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Post by redrock on Apr 20, 2010 15:21:03 GMT
Some very nice fish there, the bottom fish has got a very red vent by the looks of it
Any pictures of either of the 32lb'ers forthcoming?
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Post by greenbanks on Apr 20, 2010 18:33:08 GMT
Some very nice fish there, the bottom fish has got a very red vent by the looks of it Any pictures of either of the 32lb'ers forthcoming? PM Sent-watch this space
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Post by fishdee on Apr 26, 2010 13:04:25 GMT
ProspectsI have a feeling that this could be a productive week on Deeside with some crack teams of anglers visiting and arriving to find perfect conditions in many of the beats. I am receiving 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 lb 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 maddeningly difficult to hook and land. I 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 overnight temperatures will drop to 7 degrees Celsius. The winds will be mostly from a westerly direction and may be blustery at times accompanied 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. The maritime influence indicates Spring tides with heights rising from 4.1 metres to 4.4 metres before falling back to 3.9 metres on Sunday. 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 do not 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. It is important to fish hard as a run of fish could arrive at any time in your pool and perhaps be gone an hour or so later. 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 Recent CatchesThe 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 steady 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 received a few bits 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 Rogers 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'. Nic Jepson's 24 lb SalmonReid 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 one 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 receive 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 Agnar and his wife Annette fishing and the always entertaining Morten wrote about his fishing experiences recently 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 Deeside in Scotland. 'This confirms yet again what a tremendous 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 clear reports about this capture yet as the captor has not been in touch. 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
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Post by fishdee on May 3, 2010 13:55:55 GMT
PROSPECTS FOR COMING WEEK 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, it’s 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 week’s 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’s 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. A fine 21 lb Cock Fish from Ballogie-the weeks biggest fishAfter 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’s CATCHESWhen 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 don’t 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 Ole Wistler from Denmark who was fishing Ballogie with friends all week. Ole wrote to me commenting ‘Hi Ken, Long time no hear. Everything’s fine here after a relaxing week at Ballogie. We had 10 fish for the week which is fairly good taking the catches 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. A totally fresh 21 lbs cock 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 way from 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. Ole’ I was also delighted to receive images and correspondence from angler Harry Williamson 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 ‘I 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!’ I am sure many anglers would have shaky hands after playing and landing a magnificent specimen Springer like this. Harry Williamson's estimated 32 lb Salmon 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 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
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Post by fishdee on May 10, 2010 13:12:01 GMT
Recent Catches
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
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
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Post by scotty9nro on May 13, 2010 21:38:33 GMT
good to see borrowstoun havin gd start to week and kincardine tay. Only beats av fished on the dee and they are superb. One a best days a hav had fishin even tho a caught heehaw
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Post by scotty9nro on May 13, 2010 21:45:32 GMT
It gd beat nut trust me, maybe if ud take me tay some a ur beats ad be able tay comment on em ;D
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Post by scotty9nro on May 13, 2010 21:47:26 GMT
a dnt care bout not catchin nut, ma time will come
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Post by greenbanks on May 14, 2010 9:14:09 GMT
Was out for a cast yesterday afternoon and had a very fresh 3 lb Grilse at Birse. It was great to see so many smolts feeding on their migration downstream. There are reports from the top to the very bottom of the river of lots of smolt activity. We did a Goosander count yesterday and it seems the bulk of them are located in the Aberdeen area-no doubt feeding hard on the descending smolts.
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Post by hazeldub on May 14, 2010 12:21:38 GMT
Pity there were not some peeps about with machine guns - Little B's that they are,
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Post by greenbanks on May 14, 2010 12:34:38 GMT
The license controls are very strict for culling Goosanders, they like many birds they are protected. If you get caught shooting a goosander outwith the license period, or a heron its deemed as criminal as persecuting golden eagles etc. The counts have to be carried out a number of times throughout the year to ensure the license application is granted the following year.
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Post by hazeldub on May 16, 2010 15:57:22 GMT
How did the river do last week? You out 'gowfing' again?
