also what appears to be encouraging numbers of sea trout in the river which take well in the evening.

There appears to be good numbers of salmon, grilse and sea trout moving from the lower beats to the middle and upper beats and there may be some real red letter days for some lucky anglers. There is a good migration of smolts underway so please ensure you handle this precious resource carefully when returning them to the river as they are the next generation of returning adult salmon. Ensure you heed your Gillies wise counsel as they will be able to give you sound advice about what tactics to use when fishing your beat. They know all the taking lies and with river levels between 8 inches and 11 inches on the Sepa gauges fish will be occupying taking lies. If you do not have the services of a Gillie to call on then you should fish with floating lines with perhaps a 5 ft poly leader and small flies. Patterns to try with real confidence are silver stoats tail, black or red Frances, Arndilly fancy and Crathie fly with perhaps the cascade for streamier flows. Fly sizes in the range of size 10-14 will be suitable. To finish I would advise that persistence is called for whilst conditions are showery and ensure you are prepared to try different tactics including square casts with a figure of eight retrieve, slow and deep, hitched tubes and perhaps a stripped collie dog or sunray shadow where beats allow this. Please also ensure that your tackle is sound as there are reports of sub standard flies letting anglers down with hook failure. Full Spey lines and shooting heads seem to be the popular choice just now with leaders of 8- 10 feet in length, perhaps 12-15 lbs breaking strain.

For anglers visiting Deeside and fishing onto the evening I can advise that the Potarch hotel are doing late evening dining so please pay them a visit for a nice hot meal at the end of your evenings fishing. They have a fine new menu with a lot of local produce being used to produce tasty fare. As always can you please write to me with news of your catches and pictures if you have some you want to see on the FishDee website to ken@riverdee.org Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, May 2010

Last week

The best week of the season by a long way with 215 salmon and 67 sea trout reported by FishDee beats so far with fish to 24 lbs caught and returned. It was really encouraging to see 22 out of 42 FishDee beats reporting catches on Monday where 48 salmon were recorded. There seems to be a good distribution of fish throughout the lower and middle catchment with fish now running to the upper beats. There was a good number of Grilse reported last week mixed with some good catches of sea liced salmon up as far as Dinnet. Dinnet/ Dee Castle reported 21 salmon, Invery reported 18 salmon, Borrowstone reported 17 and many other beats were into double figures. This no doubt delighted both anglers and Gillies and many happy anglers will have left Deeside on Sunday with happy memories of a super fishing holiday.

As I expected I have received quite a bit of correspondence and fishing reports over the phone. Dinnet proprietor Edward Humphrey advised 'A quick note about perseverance. The Cave-Bigley family have been coming to Aboyne Castle for 40 or more years and I was particularly pleased that father David had two cracking springers by Wednesday lunch time which we all hoped would be a good sign for his son Richard coming to fish the last three days of the week. Thursday & Friday were blank to their frustration as I kept telling them how the score on Dinnet/Deecastle was rising rapidly (the Beaty party finished with 21 for the week), but the stalemate was broken on Saturday morning when I witnessed a lovely 7 pounder being taken out of the Lorne by Richard Cave-Bigley’s friend, Richard Franklin. The party persevered and at 5 to 5 father David accounted for another out of plantation, but not to be left scoreless his son Richard finally landed a cracking 10 pound Springer out of Jocky Fyfe with almost his last cast at 10pm on Saturday evening. Perseverance does pay off sometimes.' and Gary Flynn from Birkhall reported 'Please find attached a photo of a nice fish (approx 11lbs) caught at the top of the Birkhall beat on Friday the 14th. Johnny Liverod visiting from Norway with fellow rods Fredrik Fredrikson, and Arve Lindberg, when he caught this on a purple and black cone head that he named "purple rain". Fellow rod Fredrik had a similar sized fish on the Tuesday from the same pool. ‘Great to hear of fish in the upper beats and this will no doubt have anglers booked for the upper beats getting quietly excited about the prospects there over the next few weeks.

Karl Revel paid me a visit this morning and was really enthusiastic about the sport last week and the numbers of fish seen at Invery. He commented 'Invery fishers enjoyed another pleasing week with 18 salmon and 9 sea trout caught with all fish safely returned. Top rod was regular Dee visitor Mr Colin Harvey from Worcester with 7 salmon and 2 sea trout.(Colin also landed a 24 lb Springer at Invery in February). Mr Bob McBain, a retired Gillie from the Naver, landed 4 salmon and 2 sea trout for his 3 days. On Saturday afternoon in bright sunshine Ed McLellan from Motherwell had 1 salmon and 2 sea trout on a size 14 silver stoats tail fly. This brought Invery's total for the season to 100 salmon and 17 sea trout.' I also received an e-mail from David Jackson who wrote ' Hi Ken, thought I would get in touch before you and my mate Brooksey set off on your Russian trip. Would have loved to be going with you but early retirement means looking after the pennies ! We first fished the Dee in 1991 at Altries and again in 1993.It was on the last Saturday morning that David's reel started screaming and all hell broke loose;12 lbs of mint Springer dripping sea lice. We were hooked ! In 1994 I got my first Dee fish at Altries and it was also the first year I fished Woodend, although it was 1996 before I booked a fish there. We have fished on the Dee together every year since 1993. Myself mainly at Woodend, although I have taken fish from 7 other Dee beats over the years.David & Susan thought it that nice they acquired the Post Office in Kincardine. Well, I’m on 99 fish at Woodend, and determined to get the ton,wc 24th May. (might need a rain dance) Checking my records this is the story :Total fish 99, total days fished 152, blank weeks 1, weeks with 1 fish 4, most fish in a week 8, most fish in a day 4. Some memorable days there Ken, and some disasters, without doubt, the worst was inviting Brooksey for a day at Woodend with him racking up three fish ! I don’t even remember seeing one all day !! (just kidding David) As always to come up to Deeside is a marvellous experience, good fishing or bad (if you can have bad fishing on the Dee) but this time anticipation & expectation are pretty high as I'm sure you will understand. Perhaps David will bring you down to Woodend, it would be nice to meet you, perhaps you might even be able to land no 100,now would that be a picture for FishDee. Keep up the great work on FishDee and have a cracking Russian week, make sure you don’t lose David as I sometimes need bed & breakfast up there. Kind Regards, David Jackson. ‘This just epitomises for me the sense of anticipation some anglers have on travelling to Deeside for a fishing holiday. And there are still rods available to let on FishDee !

Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers from Europe to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As some Europian rivers are now open to anglers it’s imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There is a risk of this parasite coming into our river from anglers arriving from Europe for example, where the salmon stocks from many European rivers are resistant to this parasite. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O’Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. I would really like to hear of your angling successes and share these with our readers, so please write to me with your news and pictures to ken@riverdee.org. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, May 2010

Beat catches reported
(week ending 15th May)
SALMON & GRILSE: Upper Drum and Lower Durris 2, Tilbouries 1, Park 13, Lower Crathes and W Durris 2, Knappach 6, Crathes 4, Invery 18, Lower Blackhall 6, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 5, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 3, Woodend 5, Lower Woodend 2, Commonty 8, Sluie 1, Ballogie 14, Borrowston 17, Kincardine 15, Carlogie 13, Lower Dess 6, Upper Dess 3, Birse 8, Aboyne Water 4, Aboyne Castle 5, Craigendinnie 6, Waterside and Ferrar 2, Dinnet 14, Deecastle 7, Headinch and Cambus O'May 12, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 6, Birkhall 2, Abergeldie 2, Crathie 2.
Total: 215 Largest: Kincardine 24lbs
SEA TROUT: Upper Drum and Lower Durris 6, Tilbouries 1, Park 7, Lower Crathes and W Durris 6, Knappach 7, Crathes 1, Invery 8, Lower Blackhall 5, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 4, Cairnton 1, Commonty 5, Ballogie 2, Kincardine 2, Carlogie 6, Lower Dess 1, Upper Dess 1, Birse 2, Aboyne Water 1, Deecastle 1.
Total: 67 Largest: Carlogie 4lbs
TROUT: None reported

Dee

Prospects

We appear to have a bit of a mixed bag this week weather-wise with the forecast air temperature maxima to be unseasonably low at around 10 degrees, with the wind chill making it feel significantly cooler. There are frosts forecast overnight for the beginning of the week accompanied by persistent north winds for most of the week. There will be a change in the wind direction to the south during the week but the cool temperatures will hold sway throughout the week. This puts paid to meaningful sea trout fishing during the night. Fishing in the evening though should be productive when the sun is off the water. There will be some localised showers from time to time and some may be wintry and perhaps heavy, probably not enough to cause river levels to rise. The current river heights as shown on the Sepa gauges are between 9 inches and 1 ft 2 inches which mean fish will be lying in the pools, in lies that the Gillies know of and these will be the hot spots to encounter taking salmon. The maritime influence is indicating that there shall be rising high tides this week from 3.6 to 4.1 metres and this should encourage runs of fresh new fish into the catchment.

It is important to consult your Gillie prior to fishing and utilise their undoubted experience and expertise when fishing your beat. The Gillies of the Dee do a fine job in ensuring anglers can tackle their allocated pools with a degree of optimism about what equipment and flies to use so please heed their wise advice. If you do not have the service of a Gillie to call on then you may want to try a floating line with intermediate tip or perhaps a full floating line with flies between 6 and 10’s depending on your pool. Patterns to try may include Dee fox, Tosh, Crathie, Dee sheep, Stoats tail and monkey fly. Flies that utilise long wings or tails can be effective in the streamier flows. It’s also important to ensure you return smolts safely and carefully to the river as they are migrating downstream in good numbers now. These will hopefully return to the river in 2-3 years time in good numbers as mature adult salmon and spawn future generations of Dee fish.

To finish I would advise that persistence is called for whilst conditions are cold and ensure you are prepared to try different tactics including square casts with a figure of eight retrieve, slow and deep, hitched tubes and perhaps a stripped collie dog or sunray shadow where beats allow this. Please also ensure that your tackle is sound as there are reports of sub standard flies letting anglers down with hook failure. Full Spey lines and shooting heads seem to be the popular choice just now. Can you please write to me with news of your catches and pictures if you have some you want to see on FishDee to ken@riverdee.org Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, May 2010

Last week

Catches rose significantly from the previous weeks catch to a reported 165 salmon and 17 sea trout at the time of writing from FishDee beats. In pole position was Park with 21 salmon reported for the week followed by Lower Crathes and Lower Dess, and Lower Blackhall just behind them. There are also Grilse being caught now and they seem to be moving swiftly through the lower beats. Salmon catches were reported from Altries to Crathie with the bulk of the catches in the lower middle beats. There were reports of many fish being hooked and lost and in some cases hook failure was a problem. It’s important to ensure that the fly hooks are strong enough to do the job-if they are pliable then chances are they are too weak to use with any confidence. I received some correspondence this week with Karl Revel from Invery advised ‘ Edwin and Tristan Bailey whose family has shared the ownership of Invery and Upper Crathes beat since the 1950’s, were delighted that all of their guests who fished last week succeeded in landing at least one salmon. Top rod for the group was Ralph Percy, the Duke of Northumberland who was up for 2 days enjoying his first visit to the Dee. He had 2 sea liced springers of 7 and 10 lbs and a 2 lb sea trout and now cannot wait to make a return visit to Deeside.’

Gerhard Schive from Norway who represents the NASF in Norway was a recent visitor to Deeside and commented ‘Finally got home on Wednesday after a few days together with Reid in Ballater. Got a nice fish out of the Garden pool at Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld but the beats above there seemed to be relatively quiet at that time due to the very cold weather. So the trip in total gave me 4 nice springers which I guess I should be satisfied with. Spring very late here in Norway. We are still waiting for the birches to turn green.’ I was really delighted to catch up again with Swedish ace fisherman Mikael Frodin at Dess last week who was fishing with friends Tomas, Mats and Joachim and enjoying some relatively good sport. They had success with his small Dee Sheep pattern using floating lines with small polyleaders. They had a mixture of spanking sea liced fish and river fish over the week and did very well considering how cold the weather was with their chosen tactics. I was also pleased to catch up with another superb fisherman who is a regular visitor to Deeside Árni Baldursson, who was fishing at Lower Crathes with a party including the beat owner the Hon Charles Pearson. I met them briefly at the beginning of the week and was delighted to hear of their success during the week. Árni Baldursson is the proprietor of the global sporting agency Lax-a.is who provides fishing on the Dee as well as many other rivers throughout the world.

Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers from Scandinavia to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As some Scandinavian rivers are now open to anglers its imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There is a risk of this parasite coming into our river from anglers arriving from Europe for example, where the salmon stocks from many European rivers are resistant to this parasite. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine O’¬Neil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. I would really like to hear of your angling successes and share these with our readers, so please write to me with your news and pictures to ken@riverdee.org. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, May 2010

Beat catches reported
(week ending 8th May)
SALMON & GRILSE: Altries and Lower Drum 1, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 2, Tilbouries 2, Park 21, Lower Crathes and W Durris 13, Knappach 2, Crathes 3, Invery 9, Lower Blackhall 12, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 5, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 3, Woodend 3, Lower Woodend 2, Commonty 3, Sluie 4, Ballogie 5, Borrowston 2, Kincardine 4, Carlogie 6, Lower Dess 13, Upper Dess 4, Birse 5, Aboyne Water 4, Aboyne Castle 1, Craigendinnie 8, Waterside and Ferrar 9, Dinnet 1, Deecastle 2, Headinch and Cambus O'May 6, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 3, Birkhall 2, Abergeldie 2, Crathie 2.
Total: 165 Largest: Kincardine 22lbs
SEA TROUT: Upper Drum and Lower Durris 2, Park 2, Crathes 2, Invery 2, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 1, Woodend 2, Sluie 1, Kincardine 2, Waterside and Ferrar 1.
Total: 17 Largest: Upper Drum and Lower Durris & Park & Invery & Woodend & Sluie & Kincardine & Waterside and Ferrar 3lbs
TROUT: None reported

Dee

Prospects

The weather seems somewhat reluctant to spring into summer and the long term forecast is indicating a coldish spell of weather for the month of May. Whilst this is not what most people hope for, itís not a major hurdle for anglers to cope with; the anglers just have to wrap up appropriately. In closer detail for the coming week we have air temperature maxima forecast in the region of 7- 10 degrees Celsius with the potential for a touch of light ground frost some nights. The maritime influence is indicating tides will drop back from 3.9 metres to 3.3 metres. River levels are finally stabilising somewhat and the Sepa gauges are showing levels between 9 inches and 1 ft 6 inches. Last weekís fluctuating river levels did put a dampener on sport as fish never seem to settle in the lies in the pools and keep on the move. There will be patchy rain throughout the week with potential for hill snow and hail showers. They could be locally heavy but should not cause major disruption to the river levels. There will be cold northerly breezes but when the sun pops out it may feel more pleasant.

