Afternoon everyone
As we enter July, with months are fairly flying in and only about 12 weeks left of the season.
Its been not a bad day here in Elgin, wet overnight but it has steadily dried up as the day has progressed.
It was good to see that the heavy rain last Monday night did some good, not just on the river but alos to put out the majority of the fires that were burning, particularly the major outbreak on the Dava Moor. I read that NASA could see the fire from space and at one stage it was 10 miles in length. A very scary time for all but a huge vote of thanks to all those who were out volunteering alongside the trained professionals in trying to kkep the fires under control.
Everything seems to have gone mad with the warm wet conditions, crops, gardens etc have seen some exponential growth in plants and indeed weeds, they joys!!
The wet weather, at spells throughout the week has seen the river rise which all parties were hoping for and as a result lets see what happenend up and down the river.
Starting near the mouth, Andy Milne at Fochabers Angling Association reports that it was a very good week for us with at least 16 fish caught. The wee rise at the start of the week brought in plenty fresh fish. There were two 18 pounders, one magical 20 and only one grilse in the mix. Jim Fearn had 4 on Wednesday and Ian Tennant had 3 on Saturday.
Up at Gordon Castle and Brae Water, David Buley advises that this week got off to a slow start with no fish landed on Monday. As the week went on, we managed to pick away and finish into the 30’s. Mid week rise in water levels definitely helped, more grilse starting to show up now. Few first fish were landed this week, which is always great to see. Here’s too many more to follow.
Stopping in to see Andy Gunn at Orton, the trend continues as he reports “we had a split party this week but regular guests and always welcome on Orton. Combined we managed to land Salmon and Grilse numbering the into the mid 20’s.
James Haggie was top rod, (something I’m sure he’s never been before) landing 6 Salmon and some Grilse. Piers Blewitt landed 5, Rob Hutchison had his biggest Salmon to date and a few Grilse,
Samson Stieger-White landed Salmon & Grilse, Sam Bain landed his 2nd ever Salmon, 11lb from Greenbank & David Rutherford Jones landed his 1st ever fish, a 5lb Grilse from Cooperee. Five more were landed on Saturday evening including 3 double figure fish.
Slow rising water from mid week certainly helped catches but we still had good numbers before the rise.
We’re looking forward to the coming week as the water falls back.”
Its quite amazing what a drop of rain can do, lifts the river, brings in the fish but most of all brings hope of improved catches and the chance of at least one tug on the end of your line.
Continuing up the river my next port of call is Delfur where head ghillie, Mark Melville gives his weekly dose of Delfur craic reporting that it was a quiet start to the week but after a few rises of water which the river needed badly we picked up some fish towards the end of the week.
We managed to reach mid teens by the end of the week with a mix of fish and grilse,all in good condition.
Saturday was our best day with 6 in the morning, half grilse and half salmon but strangely nothing in the afternoon.
Looking forward as always to see what we can catch next week.
Tight lines to everyone on the river.
Robbie Stronach at Rothes and Aikenway advises that their weekly tally was 5 for the week. Those getting on the scorecard were Mr Tinsley who had 3 fish to his rod, 2 from Carnegie and one from Creeky, Mr Barbour had one from Creeky and Mr Dickinson got one Carnegie too.
As I paddle up the river my next stop is to see Euan Reid at Arndilly who reports that this week we welcomed Nick and Lisa Smith back to Arndilly. We had another little rise of water up to -6, which we hope might wake thing up a little, and we had 2 by 10 am. Sophie Beardmore-Grey, 5lb from the right bank of Jocks Tail and Nick Smith,12.5lb from the hut side of the Arns. At which point we thought we were in for a bit of a day of it but possibly due to the fact it was 25°c the rest of the day fell flat until Nick had a grilse from Cobble Pot in the evening.
On Wednesday, Robin O’Kelly had his first Spey fish, 3lb from the right side of the neck of Cobble Pot.
On Thursday, Amanda Beatty had a 12lb fish from Back of the Bog, and Nick had a grilse from Jocks Tail, wading the left side on Friday.
Nick again had a grilse on Saturday morning from Back of the bog and there were 2 on Saturday evening, a 5lb grilse at the top of Back of the Bog and Nick had a 9lb salmon from the neck of Cobble, left side.
Nine fish for the week, but this doesn’t tell the whole story, all week, especially the second half, we were landing a fraction of our connections. On Thursday, for example, we had 1 for the day but would have been in double figures had everything stuck on! This isn’t unusual Iguess now that the grilse are appearing and it makes for good entertainment!
Hopefully, more grilse keep coming and filtering through to the middle and upper river because those boys are having it really tough.
Next stopping point is Easter Elchies where Orn Sigurhansson reports a very welcome rise in water, not massive but the 6 inch rise made a good difference to the second half of the week. The week got off to a great start with Donald Stuart landing 2 on Monday. Friday was the day of the week, with 5 landed including two salmon at 14lb. Water equals fish. 11 salmon and grilse landed for the week. A really enjoyable week.
Up at Macallan, Richard Whyte advises that This week we welcomed Ian Fairlie and his party—keen rods, with a few fresh recruits joining later in the week. Jim Dallas stole the show on Monday afternoon with a fine 11lb salmon from the tail of Shampach (Tunnel Pool). A handful of brown trout kept things lively, and one decent salmon made a lucky escape on Saturday.
A small midweek rise saw fish on the move, but they didn’t stop in for a dram. All in all, a cracking week with great company at the Macallan Estate.
things are quiet until we reach Wester Elchies where Malcolm Newbould reports that they added 2 grilse and a salmon to the tally.
Kinermony ghillie, David Brand reports that it was good to see a nice lift in water but still very low. We managed to land 4 grisle all caught between 7am and 10am, the lucky anglers were Marc Mcallmont, Hugh Roberts, and Waddy- well done gents
Up at Carron, ghillie Ian Borthwick reports 15 year old Freddie Spencer got a grilse on Wednesdthe ay. Then on Friday David Stirling got a salmon that was all for the week.
Continuing up stream, Archie Baillie at Knockando advises that their week fgollowed the same patter as others with first half of the week being very quiet. Landed a salmon and a sea trout with a large fish being lost after a strong fight. After the small rise in the river on Thursday morning things improved a bit. From Thursday to Saturday we had 8 salmon to 14lb and 5 grilse that were in superb condition to 5lb. We rounded things off with a 5lb sea trout.
Before I reach my final stopping off point this week, once again the middle and upper reaches of the river have been quiet and this trend is one we have been seeing for a lot of this season. As Euan Reid says it would be great to see a continued run of grilse over the coming days/weeks and hopefully this will filter up to the middle/upper beats to allow the guests some sport.
Simon Crozier is my final port of call this week and he reports of another week passing at Castle Grant, we had a few grilse across the beats again this week and again some nice seatrout to 8 lbs .
Hopefully the small rise will entice a few fish up the river this coming week.
A few seatrout on the go at Kinchurdy now, much healthier numbers than last season and a few lumps among them.
Abernethy finished their week with 13 seatrout and Grantown one salmon and 14 seatrout.
Next week looks to be a few degrees warmer with little or no rain in the forecast so we will just have to wait and see what it brings.
Tight lines to those out and about.
Sandy