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Post by greenbanks on May 17, 2010 0:46:03 GMT
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Post by fishdee on May 17, 2010 13:29:06 GMT
Fishing Reports Recent Catches 17 th May 2010
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, and 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 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 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
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
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Post by diverdave on May 21, 2010 7:11:06 GMT
I am involved in both the Dee and Don Trusts and was asked if I could do a dive in the Lynn of Dee for a group who had come to Grampian to see the works of trusts, and that of the Dee in particular. They are investors in our works and as such were to be given an interesting and informative day. I have dived the Lynn many times, but having sold my diving business 2 years ago I have not dived for some time. I went I suppose from diving almost every day 25 years ago to every fortnight two years ago, but I had at last a two year break since I had actually dived. Also the river in the Lynn is constrained right down to a 1mtr wide gorge, and it thrashes through it. In very low water it is serene and quiet. In high water it is a raging torrent. Steady at just over a foot on the gauge it was a little high, but clear and looking cold, with snow on the mountains all round. Because of this and the dive plan I would be restricted to just 2 pools. Things looked difficult! The plan was to dive with a hand held video camera, attached via a cable to a surface monitor, and let the surface party see salmon and trout in the pools. The group, including the Chairman, director, biologist, Trust director and operations manager as well as our visiting dignitaries knew as I did that the conditions could be a problem, and that the salmon may not be there. The Lynn is right at the top of the river. After a long cold winter they may not have arrived yet. I had selected an old dry suit for the dive, a pair of independent 7ltr cylinders and regs and a recording arm mounted computer to log depth and temperature. None of this had been used for a couple of years so I did a full check on arrival, and hoped to get a quick test dip before everyone arrived, drowning on film would be embarrassing! Alas, it was not to be, they arrived just as I closed my suit up so off we went, huffing and puffing all the heavy equipment onto a nice flat granite ledge on the bank. I did a very quick pre dive check and dropped into the water, all seemed well. The water was staying on the outside and I was breathing, splendid! Our camera umbilical was tangled slightly, so as they did a little un tangling I decided to drop down a meter or two, to check clarity, buoyancy and the like. My ears popped properly as I slowly descended into surprisingly warm clear water, I was in bubbles from the waterfall above initially but quickly cleared this, and as my eyes adjusted to the dark (my lights were attached to the video head) I noticed a couple of dark trout lazily finning into the current, and far below, a large salmon slowly mooching up stream. I added a puff of gas into my dry suit and rode its buoyancy back to the surface. I think they knew from my grin that there were fish in the pool and told them I had seen one. Video in hand I slowly dropped back down, videoing the heavily striated rock formations, overhangs and polished surface of the gorge. As I descended in the 12 degree water, I noticed a golden sparkle on the bottom, and videoed my gloved hand picking up a penny......result! I moved slowly upstream, videoing small dark trout and parr, and then, rounding a corner into a deep hole met a shoal of 12 salmon. I got within about ½ meter of them at times, video running all the time and streaming footage to the surface monitor. I had no idea what they could see so just kept filming. The fish performed well, they were disturbed by me being there, and would at times hang above and in front of me finning slowly and just keeping their distance, or at times would turn suddenly, and swim towards my light, flashing away at the last second. I stayed with them for half an hour, just moving slowly after them as they mooched round the pools. They were all silvery fish, showing no signs of colouring up, and impossible to sex. The largest was about 12lbs, smallest about 3 lbs and all were a tad thin for springers I thought. All bar one were in perfect condition, one had a wee white patch on his nose. I also filmed some brown trout. The largest would have been about 2lbs, a cracking fish, almost black in colour, and surprisingly large in the barren environment of the upper Dee. Most however were a more typical ½ lb fish that I would have expected, so I wondered how old the big one was. I noticed my air was going down and I had been right through the accessible pools, I noted a maximum depth of 8.9 mtrs and a minimum temperature of 12 degrees before slowly ascending to the surface. The surface party were delighted with the footage. They were surprised by the clarity and by the number and condition of the fish. They also noticed that the fish looked thin, most Dee springers are little barrels, so perhaps these are a fast running sub group. All very interesting! The footage was not recorded but here is my last dive, in shallow water in Braemar, again for the trust, in June a few years ago. Much more green and murky! www.wader-repair.co.uk
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