It was the end of the River Spey fishing season yesterday and along with Charlie and Mike, I was lucky enough to be fishing the beautiful Wester Elchies beat. We arrived at the hut about 8.30am and the gauge was reading 1ft 5in. The water had dropped away a good few inches after the spate on Wednesday and was a nice peat stained colour. After a chat with the ghillie Sam and the two other rods Stuart and Angus we tackled up and headed off to our allocated pools for the morning session. I started in the Little Turn and was to fish right down to the bottom of the Rhynd. Charlie and Mike set off down to the Boat pool.
I was using a Rio AFS Intermediate tip shooting head and a 10ft slow sink tip and on the business end, I tied on a #7 Willie Gunn Flamethrower. I never seen or touched a fish in the Little Turn and headed on down to the Rhynd. There was a few fish showing just out and below the Big Pig stone but I didn't interest any of them but just as I was about finished the pool my fly was hammered by a lively coloured wee sea trout about 1lb. It took my fly as I was stripping in my running line to re-cast! A nice reward after a tricky wade all the way down the pool. I strapped the rod on the wagon and headed off to see Charlie and Mike at the Boat pool. Neither of them touched anything but there was a couple landed on the spinner by Aberlour Angling Association rods. I had a half hour in the Boat pool before lunch and had an offer to my fly but it didn't stick which was a pity as it was a good pull. After that I headed back to the hut for some lunch.
In the lunch hut Stuart informed us that he landed a fish about 9lb from Brock so that was encouraging and Charlie caught a chrome bright sea trout from the Delagyle pool. After lunch Charlie, Mike and Myself headed off to fish the upper part of the beat. Charlie and Mike went up to Brock and I fished Delene and Pol Ma Cree. The latter was full of fish and I must have covered dozens to no avail. After I had fished these pools I headed up to see Charlie and Mike. They had no luck either but Charlie had two offers to his Sunray Shadow but again, they didn't stick.
After we said our fairwells to ghillie Sam and the two other lads, Mike headed off to fish Pol Ma Cree and Charlie and I fished Delagyle. We both opted for the Sunray Shadow and Charlie switched lines to fish a wee bit deeper. Not long after starting Charlie's change of tactics paid dividends and he was into a livley fish which nailed his Sunray. After a few storming runs and a couple of leaps, I slid the net under a couloured fish around the 5lb mark. A fine way to end the day. Nothing was touched by Mike or myself and after a yap in the hut to reflect on a good day, we headed home.
It was a great day out on a fantastic beat and was made even better by the company. The ghillie Sam topped the day with good craic and the man certainly knows his beat inside out. It was a pleasure to fish Wester Elchies and we all agreed, given availability, we would return next year. Here are some pictures from our day yesterday.
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| Little Turn. I started my day in this pool. Nice bit of water. |
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| Rhynd. I landed a wee coloured sea trout just off of the Little Pig rock. Big Pig rock is the huge stone just out from the bank. |
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| A quick snap of the sea trout before release which hammered my #7 Willie Gunn Flamethrower. |
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| Fishing down the Boat Pool. I had a good thump of my fly at the tail just above the bridge but it didn't connect. |
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| Pol Ma Cree. A cracking pool and had a good amount of fish showing in it but they had went down later on in the day when Mike had a run through it. |
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| Charlie bent into a lively grilse in the Delagyle Pool about 6pm. |
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| A quick picture before Charlie releases fish back into the Spey. |
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| Charlie, Mike, myself and Bracken the dog pose for a photo outside the hut before heading home. |