Now it is really important to fish with the right equipment and listen to your Gillies advice. Our Gillies know the moods of the river and can give you the right advice that you need to hear when attempting to catch salmon and sea trout. I know we have many excellent anglers who fish our river and have caught many salmon on other rivers. Our Gillies will give you the best advice about what lines to use, what flies and methods to employ and crucially where the fish are located in the pools. Work as a team with them and you will hopefully get the rewards for your efforts. If you do not have the services of a Gillie to call on you will have to be patient, persevere and be prepared to adapt your tactics. I would suspect anglers will use intermediate lines or floating lines with sink tips, whether full Spey lines or shooting heads. Popular flies for the Dee right now are monkey flies, cascade or Park shrimp, and of course flies with black and yellow or black and blue patterns such as the Dee Fox or Dee Sheep.

After your day on the river please get out and visit the many hostelries on Deeside providing top quality food and drink. There are many friendly establishments that have a long history of looking after anglers. Why not celebrate your catch with a fine Dalmore Dee Dram as this fine single malt whisky is currently available throughout the valley in George Strachan's stores, as well as the Kincardine O'Neil Post Office and the Stag Hotel in Banchory to buy. More and more of the local hotels and bars are supporting this conservation fundraising initiative for the River Dee Trust so please pop into a local pub if you are out and about and meet the friendly people of Deeside who are delighted to see visitors in the valley. Can you please write to me with news of your catches and pictures if you have some you want to see on FishDee to ken@riverdee.org Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, May 2010

Last week

When I wrote last week that salmon could be maddeningly difficult to hook and land at times it came as no surprise to hear this echoing up and down the valley from Gillies and anglers. One well known Gillie remarked that this is quite common to have a spell in April where fish just donít seem to want to seize the anglers fly with any conviction. I had a cast on Saturday and saw at least 60 salmon during the day but getting one to take the fly properly was another matter. Well this was a pattern that had been replicated all week throughout the week for many anglers fishing on Deeside. As it was there were 102 salmon landed to 21 lbs and 19 sea trout which have been reported so far from FishDee beats. Top beat for the week was Little Blackhall, which will have pleased proprietor Mr David Trembath enormously. Mr Trembath had 4 fish to his own rod on Thursday and the conditions were just right for the beat. In joint second place for the week were Park and Ballogie, closely followed by Lower Crathes. I sympathise with anglers who persevered for scant reward and was fortunate to witness visiting angler Mr Graham May land a perfect 8lb sea liced salmon late on Saturday afternoon. Graham had fished diligently for days and just before it was time to pack up this lovely salmon took his well presented monkey fly.

I was delighted to receive correspondence from my friend Ole Wistler from Denmark who was fishing Ballogie with friends all week. Ole wrote to me commenting ëHi Ken, Long time no hear. Everything is fine here after a relaxing week at Ballogie. We had 10 fish for the week which is fairly good taking thecatches along the river in consideration. I had five fish for the week and I succeeded in getting another fairly large Dee Springer this year at the Bulwarks. At totally fresh 21 lbs hen fish which was quite deep and beautifully spotted. The fish was caught on a floating line and a faded pink/orange homemade fly and a size 12 hook. Head Gillie Sean Stanton rushed all the wayfrom Carlogie in 5 minutes, just in time to get this one photo of the fish. Sean reckoned that this is a second time spawner due to the spots. A DNA sample of the tail of this 3 sea year fish is now being analysed. The Dee is known for many springers - mostly smaller fish but I've caught big fresh springers every year visiting the Dee weighing 18, 19, 21 and 24 lbs. It's almost like the River Gaula. Best wishes. Oleí

I was also delighted to receive images and correspondence from angler Harry Williams who hooked and landed an estimated 32 lb fish at Woodend. Harry was fishing the beat with his grandfather when he hooked this whopper and he explained ëI was fishing on Monday the 19th at Woodend. I caught a 44 inch long Springer estimated at 32 pounds. I hooked the salmon in the Moral Pool on an inch long cascade fly at 6.50pm and proceeded to land the fish at 7.20pm. This was to the delight of myself and my grandfather who I had been fishing with. The fish was safely released. I have some photos however did not get a good one with myself in it as during the excitement of landing the fish I dropped my camera in the river. Both I and my grandpa very much enjoyed our day on at Woodend and will never forget it!í I am sure many anglers would have shaky hands after playing and landing a magnificent specimen Springer like this.

Can I please take this opportunity to remind visiting anglers from Scandinavia to ensure they fill in a Gyrodactylaus Salaris declaration prior to fishing. This can be downloaded from the FishDee website as well as being provided by river beats. As some Scandinavian rivers are now open to anglers its imperative that we remove the risk of this lethal parasite entering our river which would wipe out our salmon stocks. There is a risk of this parasite coming into our river from anglers arriving from Europe for example, where the salmon stocks from many European rivers are resistant to this parasite. There are disinfection stations available at Somers of Aberdeen, Orvis of Banchory and the Post Office at Kincardine OíNeil where visiting anglers can have their tackle fully disinfected for a nominal charge. I would really like to hear of your angling successes and share these with our readers, so please write to me with your news and pictures to ken@riverdee.org. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, May 2010

Beat catches reported
(week ending 1st May)
SALMON & GRILSE: Altries and Lower Drum 2, Middle Drum 1, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 1, Tilbouries 1, Park 10, Lower Crathes and W Durris 8, Knappach 1, Invery 1, Lower Blackhall 5, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 13, Middle Blackhall 2, Woodend 1, Commonty 7, Sluie 2, Ballogie 10, Borrowston 2, Kincardine 3, Carlogie 3, Upper Dess 1, Aboyne Water 2, Aboyne Castle 2, Craigendinnie 2, Waterside and Ferrar 4, Dinnet 2, Deecastle 3, Headinch and Cambus O'May 7, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 5, Balmoral 1.
Total: 102 Largest: Ballogie 21lbs
SEA TROUT: Tilbouries 2, Park 2, Invery 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 3, Cairnton 1, Woodend 1, Commonty 4, Ballogie 3, Borrowston 2.
Total: 19 Largest: Park & Commonty 4lbs
TROUT: None reported

Dee

Prospects

I have a feeling that this could be a cracking week on Deeside with some crack teams of anglers visiting and arriving to find perfect conditions in many of the beats.I am receieving reports of fish running hard, with some beats having a lean time of it and others having really good numbers of salmon in their pools.Its also pleasing to report that the weather is warming up nicely and the swallows have returned and timed it perfectly to coincide with large hatches of March Browns etc. After a slow and difficult start to the fishing season due to the worst weather conditions for many, many years its pleasing to hear of fish moving upriver in good numbers.There seems to be a lot in the 6-8 range as well as fish in the high teens and in excess of 20 lbs.These prime silver sea liced fish really look magnificent and are at times maddenigly difficult to hook and land. Lets hope that the anglers fishing the river do well and take careful note of the air and river temperatures during the day and above all persevere.

