Fishing The Dee At Carlogie

There are 3 rods fish Carlogie in the Spring and the beat is split into 3 sections which you fish in rotation swapping every lunch time. The top part of the beat consists of Alan's Pool which was only recently opened up for fishing after the ghillies cut all the bushes/trees etc from the bank, Long Haugh which fished better every day as the water dropped and finally Pitslug which is a good high water pool but kind of loses its flow as the water drops away. The middle section of Carlogie has some classic Dee pools such as Rossachs, Mill Pool, Jock Rae, March Pool, and one of my favourite pools, the Calm Pool. Then it goes onto Lucky Hole, Whin Bush, Clay Pot, Flats and Willow Bed. A vast variety of pools and a beautiful and secluded part of Royal Deeside. The lower beat fishes pools starting in the Boat Pool and into another famous pool called Village. This is a pool which will hold fish all year round and one I done well in fishing from the opposite bank at Kincardine last August. The bottom pool on the Carlogie beat is called Fraser's. Named after the Commonty ghillie Ian Fraser who has many years service to the Ballogie Estate.

There has not been many fish caught on the Dee this past few weeks but just know there is always a chance encounter with a nice springer is ample motivation. This year saw the water dropping away nicely through-out our 3 day trip but at the same time the water temperature was dropping too. As I left on Saturday the water temperature was just above freezing at a baltic 34f! Not pleasant to wade in all day but a few extra pairs of socks help. With the lowish water conditions this meant that the whole beat would be fishable and there are some fantastic pools which excel when the water is low.

I won't bore you with all the details of where and when and what pools I fished but instead will just post a few pictures I took during my trip which sadly only yielded plenty plucks and pulls at the fly, a few kelts and a couple of lost fish which were probably kelts too. It's always a pleasure to fish Carlogie and I know how lucky I am to do so as it is fully let all year every year. I even fished well into darkness on Saturday as I knew it would be another year until I got the chance to fish the pools again! Unfortunately, I could only post 10 pictures so had to limit the pools I could show but these are a majority of the ones I fished this week. 

Alan's. A nice pool which is quite deep. Any fish which have come up through the fast water tend to rest up briefly here before taking on the next turbulent stream. Sean the ghillie and Ian the ghillie from Commonty have done a lot of work to the banks here to make it fishable all the way down.

Long Haugh. A lovely pool which springers rest in before taking on the rapids and white water above. Fished well all trip. .

Pitslug. As the water dropped this pool lost its flow making it very difficult to fish the fly properly. Great pool in medium/high water though. Some deep holes which will hold fish.

Rossach. Another quality pool on Carlogie. Nice streamy water which fishes a fly beautifully.

Mill Pool. Named after the mill situated on the opposite bank (Dess). Once again, another fantastic pool and a good spot to pick up a springer. A nice cast near to the far banks is required to cover the lies effectively.

Jock Rae. The water comes into this pool quickly but it fines out creating yet another cracking piece of fly water. Only fished this pool once as the opposite bank had a rod in the other time I tried. Plenty other water for me to try though.

Calm Pool. Has to be one of my favourite pools anywhere! There is a deep channel which follows the Kincardine bank round the bend and this where the fish are likely to be lying. Just as darkness fell last night, I had a thumping take but it didn't take any line and as I lifted into it, nothing! Above this pool is a short pool called March Pool.

Whin Bush and Lucky Hole. Lucky hole is really just a short piece of water but the Whin Bush is a very good holding lie as fish rest in here after coming up from the Boat through the fast water below in Flats, Claypot and Willow Bed.

Boat and Village Pools. Some of the best high water pools on the whole river here. The higher the water, the closer the fish come to the Carlogie bank.

Salmon Fishing And The "Musker's Fancy."

I stumbled across some extracts from a book in the Carlogie fishing hut this February. The book was called "Salmon Fishing, The Greased Line On Dee, Don And Earn" by Frederick Hill.

The author of the book was a ghillie on the Carlogie beat to Captain Musker in the 1940's. He give detailed descriptions of all the pools at Carlogie and interesting tactics for every condition possible. I purchased a copy of this wonderful wee book a few weeks back. It maybe dates back from the 1940s but some of the author's observations are still used today and it's well worth a read if you can get your hands on a copy.

In his book Frederick Hill says that his favourite fly to fish in low water was a fly called the Musker's Fancy. It was created by Captain Musker and used to great effect on Carlogie during his time as fishing tennant there.

Last week I bought myself some single hooks and decided to try and tie up a couple of these flies because, at the moment the water here is so low anything was worth a cast! I took the dressing for the fly from the book and searched online for a picture of the fly which I found on a cracking website dedicated to traditional Salmon flies. It can be found at http://www.feathersfliesandphantoms.co.uk/vintage_flies_4.html

I took my newly tied flies out on the Don this Saturday past for a test run. The Don, like the Dee is almost down to it's bare bones so I was not too confident in hooking anything. I started at the Manse Pool which incidentally Frederick Hill mentions in his book as one of the best holding pools on the whole river Don and it's still true today. I started at the top of the pool and about 5 casts later I hooked a fish! It took off like a steam engine and I thought to myself, "Surely the fly is not this good!". After a few flashes of silver and a big leap I realised it was a large kelt I'd hooked. Still, at least I knew my fly swam and looked ok to the fish. After a spirited fight another angler netted the fish for me. It was sporting a big Black and Gold Rapala wedged in it's jaws! No idea why it would take a fly with that embedded in it's jaw but it did! Maybe it was clever and realised I would remove both the rapala and fly for it. After removing 2 trebles of the rapala and my size 5 Musker's Fancy the fish swam off no problem, probably glad to have a big 13cm rapala removed from it's mouth.

Just goes to show, you should never fish too light in the Spring. More for the safety of releasing kelts quickly. I fished on for a few more hours but didn't touch anything. As the morning fog lifted the sun was bright and warm so not ideal for fishinig low water. I packed up and headed home to tie up some more Musker's Fancies. Here are a few pictures of the fly and the big kelt.

"Salmon Fishing, The Greased Line On Dee, Don And Earn" by Frederick Hill 1948. Cracking wee book and very interesting read. I love reading all these old books and stories from days gone by. The author tells of a pet blackbird he fed which returned to him every March after the winter had passed.

"Musker's Fancy No.2" This is the fly which a big well mended kelt took a liking to.

"Musker's Fancy No.1". I tied these on doubles as I had no Black singles. Looks ok on doubles. Ordered up some black singles for next time!

A group shot of the flies. I will be using a lot more of these during low water in future. Hopefully something fresh will take a fancy to them next time.

The fish which took my fly. It would have been glad to see the big rapala removed from its jaw I bet. Would have been a lovely fish last year and hopefully next year too. Good to see a well mended kelt on it's return journey to sea.