Hello everyone
Here we are again, another Sunday afternoon at the kitchen table creating another storyline for the week gone by.
As I look out at the rain and reflect on a week that was not too bad on the weather front, pleasant days but chilly nights and a bit of a breeze on Friday. We should not really complain about conditions but as they say we have not seen the lambing snows yet.
Things are starting to come alive out about, framers are getting crops of all shapes and sizes planted, as the fields have dried out sufficiently from the wet winter to allow for machinery to get in and get the jobs done. The warmer weather has brought some wildlife out and about, with Philip Pheasant and his harem appearing in some fields as they hunt for insects and seeds in the newly cultivated soil. I was out trout fishing yesterday and it was lovely to watch red kites, a family of buzzards scan the ground for food.
The garden is starting to come alive with blossom very prevalent on the cherry tree in the garden and our two lilac bushes are not far from bursting into life either. The one thing I have noted in the garden this year is a lack of songbirds, not sure of the reason but our neighbour took down their hedge and it has made the back garden more exposed, or it could be the fact there are 2 cats living here!!
Ok lets have a look at performance on the river during the week gone by, its has seen a increase and indeed it is good to see the fish settling into beats further up river.
We open this weeks account at Grantown where Simon Crozier reports that they got off the mark with a fine fish, landed by Graham Bicker int he Long Pool on a Cascade, hopefully sport will continue into the week ahead.
Simon also reports that in a week of generally light winds and fine weather which greeted our anglers at Castle Grant and despite the low water we got on the board when Les Dargie had a fine fish of around 8lbs from Dunbar on a black and orange tube. Despite the good conditions no more springers came to hand.
Downstream at Knockando, Archie Baillie is delighted to report they they had our first fish of the season on Monday, with Edwin Whyte landing a fine 7lber. Very quiet the rest of the week.
Ian Borthwick at Carron also confirms they got off the mark for 2025 this week, with Steve Hulme catching his first Carron fish. I am also lead to believe that Laggan are also off the mark with a couple of fish but will update matters if I hear more.
Delagyle also hit the ground running with fine four fish in the book to get them off the mark. David Smillie advises the captors as follows First fish to Bob McKay 9lbs out of lower Delagyle, 2nd fish to Gordon Smith 8lbs from the Willows, 3rd to George Andrews 10lbs Gean tree and finally 4th fish to Sam Thomson also in 9lbs Gean tree. Well done all.
Aberlour Angling Club also got off the mark with a fine 15lber to stalwart Shane Fraser, whilst across the river Malcom Newbould was delighted to announce that Wester Elchies also got off the mark at long last. the lucky captor being Chris Grant in Rhynd, incidentally from the same pool and time as he caught one last year.
As we head down river the next stop is Easter Elchies where Orn Sigurhansson reports a week of warm weather and blue skies. We were very pleased to welcome the Tisdale party to Easter Elchies. Wide range of temperature each day, with freezing in the morning up to balmy mid teens in the afternoons. Highlight of the week, a cracking 12lb fish landed by John Grainger in Upper Dips. 0 on the water gauge today.
Euan Reid at Arndilly is the next port of call to see how their week went and Euan was happy to report as follows:-
We began this week with a lot of hope, having heard Rothes had 4 on Saturday, and despite the hard graft of Derek Wiseman and his team, we blanked on Monday and Tuesday. Several fish were contacted, and kelts were landed but nothing fresh.
Wednesday turned into the David Murray show. David rocked up for the day and caught 2, 8.5lb from Jocks Tail and 6.5lb from the Soo.
The rest of the team were thrilled!
This week was a split week with Allan McKay and his team taking over on Thursday.
David Geddes had a 7.5lb fish from Reids on Friday, notably a fish netted twice, half a job by Jeff Geddes, and the proper job by Blair Banks. Also, on Friday, Robert McQueen had a 10lb sea liced fish from the neck of the Piles.
This was the first sea liced fish I’ve seen this season, which is odd as the water temperature is not that low(44°f yesterday), and there are fish right up the system now.
Party leader Allan McKay had our Friday fish, a belting 10lb fish from Cobble Pot, opposite the path. Allan’s fish left no doubt whether it was a fish or kelt by going airborne several times soon after taking. Heart-stopping moments. I thought we would get more on Saturday, but it wasn’t to be.
Still, 5 fantastic March fish in a week is a good result, and happy memories made.
Down at Rothes and Aikenway, Robbie Stronach reports a quieter week for them with just 2 fish in the book but delighted to advise that fresh fish were seen pushing through as the week went on.
Mark Melvile at Delfur reports a proper spring week with great weather and warming up daily, a bit dreich today though!
Monday yet again produced a fish for us from Big Haddie. Kevin James who caught one there a few weeks ago did well again.
We only caught kelts Tuesday and Wednesday though the beat was fished lightly.
Thursday we had a full team out and Trout & Salmon Spey reporter Malcolm Newbould caught a 10lb fish from Beaufort one of his favourite pools!
We also had a visit from Robert Cardno ,ghillie from Forglen on the Deveron who had a nice 12lbr from Sourden.
Friday was another great spring day with 2 more fish, a first ever spring fish from Broom for Andy Aitken from Deeside.
Andy Forbes another Deesider had a stunning 15lb fish from Beaufort. The guys missed their day here last year after the Rothes landslip halted our fishing for a while. It was great to welcome them all back and see them catching fish.
We still picked away at kelts every day and saw plenty showing plus an odd fresh fish.
We saw some early fly hatches including a few March Browns and Blue winged olives which woke up some trout from their winter slumber.
It was good to hear of spring fish being caught throughout the river.
Tight lines for everyone next week.
My penultimate stop is Orton and to see Andy Gunn who advises that it was a slow start to the 1st half of the week suddenly burst into life on Thursday afternoon when Geoff Fisher landed a 9lb fish from the Junction.
Friday morning up in the House Pool Jake Stephen landed a spanking fresh 7lb fish.
On Friday morning David Milne who landed our 1st fish last season waded into Cairnty and produced a cracking fish of 10lb.
Iain Kerr then gave Cairnty a go after lunch and managed a lovely 7lber.
Final stop on the journey downriver is Gordon Castle/Brae Water where David Buley summarises their week as follows.
A great week of conditions with the sun on our backs most of the week. We had some cold frosty mornings too, which kept the river levels low, small rise on Saturday from snowmelt.
We were lucky this week landing five springers, biggest weighing 17lbs. Three of those were caught on Saturday, when we had a good number of rods covering the beats.
Still rods available book through the estate office or fishpal.
Looking forward to the week ahead sees a mix of weather but no real frosts at night. A bit of rain may feature at the end of the week but hopefully it will be a good fishing week.
Tight lines to those out and about.
Sandy
