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.

Annual February Outing At Park

I had my first outing of the new fishing season on the Park beat of the River Dee yesterday. The water was sitting at a nice height of 22" on the gauge and the water temperature was 34f. I started off my day in Beat 1. The pools on this beat are Silver Spoon, Park Inn and the Boat Hole. Not long after starting, the rod on the South bank lost a fish but it didn't surface and I'm not sure if it was a fresh fish or a kelt. Still, at least there was a sign of fish being present in the pool. I fished down through the Park Inn and Boat without a touch and Keith the ghillie thought it might be worth fishing Silver Spoon as the water was getting to a good height for that particular pool. This I did but came out with the same result as the previous pool.

Around 11am I swapped pools with another rod called Euan and this put me in the Castleton Pool. Keith informed me that 8 fish so far this week have all come out of this very pool and I couldn't wait to get going. About half way down the pool, just opposite the Park South hut,  I had a good pull on my and draw of the line. I lifted into it but as I did the fish let go of my Kinermony Killler Snaelda  and I didn't hook it. The way the fly was taken, I could have sworn it would have set the hook but it was not to be and the Salmon wins again. It was still early in the day so I was not too bothered by this and I fished down through the rest of the pool without a sniff.

At lunch, one of the rods, Sean who had a good few days on the beat, told us he had landed a beauty of 8lbs from the Upper Kirks. It was his 3rd Springer of his 3 day trip to Deeside. Great result!

After lunch I was to fish Beat 4. I started in the House Pool and as I was nearing the bottom of the pool, I had another pull of the fly but it didn't take much line and let go as quick as it grabbed it. I carried on down to fish the Celler Pool but didn't see or touch anything in here. The next pool down is one of my favourites on the whole river, the Durris Stream. I love fishing this pool but it turned out to be a fruitless run through it. I was really surprised to see very few kelts splashing about at the tail of the pool under the wires. Keith instructed me just to carry on into Beat 5 and fish the Ash Tree pool. There were plenty kelts showing in here but apart from 2 plucks at my fly that was it.

I always look forward to my February day at Park and although I had nothing to show for my efforts, it was great to be out on the river fishing again. Not quite grasped how to use my new camera yet so apologies for the  quality but here are some pictures from my first outing of 2013.

Park Inn. This is the pool I started my day in on Beat 1.

Silver Spoon. This is the top pool of the Park beat. A nice cast and easy to wade.

Castleton. I had my first offer of the day opposite the
hut but it didn't stick.

House Pool. Another nice cast and had a pull near the tail of the pool.

Durris Stream. This is a cracking pool and produces a lot of fish through-out the season from both banks.

Winter On Donside At Alford

I took these photos of the water above the Bridge of Alford which is run by Aberdeenshire Council. The beats are called Waterside on the North bank and Haughton on the South bank. This is a part of the River Don that can be very productive given the right conditions and will hold fish during the later part of the Spring months. I only ventured a few hundred yards upstream but what I saw looked very appealing albeit very cold! This a beautiful part of Aberdeenshire and details of the fishing can be found using this link. Aberdeenshire Council Fishings

The beats above are Breda on the South bank and Littlewood on the North bank. I fished Breda last summer and really enjoyed it even though I lost a few fish! The Middle to Upper Don are areas I would like to fish a lot more and will try to do so this season.Click on the link to see a report I done in July of the Breda beat. River Don Breda Fishings

Hotel Pool (North Bank) or Boat Pool depending what side of the river you are on.

Looking upstream from the Bridge of Alford. Here the river splits forming the island, Cracking looking stretch of water.

Gird Pot. A nice looking pool above the bridge. Was quite shallow in places and would probably fish better in higher water.

Looking upstream from from the neck of the Gird Pot. A lovely run with the flow running more towards this bank. Looks very "fishy".

Carlogie

It's that time of year again when I begin booking all my fishing for next season and I remembered about a wee video I made back in February. I have no idea what I done with the original which I thought was on You Tube but it's nowhere to be seen. I have tinkered with it a bit and this is the remastered version. Not great quality but a good look at this fantastic area of Deeside and my favourite beat. Roll on February 2013.

Royal Deeside Today

I went out for a drive with my son today and we headed over to Royal Deeside. At this time of year you can get some great pictures with all the trees in their Autumn colours and many kinds of wildlife on show. There was a few Salmon showing in some of the pools we passed but, try as I might, I just could not get any decent photos of them jumping. It seemed everywhere I pointed the camera, a fish would show above or below where I was focused! Here are some of my pictures from today.

Several male Pheasants feeding in a field near Aboyne.