The weather forecast is showing reasonable air temperatures until Saturday when they will fall back, however air temperature maxima during the week shall be around 14 degrees Celsius and over night temperatures will drop to 7 degrees Celsius.The winds wll be mostly from a westerly direction and may be blustery at times accommpanied by spring showers, which may be heavy at times locally.There is even a possibility of spring snow next sunday if forecasters have got their computer weather models accurate. Sunrise is around 5.30 am and sunset around 8.45 pm giving extended fishing hours and some anglers will be on the river early in the mornings now, where permitted, to catch the nocturnal running fish as they settle into their beat until they move on again.River levels are currently between 1 ft 3 inches to 1 ft 10 inches with potential for a little snow melt daily. The water clarity is first class and the water temperatures are around 6-7 degrees Celsius. This is the time that more and more anglers will fish with smaller flies and longer lighter leaders and floating lines with poly leaders. The best advice is to listen to your beat gillie if you have the services of one to call upon. If you dont have a gillie to advise you then you may wish to consider fishing with Smiths Shrimp, Cascade or Park shrimp, Silver Stoats tail, Arndilly fancy, Logie, Munro's Killer and the ever popular Monkey fly.I hope to meet up with Ole Wisteler, editor in chief of Sportsfiskeren Magazine, who's over from Denmark to see what his team are using at Ballogie

After your day on the river please get out and visit the many hostelries on Deeside providing top quality food and drink. There are many friendly establishments that have a long history of looking after anglers. Why not celebrate your catch with a fine Dalmore Dee Dram as this fine single malt whisky is currently available throughout the valley in George Strachan's stores, as well as the Kincardine O'Neil Post Office and the Stag Hotel in Banchory to buy. More and more of the local hotels and bars are supporting this conservation fundraising initiative for the River Dee Trust so please pop into a local pub if you are out and about and meet the friendly people of Deeside who are delighted to see visitors in the valley. I was delighted to hear of an angler who arrived at the Glen Lui Hotel on Sunday night at 10.30 pm who was provided with a hot meal on arrival. Can you please write to me with news of your catches and pictures if you have some you want to see on FishDee to ken@riverdee.org Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, April 2010

Last week

The week finished well and the FishDee beats have reported 155 salmon and 19 sea trout for the week with more late catches to be reported over the next few days. This is another good week for anglers fishing the Dee with some more really big fish reported being encountered. Top beat for the week was Ballogie with 16 fish with the ever reliable Lower Crathes in runners up spot.Park,Dinnet,Waterside & Ferrar and Monaltrie & Lower Invercauld also reported reasonable catches.It is clear that there is a reasonable number of salmon in the catchment with fish from the bottom beats right through to the top beats now.There are increasing numbers of sea trout running now and this seems to coincide with the swallows returning annually.

I have receieved a bit of correspondence this week which I would like to share with readers. First of all enthusiastic Ballogie Gillie Sean Stanton reports 'Hi Ken, Just a quick note to let you know about last week - The Hemmings party had a great week at Ballogie, finishing up with 16 fish - the biggest fish was 16lbs, caught by Ernie Hemmings himself. Most fish were caught on Smiths Shrimp doubles and Black Francis flies. The vast majority were sea-liced fish. It was great to see fish in almost every pool. Cheers Sean' and Edward Humphrey wrote advising 'Morning Ken, An excellent week on the Dinnet/Deecastle beat with 15 fish caught off both banks. 8 were caught by Roger Ahlfors from Sweden who had managed to get across to the UK on one of the last flights out of Sweden 10 days ago, leaving behind his fishing companion Johan, who was then stuck behind the ash cloud and who could only watch the score rise on the website with gritted teeth. Johan was delighted for Rogerís success which included a 20 pounder off Deecastle and 3 fish off Redbrae on the Dinnet bank in an hour of Saturday morning.Yours Edward'. Reid Hagelin had yet another big party over on Deeside, albeit some were delayed in coming to Deeside due to the embargo on air travel. The visiting party fished the beautiful upper river beats including Birkhall, Abergeldie, Monaltrie & Lower Invercauld. Special mention must go to the Gillies who worked very hard to help the anglers catch salmon. Nic Jepson positively enthused about the help provide by David Murray who chose the fly that enabled Nic to catch a cracking 24 lb fish from the Garden pool. Nic commented to me on Saturday at their dinner ' I went down the pool two times without a touch and he encouraged me to give it a try on more time and selected the small size 10 fly i should use. I was delighted to hook this fish, which is my biggest Atlantic salmon to date.' Another member of the party Sergey Sapronov, whom I met in January in Argentina fishing, did very well catching his first Dee salmon and had 3 to 15 lbs on his special design of flies.I will provide further update on this when I receieve correspondence from him this week.Finally I should mention that Paul Devlin and Reid Hagelin both reported catches as well as some good golfing days ensuring a fun filled holiday in the upper valley.This week sees Morten Agnaer and his wife Annette fishing and Morten wrote about hsi fishing experiences saying ' If I want to catch many salmon I go to Iceland, If I want a really big fish I stay in Norway, If I want the best fishing holiday I come to Scotland.'This confirms yet again what a temendous holiday destination Deeside really is for visiting anglers and their families.

