Good afternoon all
Father’s Day again and it seems no time at all since the last one. A day of mixed emotions for a lot of people myself no exception- I would normally be on the road to the River Ewe at this moment in time but recovery has prevented me from travelling with the rest of the party this year.
The longest day falls in a couple of days and its hard to believe that we will then be heading back down the slope to shorter days and the start of the run to the seasons end.
A mixed week of weather has just gone, everything has been thrown at us with the exception of snow and it made for an interesting fishing week. However we anglers are hardy souls and will put up with most conditions in the pursuit of our quarry.
Lets have a look at the week gone by, heading up from the lower reaches of the river.
Andy Milne at Fochabers Angling Association confirms on fish for the week with a couple more hooked and lost. Hopefully with the grilse starting to show the numbers here will pick up.
Gordon Castle/Brae Water had a better week according to David Buley. The week started well with 7 fish landed by end of play on Tuesday. The middle of the week gave us few more in reasonable conditions. The conditions changed considerably by the end of the week with high winds, bright sun, and heavy showers but even still our guest stuck in and landed a couple more. 12 was the total with a few lost too.
Orton landed a single grilse for their week reports Andy Gunn.
Mark Melville, Head Ghillie at Delfur confirms another tough week, we managed 8 fish including our first two grilse of the season. We’re still not seeing fish coming in and the pools that should be full are empty. Hopefully the summer/grilse run is on its way!
Rothes Head Ghillie Robbie Stronach reports that they had 4 fish for the week . Got off to a good start with two fish being landed by David Curtis . He added another fish to the score on Tuesday . Mr Fletcher landed one from Jamieson. Some fish were also lost.
Euan Reid, head ghillie reports a low water week at Arndilly which began at -3″ on Monday morning and finished at -4″ on Saturday with a couple of half inch rises in between. Our wait for a meaningful summer run continues although we did have our first grilse this week and a sea liced 7lb yesterday which was reminiscent of a proper summer salmon so let’s hope these are the first of many.
Jim Stevens had our first of the week 13.5lb from the Cobble Pot. On Tuesday Mrs Sarah Clark had a lovely 15.5lb fish again from left side of Cobble Pot and Mr Richard Hollingbery had a 5lb salmon and a 4lb sea trout from the Bulwark.
Wednesday Tom Abraham and Alistair Crawford hooked our only 2 fish of the day within minutes of each other, Tom, 10lb Back of the Bog and Alistair, 11lb in the Arns. Donald Stewart had a grilse from long pool on Thursday and Duncan Fletcher Jnr had a 9.5lb fish from the neck of Cobble Pot, right side on Friday. Scott Brown wrapped things up on Saturday with a 7lb long tailed sea liced fish from Cobble Pot left.
So 8 fish was not disaster but we really need to see more fish arriving.
At Easter Elchies, ghillie Orn Sigurhansson reports a week of low water, salmon, grilse and big sea trout. Water level was showing -6 on the gauge, however we continued the good sport of last week into this week. Summer salmon up to 14lb were caught, we landed our first grilse and had sea trout of both 5lb and 6lb. Red Craigs, Fiddich Mouth, Boat Pool, Upper Dips and Inverfiddich all fishing well in the low water. Fly of the week was the Durris Shrimp. Final total 14 salmon and grilse and 6 sea trout. A really good week in the conditions.
Craigellachie had a reasonable week with 6 fish landed advises ghillie Dougie Ross.
As we journey upstream, Aberlour Angling Club reports another week with nothing added to the book. The fish which were showing and holding in the pools earlier on in the season seem to have continued their journey upstream.
Wester Elchies had a very quiet week with only 2 fish in the book, again a beat which had a reasonable start has slowed right down and am sure they are hoping that numbers will increase if the grilse are on their way.
Kinermony landed 2 grilse for their week, the successful rod being Mark Macalmont states David Brand.
Mike Murdoch at Laggan confirms that they landed a couple of fish but worryingly pools which should be holding fish at this time are not. We can only hope this starts to change soon.
Up at Knockando Home Beat, ghillie Archie Baillie confirms that they had 6 again this week. Ranging from 8lb to 12lb.a good start with 4 lnaded on Monday. A couple hooked and lost mid week and then 2 on Friday.
Head ghillie Simon Crozier confirms more of the same at Castle Grant , with Salmon caught, and lost on all the beats. A good week for specimen sea-trout with some real clonkers being caught on all the beats. There was an 11lb sea-trout caught and several others in the 7 to 9 lb class landed . The last two days were difficult with the strong winds and unseasonable cold but a few fish came to hand none the less . David Swain had a fine fish from Polchraine on Saturday morning and Dom Tighe had a nice fish also. Roddy Nash fishing beat 3 for the first time had a 9lb salmon from Pollowick followed by a fine seatrout of 26 inches. We are hoping for more action next week.
The sea-trout fishing at Kinchurdy is kicking off with good numbers of fish being caught to 7lbs.
Grantown Water had a quieter week this one just gone with 2 fish landed
Abernethy had 7 fish to 14lb for their week, along with 8 sea-trout. Good to see the sea-trout well spread throughout the system.
Looking to the week ahead, the weather is set to be a bit mixed again but hopefully be ideal for those on the river. We can only hope that we will see more grilse starting to push their way up river and lift the catch numbers for all the beats.
Tight lines to all of those who are lucky to be out and about on their respective rivers and beats.
Sandy
