Middle Drum

My friend Charlie and I had a day on the Middle Drum beat of the River Dee yesterday. We always make a point of fishing here every year mainly due to fishing the famous Lawson Pool and because we have some good craic with the ghillie, Shane.

We arrived at the beat to find the water gauge sitting at 1ft 10in and the water temperature hovering around the 35f mark. The water is still quite cold but we were hopeful that fish would arrive in the pools and give us a chance to connect with what is so far this season, an elusive Dee Springer.

Charlie and I drew the top half of the beat in the morning and this consisted of the Island Run and the Cairnton Pool. I started in the Island Run and Charlie, who was to fish the Cairnton, was confident that a fish would be lying in his allotted pool and eagerly set off in anticipation. The morning for us however, proved to be fruitless but around 10.30am there was a good run of fish came into the pools and Andrew, one of the rods fishing the Lawson, landed a nice sea liced fish around the 6lb mark.

After an early lunch, we were to fish the Lawson Pool. This is a massive long pool but holds fish all year round. A good bet to land a nice springer. I started at the top and Charlie went in half way down. Not long after starting I connected with a kelt which hammered my 3/4inch Monkey fly. Just as Charlie went to slip the net under the fish, the fly came out but at least it saved us from having to unhook it ourselves. We both fished down to the tail of the Lawson without another offer but another rod Trevor landed a kelt just before dark. Not really much doing but at least we saw fresh fish going through the beat and hopefully plenty more will follow suit in the next few weeks. Middle Drum is a beat we always enjoy returning to and hopefully next time we can get a fish or two in the book.

Here are some pictures from our day on Middle Drum yesterday.

Island Run. A nice cast and a good pool later on in the year.

Lawson. Looking downstream from the top of the pool. Minutes after I took this picture a kelt grabbed fly just about mid-stream.

Lawson. Looking upstream from the top of the Lawson pool towards the Cairnton pool.

Having a cast in the Lawson pool. A nice picture taken by Charlie.

A rainbow over the Lawson but no "Pot of Gold" for us this time.