A Good Day At Commonty On The River Dee

I had a free Saturday last weekend and decided to venture out fishing at the last minute with my pal, Philip Black. It was a good decision in the end as between us we landed 3 salmon for our day.

A 9lber from the Bend taken on a small Cascade.

The water was sitting at 1ft 6in on the Potarch Bridge gauge and was carrying a heavy peat stain. Overhead conditions were good for the most part too. I set up two rods on the day. Both with floating lines but with different rated sinking polyleaders. One was rigged up with a 10ft slow sink and the other with a 10ft fast sink. My initial fly of choice was a Dee monkey but I chopped and changed numerous time over the course of the day.

Philip Black with a cracker from the Bulwarks at Ballogie.

Philip was first off the mark with a fresh fish around the 6lb from the Bulwarks at Ballogie just after 9am. The hard fighting fish put up a good scrap before finally being landed and carefully released after a quick photo.

The Bend. Was fishing really well at this height of water.

Philip's second fish of the day from the Bend at Commonty.

We headed down to Commonty at lunch time and not long after starting, Philip was into his 2nd fish of the day. Again, the fish fought very hard but it was soon landed and a cracking fresh fish around the 8lb mark posed for a photo before heading on it's way.

Another photo of me with my fish.

We didn't see many fish through out the day but we put it down to the water heavy peat stain in the water. The fish were certainly present in the pools though and they seemed to be in a cooperative mood. I had several good pulls on a Monkey fly but the fish just seemed to be nipping at it as it swung round through the current. It wasn't until I changed over to fishing smaller flies that it produced results when an older fish of around 9lb hammered my fly in the Bend. Being hooked at 4.30pm, it was certainly a welcome sight to see it on the bank. A small Cascade double doing the business.

Looking upstream towards Suicide Pool.

The Garden Pool.

With a bit of water coming down the Dee, Commonty can be very productive. There are few high water beats on the river that are as productive as Commonty. It also fishes well in low water too as it boasts several good holding pools which will fish at all heights. It really is a cracking place to fish and well worth a visit for anyone planning to head over to Royal Deeside for a fishing trip.