Week Commencing 25th july 2022

Hello all

Its sunny Sunday again but at least it is not as warm, temperatures have settled a bit from the highs we were experiencing.

It is had to believe I am reporting the catches of the last week in July already, only 9 weeks of the season left but at least we have been able to enjoy a nice summer so far and the fishing has not been too dire.

The countryside is still very busy birds and animals still going about their business and taking full advantage of the seasons offerings. I can say the same for the pigeons and doves that are frequenting our garden just now to hoover up the feed the sparrows seem content to drop during their feeding frenzies. I cannot believe the mess they leave and the sprouting barley and wheat that is now evident. Does anyone have a minature combine I can rent??

It’s fair to say the catches have been up and down over the past few weeks, mainly down to water and weather conditions. The heavy rain of last weekend and the start of this week brought about a rise in the river so lets have a look at the returns for the week gone by.

Coming down river for a change, Abernethy Water landed 1 salmon 9lbs and 4 seatrout to 4lbs. At Grantown they had 8 salmon to 8lbs and 5 seatrout to 4lbs. Once again thanks to Simon Crozier for the details.

At Castle Grant, Simon Crozier reports that the week started with a long awaited rise in the water, this stirred up the residents and some sport was had on the back of the rise. Greg Stokes fishing Beat 3 had a grilse , 3 salmon and a seatrout in his 2 days, along with several other encounters. On Beat One, Andy Ramage had his first Spey salmon, a fine fish from the Garra. Grilse were present on all the Beats and a few were landed as the week progressed. The water had dropped away by the end of the week and the bright conditions slowed down the action. Seatrout continue to be caught and a fine 5lb fish was taken from Pollowick . We are hopeful of more sport in the week to come.

Continuing our journey downstream, Archie Baillie at Knockando Home Beat confirms what Simon previously said as the rise in water level at the start of the week improved the catches no end with his guests. One fish was caught on Monday before the rise and by the end of the week we had managed to add a further 27 to the book with a good mix of fresh and old salmon and grilse to 18lb. We had 4 sea trout with a couple being 5/6lb. So a very good week with 28 salmon/grilse and 4 sea trout.

David Brand at Kinermony confirms that they had 8 fish landed this week , 3 grilse and salmon up to 15 lb. Joffy Grant getting 6 to his rod but a big thank you to Rick the canoeist for coming to Joffy’s aid to net a fish for him. Other river users have their uses too.

Mike Murdoch at Laggan advises thatthey had 9 for the week this week to the MacKenzie Charrington party, a mixture of old/fresh.

Wester Elchies had 5 for the week reports Malcolm Newbould, whilst across the river Aberlour Angling Club finished their week in the mid teens advises Kenny Davies, following the water life at the start of the week.

At Easter Elchies, ghillie Orn Sigurhansson reports a welcome rise in water freshened up the fishing and provided some good sport. The majority of fish caught this week were grilse. Total of 20 salmon and grilse caught for the week with as many lost.

At Arndilly Euan Reid advises that this week was another family week, Christian Hollingbery and his team for the first half and Jess and Brook for the second half. The first half had bad luck in that Monday was very coloured water and blanked and Tuesday didn’t work until late afternoon, finishing with 3 but Wednesday was the best day of the week with 9 fish landed.
On Tuesday George Morgan-Giles had his first ever, 12lb from the Piles, Olly Line 4lb from Cobble Pot and Ben Graves 5lb from Back of the Bog were the others.
Wednesday was the day for the Piles on the right side with Olly Line 3lb and 10lb, Wilf Ward 3lb and Callum Evans with his first fish, 6lbs. Wilf had one from the tail of Long Pool and Max Morgan-Giles had his first fish to equal his twin, 5.5lb from Jocks Tail.
Christian Hollingbery had 3, 7lb from left Soo, 3.5lb from tail of Long Pool and a lovely 11.5lb from Bulwark.
Thursday with the change of party brought a change in the fish being willing to play our game. Jack Outhred had a grilse from the Cobble Pot, Toobs Graves had two 3lb grilse from the Soo standing on the point of the Croy and the top of Long Pool opposite the sycamore tree. Ben Graves had a lovely 18lb fish in front of the hut to round off.
On Saturday Eleanor Abraham had her first ever, 3lb from Back of the Bog. Well done everyone, some first fish, lots of improving casting, several potential first fish lost, Ella, Sammy, Hamed to name a few but lots of fun and wee look forward to see how much they remember next year!

As we continue our journey downstream, Robbie Stronach, head ghillie at Rothes reports that they landed 12 for the week. Most of the fish were grilse but a couple of salmon to 13lb also featured in the catch.

Mark Melville, Head ghiliie reports a decent week again at Delfur. We had four first fish which was great and we ended up in the 30s for the week. Wednesday and Thursday were our better fish catching days. Mostly grilse but with some fish too up to 12lb. It is great to see a good number of first fish being landed.

Orton had another good week advises Head Ghillie Andy Gunn. They finished with 34 for the week with plenty lost fish as well. Biggest 17lb. Fantastic sport on the back of that early week lift.

Gordon Castle/Brae Water ghillie David Buley confirms that this week’s been fantastic sport down on the beats. The rise on Monday brought 1ft of water and a good number of fish too. Two young anglers caught their first fish. Tuesday saw another foot and with it was a bit of colour but the fish kept coming proving good fishing particularly in the afternoon/evening. As the river continued to drop, Wednesday saw the best day with 42 landed for the day including another first fish! The rest of the week continued to fish well and Thursday saw another 2 young fishers get their first fish. We finished up with over 110 fish for the week and lost more. The majority of the fish fresh grilse but they was a good few salmon caught biggest around 18lb.

Our last stop is Fochabers Angling Association who had a great week according to Andy Milne. They had at least 30 fish caught this week but probably more because I don’t have all the returns back yet. Biggest was this estimated 18 pounder caught by Sandy Gardiner in the quarry. A notable rod who had a good was retired ghillie Ian Tennant who had 5 to his own rod on Wednesday. Great to see the Association amongst the fish after a slow start to the season.

It is notable this week that we are now seeing a good number of residents being caught throughout the river but the grilse and fresh fish are still pushing through and we can only hope this continues for a few more weeks as we enter the backend of the season.

What is in store for the River next week? Weather looks cloudy with temperatures average for this time of year. There may be the odd shower passing through as a band of rain moves west to east so we will need to wait and see.

Next weekend sees the return of the Moy Country Fair (used to be known as the Highland Field Sports Fair) at Moy Hall on Friday and Saturday. The River Spey Anglers Assocoiation, along with our sister club, Loch Achonnachie Angling Club joining us in a tent in Angler’s Corner to promote angling to all ages. Please fell free to drop in and say hello, I myself will be about on the Saturday.

On the Sunday the RSAA are holding their second junior outing of the season to Achagour Trout Fishery near Nairn to do some rainbow trout fishing. Watch social media for the advert if this is of interest.

Finally for this week I am taking a break for a couple of weeks so the the next 2 reports will be prepared by Paul Hughes from the Board in my absence.

Tight lines for the week ahead.

Sandy