Tilbouries - River Dee

Back in January, I booked a days fishing at Tilbouries through the Aberdeen District Angling Association. September seemed miles away back then and I certainly never foreseen the lack of water we'd get this year. The beat is usually bouncing with both fresh and coloured fish at this time of year. I say usually, because due to the well documented and prolonged dry spell the East coast of Scotland has had to endure this year, most of the pools have very little in the way of fish holding in them.

As always, I arrived at the beat eager to get going and Willie Banks suggested I try the top end of the beat for a start and work my way down to the hut. I started off fishing the Island stream but apart from a handful of parr, I touched nothing so I headed off down to fish Alfred's Pot. One of the rods fishing the pool before me had a fish about 7lb which was encouraging so I tied on a wee #13 Black Francis and not long after starting I got a good pull. I have no idea why the fish never hooked itself as it nearly pulled the rod out of my hand! Again, apart from a few parr I landed nothing.

After lunch I fished down through the Island again with just parr and a brown trout for my efforts so I headed off back down to Alfred's Pot. I entered the pool at the neck and begun fishing, as you do, with a short line and gradually lengthening with every cast. After half a dozen or so casts, I had a good solid take and lifted into a fish. As I set the hook, the fish gave a couple of strong head shakes and this caused the hook hold to come loose and the fish was off. I decided then to change fly and put on a wee #13 Yellow Crathie. This fly has been doing very well further down river on the ADAA stretch of the Dee so I'd thought I'd give it a swim here too. About 20 yards down the pool from where I lost the fish, I cast out and I had another solid take just as the fly came hard into the bank. As the water is very deep on the Tilbouries side of the pool, the fish tend sit in the deeper water and are easily covered. I lifted into a strong wee fish and after a few minutes and several runs later, I drew the fish into the waiting net. Not a fresh fish but a fish none-the-less and a very welcome one. I returned the fish and the rod fishing above me was into a fish almost straight away. I wound in and went to assist the angler. After a good fight in the fast water I slid the net under a nice, reasonably fresh fish about 6lbs. I fished on down the pool without another touch and decided to call it a day about 6pm.

It's always nice to land a fish and considering the low water conditions,  3 salmon were landed today which is not a bad tally at all.

First pool of the day. Looking down the Island Stream.

Looking upstream from the tail of the Island.

Looking upstream from Alfred's Pot towards the Tilbouries Run.

Looking downstream in Alfred's Pot. Always holds fish in a medium/low water.

Looking upstream towards the hut from Larches. This pool is called Cairnton.

My wee 4lb Grilse from Alfred's Pot taken on a #13 Yellow Crathie.

Tilbouries - River Dee

Last Thursday, I had an evening fishing the Tilbouries beat of the River Dee. The beat landed 4 and lost several more the day before but a wee rise of about 3" moved the fish on and apart from having one on and off, I landed nothing. Plenty fish were showing and I had a few nip at the fly but didn't take. Still, it was nice to be back on the Dee again.

The Tilbouries Run

Alfred's Pot

Looking upstream from Alfred's Pot.

18lber From Tilbouries

My uncle Stuart Fleming had a day on the Tilbouries beat of the River Dee yesterday and landed this sea liced beauty! The fish took a 1" copper Ally Shrimp tube from the Alfred's Pot. It's his second 18lb salmon from the beat this year.

Cracking fish!

An 18lb belter from Tilbouries. Thanks for the picture!

Rio UniSpey 10/11 Review

During the Deveron Fishing Festival I was fishing the Eden beat which was hosted by GuideFlyFishing. Their representatives were Willie Banks and Jim Fearn. After lunch that day I spent a couple of hours with them just casting some lines. Jim Fearn had a Vision GT4 Catapult set up with a 64ft Rio UniSpey line. He gave me a cast with it as I have a Vision GT4 Catapult and I was very impressed. So impressed I bought the line this week! I managed to get a good deal from an add on the Salmon Fishing Forum classified section. The line arrived yesterday and I spooled it up onto my Hardy Swift MKII. All I needed to do now was go fishing.

Today I tried out the line. It took me an hour or two to get the hang of it but once I discovered the optimum loading point of the line it flew out like a rocket! I spent all day casting with it and getting used to the longer head. The line is White in colour with a 15ft Black loading point. The overall line length is 130ft and has a weight of 750gr(64gm). It has has a long front taper and when I attached a 5ft fast sinking tip it made it even better. The line gripped the surface of the water a bit better and help load the rod. I tried all sink rates of tips and weighted flies. It turned over them all with ease. To me, it's just like a 64ft shooting head without the hastle of having loops of running line strewn over the banks or knotting up in your forward stroke.

Overall impression is this is a fantastic casting line. The black coloured loading point of the line helps to find where it loads your rod to maximise casting potential. I'm glad I have this line in my armoury and it will be very useful on bigger river such as the Dee and Spey where a longer cast can make all the difference.

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.

Tilbouries River Dee 21/07/11

Had a day on the Tilbouries beat of the River Dee on the 21st. Water was a good height and 4 fish were landed the day before I arrived. I didn't catch anything this time but one of the rods landed a 8lb bar of silver around lunch time. Blanked but it's a lovely beat and Willie Banks the Ghillie/Owner knows it inside out and was more than happy to help me out regarding the lines, tips and lies etc. Here are some pics of the beat.

Just below the junction half way down the Island Pool.

Looking upstream towards the Tilbouries hut and the start of the Cairnton Pool.

Fishing down through the Cairnton to the Larches (Pool just off the bend on the right) were the 8lb fish was landed.

The hugh Lawson Pool. At this height of water, the fish were all hugging the far bank (Middle Drum) and to cover them wading out as far as you dared was essential. It is hard work fishing down this pool up past your waist in water trying to reach the far side. I was knackered when I got home after a few runs down here!