Week Commencing 15th August 2022

Afternoon all

I am back, many thanks to Paul for holding the fort over the past couple of weeks.

Another sunny day in Moray, not great from an angling perspective but good for the garden.

The countryside is continuing to bustle with farmers busy taking in this years harvest thanks to the great dry weather we have had but not so good for those growing root crops, water shortages are having an impact, not only on our fishing but also on agriculture.

I have couple of things to cover off before we look at the week gone by, firstly for those who may have fished at Knockando over the years a memorial service is being held at Knockando Church tomorrow 22nd at 11am for Dr Catherine Wills, proprietor of Knockando Estate, who sadly lost her battle with illness recently. All are welcome but no “black ties”.

Secondly, many of you have hopefully heard of the Fishery Board’s campaign, Release the Spey, about the water that is removed from the Spey Catchment for hydroelectricity in other areas of Scotland.Presently 25% of the water that is taken from the River Spey catchment is for Scottish & Southern Energy’s Tummel Valley Scheme.

The board have just launched a new video which highlights the shocking impact that just one of the Tummel Scheme’s many abstraction sites has on one of the Spey’s tributaries:

In the video, Roger shares with you just one of the dams that make up the Tummel Valley Scheme and highlights the shocking impact that it is having on our river and Atlantic Salmon.

Find out more about or support the Release the Spey campaign here: https://riverspey.org/campaigns/r…

Right let’s have a look at the week gone by, the weather broke at the start of the week giving some respite from the heat of the previous week. This resulted in a slight lift in the river with some beats experiencing a decrease in water clarity until it settled down.

Heading up river, Andy Milne reports that Fochabers Angling Association finished the week with about 20 fish landed. the bulk of these were grilse and fresh too.

At Gordon Castle/Brae Water ghillie David Buley advises another great week with lots of good sport to be had. The rain didn’t bring quite as many fresh fish as I had expected but certainly made the older, larger fish take with a good few fish in the 14lb-18lb bracket. This week also saw a lot of “first fish” caught, great to see the next generation catching the bug. We finished up the week with over 90 fish landed.

At Orton, head ghillie Andy Gunn advises another good week with 39 fish landed.

Next on the journey is Delfur where hed ghillie, Mark Melville reports a mixed week with Thursday being a good day with 14 fish. We finished just short of 30 and everyone caught fish which was great. Nothing fresh after the rise which was disappointing. Autumn is fast approaching and the fish are turning colour rapidly.

Robbie Stronach at Rothes and Aikenway advises that they had 13 fish for the week . Biggest was 17lb and had a couple others into double figures and a couple of grilse caught.

Next upstream at Easter Elchies Orn Sigurhansson reports a good fishing week with a much welcome rise in water and cooler conditions. All pools fishing well, with James Jnr aged 7 the fisher of the week landing 4 fish to his own rod. His last one came after a long day on Saturday without a touch as the cars were being packed for leaving.Largest of the week, a 26lb bruiser from Fiddich Mouth. Including Inverfiddich, 24 for the week. A good weeks fishing at Easter Elchies.

Dougie Ross at Craigellachie advises that they finished the week with 9 fish in the book. The mix was 3 salmon and 6 grilse, the two biggest at 18lb & 16lb fell to the rod of Geoff Woodward.

Aberlour Angling Club had another quiet week with a few fish hooked and lost following the rise in water at the start of the week.

Across the river at Wester Elchies, Malcolm Newbould advises that they finished with 11 for the week mostly older fish falling to the flies on offer.

At Kinermony, David Brand reports 4 salmon 3 grisle and 3 seatrout for the week. Lucky rods were Sandy Scott, Phil Longstaff and Dom Sheratte.

Laggan had a quiet week with only 5 landed, all older fish according to ghillie Mike Murdoch.

Our next port of call is Castle Grant where Simon Crozier reports steady week for the rods. The rise in the water in the early part of the week stirred things up a bit. The Bowden party who had rods on both Beats One and Two made it into double figures for their week with 3 caught on Thursday and 4 on Saturday. A mixture of older fish and grilse. On beat 3 Peter Morrison had a 14 lb fish from Pollowick on Tuesday, Garry MacKenzie had a 15lber from Pollowick also on Tuesday. Peter had another 10lber on Friday again from Pollowick and a wee bright grilse for Gary from Dunbar on Saturday ended the week.

At Abernethy they had 3 salmon to 13lbs and 6 seatrout to 5lbs.

Next week looks a bit mixed on the weather front with a bit of rain possibly in the forecast, as well as sunshine and cloud.

As we push towards the end of the season, fresh fish will become even more difficult to find and residents will start to play a bigger part in the weekly catches.

Finally the Spey Fishery Board is due to hold its next meeting on Friday 2nd September at the Craigellachie Hotel, with the open meeting commencing at 9.30am. A warm welcome is extended to those who wish to attend this meeting.

Tight lines for the week ahead.

Sandy