A pair of female Pheasants feeding.

The Irrigation pool on the Birse beat of the River Dee. Cracking looking pool. Never fished at Birse but another lovely part of Deeside.

The Lorne pool on the Aboyne Castle beat. This is a great spot to look for Red squirrels in the woods out of shot to the left but I didn't see any today.

Looking upstream from the Sluie beat. The pool below is the Kelpie. I have fished the Sluie beat a few times and I will be again. Nice part of the river near to the Potarch Hotel.

Not a picture from Deeside but a nice view towards the village of Hatton of Fintray. The River Don flows through here and is exceptional for Brown Trout.

Success At Manar For Charlie

I was pleased to recieve some pictures from my pal Charlie from his outing at Manar yesterday evening. He landed a nice fresh grilse and also lost a couple too. He was telling me on the phone yesterday that there is a lot of fish being caught in the area just now with a few big fish coming off Inverurie Fishings. Manar is fishing really well just now and along with their opposite bank, catching a fair few fish between them. Long may it continue. Always good to hear that the River Don is fishing well as it is often overlooked due to it's famous neighbour, the Dee.

I was out for a couple of hours tonight on the lower Don at the Parkhill beat of the ADAA. I didn't see any fish apart from one big coloured fish showing in the Manse Pool at Lower Fintray. I was talking to a couple of well know faces on the lower Don, who were telling me of some good runs of fish coming in with every tide and how Saturday was a good day catches wise on the ADAA waters.

Here are the pictures Charlie sent to me last night.

A fresh run grilse from the Lower Wood pool at Manar. The fish was the first to fall to Charlie's Boar Bristle Cascades. Plenty fresh fish around at the moment.

Quick photo before release. Some net marks visable along the flank of the fish.

Charlie's Boar Bristle Cascades tied on size 10 Partridge doubles.

River Spey At Brae Water Beat 3

Earlier this year, my friend Charlie Robertson and I booked a days fishing on the Brae Water Beat 3. That day was yesterday. The river was in very good condition after last weeks spates and was running crystal clear. Weather forecasts for our day suggested it would be cold and sometimes wet. Well it was spot on. We experienced all four seasons yesterday! The temperature hovered around 4C all day and we endured some torrential rain at times. Coupled with some sleety showers it was bitterly cold.

We arrived at the Gordon Arms Hotel in Fochabers to meet the Ghillies. We introduced ourselves to our Ghillie Ian Tennant. Ian is a great laugh and we had some good craic whilst we waited for the other rods to arrive. We were told some of the catches made by the weeks fishers and our appetite was well and truly whetted! There has been some fantastic catches lately and we were full of anticipation.

We set off down to the hut and began tackling up for the morning session. Ian suggested that a floating line and slow sink tip would be ideal. My set up was my Monteith line with the intermediate tip and a slow sink polyleader attached. I tied on a #7 Cascade and Charlie opted for a 1" Monkey tube fly.

Ian showed us to the Lord March pool. He reminisced on how this used to be an amazing pool and the bumper catches it produced every year until a spate completely changed it during the 90s. It still looked very fishy to us and we couldn't wait to get going. I started at the top of the pool above the boat and Charlie started a few yards above the seat on the bank half way down the pool. We did see a few fish showing early on in here but most of the them were on the far bank out of our casting reach. Ian told us the fish come up through the fast water and rest nearer our bank and we should concentrate on this area. He also received a phone call from one of his ghillies downstream and a rod just landed a spanking 22.5lb fish! He also had an 8lber minutes later. We both flogged away on Lord March until lunch time in hope that we would encounter some of the fish coming in but without any success. This is a beautiful pool to fish and the surroundings are just stunning. For me, the Spey is nothing but a pleasure to cast a fly on. Outstanding fly fishing.

After having lunch in the very cosy hut we set off down stream to a pool called Altdearg. This was another quality looking pool. The very picturesque red cliffs on the far bank just add to the magic of the place. Once again, Ian's 32 years experience of his beat showed as he pointed out every possible taking lie where we would most likely encounter a fish. This time Charlie started at the top of the pool and I went in half way down opposite the cliff armed with a Sunray Shadow. Just opposite the diamond shaped stone on the far bank there was a thump! Something grabbed my Sunray but it didn't hook and unfortunately that was that. I covered it a few more times but nothing moved. We both fished down the pool without an offer but we did see an Ospray flying above us which was a nice sight. Ian told us there is 3 pairs in the area between Fochabers and Spey Bay.

