He's Done It Again!

Not content with catching his first salmon on the 14th August, we had to venture out again on the 15th and this time we were fortunate enough to land two lovely fresh Grilse from Aberdeen and District Angling Association's Kemnay beat of the River Don. I'm one very proud dad!

The first grlise of the day. Safely returned.

Liam with his prized catch.

A sea liced grilse around the 4lb mark. The fish was safely released after a quick photo.

River Don Grilse

I had a cast out on the River Don yesterday after work and was fortunate enough to bump into this nice, wee grilse. Not the biggest fish by any means but I was delighted to get another Don fish under my belt for this season. The river was sitting at 1ft 5in on the Haughton gauge and was carrying a peat stain which was decent fishing conditions for the beat.

A River Don salmon poses for a quick photo before being safely released to continue her journey.

The salmon fishing on the River Don has been pretty slow in recent seasons but the river is maintaining good river levels at the moment with rain coming almost daily so hopefully this will bring in some fish and get the older ones moving. I'll certainly look forward to seeing what the remaining few weeks of the season bring for the river.

River Don Opening Day

The 11th of February signals the opening of the Salmon fishing season on the River Don here in Aberdeenshire. I ventured out for a cast to the Aberdeen and District Angling Association beat on the middle river at Kemnay with my pal Bill Cook.

A hard frost over night saw the river drop several inches which isn't really ideal for the Kemnay beat but it was still sitting about 11" on the gauge and carrying a little snow melt colour. My tactics for today were my 15ft Mackenzie rod, Hover/Sink1 shooting head and a 6ft 2.6ips versi leader. Flies varied from Gold Body Willie Gunns, Chartreuse Franc N Snaelda and Ice Maidens.

Looking downstream into the Dooker pool.

Fishing down the Dooker into the "hotspot".

I arrived at the beat about 8.30am and the ground was frozen solid by a hard over night frost. After a chat with Bill I made my way upstream to the neck of the Dooker pool. Bill had already landed 2 kelts and a sea trout kelt before I arrived so I was eager to get going. I stripped a few yards of running line off my reel and began with a short cast. As my fly swung round, I had a very subtle take. The fish seemed reluctant to move with the fly so I had to wait, what seemed like ages before setting the hook. I lifted into the fish and no sooner was it on, it was off. My very first cast of the 2015 Don season saw me hook a fish! Unfortunately, it wasn't on long but it was a promising start, even if it was just a kelt. As I fished down the pool into a well known lie, I had another take. This time the fish was well hooked and I soon released a well mended kelt. The rod rings were constantly freezing and this made cast tricky at times but I persevered and soon had another offer. This time it was only a trout and I managed a long range release which I was glad about as it saved me from re-casting all my line again. We both fished on down the pool without another offer so we headed downstream to have a cast in the Academy Pool.
 

Bill fishing the Academy Pool.

Looking downstream near the tail of the Academy Pool.

Looking upstream from half way down the Academy Pool.

The Academy Pool has given up its fair share of opening day fish in its time but sadly not this year. Bill and I both fished down through the pool without so much as a pull to show for our efforts. We were surprised as the pool is normally a holding place for kelts and with the water a good height for the pool, we just couldn't tempt any fish from it.

Fishing mid way down the Upper Chapel pool.

Looking upstream toward the neck of the Upper Chapel.

The next pool down was the Upper Chapel. Bill had some good sport in here last year with the grilse and, like the Dooker and Academy pools, it holds spring fish and offers every chance of connecting with one. Sadly, neither of us had any luck in here so we made our way back upstream to the upper most pool on the beat, the Bridge Pool.

Fishing down trough the Bridge Pool

Looking upstream towards Kemnay Bridge where the pool takes it's name.

The Bridge Pool is renowned as a kelt holding pool but where there's kelts, there's always the chance of a springer in amongst them. I started at the top of the pool and Bill went in half way down. I must have had about five or six offers in here but again, they were very subtle takes and not very aggressive at all. Apart from one brief on and off, neither of the offers stuck which was frustrating. Maybe the cold water made the kelts lethargic but they certainly didn't seem keen to take the fly with any force or turn away with it. After fishing down the pool without landing anything I decided to give the Dooker another run through before heading home.