I should finish by mentioning that there are reports of a 32 lb salmon from Woodend, I have received no reports about this capture yet. I would stress that there is a fish of the month award from our sponsors Whyte & Mackay, the potential to win the Park Trophy for biggest River Dee fish and finally the Malloch trophy for the largest salmon caught in Scotland.Its is prudent to take a tape measure and camera with you in order to help verify captures of large fish. If possible remove a scale for analysis as we have a laboratory in the River Office to establish the life history of these fish. We were able to confirm the 28 lb fish captured at Cambus O'May was a 3 sea winter fish with 2 years in the river before smolting and going to sea. Its always a pleasure for readers to see images of large wild salmon that anglers have been fortunate to land. I am delighted to receive your correspondence to share with our readers so can you please write to me with news of your catches to ken@riverdee.org . I am hopeful sport will continue to gather momentum during April following a slow start to the season caused by the weather. I would really like to hear of your angling successes so please write to me with your news to ken@riverdee.org. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, April 2010

Beat catches reported
(week ending 24th April)
SALMON & GRILSE: Altries and Lower Drum 4, Middle Drum 3, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 6, Tilbouries 2, Park 10, Lower Crathes and W Durris 12, Knappach 1, Crathes 9, Invery 7, Lower Blackhall 4, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Cairnton 2, Woodend 1, Commonty 5, Sluie 1, Ballogie 16, Borrowston 6, Kincardine 7, Carlogie 4, Lower Dess 1, Upper Dess 2, Birse 1, Aboyne Water 5, Craigendinnie 4, Waterside and Ferrar 9, Dinnet 10, Deecastle 5, Headinch and Cambus O'May 5, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 9, Morven 1, Abergeldie 1, Crathie 1.
Total: 155 Largest: Woodend 32lbs
SEA TROUT: Altries and Lower Drum 1, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 5, Tilbouries 1, Park 3, Lower Crathes and W Durris 1, Crathes 4, Invery 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Carlogie 1, Aboyne Water 1.
Total: 19 Largest: Upper Drum and Lower Durris & Park & Lower Crathes and W Durris & Invery & Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo & Aboyne Water 3lbs
TROUT: None reported

Don

Kemnay 6lb, 9lb.
Lower Fintray 8lb, 8lb.
Upper Parkhill 6lb, 8lb, 10lb, 12lb, 18lb.

A few brown trout coming off of Upper and Lower Parkhill.

Ythan
Machar Pool Finnock up to 1lb.

Dee
No catches, but a little bed time reading for you. Fish No41 is the last fish to be tracked around the ADAA bothy.
http://www.riverdee.org.uk/FileLibrary/Content/Season%20extension%20monitoring%202009.pdf

Orvis Day
Just a word of thanks to the Orvis team who gave us all a very enjoyable day, everyone who came down to watch and made putting on the day worth while.

We even had a visit from Henrik Mortensen and the Zpey team, lovely guys, hope you all enjoyed your day!

Henrik Mortensen

Sorry about the lack of photos! If anyone has any that they took would be really grateful to receive them! I was too busy feeding up the VIPs!

Dee

Prospects

The weather forecast is indicating a cold spell for a few days and this may suppress catches a little. We shall see air temperatures in the region of 6-10 degrees Celsius during the daylight hours with overnight frosts in the upper valley most nights. This may halt snow melt from the mountain tops so we should have steady water levels during the week. There will be variable wind conditions with some afternoons seeing breezy conditions which will make it feel cold when snow flurries or hail fall locally. The maritime influence indicates neap tides with high water forecast to drop from 3.9 metres to 3.5 metres, however as the sea temperatures and river temperatures are very similar now fish should migrate feely into the River catchment. The beats around Banchory are enjoying most of the sport but its clear salmon are starting to migrate upriver to the upper catchment now in reasonable numbers albeit some beats are not seeing many fish.

At this time of the year anglers are changing from Tube flies to dressed doubles and some are using full floating lines and catching fish. To get the best out of the river you need to listen carefully to our crack Ghillies up and down the valley. It's important to heed their wise counsel as they know the moods of the river and where the salmon are likely to be lying on their beat. If you do not have the services of a Ghillie to call on then perhaps you could try full floating lines with polyleaders. Patterns to fish with confidence are Silver Stoats Tail, Posh Tosh, Park Shrimp and the ever popular Monkey fly. Now that water temperatures are rising perhaps a sunray shadow fly stripped across the pool may provoke an aggressive take, so try this on beats that allow it after giving conventional tactics a good try first. If you are looking for fishing you can book rods on line as many anglers will be unable to travel because of the current air travel embargo.

After your day on the river please get out and visit the many hostelries on Deeside providing top quality food and drink. There are many friendly establishments that have a long history of looking after anglers. Why not celebrate your catch with a fine Dalmore Dee Dram as this fine single malt whisky is currently available throughout the valley in George Strachan's stores, as well as the Kincardine O'Neil Post Office and the Stag Hotel in Banchory to buy. More and more of the local hotels and bars are supporting this conservation fundraising initiative for the River Dee Trust so please pop into a local pub if you are out and about and meet the friendly people of Deeside who are delighted to see visitors in the valley. I was delighted to hear of an angler who arrived at the Glen Lui Hotel on Sunday night at 10.30 pm who was provided with a hot meal on arrival. Can you please write to me with news of your catches and pictures if you have some you want to see on FishDee to ken@riverdee.org Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, April 2010

Last week

This was a big fish week on the River Dee with some anglers encountering some real hefty specimens throughout the catchment. The biggest fish reported was a fish caught by GlenTanar Estate Proprietor Michael Bruce who landed a fine salmon of 46 inches, conservatively estimated at 32 lbs. We spoke briefly on the phone following his dramatic encounter and Michael did extremely well to land this fish on his own. The previous evening a fish of 28 lbs was caught at Cambus O'May and I hope to receive pictures of this. This fish was landed by William Mclauchlan, photographed with scales taken, and these have been confirmed as a 3 sea winter fish by our biologist Lorraine Hawkins. There were other fish reported in excess of 20 lbs from a number of beats most days, including one landed by Mr Shepherdson at Dee Castle, and it shows there are groups of small and large salmon in the river. The total reported catch from FishDee beats was 166 salmon and 5 sea trout, with Park reporting 21 fish, followed closely by Lower Crathes with 20, Ballogie & Carlogie with 16, with Invery again reaching double figures, so well done to all the successful anglers and Gillies.

I was delighted to receive an e-mail from regular Dee fisher Phillip Wood who commented 'Hi Ken, two weeks on the Dee over and now back home. Week 10 with a party of regulars and day guests on Waterside & Ferrar/Craigendinnie was difficult to say the least with the fluctuating water levels. However, two fish were landed with a couple of other brief contacts. Congratulations to Robert Stead who landed his first Dee Springer on his fifth springtime visit, a sweet fish of about 12 lbs. Bill Siddall also scored. Week 11 on Aboyne Castle started well on Monday with Bill Siddall and myself grassing a fish each in the 8 lb bracket. Hopes were high for a bumper week. I had several contacts but all came off during the next few days before we were into landing fish again, not seeing many fish show, but hearing the stories from the other beats. I managed two before noon on Friday, Bill also had one, and then we finished with 1 each on Saturday. A great week, although we didn't quite manage to get amongst the 'big uns', which are obviously about. A big 'thank you' to the three Gillies who have to put up with us. They are really great guys. Phillip'. I was also advised of another fine fish landed at Morven by visiting angler Mr Tony Smith who reported the fish, which measured 34.5 inches, was very fresh but didnít have sea lice.