During the afternoon some torrential rain seen us back in the motor to sit it out. The rain didn't last long so we were soon out the car and back in the river. We fished on to about 5pm and we said our fairwells to Ian who was a great help for the whole day. He suggested one of us nip up and fish the tail of the Otter's Cave pool so I followed him up and he showed me the hotspots and where to cast my fly to have it fishing perfectly. I headed down to the pool and Ian headed home. I fished through the pool twice without a touch but I did see a good fish show opposite the beat hut on the far bank. After I'd finished I made my way back down to Altdearg. I fished down through the pool a few more times as did Charlie but it just was not to be. We left the beat at 8pm shattered. We are already planning returning in the near future. No fish again but our luck must change one day. Soon hopefully! Here are some pictures from our day.

My good friend Charlie Robertson and I posing for a photo on the Brae Water Beat 3.

Looking upstream towards the red cliffs on the Lord March pool. The Lower Ewe pool is above here. Charlie fished it but I didn't get round to it. Pity as Ian told us it had been fishing very well.

Looking upstream as Charlie fishes the Lord March pool.

Looking downstream to the Otter's Cave pool from the tail of Lord March pool.

Looking upstream from Beat 3 hut. This is the Otter's Cave pool. Ian takes rods over to the other bank by boat. Looks a cracking pool but we never fished it from the other bank. I did fish it just before we left from outside the hut.

Looking downstream from the hut to the tail of Otter's Cave and neck of Altdearg.

Altdearg Pool from the seat half way down the pool. This pool is a joy to fish. An Osprey was seen flying overhead in this pool. Magical sight. Hope he had better luck than we did.

An upstream view of the Altdearg pool. This is where some of the Turus a' Bhradian was filmed for the second series with well known Spey Ghillie Ian Gordon.
  

Deveron Festival Day 2 - Eden

Day 2 of the Deveron Fishing Festival saw me allocated to fish the Eden beat. It's situated about 4 miles upstream of the mouth of the river at Banff . The day was hosted by Willie Banks and Jim Fearn of Vision.

I arrived at the beat around 9am and the water gauge was reading 2' 9". It steadily dropped away all day but it was carrying a lot of sediment which made the water clarity quite poor. There was also a lot of thick fog around but the sun soon burnt it off to produce a cracking day albeit with a nasty wind sometimes.

After introductions and a look around the most beautiful fishing hut I've ever seen, I set off upstream to fish the middle part of the beat. With the water being high and coloured chances would be quite slim but I plugged away. I didn't see or touch anything. I fished all the way down the bottom of the beat with the same result.

At lunch time I was speaking to Gordon the ghillie and was picking his brain about where to fish. I decided to start at the top of the beat and work my way down back to the hut. Again didn't see any fish moving but I did land a wee Brown Trout about 8". Not really what I was after. I fished all the way down some beautiful looking pools back to the hut but same results - nothing seen and nothing touched. By this tme the water had dropped about 6" but was still coloured.

I spent a large part of the afternoon talking and trying out lines etc with Jim Fearn and Willie Banks. I have learnt a lot from these guys and I was trying out the new Unispey line which is almost like a longer bellied shooting head. Nice line to cast.

Here are some pictures from today. I managed to get my face sunburnt today but Im left with white eyes where my shades have been! My face is scorched!

The fishing hut on the Eden beat. Beautiful!

A picture of the dining area. There is about 14 chairs altogether but thought I would show the fire and tv in the picture.

Didn't get any of the pool names today but this is the pool at the top of the beat. Lovely piece of water and the fish are all over to the Eden bank here at this height.

Another nice pool. The ghillie said that most fish are to be caught from the middle over to the far side.

The pool running along side the fishing hut. Fish run up the far bank to cut the corner just out of shot. There was a fish seen in here during the afternoon. I also witnessed an otter swimming downstream here.

The bottom pool of the beat from this bank. The beat is fished from both banks and it continues on for another 300 yards or so below the hut in the picture.

An upstream view of the same pool. All the flow is along the far bank down most of this pool but there is one or two croys that maybe hold fish in the slacker water. Not at this height though.

If anyone knows the pool names please leave a comment and I'll update the captions.Many Thanks.

Turus a Bhradain

Here is a link to the Scottish TV show "Turus a Bhradain". It is now into it's third series and is aired on BBC ALBA channel 168 on Digital. The series is 6 episodes long and is onto episode 4 which starts tonight at 8.30pm. The link I have included below is for episode 2 and is about the Aberdeen District Angling Association and the River Dee. The show is in Gaelic but has subtitles for all none Gaelic speaking viewers. Enjoy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01dhdfl/Turas_a_Bhradain_Series_3_Episode_2/