Charlie Robertson's Day At Park South 30/08/11

My friend Charlie was out on the Dee at Park South yesterday and he has kindly sent me some pictures to put on my blog. The beat had 17 fish for their day. (Both Banks) North bank had 11 before lunch time!!! Here are some pictures of the day.

Gearing up for the day and discussing tactics with Bert the Ghillie.

A nice picture of Park House in the background.

Re-charging the batteries at lunch time.

Charlie with well known guide and author Ian Neale. His book "Shadows in the Stream" is well worth a read during the long close season months. Nice chapter about early season fishing on the Helmsdale.

Charlie with a spanking fresh Grilse covered in long tail sea lice from under the wires in the Durris Stream. His friend Eddie landed 3 and his other friend Mike had a brace. Between them they also connected with about a dozen other fish. Sounds like some outstanding fishing was to be had! Wish I was there!!!

Lower Don 24/08/11

Was out on the Lower Don at Parkhill tonight with my Dad. I didn't catch anything but my Dad managed a fresh fish about 5lbs. No sea-lice but didn't look like it had been in long. It had what looked like net marks or something all along it's flanks. Here is a picture of the fish.

Nice fish from the Don. This fish was heavily marked and very red around the vent area. Nice to see and hear of plenty fish being caught in the Don now.

A Couple Of Fish From The Don

Here is a couple of pictures sent to me this evening from Charlie Robertson. Seems to be quite a few coming off the Don at the moment. About time too, as this year has been very quiet on the Don so far.

Charlie and his dog Bracken with a nice 3-4lb Grilse.

A cracking fresh run 15lb summer Salmon from Manar Fishings.

River Don Grilse 16-08-2011

My Dad had a few hours out on the Lower Don this afternoon and managed to land a sea-liced Grilse. The Don was a up a good bit with all the recent rain but it's running clear which is always good. Normally after a rise the Don colours up quite badly but as it's been high a few days now, the colour has came out of it. Hopefully this might mark the beginning of a good head of fish entering the river.  Fingers crossed!

5lb sea-liced "Bar of Silver".

Park Beat River Dee 13-08-2011

Had a day on Park today. With the rise of water on Wednesday it was falling away nicely until last night when heavy rain caused the river to rise a few feet. After the beat having 8 fish yesterday I thought with all the extra water my jinx was going to strike again! When I arrived at the hut around 8.15am the river was rising. I was allocated beats 2 and 4. I stared in 4. The gauge was reading 56". I had a few little plucks in the Durris Stream but nothing came of them. One of the rods Gerry had a nice wee Grilse about 1 1/2lbs covered in sea-lice not long before lunch on a small stoats tail. After lunch I was shown the top of the Park beat. Gerry who I was sharing the beat with, thought it would be a good idea to have a cast in the Boat Hole. Good advice because after only a few cast I hooked into a lovely wee Grilse of about 2 1/2lbs which was also dripping in sea-lice. The fish took a self tied Black Bear Flamethrower size 13. By now the gauge was hovering about the 50" mark. Another rod, also had 2 small Grilse from the Durris after lunch but the river began to rise again back up to 56". South Park had an 8lber from Bakebare and a coloured sea-trout. I left the beat around 8pm with the gauge at 50" and dropping. Great day in unsettled high water and looking forward to going back in February. Here are some pics from today.

The Durris Stream where I began my day. I had a couple of pulls just off the point mid picture on a size 9 Park Shrimp. Didn't hook up though. The water was pretty big first thing.

Looking upstream in the Cellar Pool. Didn't have a touch in here.

After lunch I was shown the Park Inn Pool so while up here it would be worth having a cast. After only 2 or 3 cast I was into a fish just in the faster water opposite the hut. Keith, the Ghillie, arrived on the scene just in time to net a sparkling wee fish about 2.5lbs.

Not the biggest fish in the world but welcome all the same, especially as the water was so high for this pool.

Just a close up shot of the sea-lice on the gill plates. There was sea-lice along it's back too.

A quick pic for the scrap book and back it went.

Fished down through the Upper and Lower Kirks without a touch, but by this time the water had risen about 6" back up to 56".

After tea with the water quickly dropping again I headed up to fish the Castleton Pool. Didn't touch anything and fished all the way down to where I began my day. At around 8pm I headed off home. Good day just a pity there was so much water but Keith the Ghillie is good craic and we had a good laugh in the hut at finishing time. Looking forward to going back in early Spring.

Knappach Beat River Dee 06-08-2011

To celebrate my Uncle's 50th birthday, my Auntie booked the Knappach beat just opposite Crathes on the River Dee. Seen plenty of fish in most pools and a lots of fresh looking ones too. Shortly before lunch my Uncle lost a fresh wee Grilse in the Upper Birkenbaud and after lunch I had a couple of good solid pulls in the Island Pool with a Sunray Shadow but lifted into them and nothing there!. No fish landed for our day and just after 6pm the heavens opened and it started lashing down with rain. This seemed to put the fish down as we hardly seen anything after that. We packed up about 8.30 and headed home. Here are some pics of our day.

Looking upstream at the top pool, Floating Bank. Invery is the next beat up on this bank and Crathes is opposite.

Next pool down is Corbie but it's better known as the Island Pool. I went for a swim in here whilst backing up to re-cover a fish that pulled about 3 yards of line off my reel.When I lifted into it..... Nothing! Thankfully it was quite warm and my clothes dried out pretty quickly!

Fishing the Upper Birkenbaud Pool just about where my Uncle had lost a wee fresh Grilse before lunch.

Lower Birkenbaud, where most of the fish were showing through-out the day until the heavy rain after tea time put them down.

Lower Dee Netting To Radio Tag Salmon 03/08/2011

I was out last night with several other members of the Aberdeen & District Angling Association netting one of our Lower Dee pools trying to intercept running fish for radio tagging. Scottish Water are doing major engineering works to the intake of the reservior and the River Dee biologist Dr Lorraine Hawkins and River Dee Director Mark Bilsby were on hand to tag any fish caught. This is to find out if the works will affect their migration upstream in any way. The netting has been carried out all week with the assistance of the Dee baliffs and only a few fish have been of suitable size to be tagged. There was 1 fish lost on the first run down and 2 sea trout caught on the last run last night. Very interesting to see and find out information from the River Dee staff. Here are some pictures of the netting.

The Boatman rowing the net down for the first sweep of the night.

Slowly pulling the net in to check the catch. This sweep had a small Grilse in it but it managed to escape.

Myself, Dad and Uncle, who is the ADAA River Dee Convenor looking on as the Grilse makes its getaway!

Heading upstream to try it all again at Dusk.

Pulling the net into the near bank and downstream whilst the Boatmen rows to the far bank. The last sweep of the night produced 2 sea trout.