I am delighted to receive your correspondence to share with our readers so can you please write to me with news of your catches to ken@riverdee.org There may be rods available through beats as some visiting anglers are unable to come to Deeside due to the current embargo on air travel. Perhaps you can contact beats directly to establish if there is any availability. Some agents have anglers who are unable to fly home and have other anglers who are unable to come to Deeside. I am hopeful sport will continue to gather momentum during April following a slow start to the season caused by the weather. I would really like to hear of your angling successes so please write to me with your news to ken@riverdee.org. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, April 2010

Beat catches reported
(week ending 17th April)
SALMON & GRILSE: Middle Drum 4, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 6, Tilbouries 2, Park 21, Lower Crathes and W Durris 20, Knappach 2, Crathes 1, Invery 10, Lower Blackhall 8, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 4, Middle Blackhall 4, Cairnton 1, Woodend 5, Commonty 2, Sluie 3, Ballogie 9, Borrowston 2, Kincardine 5, Carlogie 7, Lower Dess 3, Upper Dess 2, Birse 5, Aboyne Water 6, Aboyne Castle 7, Craigendinnie 5, Waterside and Ferrar 3, Dinnet 1, Deecastle 6, Headinch and Cambus O'May 5, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 3, Crathie 1.
Total: 163 Largest: Waterside and Ferrar 32lbs
SEA TROUT: Upper Drum and Lower Durris 1, Park 1, Invery 1, Cairnton 1, Birse 1.
Total: 5 Largest: Birse 5lbs
TROUT: None reported

Don
Kemnay - 6lb and 8lb
Upper Parkhill - 9lbs and the only brownie of the season so far at 1lb.

Ythan
Machar - Finnock up to 1lb.

Parkhill Fishery

Saturday 10 April saw the 650th fish caught in the past 3 weeks.. Anglers fishing from both the jetties and the boats have been doing well. The fish are beginning to feed on naturals and catch rates have slowed in the past few days with a few fish taken on dry fly.

Large numbers of toads are breeding at present especially in the marshy area between the boat jetty and pier no 5. Quite a sight to see. One member had his son out with him on Saturday and he spent his whole afternoon watching the toads rather than fishing.

Dee

Prospects

With a kind looking weather forecast and rising water temperatures this week, we should see some cracking sport reported providing the fish get on the move.I have just received a phone call from a very excited Reid Hagelin who's arrived with more anglers. He has been fishing for an hour and a half has had 3 fish to 25 lbs and lost 2 others.In line with other observations reported to me when fish arrive in beats they get hooked and some landed and then they move on.So sport is dependent on fish arriving in beats whilst running. Now to the weather forecast in a bit more detail, winds are forcast to be light and variable with the predominant influence seeing them come from the north or east.Air temperature Mixima is in the region of 15 degrees celsius with minima in the region of 4 degrees. There will be variable amonts of cloud cover as the high pressure establishes and this will be useful if its present in the afternoon sessions preventing the sun shining directly downstream.What rainfall there is shall be very localised and minimalso we shoudlnt see any dramatic spate conditions like last week. There should be a continuance of snow melt from the Cairngorms providing a top up of river levels daily but not adversely.And to finish this section I can advise that water temperatures in th banchory area are in the region of 6 degrees celsius and may rise to 8-10 degrees this week.

Now to get the best out of the river you need to have the best advice available and our crack Ghillies up and down the valley are the men to provide this to you. It's important to heed their wise counsel as they know the moods of the river and where the salmon are likely to be lying on their beat. If you do not have the services of a Ghillie to call on then please use normal spring tactics of sink tip lines, shortish leaders and a tube fly or large dressed fly on the business end. Patterns to fish with confidence are Gold Willie Gunn, Posh Tosh, Park Shrimp and the ever popular Tungsten Monkey fly. Now that water temperatures are rising perhaps a sunray shadow fly stripped across the pool may provoke an aggressive take so try this on beats that allow it after giving conventional tactics a good try first.The spiining option finishes on many of the beats in a few days time and fly fishing becomes the tactic of choice for most Dee anglers. With fish running and temperatures rising lets hope the many visiting talented anglers enjoy a fabulous weeks sport.

After your day on the river please get out and visit the many hostelries on Deeside providing top quality food and drink. There are many friendly establishments that have a long history of looking after anglers.Why not celebrate your catch with a fine Dalmore Dee Dram as this fine single malt whisky is currently available throughout the valley in George Strachan's stores, as well as the Kincardine O'Neil Post Office and the Stag Hotel in Banchory to buy. More and more of the local hotels and bars are supporting this conservation fundraising initiative for the River Dee Trust so please pop into a local pub if you are out and about and meet the friendly people of Deeside who are delighted to see visitors in the valley. Can you please write to me with news of your catches and pictures if you have some you want to see on FishDee to ken@riverdee.org Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, April 2010

Last week

The river fished well when fishing was possible, however a couple of days were effectively lost due to a large flood at the early part of the week. There were 118 salmon and 6 sea trout reported with salmon to 21 lbs recorded.The distribution of fish cathes was pleasing, as fish were reported from Middle Drum in the lower river right up to Crathie near Braemar at the top of the valley. Again the bulf of the sport was reported in the lower beats with Park and Lower Crathes taking pole position, Invery and Little Blackahll were close runners up and Commonty and Birse came in joint third place for the week.There was a crack team of anglers from Scandinavia fishing with Mattias Helde at Birse, Commonty and a non-FishDee beat, and they had good catches from all the beats they fished.It is very pleasing to hear of the visiting anglers to Deeside having good sport and it makes for an enjoyable evening when they gather to celebrate their excellent days sport.No doubt their Ghillies provided them with sound advice as always.

I was delighted to receive an e-mail from a fishing friend Donnie Whiteford who managed to visit Invery for a few days and he did very well catching 3 fish, he commented.'Hi Ken. I have attached a photo of a fish I had on Friday while fishing Invery. I go by the Sturdy scale when estimating the weight of springers and this one would be around 21lbs.It was caught on a floating line with a tip and an orange monkey-type fly which served me well on the Tummel last spring. I had 2 on Thursday at 7 and 11 lbs.Hope your season is going well'. Donnie is an excellent experienced angler who works extremely hard to get his fish, and often succeeds when others give up. Another acquaintance Ross Macdoanld got in touch with me following an invitation to fish for a day at Carlogie. Ross commented 'Ken, thanks for the invitation to fish at the beautiful Carlogie beat this week as your guest. Despite the high water I managed to winkle one out of the Boat Pool- exactly where Head Ghillie Sean Stanton said I would get one. Sean's enthusiasm and knowledge made for another great day out on the Dee. He also ties a mean fly!! tight lines'.

