Middle Drum

My friend Charlie and I had a day on the Middle Drum beat of the River Dee yesterday. We always make a point of fishing here every year mainly due to fishing the famous Lawson Pool and because we have some good craic with the ghillie, Shane.

We arrived at the beat to find the water gauge sitting at 1ft 10in and the water temperature hovering around the 35f mark. The water is still quite cold but we were hopeful that fish would arrive in the pools and give us a chance to connect with what is so far this season, an elusive Dee Springer.

Charlie and I drew the top half of the beat in the morning and this consisted of the Island Run and the Cairnton Pool. I started in the Island Run and Charlie, who was to fish the Cairnton, was confident that a fish would be lying in his allotted pool and eagerly set off in anticipation. The morning for us however, proved to be fruitless but around 10.30am there was a good run of fish came into the pools and Andrew, one of the rods fishing the Lawson, landed a nice sea liced fish around the 6lb mark.

After an early lunch, we were to fish the Lawson Pool. This is a massive long pool but holds fish all year round. A good bet to land a nice springer. I started at the top and Charlie went in half way down. Not long after starting I connected with a kelt which hammered my 3/4inch Monkey fly. Just as Charlie went to slip the net under the fish, the fly came out but at least it saved us from having to unhook it ourselves. We both fished down to the tail of the Lawson without another offer but another rod Trevor landed a kelt just before dark. Not really much doing but at least we saw fresh fish going through the beat and hopefully plenty more will follow suit in the next few weeks. Middle Drum is a beat we always enjoy returning to and hopefully next time we can get a fish or two in the book.

Here are some pictures from our day on Middle Drum yesterday.

Island Run. A nice cast and a good pool later on in the year.

Lawson. Looking downstream from the top of the pool. Minutes after I took this picture a kelt grabbed fly just about mid-stream.

Lawson. Looking upstream from the top of the Lawson pool towards the Cairnton pool.

Having a cast in the Lawson pool. A nice picture taken by Charlie.

A rainbow over the Lawson but no "Pot of Gold" for us this time.

On The Dee At Middle Drum

Myself and Charlie had a day on the lovely Middle Drum beat of the River Dee. The water was a good height at 1' 7" on the beat gauge and carrying a nice whiskey colour. Middle Drum is a nice beat and I have fished here a good few times, mostly in the Spring time around March. It was fine to fish it later on in the year when the pools were filling up and running fish were to be seen almost the whole day.

We were allocated to fish the top part of the beat in the morning and I started in the Island Run and Charlie started in the Cairnton Pool. Apart from Charlie moving a salmon to his Sunray at the tail of the Cairnton, that was to be it. We swapped pools about 11.30am and I tied on a Black and White Sunray to my usual set up of a Float/Intermediate Tip AFS and a 10ft slow sink tip. I started at the top of the pool and within a few cast my fly was hammered by a fish! It was not a salmon but a wee finnock about a pound which took a shine to my fly. Between us that was to be all the action for the morning session but we had the Lawson Pool to come in the afternoon.

After a bit of lunch and a chinwag with ghillie Shane Christie we headed back onto the water to have a go at the Lawson. During lunch time there was torrential rain and the river quickly rose about an inch or so. Charlie set off down the pool and I went in at the top. Just as I got to the end of the concrete walkway, I hooked a salmon parr but as I was taking it in something bigger had a go at it!!! It grabbed the parr and as I kept reeling in the fish let go leaving me with a rather battered looking parr. I unhooked it and it seemed to swim off fine but I've never had that happen to me before. Not sure what method that would have came under if it was hooked and landed?

As I got to a good taking part of the pool just under the power lines I made a fairly square cast and began to use the figure of eight retrieve. Just as my #9 Ghillie Fly came round to the dangle it was drawn away in I lifted into a livley fish. It was a spanking fresh grilse about 4 or 5 pounds and it was cartwheeling all over the pool! It spent more time in the air than in the water. I played the fish for a couple of minutes and it made a few tearing runs and jumps. I thought the fish must have been well hooked and Shane was ready with the net but just as it was tiring and coming in, the fish threw my fly! I have no idea how the fly came out but as Shane and I looked on in disbelief we could only assume that all the acrobatics must have worked the fly loose. Who knows but that was to be the only action myself and Charlie were to encounter for the rest of the day. We packed up at dark and headed home wondering how we didn't catch anything as the Lawson pool especially was bouncing with fresh fish all day long. We must have seen about 200 or so during our day. That's fishing I suppose and it's another fish lost for me which, this season has been quite a few!

Here are some pictures from our day.

Island Run. Always a good chance of picking up a running fish in this pool. Tilbouries hut on the other bank.

Looking upstream from the Lawson to the tail of the Cairnton pool.

Lawson Pool. Just near where I hooked the grilse. Nice pool but we could have been done with another 6" on it. Still very good to fish a fly through though.

Fishing the Lawson. Charlie's dog Bracken searches out his stick and I fish down the huge Lawson Pool.

Middle Drum Salmon Fishing Video

I have made up a video of the Middle Drum beat on the River Dee. Hope you like it. Enjoy!