Good afternoon all
Well the first full week of the season is now behind us and what a contrast in conditions from start to finish.
A lovely mild afternoon here in Elgin with blinks of sunshine which is very much appreciated.
Have had a few days off this week but alas no fishing due to injury but plenty time sitting on my backside watching the Winter Olympics. As a curler I have watched quite a few hours and was bitterly disappointed for the GB men last night as they narrowly missed out on the Gold medal. A reasonable games for GB but too many 4th places which is hard to take.
Duncan Ferguson, Board Manager has been out and about this week in the upper catchment of the river and the restoration of the Cuath. As you can see it looks as if it was a bit on the chilly side. a few pictures of the Truim and Loch Morlich as it starts to ice up are below. I think Duncan has a hidden talent with these pictures.
It was good to see that the Opening of the Spey on the 11th of February reached an extended audience and thanks to Callum Robertson of Easter Elchies the undernoted clip from Uruguay was found on social media.
Ok lets move on to the fishing.
At Rothes and Aitkenway, Robbie Stronach was delighted to announce that they got off the mark with a good start on Monday with Jimmy Simpson getting one from Burnmouth (10lb), then Sandy Lawton got one from Creeky (5lb) and Gus Findlay landed one from Creeky on Thursday (7lb).
Up at Arndilly, Euan Reid reports somewhat shocked in the change of conditions there has been from Monday until today. On Monday we had 4″ on our gauge and 32°f water temperature, today we have 36″ and 38°f.
The milder weather has melted some snow off the lower slopes and will continue to do so given the mild forecast. Hopefully the more hard packed snow stays up there and doesn’t give us too much water.
We had our first of the season, Allan Crook with a bonny 9lb fish from the Long Pool.
It was a surprise we didn’t get another, bearing in mind we had 3 days of the Tony and Philip Black entourage.
Our owners, the Hollingbery family donated Saturday to the Spey Fishery Board annual auction and this was won by Neil Porter. Neil brought a strong team of fishers who covered the beat well but unfortunately, other than Kelts, nothing fresh was caught.
Although the river came up a couple of feet overnight it is still lovely and clear today. Hopefully it doesn’t rise too much tonight
Elsewhere on the river we have nothing further to report other than kelts being landed and a near miss at Gordon Castle/Brae Water where a fresh fish was lost at the net.
The winner of this weeks Loop Onka Jacket is Jimmy Simpson with his 10lb fish at Rothes, so well done to him. I will be in touch via the ghillie to arrange your prize.
Looking forward to the week ahead, the temperatures are set to stay warm and there is a fair amount of rain in the forecast, so here’s hoping we do not see a big uplift in water as no doubt we will continue to see some further snow melt.
I am going to leave the category open for next weeks prize winner given the high river and weather forecast so the winner will not necessarily be the biggest fish so hopefully the ghillies will regale me with stories and near misses, along with fish landed to allow em to find a winner.
Tight lines to those out and about.
Sandy