I was grateful to receive news from Edward Humphrey who adivsed that reglar visitor Julia O'Hagen caught her first Dee springer at 8 lbs while fishing with Colin Espie at the Dee Castle beat, part of Glen Tanar fishings.I also received an e-mal from an excited Colin Mathieson who remarked 'At last I can finally relax now as I eventually achieved my goal by completing the set target of catching salmon from all the big four rivers Tay,Spey,Tweed and Dee. I got off the mark by booking my 3rd ever visit to Park South where I managed to connect with my first Dee salmon, a beautiful 6lb sea-liced springer from the Durris Stream on a Park Shrimp cone head witnessed by gillie Charlie Yates, fished on a Rio AFS outbound 7 i.p.s around 10.45am, just before the river started to rise. I also managed to connect with a very well mended kelt around 8lbs and lost a double figured spring fish to a black and yellow monkey that same evening when the water decided to some what settle a little. My fellow angler Matthew Brownisky had several offers but never managed to intercept with any his offers not due to lack of fresh fish been seen on the beat . I would also like to take the time to thank yourself and Ian Scott for making us very welcoming at lunch time and by offering a dram or two on catching my fish, and more importantly the great job the River Dee team are doing in enhancement of the River Dee, what a great job use are doing keep up the good work ! p.s cant wait to come back.Many thanks Colin Mathieson'

I am delighted to receive your correspondence to share with our readers so can you please write to me with news of your catches to ken@riverdee.org There are rods available over the next few weeks on the river due to the cold winter so please take advantage of the many rods available and come and fish the River Dee I am hopeful sport will really start to take off and would like to hear of your angling successes. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, March 2010

Beat catches reported
(week ending 10th April)
SALMON & GRILSE: Middle Drum 3, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 4, Tilbouries 2, Park 12, Lower Crathes and W Durris 12, Knappach 1, Crathes 1, Invery 10, Lower Blackhall 7, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 10, Middle Blackhall 2, Cairnton 5, Commonty 9, Ballogie 1, Borrowston 1, Kincardine 7, Carlogie 2, Lower Dess 2, Upper Dess 1, Birse 9, Aboyne Water 5, Craigendinnie 2, Waterside and Ferrar 2, Deecastle 4, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 3, Crathie 1.
Total: 119 Largest: Invery 21lbs
SEA TROUT: Middle Drum 2, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 1, Lower Crathes and W Durris 2, Lower Blackhall 1.
Total: 6 Largest: Middle Drum 4lbs
TROUT: None reported

Don
Kemnay - 6lb
Lower Fintray - 9lbs (photo)
Upper Parkhill - 13lb & 7lb.

A lovely March springer caught by Bob Stephen at Lower Fintray

Parkhill Fishery
Saturday 3 April saw the 500th fish caught in the past fortnight. Anglers fishing from both the jetties and the boats have been doing well. Around midday today, Sat 3rd, there was a hatch of very small grey flies and good numbers of fish were surface feeding. Some good fish up to 10lb in weight have been taken during the period.

Dee

Prospects

The first full week of April looks like being milder than of late, but this also brings along a forecast for the start of the week of heavy rain, wind and a likely thaw of some snow. This means that we are likely to get sudden increases in river heights and anglers should take care when wading and only do so when sure of their footing.

From Wednesday onwards the weather is due to calm down with forecast for reasonable spring days for Aberdeenshire, which means a combination of fair weather with the odd shower. With such changeable conditions it pays to heed the advice of the ghillie, as they can often make the difference between catching a fish or not.

The upside to the high water conditions and improving water temperatures means that fish should now becoming well dispersed throughout the catchment. Tight lines for the coming week, and if you would like to share stories or anecdotes on tactics then please contact Ken Reid at ken@riverdee.org. © Copyright FishDee Ltd, April 2010.

Last week

Last week saw winter tenaciously closing its grip on Scotland again, with combinations of rain, wind and snow. For those who battled through atrocious road conditions and the physical demands of the weather conditions the River saw improving rod catches through the week. An example of this would be the two brothers, Henrik and Benjamin Fredriksen, who chose the Dee as the destination for their first visit to Scotland in search of the elusive spring salmon. After enduring terrible weather conditions on Middle Drum they were both rewarded with salmon, the best Henrik's 12lbs sea-liced fish.

Park topped the catches reported on FishDee, with a total of 19 fish to 20lbs. The catches on Park were aided and abetted by none other than Ken Reid, who managed to get his Dee tally off the mark. Ken's party also included Lawrie Hickman, Matt Hayes and Jim Coates who contributed to the beat's reported catch of 10 for Friday, up to 20lb.

Just as noticeable on the recent catches were the five fish caught at Headinch and Cambus O'May on Saturday from the party led by Paul Angel. With beats from above Aboyne reporting catches every day last week the high water levels and slow but steady increase in water temperatures are encouraging fish to disperse throughout the catchment.

Gareth Headland fishing at Carlogie must also be congratulated for landing a fine example of a Dee Springer, with an estimated weight of 22lb. The fish was caught on a home tied fly, Fredes Nightmare, which also accounted for most of the fish caught on that beat for the week.

Finally all on Deeside wish Lars Terkildsen, and his party of 25 enthusiastic and capable anglers from Sweden and Denmark, a safe journey home and we look forward to seeing them all again soon.

Ken will be back next week, no doubt regaling us all with tales of fish caught and lost from his few days on Carlogie. As ever all contributions to this column are greatly welcomed and please email Ken at ken@riverdee.org or telephone him at the River Office on 01339 880411.

© Copyright FishDee Ltd, April 2010.

Beat catches reported
(week ending 3rd April)
SALMON & GRILSE: Altries and Lower Drum 1, Middle Drum 3, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 4, Tilbouries 4, Park 19, Lower Crathes and W Durris 6, Knappach 1, Crathes 3, Invery 5, Lower Blackhall 6, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 2, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 2, Woodend 1, Commonty 1, Ballogie 2, Borrowston 1, Kincardine 4, Carlogie 5, Lower Dess 2, Upper Dess 2, Birse 2, Aboyne Water 3, Aboyne Castle 1, Craigendinnie 4, Waterside and Ferrar 4, Dinnet 4, Deecastle 3, Headinch and Cambus O'May 5, Birkhall 1.
Total: 102 Largest: Carlogie 22lbs
SEA TROUT: Altries and Lower Drum 2, Park 2, Invery 2, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Kincardine 2.
Total: 9 Largest: Altries and Lower Drum 4lbs
TROUT: None reported

Ythan

Ardlethen
Finnock up to 1lb.

Don

Kemnay
7lb, 7lb, 8lb, 8lb, 9lb, 12lb.

Photo and story attached of fish caught by Bill this week at Kemnay.

I was fortunate tonight to land a couple of Spring Fish from the Don at Kemnay. I have attached a photo of one which was about 12lb.
I also lost another one after about 7-8mins again a fresh fish.
I started fishing at 4.40pm and finished at 6.10pm.

Thanks Bill and well done!

Upper Parkhill
9lb

Loch of Loirston.
Only the one recorded this week at about 2lb.

Parkhill Fishery
With the better weather this week more people have been using the boats and catches have been up, with rainbows up to 10lb being recorded.

Dee

Prospects

Just when we thought we had seen the back of this winter the forecasters are predicting winter will have one final kiss to deliver to Deeside. And a smacker it is forecast to be with heavy snowfalls predicted for higher ground with as much of a foot of new spring snow. How this will impact on the fishing remains to be seen as it coincides with really high spring tides. To get into the detail sees the forecast for the Banchory area suggesting air temperatures forecast to reach a maximum of 5 degrees Celsius on Monday and then to fall overnight and stay for the rest of the fishing week in the 1-3 degree Celsius range. Accompanying these cold air temperatures will be frequent sleet and snow showers, with some heavy and prolonged. Another feature of the week will be frequent strong and blustery winds which will come from northerly and westerly directions. This is more like early February weather than late March however it is safe to predict that Easter Sunday will not be a barbecue one.

