Middle Blackhall - River Dee

Last Saturday I was fishing on the Middle Blackhall beat of the River Dee with good pals Bill Cook and Philip Black. We were due to fish the Tay but after a last minute change of plan due to unforeseen circumstances, we decided on fishing the Dee instead. This was a new beat for me as I had never fished here before. The river levels have been very low recently and the rain forecast prior to our day unfortunately never materialised and levels were sitting at around 4" on the Woodend gauge. Given the conditions, my set up for the day consisted of a 12ft 6in Guideline LPXe #8/9 with a floating Rio Scandi shooting head and a long tapered leader with 6ft of 10lb nylon.

 As the water was so low we arranged an early start with the ghillie. We arrived at the hut around 7am and had a good chat in the car park as we tackled up. Bill then produced a nice bottle of single malt from his recent travels to Arran which accompanied our discussion nicely. After a small dram we made our way to the hut where we were greeted by head ghille, Brian Brogan. We chatted away with Brian for a while and were allocated our pools for the morning session. We must have enjoyed the craic as before we knew it, it was 9am. So much for our early start then!

Invercannie Pool. A lovely cast up at the neck in the low water.

At the tail of the Invercannie pool. Not a bad view from that house!

I was to start in the Invercannie pool first of all. Brian pointed out all the areas to concentrate on and it wasn't long before a fish made it's presence known. I tied on a #14 Silver Stoat's Tail and worked my way down the pool. Using such small flies made them a free offering for the countless amount of smolts present. Every cast and it was getting nibbled by these young salmon. It was great to see such vast numbers of smolts in the pools. Hopefully this bodes well for future stocks. I fished down the pool with just a brown trout and a dozen smolts for my my efforts so it was off upstream to fish the Rock Heads.

Fishing down the Rock Head pool.

The Rock Heads was a short pool but an ideal resting point given the fast water below. The fish have to negotiate a steep incline from the pools below whilst battling the fast flowing white water so it's easy to see why this pool would be productive. I covered the whole pool from top to bottom but again, just a few greedy smolts took my offerings so it was off back down to Invercannie for a second run through.

Looking upstream from mid way down the Invercannie Pool.

My second run through Invercannie produced the same results as my first run. Philip joined me as I fished out the remainder of the pool but there seemed to be a few more active fish this time round. Possibly due to the heavy rain which was emptying from the clouds above us. Maybe the salmon could sense a wee lift in water coming? Or maybe I'm just over thinking it? Who knows but there weren't for taking my fly anyway so we headed off back to the hut for lunch.

The Middle Blackhall Fishing Hut.

The Middle Blackhall hut is a cosy timber clad granite building and is quite comfortable inside. The good sized wood burner roared away nicely but more to dry our soaked gear than to warm us up. There was nothing to report from either Philip or Bill but we all commented on the number of juvenile fish about. It really was a sight to see so many feeding hard as they prepared for their epic journey. Hopefully a good number of these youngsters will return in the next year or two as adults and give us anglers a chance to catch them.

Fishing down through Kelpie and into Canary.

Looking upstream towards Canary from Rock Heads.

Bill's 7lber from Invercannie just after lunch. This fell to a #12 Editor.

After lunch I was to fish Sandy Bay and Canary pools. There had been a nice, clean fish lost in here the previous day so I was raring to go even though Bill had fished it during the morning session. These pools were a couple of nice fast runs and exactly where you would expect to pick up a running fish given the low water conditions. I changed fly to a small #12 Executioner and fished my way down the pools. Not long after starting, my phone went and Bill had just landed a nice clean fish of around 7lb from Invercannie. this was good to hear and kept the concentration level high. Despite my best efforts in the pouring rain, nothing wanted my fly except one or two juvenile fish again so I headed of further upstream to fish Glisters.

Looking upstream towards Glister in the heavy rain. 

Fishing down through Glisters. 

Glisters is quite a narrow pool at the neck as the river flows through the bedrock banks on either side before widening out into a nice streamy glide. Like most of the pools on the beat, this was holding a lot of juvenile fish. In fact, the slower parts of this pool were literally bubbling with them! There were numerous amounts of them airborne at any given time as they feasted on the abundance of flies obviously on the water. I fished down the neck of the pool without a touch so decide to head further upstream to fish the Cairnton Pool.

Looking across to Cairnton House from the Middle Blackhall bank of the Cairnton Pool.

The Cairnton Pool is a lovley stretch of water which is overlooked by the big house on the Cairnton bank. I made my way down to the water and a good, clean fish showed just below where I started which spurred me on a bit. I opted to try a bigger fly to eliminate the chances of hooking the smolts so I tied on a #11 Crathie. With the low water conditions, this pool only required a very short cast to cover the run which flowed through the middle of the pool. This is where the fish seemed to be lying and I covered them as stealthy as I possibly could. There were a couple of older fish which showed half way down and these could have been  disturbed by the presence of running fish. Neither the old stuff or the fresh fish wanted to take my fly and I fished out the pool without a touch just as Bill arrived to say he was heading off. By this time it was 4pm so I decided to head back down to the Invercannie for another go.

My third run through the Invercannie Pool.

My third run through the Invercannie was a fruitless one but a few more fish showed as I fished down the pool. It certainly seemed to be holding a few salmon but tempting one, for me anyway, was proving to be a difficult task. I fished out the pool without a touch but by this time the rain had finally stopped and the sun was splitting the sky again.

Cairnton & Middle Blackhall ghillie, Brian Brogan makes his way over in the boat followed by his two labs.

