Early Start On The Don Pays Off

I was up early this morning and headed down to the River Don. It was running at about 1' 6" on the Parkhill gauge and a good colour. The river has been in great condition these last few weeks with good water and, apart from a few days, running quite clear.

I started off in the Manse about 6.30am. The water was just how I like it for this pool, lapping over a big stone off the bank so I was quietly confident. Apart from a few coloured fish showing nothing much was happening so after a fruitless run down through the pool with a #9 Flamethrower, I changed fly to a sunray shadow. I headed back to the top of the pool and just off the stone I spoke about earlier, my fly was grabbed! After a short but spirited fight, I landed a nice, fresh sea trout about 3lb. No sea lice present but it could have not been in much more than a few days. That was all I touched in the Manse so I strapped the rod on the car and headed across the river to fish the Streams from the South bank.

I arrived at the Streams car park about 10.30am after taking the long way round via Kintore. I kept the same set up that did the business in the Manse Pool, which consisted of a Mackenzie DTX G2 9/10 Floating Shooting Head, a 10ft slow sink tip, 6ft of 10lb Yo-zuri Hybrid and a plastic Sunray Shadow tube. About 5 minutes after starting just opposite the concrete hut, my sunray was hammered by a lively fish. After another short scrap, I netted a sea trout about 2lbs. Again, not sea liced, but it hadn't been in the river that long. After a quick photo I returned the fish and carried on down the pool but nothing doing.

I moved on downstream to fish the Cothal pool, which, at this height of water is a good holding pool when the fish have negociated the fast, streamy water from Fae-Me-Well. There is also a good lie off the North bank where I landed a coloured wee grilse last season. I concentrated the lower half of the pool and with-in a few cast my rod was about pulled out my hand! I couldn't believe it when a chunky wee brown trout about 1 3/4lbs broke the surface. What a hit it gave the sunray as it swung round past the lie. I quickly returned it back to the river and had another cast in the same place. Almost identical to the first fish, my sunray was taken by another greedy brown trout about the same weight as the last one. I fished on down to Fae-Me-Well but it is not really suited for fly fishng as the current comes back on itself and drags the fly down. I called it a day about 12.30 and headed home.

Here are some pictures from today.

A fresh run sea trout from the Manse Pool taken on a Sunray Shadow.

Another nice Sea-Trout from the Streams. Again taken on a Sunray Shadow.

The second of two Brown Trout also taken on Sunrays from the Cothal Pool.

The fly that served me well today. After buying this Guideline AWM 14' 9" 2 years ago, I have used it maybe twice, so today I gave it an outing. Matched up with a 9/10 42g Mackenzie G2 Shooting head, it cast with ease and was very impressive.  I'm going to be using this set up more often from now on!

Mackenzie DTX And Orvis Demo Day

On Sunday, the Aberdeen District Angling Association hosted a demonstration day for Orvis and Mackenzie DTX at their Bothy on the banks of the Dee in Aberdeen. There was a good turn out to see 3 times World Spey Casting Champion Scott Mackenzie give a very good presentation on his range of lines and rods. He was also on hand for most of the day to give advice and casting lessons to anyone who needed. Ben Dixon from Orvis, Banchory was there too and he was showing the many youngsters who turned out how to cast single handed rods. He, along with Scott Mackenzie were involved in the distance casting which was good to watch. Some huge lines were being thrown across the Dee by some talented casters both amateur and pro. Regular Trout & Salmon writer, Paul Proctor was due to give a demonstration but he was held up and couldn't make the event which was a shame. In the Bothy itself, there was fly tying demonstrations by the Orvis fly tiers. Always interesting to watch and to pick up new skills and ideas from two very good fly tiers. The youngsters seemed to enjoy being taught  how to tie up their own flies.

As always Stuart, Julia, Jim and John put in a lot of effort to make the day possible. The bacon and sausage butties always go down well along with a cup of tea or coffee. These people give up their spare time to put these events on and a big thanks to them for a good day.

Here are a few pictures from yesterday.

A selection of the many rod and line combos available to be tried out.

Scott Mackenzie gives ADAA member Eddie Allan some advice about his shooting head lines. He was only too happy to help and was on hand all day to answer any queries.

The ADAA Bothy. I took this photo as I was leaving about 2pm. Still a good number of people taking advantage of the free casting lessons and advice.

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.

Day 1 Carlogie 23/02/2012

I had my annual 3 day trip to Carlogie this week. On Thursday the water was sitting at 3' on the Potarch Bridge gauge which made some of the pools un-fishable. I was allocated the Boat and Village for the first day and another rod Craig headed up to Pitslug. There was 1 kelt landed about 10am but that was it for the day. I had a fish take at the tail of the Village but lifted into it and felt nothing. The river was dropping all day which was good. We seen plenty fish moving in both the Boat and Village pools. The water temp was high for this time of year. It was hovering around 45f! Sean gave me a cast with his new 14ft Mackenzie DTX shooting head rod. It was matched up with a Mackenzie G2 Intermediate shooting head. What an absolute wand!!! Very impressive casting tool and it was a case of the less effort you put in the further the line flew out. Have to save my pennies and invest in one. Here are some pictures from day 1.

Looking up the Boat pool. This is where we seen most of the fish. They tend to lie just of the main current towards Kincardine bank at this height. All the way down to under the wires.

Fishing down the top of the Boat pool. Sean Stanton and Ian Fraser the ghillies have spent all winter opening this area of the pool up and have done a fantastic job. Although the wading is pretty scary in places!

Looking up to the Boat pool from mid-stream in the Village. Lovely stretch of water must be one of the most productive high water pools on the Dee.

Fishing down the Village pool and looking into a new pool called Fraser's. This pool begins at the line of trees on the right bank. It has been named after Commonty ghillie Ian Fraser to comemorate his 35 years working for Ballogie Estates.