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.

Deveron Fishing Festival 2012 Open Day

I headed up to the Turriff Angling Association water to attend the Deveron Fishing Festival Open Day. There was a very good turn out to watch demonstrations from some of the best casters in the business. Stalls run by Turriff Tackle and Glasgow Angling Centre to buy any lines or tackle tried out on the day. Brands such as Hardy, Vision, G Loomis and Mackenzie were all on hand to offer casting of the latest rods and lines etc. I will be fishing the 3 free days starting tomorrow and with the water looking perfect there was a few confident ghillies saying there will be fish caught so here hoping. Here are some pictures from todays event.

The impressive line up of casting demonstrations for the day.

Guide Flyfishing's team. Willie Banks (left) and Jim Fearn (right). Two top blokes who are always willing to help out with casting instruction which I like to take full advantage of! As my main fishing rod is a 15ft Vision GT4 Catapult im always interested in what lines go best and if any new ones are worth getting so I had a wee go with the Vision ACE shooting head Float/Sink2 and a 5ips tip attached. I must say it was a dream to cast. You wouldn't even know it was a heavy sink tip on the end. Very easy work with.

Blair Banks of G Loomis is a River Spey ghillie on the Brae Water Beat 5. I had a short casting lesson from Blair with a 15ft G Loomis NRX matched up with a 55ft prototype G Loomis Spey line. After finding a wee fault in my action Blair corrected me and I was soon getting a nice line out with ease. Once I get used to the alteration in my casting it should pay dividends.

Scott Mackenzie with my fellow Aberdeen District Angling Association member Tony Wolk. Myself and Tony spent a good few hours milling around the rods trying them all out. We were both very impressed with the Mackenzie shooting head rods. Especially the 14ft version. What a casting tool! Scott was only too happy to share his knowledge of his rods and he gave us a few pointers on our casting too.

Andy Murray of G Loomis and River Tweed ghillie giving his demonstration this morning. I enjoyed watching him cast as he mad it look so effortless. As all the caster did.

The trade stand in the tent on the banks of the river. I took this picture about 4pm when I think most of the stalls had packed up! Should have taken one sooner. Never mind at least it shows where the stalls had been.

We missed Eion Fairgrieve's demonstration as we were playing about with Scott Mackenzie's stuff but we did get a cast with the new Hardy Zenith Sintrix rod. We used the 14' 6" 9 weight rod matched up with a Hardy Mach 55 spey line. What a combo! Out of all the rods we tried today this was up there. Way out of my price range but a dream to cast. Even into a strong wind. I would not say no to any of the rods we tried out today though. They were all pretty special but will have say the Vison Catapult will do me just fine.