Good afternoon all
Not much to say other than winter seems to have returned to Speyside. It has been nothing short of a cold and miserable week here in Elgin and I really thoguht we had seen the last of the white stuff but alas no.
I suppose we can only hope that we see more settled spring conditions now that the clocks and moved forward and we adjust to that hour less in bed. I must admit to finding it easier to adjust to the hour less than the hour more of sleep but maybe that is an age thing.
Thank goodness we have ot started work in the garden yet, cutting and pruning as we may have caused some damage to sensitive plants during the last week and the cold nights that accompanied the days.
The fields out where I work have finally lost the widescale flooding that ensued after the last period of snow but the ground still remains wet. I noticed the farmers stopped ploughing one field at Orton, down to the wet conditions in the field. On the bright side I have seen my first lambs of 2026, a couple of set of twins running about one of the fields and one set in particlaur caught my eye. One of the pair is pure white and the other pure black but so good to see them up and about, following their mother across the field.
Duncan Ferguson has been out about in the upper river catchement again this week, observing the paths being cut into the bank of gorse to allow Invasive Species officer, Karen Meuller to get in about the Knotweed and giant hogweed to get it treated. They do a tough job trying to eradicate these invasive species but it is done with a cheerful smile and good team spirit. A thankless task but it has to be done.
Duncan has also shared some pictures of the upper catchment but also a coupls showing the full abstraction from the Upper Spey of water from the Tromie and Truim as it heads for the Tay system.
Loop again have put up a prize for this weeks winner and again its their Evotech G5 Reel, the winner will be announced later in the report.
Right lets see how the fishing has been- No sirprise that despite a lot of effort things have been quiet, mainly down to the abjectly miserable weather we have had to endure.
Up the river things have been quiet with a few kelts encountered but it was good to hear that Lower Pitchroy got off the mark with Tony Paterson landing a fine fish on a Monkey- Well done Tony and ghillie Andrew Hall.
Things remain quiet until we reach Wester Elchies where Malcolm Newbould reports that they finished their week with Three fish, all landed by a “James” in a differing guise.
Lower Wester Elchies also got another for their season with Magne Sundve landing a nice fish.
Slipping down to Macallan where Richard Whyte reports that The beat saw rods through the first half of the week, before things quietened down towards the weekend.
On Monday we welcomed the Spey Fishery Board “Hero Lot” auction winners. The water was in fine order and optimism was high, as it tends to be at the start of the week. A fish was hooked and unfortunately lost at Greenbank during the morning, which proved to be the closest we came to silver—just enough to keep everyone honest.
Midweek we hosted our APAC guests from Japan, who were a pleasure to have on the beat and embraced the experience fully. Conditions, however, were less accommodating. A stiff downstream wind, accompanied at times by cold temperatures and the odd flurry of hail, made fishing interesting —particularly for beginner rods. Fair to say it was more character-building than productive.
Saturday brought a little reward for effort, with a decent brown trout landed at greenbank and two well-mended kelts from the Tunnel Pool by myself. All were returned in good order, and it’s clear there are still a few kelts lingering where you might expect to find them.
We also seen more fresh fish moving this week.
The river remains in excellent trim, and with more rods due next week, we look forward to seeing what the beat produces—weather permitting, of course. Tight lines all.
Across the river at Craigellachie, Dougie Ross advises that they managed a couple of fish but the highlight of their week was a cracking 8lb seatrout landed by John Webster.
Down at Easter Elchies, Orn Sigurhansson reports wintry conditions, with snow and fresh fish this week. This week, we had a split week, welcoming the Alfredsson party from Iceland Monday to Wednesday and the Tyson party Thursday to Saturday.
The Iceland party swapping the Midfjardara and Nordura rivers in Iceland with the Spey and were off to a flier on Monday morning with Helgi Gudbrandsson landing a cracking 8lb Spey springer from Fiddich on Monday morning. Helgi added to his total on Tuesday, with another fine fish from Fiddich. Ian Simpson added to the total on Wednesday with a nice fish from Heathery Isle. We ended the week well on Saturday, with 2 from neck and tail of Fiddich, Geoff Holaway and Ivan Wall both on the score sheet. Total of 5 spring salmon for the week, a good week in some tough wintry conditions.
Calling into see Euan Reid at Arndilly, Euan Reid reports that this week we had Nick and Lisa Smith and their team to keep us right.
After the last couple of days of the previous week in which we had a few fish we began this week full of hope. Ollie Ward got our first of the week on Monday morning from the boat in Jocks Tail, landed by Mike. At this point Mike had a 100% strike record in Jocks Tail. This only lasted until the afternoon.
Unfortunately Ollie’s fish was both our first and last of the week despite everyone fishing hard in sometimes tough conditions. We were seeing fish, the odd older one too but we just couldn’t connect.
At Rothes and Aikenway, Robbie Stronach continues to pick away with We ended up with 4 for the week . Andrew May got one from Junction, Graaeme Alexander got one from Burnmouth and Craig Wyness for 2 from Burnmouth. Well done gents
At Delfur, Mark Melville advises it was great to welcome Ron Taylor, family and friends back to Delfur.
The conditions were tough most of the week with every type of weather thrown at us! Gales, snow,sleet, hailstones,sunshine and even a wee bit of warmth one day!
The river remained at a pretty steady height all week with the water temperature dropping and rising most days. We saw fish every day and managed to land 4 and a couple lost which was a decent score considering how tough it was at times.
Dougal Bennett got us going on Monday with a nice fish from Big Haddie.
Emily Taylor caught her first ever spring fish on Wednesday,again the Big Haddie producing her beautiful fresh fish.
Scott Mackenzie also had a fish Wednesday landed in Broom.
We then had to wait for team leader Ron Taylor to land his Saturday fish from Collie, Ron almost had the double losing one from Hollenbush in the afternoon.
Looking forward to seeing what the new week brings. Tight lines for all.
No fish landed below Delfur that I am aware of.
Ok onto this weeks winner of the Loop Evotech G5 reel which has once again been graciously donated by them and I am delighted to announce that Helgi Gudbrandsson is the winner – congratulations. I will get contact details from The beat.
The weather in the week ahead looks to be a mixture of rain and sun but the temperatures look like to remain in the high single digits., if nott he low double digits.
Tight lines to those out and about.
Sandy
