New Year Begins With Severe Flooding

2016 has begun with unprecedented river levels on the both the River Dee and River Don. The River Dee peaked at nearly 17ft on the Park gauge and has recorded it's highest levels since 1937. Ballater has been worst effected with the caravan park, which is situated on the banks of the river pretty much wiped out by a raging torrent caused by heavy rain and snow melt.

Tonnes of shingle dumped by the river in a field at Aboyne some 100 yards away from the river bank.

Some more shingle dumped by the Dee near Aboyne.

Trees uprooted and strewn along the banks of the Dee near the Queen's residence at Balmoral Castle.

Many areas of the Dee, right up and down the length of the valley have been badly effected and will take a lot of man power and effort to restore back to some kind of normality. The historic 16th century Abergeldie Castle, which was once 25-30 metres away from the river bank is now in grave danger of being the next victim of Mother Nature's power. even if the castle survives, it's going to be difficult to restore the bank enough to make the foundations safe again. Some of the roads in the surrounding areas of Ballater have been swamped by the river and many parts of Braemar are in danger of getting cut off from the main roads out of the town. The power of water is immense yet there are still a few idiots who think they can drive in these flooded roads and put the lives of the rescue services at risk when they have to pull them from their cars which have been submerged.

The Aberdeen and District Angling Association HQ surrounded by water today.

The Manse Pool on the Lower Fintray beat of the River Don today flooded way out over the banks.

The River Don has also seen a dramatic rise in river levels these past few days and many of the flood plains along it's course are now full with numerous roads around the Kintore area now underwater. The Don is much slower moving than the Dee which has probably saved many of the houses along it's banks from flooding as the flood plains tend to bare the worst the Don's spates. Saying that, the Don runs through farmland for much of it's course and tends to silt up very quickly which could have an adverse effect on the river's fish populations.

Just a few dead juvenile fish found dead in a small area of the Dee at Park.

On the fishing side of things, it's not looking very good for the juvenile fish stocks on the rivers. Salmon have spent the winter cutting redds for their eggs and many of these will have been swept away or dredged out by trees and other forms of debris floating down river. Not only this, there will be thousands of 0-3 year old fish killed by the torrents and many are now lying strewn along the tide marks of the river. These fish are now no more than bird feed and this will have a major impact on returning salmon numbers in the next 10-12 years. On a more positive note, salmon catches are historically pretty good in the year after unusually large spates so there might just be a short period of optimism for the rivers

The Dee at near Aboyne. Note the erosion on the opposite bank.

The famous Waterside Pool on the Dee at Waterside and Ferrar. The hut has been swept away on the opposite bank and tonnes of shingle has been moved by the water.

After the flood. Looking upstream from the Mill Pool at Cambus O May. There should be a fishing on the bank mid picture but as you can see it was consumed by the force of the flood water.

Before the flood. The same place at Cambus O May take in September. As you can the hut is there in this picture.

The road leading upstream at the Cellar Pool on Park Estate has taken a beating by the water.

The Park South fishing hut overlooking the Castleton pool is no longer there. Another victim of the ferocious power of the Dee in flood.

I sincerely hope that these rivers and surrounding areas can recover quickly from devastation that these floods have caused. My heart goes out to all those affected by the flooding up and down the rivers as many homes, shops, holiday homes and other belongings worth £100,000s of pounds have been lost or destroyed.

As many rural jobs rely on the river, the knock on effects of such an event can have a catastrophic impact on people's livelihoods. With the salmon fishing season starting again on the 1st February it is going to take a while for the pools to settle and many famous lies and pools will have changed dramatically, many not for the better either.

The salmon is a born survivor though and will overcome the wrath of Mother Nature like it always has done and no doubt will come back as strong as ever.

Summer Spates

After a night of torrential rain, the Rivers Dee and Don are now in full spate with many areas along their courses bursting the banks. The Dee was a massive 7' 6" up at Mar Lodge this morning and couple this with high tide around 2.30pm this afternoon, much of this water will back up down on the lower reaches of the rivers. The Don was 6' 4" at Alford which in terms of the Don is a reasonably large spate and carrying a lot of colour to it. Be a good few days until it's fish-able again on either river.

Hopefully after this spates die down we will see goods runs of salmon entering the rivers. If nothing materialises from this water then something is very wrong with the salmon runs returning to our rivers because they have been few and far between this year. Time will tell if catches pick up as a result of this Summer Spate.

I took these pictures at 9am this morning and the river was rising rapidly. Probably a lot higher this evening.

Looking upstream from the ADAA Bothy down on the Lower Dee.

Looking downstream from the same place.

High Water On The Dee And Don

Yesterday saw torrential rainfall hit both River Dee and River Don catchment areas. The spate could have been a lot higher it was not for the lack of snow on the hills. If snow melt was added to the already huge volumes of water, the damage could have been a lot worse.

On the River Dee, the spate peaked around 10pm and was reading almost 11ft on the Park gauge! This caused huge amounts of debris to make it's way down river. There were hay bales, trees, logs and countless amounts of rubbish all getting a washed into the river from the banks and undergrowth. The Dee's largest tributary, the Feugh, was roaring down. It peaked around 8pm and was almost 8ft on the Heughhead gauge. Further downstream in Aberdeen, the Aberdeen & District Angling Association Bothy was flooded. With already high water, around 11pm the river quickly rose about 8" in just over 15 minutes. This was enough to make the river burst it's banks and make it's way into the workshop area.

Just over the hill to the North Eastern side of the Cairngorms, the River Don spate peaked around midnight at just over 5ft 6in on the Haughton gauge. The River Don meanders it's way mainly through farmland and this causes it to colour up very quickly. Plenty logs and straw made their way downstream which were washed off from the fields and woodland.

These pictures are of the River Dee taken from Park Bridge and the lower Dee in Aberdeen.

Looking downstream from Park Bridge. Still about 7ft on the gauge this afternoon.

Upstream view from Park Bridge. The water has cut the corner through the trees on the right.

Looking towards the Altries beat. The pool below is Alfred's Pot which is shared with Tilbouries.

Riverside in Aberdeen looking towards the Bridge of Dee. Note the tide mark on the grass where the water had been only a few hour earlier.

A large log lies on the bank covered in straw. Looking downstream towards the King George VI Bridge.

Someone will be missing part of their fence today! Doesn't look that old either.

Still plenty water on the grass where the river burst it's banks.

The A.D.A.A Bothy which was under water last night and part of this morning. Luckily nothing was too damaged.