I made my way back to the hut at 5pm to meet Brian as he was shutting up for the weekend. We had a good chat and I listened on intently as Brian relaid stories of his days ghilling on the River Tay at Islamouth. Brian's tales of large fish and huge bags of salmon had me imagining what it must have been like in those days. It must have been amazing to see the rivers stuffed full of fish, and some very large specimen fish at that! Hopefully one day salmon numbers will again be at that level and I hope to be on the river when they are!

Looking down the Cairnton Pool just after 5pm when the sun finally made an appearance!

Brian suggested having another go in the Cairnton pool as his rods on the Cairnton bank had seen a few fresh fish moving in it earlier on. This is what I did and I headed off upstream. I started at the top of the pool and worked my way through it covering all the lies where I saw fish when I fished the pool earlier in the afternoon. Nothing was showing this time around and I fished out the pool without a touch and decided to call it a day just before 7pm.

Looking upstream from the bank of the Cairnton Pool.

I really enjoyed my day on Middle Blackhall despite the low water. The beat is set away from the major roads and is very secluded given anglers a peaceful setting to cast a fly. It also has to be one of the best kept beats on the river as both banks are maintained to almost bowling green like standards! There was also the added bonus of having pools with plenty fish showing through out the day. This kept us occupied and it was good that Bill managed to winkle one out. It was also good to see a part of the River Dee that I had never seen before. I will certainly be back and I already have a day booked on the opposite bank at Cairnton in July which I'm really looking forward to. For more info on the beats or to book a day click on the links below.

FishDee - Cairnton and Middle Blackhall beats

http://www.cairnton.co.uk/

Couple Of Grilse From The River Dee Today

I was out for a couple of hours fishing the Banchory Devenick beat of the Lower Dee. This beat is fished by the Aberdeen District Angling Association and has been fishing really well of late. I managed to land a couple of wee grilse, one of which was a coloured fish about 5lb using a #11 Silver Stoat's tail and the second fish which weighed about 3lb, fell to a #13 Black Francis. The 3lb fish was a fresh fish which couldn't have been in the river long at all. No sea liced present but a bar of silver. Unfortunately, as I was taking a scale sample the fish wriggled loose from my grip and swam off so I didn't get a photograph. I will publish the results of the scale samples as soon as I get them.

Young angler, Conner Milne (9), who is going to be an expert Salmon angler come time, landed his first Salmon on the fly this afternoon. It weighed about 5lb and was covered in Long Tailed Sea Lice. As you can imaging, he was chuffed to pieces and so was his proud father. First of many I'd imagine. Well Done!

My coloured Grilse ready to be returned.

Young Conner playing his fish.

Safely in the net! Conner's first Salmon on the fly. Well Done!

A good fish landed by Bill Cook using a wee #11 Munro Killer.

Bill's second fish of the day using the same fly.

My First Fish Of The Season

I was lucky enough to be back fishing at Lower Blackhall yesterday. With good overcast conditions and a river dropping nicely after a wee rise on Thursday, our hopes were high. The water was sitting at about 1' on he gauge and the water temperature was 53f.

We tackled up about 9am and I opted for my Rio UniSpey with a 10ft slow sink tip. I tied on one of Charlie's Silver Stoat's Tail variants. Charlie went for his Mackenzie DTX G2 Spey Line, 10ft slow sink tip and a pattern of his own making. Eddie fished a full floating set up with a tiny Pussy fly.

Charlie and I headed over to the Kinneskie side to fish the Sheep Dip, Whinney Brae, Bohore and Sandy Haven. Charlie chose to fish one of his favourite pools, Sheep Dip and I went in at the neck of Whinney Brae. After only fishing for 20 minutes or so, I had a very subtle take of my fly which, initially I thought was a parr. That was until I lifted into it, suddenly the fish took off! I was praying I didn't lose this one and finally get my season started. After a dogged fight for 5 minutes or so, Charlie expertly netted a 5lb Salmon covered in long tail sea lice. I could now relax and enjoy the rest of my day's fishing. We carried on through the pools without another touch so we headed down to Bohore.

Charlie let me go through the pool first. The main lie is on the far bank between the steps and the pipe about 2/3 the way down the pool. I covered this area without success and was just coming to the end of the pool when I had a thumping take about half way across. This was a bigger fish than my earlier one. As it was hooked at the tail of the pool above some fast rapids, the only way the fish could run was upstream. That it did but with pace, and lots of it! I was reeling in my line as fast as my hand would go and still my line was not tight. I finally caught up with the fish when it was opposite where I was standing, then all of a sudden it turned to head back downstream and that was the last I felt of it. I didn't see the fish but it was a super take and felt like it had some weight to it. Looking back, maybe I should  have hand-lined to keep up with the fish as it might have been quicker than reeling but who knows. I had lost the fish and I can do nothing about it now. You win some, you lose some. We fished on down the beat without joy but we were seeing a few fish but they had their heads down and were heading up river sharpish.

After lunch Charlie fished the Blackhall side and myself and Eddie headed up to the Whinney Brae and Sheep Dip pools to give them another go. The three of us fished all afternoon with only parr and smolts to show for our efforts so we called it a day about 6pm and headed off to the Banchory Legion for a few pints and a bite to eat.

Here are some pictures from our day. Finally a picture of a fish caught by me!

My first fish of the season safely in the net!

A quick picture for the scrap book.

A nice picture of the head before releasing the fish back to the river

Charlie launches a nice line on Brown's.

Bohore Pool. I lost the fish at the tail of the pool just above the fast water flowing between the two jetties.