11lb Salmon From Commonty

Last Saturday I had a day's fishing on the River Dee at Commonty. Commonty is a nice, secluded beat on the middle reaches of the river and can fish well in most heights of water. The Potarch Bridge was reading 5" when was there so full floating line and small flies were the order of the day.

Looking downstream from the high bank at Commonty. 

Catch and Release. 

I was fortunate enough to land this cracking summer salmon of around 11lbs from the Bend. Prior to landing this I rose 4 different salmon with a Sunray Shadow before swapping over to hitch and going through the pool again. The fish didn't put up much of a fight initially and I actually thought it was just a small trout I had on. I began to play the fish just by handling as the fish came in towards me and I could really feel much of its weight. As the fish drew nearer to the bank it finally realised it was hooked and tore off at lightning speed and taking all the fly line of the reel in one long, powerful run! I played a game of cat and mouse with the fish for several minuted and during that time it had another two of these lung bursting runs before I finally got some sort of control back. After what seemed like an age, I managed to beech the fish and was delighted to see it a fresh run "bar of silver".

A quick photo before releasing.

12lb Salmon From The River Dee

I had an hours fishing on the River Dee yesterday and was rewarded with a cracking fish around the 12lb mark. It was taken on a full floating line and a 3/4" hitch tube. This was my first success using the hitch fly having lost a grilse the previous week. What a buzz it is seeing the fish take the fly off the surface and then all hell breaking loose! I'll definitely be using this method again.

A quick photo before releasing the fish back into the River Dee.