On The Dee At Middle Drum

Myself and Charlie had a day on the lovely Middle Drum beat of the River Dee. The water was a good height at 1' 7" on the beat gauge and carrying a nice whiskey colour. Middle Drum is a nice beat and I have fished here a good few times, mostly in the Spring time around March. It was fine to fish it later on in the year when the pools were filling up and running fish were to be seen almost the whole day.

We were allocated to fish the top part of the beat in the morning and I started in the Island Run and Charlie started in the Cairnton Pool. Apart from Charlie moving a salmon to his Sunray at the tail of the Cairnton, that was to be it. We swapped pools about 11.30am and I tied on a Black and White Sunray to my usual set up of a Float/Intermediate Tip AFS and a 10ft slow sink tip. I started at the top of the pool and within a few cast my fly was hammered by a fish! It was not a salmon but a wee finnock about a pound which took a shine to my fly. Between us that was to be all the action for the morning session but we had the Lawson Pool to come in the afternoon.

After a bit of lunch and a chinwag with ghillie Shane Christie we headed back onto the water to have a go at the Lawson. During lunch time there was torrential rain and the river quickly rose about an inch or so. Charlie set off down the pool and I went in at the top. Just as I got to the end of the concrete walkway, I hooked a salmon parr but as I was taking it in something bigger had a go at it!!! It grabbed the parr and as I kept reeling in the fish let go leaving me with a rather battered looking parr. I unhooked it and it seemed to swim off fine but I've never had that happen to me before. Not sure what method that would have came under if it was hooked and landed?

As I got to a good taking part of the pool just under the power lines I made a fairly square cast and began to use the figure of eight retrieve. Just as my #9 Ghillie Fly came round to the dangle it was drawn away in I lifted into a livley fish. It was a spanking fresh grilse about 4 or 5 pounds and it was cartwheeling all over the pool! It spent more time in the air than in the water. I played the fish for a couple of minutes and it made a few tearing runs and jumps. I thought the fish must have been well hooked and Shane was ready with the net but just as it was tiring and coming in, the fish threw my fly! I have no idea how the fly came out but as Shane and I looked on in disbelief we could only assume that all the acrobatics must have worked the fly loose. Who knows but that was to be the only action myself and Charlie were to encounter for the rest of the day. We packed up at dark and headed home wondering how we didn't catch anything as the Lawson pool especially was bouncing with fresh fish all day long. We must have seen about 200 or so during our day. That's fishing I suppose and it's another fish lost for me which, this season has been quite a few!

Here are some pictures from our day.

Island Run. Always a good chance of picking up a running fish in this pool. Tilbouries hut on the other bank.

Looking upstream from the Lawson to the tail of the Cairnton pool.

Lawson Pool. Just near where I hooked the grilse. Nice pool but we could have been done with another 6" on it. Still very good to fish a fly through though.

Fishing the Lawson. Charlie's dog Bracken searches out his stick and I fish down the huge Lawson Pool.

River Don Produces The Goods Again

I was out and about on the River Don yesterday and started off at the Manse Pool. This pool is on the ADAA beat at Lower Fintray. The water was a bit too high for this pool but I was encouraged to see a few fish moving through. After fishing down the length of the pool without a touch I headed off to fish further upstream to the Kemnay beat. This is a fantastic high water beat and will produce fish from top to bottom if conditions are right. I fished the School and Upper Chapel pools without seeing or touching anything which, given the conditions I thought I might have seen some fish moving in these pools. Whilst fishing the Upper Chapel, I received a call from my friend Charlie who was fishing a few beats below at Manar. He asked if I fancied popping down to have a cast as the beat had no day rods on. I jumped at the chance and strapped the rod to my car and set off.

I arrived at the beat around 3pm and Charlie informed me that he had landed a sea-liced Grilse about 6lb from the Chapel Pool. The fish took a 1/2" Silver Ally tube fished on a 10ft fast sink tip. The beat gauge was reading 1' 5" when I arrived and had the river had dropped from 1' 9" in the morning. During the afternoon, all the pools were basking in bright sunshine so we lightly fished a few of them more in hope than expectation. We were just waiting for 6.30pm or so when the sun moved off the Upper and Lower Wood pools. After a cold tin of beer at the hut we set off down river to fish the now shaded Upper Wood. I went in first and not long after starting there appeared to be a run of fish move into the pool. Casting to a good lie on the far bank produced a very subtle take which initially I thought was a trout or parr. The fish soon woke up and a few minutes later a very small Grilse was netted. It was about 2lb and had been the victum of an attack for a predator of some kind. The fish took a #9 Kinermony Killer fish off a Rio AFS Intermediate tip and a 10ft slow sink polyleader. We both fished through the pool without another touch and set off for the Chapel pool.

Charlie went into the Chapel pool first and fished it through with a Cascade and I followed him down with the same set up as before. I was nearly finished the pool when there was an almighty thump on my fly. A good fish took off like a steam train taking about 10 yards of line in the process before I even realised it was hooked!!! I lifted into the fish and felt the weight. Fish on! This was a good fish but a few seconds later, in a burst of surface splashing, the fish came off! Nothing I could have done but always a sickner when one comes off. I covered the lie with several more casts but it was not to be. Charlie, who was fishing down the pool again covered the lie and something grabbed his fly but didn't hook itself. Pity because I think it would have been a good fish if either of us had landed it. We packed up around 8.45pm and headed home to refect on another good day on the Don at Manar. Here are some pictures from yesterday.

Charlie's 6lb sea liced Grilse from the Chapel Pool at Manar around 11.30am.

Upper Wood Pool. Charlie took this picture of me a few minutes before I landed a Grilse just above the fast water.

A skinny wee Grilse which took a #9 Kinermony Killer. Notice the damage to the fish. It also had a hole in it's back possibly caused by a Heron or diving bird of some kind. It looked to be still quite raw but hopefully it won't cause it too much harm.

You can see the wound on te fish to the left of the picture. It had been in the wars and deserved to be given the chance to spawn and preserve the stocks for the River Don. This hardy fish is a fighter and hopefully it will go and reach the spawning grounds.