Welcome to this week’s report.
Thankfully, conditions on the river have improved somewhat since my last report in May. But despite regular rainfall over the last few weeks the river remains at a low summer level, indicating how far the water table has fallen during the exceptionally dry spring. I visited Glenfarclas distillery earlier in the week with some friends. Production is currently suspended due to the spring that feeds their water supply running dry.
This again highlights the pressure that the river is under from many different sources, and that we need to be proactive in challenging existing and future plans for further abstraction from the catchment.
Having seen catches pick up last week, hopes were high for a continued improvement. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to have been the case, especially for the beats upstream of Aberlour.
However, some fine salmon were brought to the net by those anglers that stuck at it and adapted to the conditions.
We’ll start this week on the Grantown Association water, where one salmon and a seatrout were landed.
Next we’ll check in at Castle Grant with Head Ghillie Simon Crozier.
“Another tough week ,but some sport was had across the beats. The good news was that some good seatrout are present in the beats in reasonable numbers a pleasant improvement on this stage last year . Some crackers came to hand the best of them a brace of fresh crackers of 4 and 4 and half pounds caught by Sean Tighe from Greenbank .
Katie Tighe had a salmon from Pollowick in the mid teens, an older fish but welcome none the less ! It was Katie’s first salmon although she has had plenty of grilse but untill then a salmon had eluded her !
John Anderson, recently retired from Tulchan A beat after more than 40 yrs there showed he could do the job upstream too! A cracker from the Garra of 10lbs and very clean he also added a 3lb seatrout, the salmon being caught close to midnight on a single hander.
We look forward to next week.”
Katie Tighe with her first salmon from Pollowick
Former Tulchan Ghillie John Anderson enjoying his retirement with a cracking 10lb salmon from the Garra
Moving downstream, Archie Baillie at Knockando describes a somewhat frustrating week, with a number of fish hooked but not landed.
“We managed 5 this week with just over the same number lost. Andy Cowan got us of the mark on Monday with the only fresh fish of the week. A well conditioned catch of about 13/14lb. We managed two on Tuesday. Gavin Kelly landing a 7lber from the boat in the morning and Pete Cowan landing a 13.5lbr in the evening. Wednesday was a blank. On Thursday evening as the light was going. Andy managed to hook and land his biggest Spey salmon which weighed 20lb. Nothing again on Friday. Saturday saw a bit of action with a fish being lost and one of 11lb being landed first thing. Unfortunately all went quiet after that and nothing else was caught.”
Andy Cowan with a fresh Spey salmon
A happy angler at Knockando
Andy Cowan with a big fish from the Long Pool.
It was a quiet week on the beats around Aberlour. David Smillie reports a sea liced 7 lber from Delagayle.
“At Wester Elchies, the week started well with a 4lb seatrout on Monday morning as everyone was setting up their tackle. It was something of a false dawn as it was the only catch of the week”, writes Malcolm Newbould.
Thankfully, there seem to be a few more fish around as we move downstream to the lower river
Orn Sigurhansson reports that mixed weather and conditions welcomed the Price fishing party this week to Easter Elchies. Always good to see Villa fans on Speyside. Despite some welcome rain on Monday, water levels remained low. Highlights included Mike Shotton landing a hat trick of fish and James Griffiths with a good fish from Fiddich Mouth.
Mike Shotton, Fiddich Mouth
James Griffiths, also from Fiddich Mouth.
“This week on Arndilly we had Ian and Sarah Cox, their daughters Lizzy and Anna and their team, “writes Euan Reid.
“After 18 the previous week we began the week with high hopes. Within 20 casts Ian Cox had a 13lb fish from the left side of Cobble Pot at – 4 inches on the gauge.
Beat newcomer Andrew Campbell had an 11lb fish on the opposite bank before lunch. Andrew followed this up with a 12lb and 13lb fish from Back of the Bog in the afternoon. Having had an 11, 12 and 13lb fish we were looking forward to finding out the weight of the next fish in his sequence. Alas we didn’t find out as that was us for the week.
Everyone continued to work hard but the river continued to drop and the fresh fish stopped arriving.
When the rain arrived it certainly livened the fish up, they were showing more than normal yet despite getting wet, very little water got into the river.
Still we are now back to the level we were 2 weeks ago when we did well so there is a bit of hope.
Despite lower than hoped for catches, the team had a great time and fished the beat well.”
A Monday morning fish for Ian Cox
Andrew Campbell with one of his three fish for the week at Arndilly
Just the two fish for the week for Robbie Stronach at Rothes and Aikenway. Kevin Smyth and Jamie Hawksfield were the successful anglers with both fish coming from Geantree.
Kevin Smyth with his fish from Geantree
“A much quieter week at Delfur after some decent fishing the last few weeks,” writes Mark Melville.
“We finished just short of double figures for the week.
Teresa Jolly did particularly well as usual by catching more than half the catch with five.
Robert Jolly who managed a couple of fish including the biggest at 14lbs.
Andy Britton caught a nice fresh fish after he took over from the legendary Match angler Steve Cloke for the second half of the week.
The heavy showers yesterday lifted the river a few inches this morning with a wee bit more to come from upriver.
Hopefully it will attract some runs of fish in for the coming week.”
Teresa Jolly with a lovely fish from Big Haddie
Teresa again, this one from Otterhole
Andy Britton in Sourden
Teresa getting a helping paw to release another fish
And Away!
Ghille Lewis Webb recounts an interesting week at Gordon Castle:
“We got off to a strong start to the week landing the majority of our fish in the first half. The back end of the week saw some fish landed but the sun over the low water made things more challenging. By close of play Saturday we had finished up into the 20s with the addition of some sea trout.
Also towards the end of the week we witnessed the amazing run of elvers. One of the best runs we’ve seen for years, a truly amazing spectacle!”
What rain?
Guy, all the way from the River Gallegos in Argentina with his first Atlantic Salmon
The expression on seeing your first salmon!
One for the family album
A sunshine fish
A fine salmon for Dr Scott
Laura with a fine specimen
Laura on the net for Billy’s seatrout
Close up
A lovely silver fish
A good day at Gordon Castle!
Catch of the week?
Back to the depths
A fantastic run of elvers. Great to see them!
And finally, we arrive at the Fochabers Association water, where their good start to the season continues according to Andy Milne.
“We landed 9 salmon and a grilse, most caught Monday to Wednesday with only one on Saturday.
Most of the lucky anglers were visitors, but Ian Tennant managed a couple and Ian’s great nephew Jack Reid with one.”
Prospects for next week.
With pretty much a full day of rain on Speyside yesterday, I was hoping to see a significant rise in the level of the river this morning. Sadly that doesn’t seem to have materialised. Any rain that does fall at the moment seems to be absorbed by the dry ground and the thirsty vegetation. Temperatures did creep into the low 20’s last week but thankfully the forecast is for cooler conditions in the coming days.
As we approach the longest day of the year, when you fish is often more important than what you fish and how you fish it. Mornings and late evenings have been the most productive sessions for the anglers I’ve spoken to over the past few weeks, especially on the days when cloud cover hasn’t been present. There seem to be a few more sea trout around this season which is good news for those who enjoy fishing on into the gloaming.
As always, perseverance and regular consultation with your ghillie will give the best chance of success.
Best of luck to anyone having a cast in the coming days.
Sam Jarman