River levels are currently running at 1 ft 2 inches to 2 ft 10 inches on the Sepa gauges, which is a good level for fishing. Perhaps this cold weather will ensure we donít get a huge amount of snowmelt and ensure steady river levels throughout the week but it depends on how wet the land is during the week. We may see some rises during the week but the good news is we have Spring tides peaking at 4.4 metres on Wednesday dropping back to 3.8 metres at the weekend. This may encourage a further run of fresh fish with hopefully some more big fish. Some Ghillies have reported seeing some really big fish last week so we may have some exciting news to report next week. River temperatures are around 3 degrees Celsius and if they end up warmer than air temperatures we may see sport slow down- I do hope this is not the case.

Now to get the best out of the river you need to have the best advice available and our crack Ghillies up and down the valley are the men to provide this to you. Itís important to heed their wise counsel as they know the moods of the river and where the salmon are likely to be lying on their beat. If you do not have the services of a Ghillie to call on then please use normal spring tactics of sunken lines, short sturdy leaders and a tube fly on the business end. Patterns to fish with confidence are Gold Willie Gunn, Posh Tosh, Park Shrimp and the ever popular Tungsten Monkey fly. I heard of an angler losing a fish recently by trying to rush a fish to the bank to meet a flight schedule. Spring fish are dogged scrappers and will try their hardest to elude capture and release so patience is vital in playing a fish.

Why not celebrate your catch with a fine Dalmore Dee Dram as this fine single malt whisky is currently available throughout the valley in George Strachanís stores, as well as the Kincardine OíNeil Post Office and the Stag Hotel in Banchory to buy. More and more of the local hotels and bars are supporting this conservation fundraising initiative for the River Dee Trust so please pop into a local pub if you are out and about and meet the friendly people of Deeside who are delighted to see visitors in the valley. Can you please write to me with news of your catches to ken@riverdee.org There are rods available over the next few weeks on the river due to the cold winter so please take advantage of the many rods available and come and fish the River Dee Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, March 2010

Last week

Itís nice to start a report by advising that catches last week were considerably the highest by far this season with 131 salmon reported. The weather improved with daytime temperatures encouraging new fish to run the river in reasonable numbers and sport was enjoyed from Altries to Cambus OíMay. There seems to be a reasonable number of fish around the Banchory area which perhaps have been held back by cold water and high river levels. This is seen by the reported catches with Park reporting 14, Invery 13, Lower Blackhall with 12 Little Blackhall reporting 10-other notable catches were Kincardine with 11 and Ballogie/Carlogie with 10. So well done to the Ghillies and anglers for doing well with persistent high water levels and tricky winds to contend with.

Fish of the week was reported by Keith Cromar at Park who wrote ìHi Ken, please find photos of a beautiful Dee Springer caught this morning at Park. The angler is local man Mr Ken Rothwell from Peterculter, it was his third cast of the day when the fish took his fly, it was "The Dee Fox" invented and tied by local fly tyer Phil Glendenning. It was caught on the Jetties at the top of beat 5. The fish weighed in at 26lb.Having seen some big fish this week it was nice for someone to hook into a big fella. Regards Keithî Earlier in the week Jim Coates had a fish on for twenty minutes that he and Keith had estimated to be over 30 lbs. The fish after a lengthy struggle took off down river and came off 500 yards downstream from where it was hooked.

I was grateful to receive pictures from John Milne and Charlie Robertson of fine Dee Springers which will hopefully be on the FishDee website over the next few days. I received further correspondence from Colin Hewitt who I met during the week with regular Dee angler Steve Hogg, Colin commented about his e-mail entitled Cole Porter ìNo doubt you are confused by the title of this e-mail, but I thought it quite apt, as he wrote "It's Dee-lightful, It's Dee-licious, it's Dee-lovely" - which pretty much sums up how good a time I had fishing the river for the first time. Lovely fly water - runs, glides, shallows, deeps, features. Two fish in two days, despite a rise in water, a few beers and some good chat, what more could a reasonable guy ask for. I definitely plan to visit again and many thanks for the DVD of the Varzuga - I had a quick swatch and it does look good fun. I have attached a "happy camper" photo - this after it got out the net in the water, jumped out the net and got back into the water whilst on the back, with me holding it by the nylon to get it back. Keith needs a bigger net! Thanks again Colin Hewittî

I was delighted to receive correspondence from John Carmichael who is a long term regular Dee angler who advised ìDear Ken, We have just completed our 30th annual spring week on the Upper Dee where we had far more snow melt water than usual. Our proprietor (Edward Humphrey) generously presented a bottle of the ëDee Dramí to be opened only after the first fish of the season was caught. To our surprise and delight this was achieved by 10.30am with a 7lb. winter fish, so the delights of the Dee Dram were soon thoroughly tested by all! The fish we caught had all been in a while, under the ice no doubt, and were the pinkish hue we associate with these ëChristmasí fish. Scale reading of one 6 year old 3+3 fish confirmed this. On Friday while watching the 6 foot plus flood go by I saw a splash grabbed my rod and covered the spot with a large fly and was rewarded with a ëtakeí and though it was a bright sea trout kelt, see photo, it was a surprise in the conditions! Though catches have changed over the 30 years we always enjoy Deeside, the company of our ghillies and the quality and variety of these Dee pools. Regards, John Carmichaelî

I am delighted to receive your correspondence to share with our readers so can you please write to me with news of your catches to ken@riverdee.org There are rods available over the next few weeks on the river due to the cold winter so please take advantage of the many rods available and come and fish the River Dee I am hopeful sport will really start to take off and would like to hear of your angling successes. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd, March 2010

Beat catches reported
(week ending 27th March)
SALMON & GRILSE: Altries and Lower Drum 2, Middle Drum 3, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 5, Park 14, Lower Crathes and W Durris 9, Knappach 1, Crathes 10, Invery 13, Lower Blackhall 12, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 10, Middle Blackhall 3, Cairnton 3, Commonty 2, Ballogie 7, Borrowston 1, Kincardine 11, Carlogie 3, Lower Dess 3, Upper Dess 1, Birse 4, Aboyne Castle 2, Craigendinnie 2, Waterside and Ferrar 2, Dinnet 3, Deecastle 4, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1.
Total: 131 Largest: Park 26lbs
SEA TROUT: Altries and Lower Drum 2, Upper Drum and Lower Durris 1, Tilbouries 1, Carlogie 1.
Total: 5 Largest: Altries and Lower Drum & Upper Drum and Lower Durris 3lbs
TROUT: None reported

Parkhill Fishery

Still quite a few rainbows being recorded online and alot more in the book.
Just a note to say that if you do record all your fish online you can go in and see a full record of all the fish you have caught for the season.

Loch of Loirston
Rainbows up to 2lb.

Ythan
Methlick and Ardlethen, still quite a few finnock being recorded.