River Don At Kemnay

As the River Don was rising from top to bottom today, I headed up to the ADAA's Kemnay beat. I arrived about 9.30am to see the water was slightly coloured and carrying some weed. I walked up to the top of the beat and started in the Bridge Pool.

I was trying out my new 42g Floating Mackenzie GTX G2 shooting head. Very Impressed! It was easy to cast and turned over no problem.

There was a few fish splashing mid way down the Bridge pool but they looked like Kelts. They were not interested in anything a put past them anyway. As the river rose sharply, I changed lines to my trusty Monteith Multi Tip line. I put on the 10ft intermediate tip and a 10ft 3.9 inch per second poly leader. I tied on a size 8 Musker's Fancy No.2 and covered the lies where the kelts were showing. Still nothing but as I pulled in line to re-cast, the line was pulled back out my hand by a big, strong Brown Trout. After giving a good account for itself, I landed a beauty of maybe 3 lbs. Would have been a really good battle on a single handed rod.

I fished all the way down and finished up my morning in the School Pool. Apart from the odd trout rising, I didn't see anything the whole way down stream. When I left the water was way up from the earlier and colouring up fast. Don't think it will be fishable tomorrow due to the colour but you never know.

Here are some pictures from a very wet Aberdeenshire!

The Bridge Pool. This pool holds a lot of kelts early in the season. One or two showing today further downstream.

A greedy Brown Trout which hammered my size 8 Musker's Facy No 2. Looks like it's been feeding well.

The Dooker. Nice looking bit of fly water. Didn't see anything show in here but a lovely cast.

Island Stream. Another lovely looking piece of fly water. You would expect it to hold a fish or two but again , nothing showing in here either. Needs a wee bit more water I think.

The School Pool. Named because Kemnay Academy is beyond the hill to the right. Another pool which usually holds a fish or two but nothing showing. Maybe the colour of the water was keeping them down. The was also some weed and debris coming down river too which is not ideal. I fished through here and headed home. Always next time.