My second run down the Dooker Pool.

Playing a kelt in the Dooker.

Kelt comes to the bank ready to be released.

On my second run down the Dooker I hadn't had an offer and I was just about ready to call it a day. I gave myself another half dozen casts and then that would be it. I made about five of those casts when I had a solid take. Again, not much aggression in it so I firmly lifted into it. there was no mistake this time and I soon had a very thin kelt ready for release. I managed to remove the hook without taking the fish out the water and with that, I packed up for the day.

Looking upstream at the tail of the Dooker.

Although we didn't get our opening day fish it was great just to be out on the River Don again. To see it in such good ply was pleasing, just a pity it didn't yield any fresh fish for us. So far, I've not heard of any springers off the Don yet but with these conditions I don't think it will be long before the first fish is landed. 

More Sea Liced Salmon For Bill Cook

It's been a good week so far on the River Don for my friend and prolific angler, Bill Cook. Firstly, landing a sea liced Grilse on Saturday but on Monday evening he ran into a pod of fresh run grilse and landed 3 out of 4 he hooked. Prior to that he landed a coloured cock fish in the pool above a few minutes earlier. All were taken on a small Cascade with 9" on the gauge. Not bad for an hours fishing!

Bill's 2nd fish of the day. A sea liced Grilse about 6lbs.

Fish No.3 Another sea liced Grilse about 6lb.

Fish No.4 Like peas in a pod! Sea liced Grilse also around 6lb.

Sea lice on the back of the fish. Must be running hard at the moment.

 On Wednesday evening, Bill was at it again when he landed a cracking fresh run hen Salmon of around 11lbs. He caught it using a fly of his own fly called the Highland Park Shrimp. Good going considering the water has dropped back to around 6" since Sunday.

Bill's 11lb sea liced Salmon from yesterday. Perfect condition and covered in sea lice.

Pictures courtesy of Bill Cook.

Where Is The Back End Run This Season?

I was out and about on the Middle Don at the Aberdeen Angling Association's Kemnay beat and later on down river at Manar. I fished from 11am-3pm at Kemnay and during that time I had heard of 3 coloured salmon landed but all earlier that morning. The water was in near perfect condition and carrying a nice peaty colour. Apart from a pull at my Kinermony Killer in the Upper Chapel and a swirl at my Sunray in the tail of the Dooker, I hardly seen any signs of fish present in the pools. Very unusual given the quality of the water we've had recently.

I received a call from Charlie asking if I fancied having a cast at Manar as there were no day tickets sold. Kemnay was really busy with several anglers in each pool so I strapped the rods on my motor and headed off downstream. We fished the Sheep Pool and Upper Wood Pools before heading down to the productive Chapel Pool. We both fish through it twice without a touch so we headed off back to the hut for a cold beer before fishing down the Sheep again. As we sat at the bench outside the hut, there was a big coloured fish showed half way down the pool. I changed my fly to a Swallow tied on a 25mm  brass bottle tube and made my way down to where the fish showed. I was casting quite square and retrieving the fly at a steady pace just to give the fly some movement as it is quite slow near the tail of the pool. A few cast later just as my fly came round onto the dangle, it was taken by a fish. It thrashed about on the surface before letting my fly go just as quickly as it grabbed it. I didn't see the fish but it was not the big one that showed earlier. Still, a bit of excitement on an otherwise frustrating day on the river.

That was about all the action we had for our afternoon so we packed up and headed home about 6.30pm just as darkness was closing in. We both spoke about the Don on the way home and were in agreement that there is very little sign of a back end run of salmon so far. All fish we've heard getting caught have been coloured. With the water we've had this past fortnight or so, Manar at this time of year at would usually have fresh fish entering the pools almost on a daily basis. Not so this year though. Given the great catches of July and August, could the back end run arrived early or will it arrive when the season has finished? Either way, the lack of fish this Autumn, especially for a back-end river like the Don is poor to say the least. One week of the season left so hopefully some arrive during that time to give anglers some sport to end their season.

Charlie fishing the Sheep Pool on the last day of the season 2011.