Welcome to the latest season fishing report. Please click on any of the photos to enlarge

Update 2nd June

Wow, what a week for the river Dee, at least for the middle and upper beats. Hot on the heals of the large rise in water described in our earlier reports, the fish arrived in the beats in large numbers. Dinnet reported catches of 59 fish landed, just imagine how many more were hooked and lost! Our clients fishing the week before landed 18 for their week, so close yet so far...

  

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I recently had the pleasure of fishing with Jerry Seim and his friend Diane on the Mertoun beat of the river Tweed. Jerry is the head rod designer for the legendary rod maker Sage. I have known Jerry for many years but this was our first opportunity to fish together. Low water did not help our cause but both Jerry and Diane managed to land a Springer and Im sure will enjoy the memories of Scottish fishing whilst back in Seattle chasing their normal quarry, the Steelhead.

 

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I ventured up to Park on the Dee after checking weather forecasts which assured me it would be overcast, typically it was bright sunshine for most of the day! I did manage to land this cracking Sea Trout which took one of our home tied Sunray Shadows stripped across the surface. With the river low it was great to get out my Loop LTS 13'6'' #8, these short rods are a joy to fish with especially after a long start to the season using the big rods and heavy lines.

 

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Last week we headed north again to fish the Findhorn, at the start of the week Patrick Burns fished at Drynachan with top guide Ian Neale. Patrick had not fished the Riffled Hitch before but with a wee bit of instruction from Ian he defied the odds and landed his first fish using this deadly and under used technique. It is such an exciting way to fish for Salmon as the fly creates a small wake in the surface film and the Salmon take it just like a Trout! We import a variety of Riffle Hitch patterns from Iceland where it is exceptionally popular, call us 0131 220 6465 if you would like to get some and we can explain how to use the method.

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Our party were fishing down stream on one of my favourite beats Altyre, sadly the water was so low that we abandoned the water after the first day and headed futher north to fish the Conon. Typically Rowland Robinson who has helped us for years in the shop fished my vacated rod at Altye and caught a 9lb fresh run fish on his Sage 9'6'' rod.

 

 

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The Conon is experiencing a rival of its Springers and we were assured that by the Gillies that there were fish in the system. Rory Forteath and I witness that this was indeed true as we fished down the 'Junction' pool on our first morning and saw some nice fresh fish running through.

This river has two hydro dams so lack of water was not a problem, the cold weather was with a fresh covering of snow on the surrounding mountains! Despite this Alan Curry from Northern Ireland caught a nice Springer of 8lb which gave him a tremendous scrap.

 

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Clive Williamson also managed this cracker ably assisted by head Gillie David. Clive is another huge fan of the outstanding Rio AFS shooting head line and managed to tempt this fish using the clear intermediate tip and a home tied Sunset Shrimp.

Latest news we are hearing from the Tweed is that there are large numbers of Salmon building up in the lower river, so fingers crossed Tweed gets some water soon. Spey, Dee and the river Teith are reporting large numbers of Sea Trout being seen and Ive recently heard from Ian the Gillie on Kinhurdy that he hasnt seen as many Sea Trout this early in years.

Any fishing news is greatly appreciated, so drop us a line.

Tight lines

 

 

Update 18th May

 

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 A beautiful sealiced 36lbfish landed and safely released at Delfur on the R. Spey last week.

 The Spey has been struggling this spring but a fish like this should excite any anglers heading to the river.

 

I said in my last update on Scottish Salmon fishing that this update would be all about lots of lovely fresh Salmon, sadly that hasnt really turned out to be the case. The weather continued to remain cold with strong northeasterly winds preventing any meaningful rainfall. This has meant that the Tweed has been running at summer levels for the last few weeks and the northern rivers have been struggling as well with little meaningful snow melt.

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The Dee has performed well having maintained some water and some of the beats have exceeded there 5 year average for the month of April.

I did manage a 8lb fish from the Park beat in early May. The fish took a 1'' Willie Gunn tube fished on a extra fast Rio sinking tip.

 

 

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Geoff Mitchell fishing on the Dinnet beat of the Dee had this cracking fresh fish of 12lb recently and the party of rods have enjoyed some good sport this week although they have hooked a lot more than has been landed.

 

 

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Two of the same party fishing Dinnet, David Conroy shared a rod with his Father Tony and between them manged to land 8 fish for the week and it would probably have been more if they hadnt been hit by a thunderstorm on Friday which caused the river to run high and very dirty. Using size 10 Cascade's and Sunray Shadows tied by Gamefish accounted for most of their fish fished on a full floating Rio ASF shooting head.

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Jim Reid who is a Gamefish regular used his new Loomis Stinger 15' combined with a Rio ASF shooting head to great effect on the Dee at Park last week.  He managed to land these two beauties during 3 days fishing, the largest of which weighed 15lb

Update 9th April

At last it seems as if winter has finally abated, since our last update we have had snow and easterly gales followed by days of high water. River levels are today falling on all the river systems and the weather forecast appears to look good so we are looking forward to a bonanza in the next few weeks!

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We have had a number of clients defying the odds, Pete Murray managed this lovely fish from the Spey last week despite the cold weather. We have also received reports from customers landing good fish on Findhorn, Dee and the R. Teith. Jammie Hammond has had 2 days of landing 4 Springers including 2 over 20lb on the Lanrick beat of the R. Teith so far this season!

 

 

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I joined Corin Smith[who helps us in the shop when he's not busy upsetting Saltwater fish around the world] on the Portnacraig beat of the R. Tummel at Pitlochry recently. 1 fish was landed by a local angler on the Rapala during the day, it was a cracking 18lb. Since then the water has been up and down and catches have been inconsistent.

 

 

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Next I was up to the Altye beat on the Findhorn, the river had been high all week but was dropping fast the night before so I was really looking forward to the days fishing. Unfortunately for Rod Murray and I the warm weather set in motion a big snow melt which put the river back over 4ft. We managed a cast in a few quieter pools but soon had to concede defeat as it became obvious that it wasnt dropping fast enough.

 

Next up was a quick trip up to the R. Helmsdale. This famous Highland river is 4.5 hours and a speeding ticket north of Edinburgh ! Again high water blighted our trip but it was a pleasure to cast a line into this beautiful river even if a fish hadnt been produced since Brian McAllister lost one of at his feet at the start of the week. After blizzards on the Wednesday and Thursday the sun came out on Friday and we all enjoyed the stunning scenery and wildlife including Red Deer and Ospeys even without the fish making an appearance.

 

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Finally I went up to the R. Teith at Lanrick with Rory Forteath, yet again too much water but we flogged on depite the conditions. I did at last manage a bit of rod bending action but sadly it turned out to be a well mended Kelt...

Next update will be stuffed with reports and photos of lovely fresh Salmon, I promise!

 

 

 

Update 15th March

Even though our rivers have now been free of ice for over a week the water temperatures are still struggling to reach 40 degrees and the levels are low. Subsequently the catches have been a little on the slow side and even the Kelt's are keeping their heads down. We have warmer weather forecast for the coming week so hopefully things will begin to improve.

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Clive Williamson fished one of my favourite beats Altye on the R Findhorn last Monday with top guide Ian Neale www.speycaster.net . Although very little was seen all day he persevered and managed to land this beautiful 15lb fish at 5pm on a Cascade tube fished on an intermediate shooting head. Strangely he didn't bother to have another cast and went home grinning, in fact a week later and he still is.

 

 

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Another notable fish was caught by Adam Shaw on the East Haugh beat of the R Tummel. This cracker gave up only after a really tough fight and tipped the scales over the 20lb mark. Adams comment '', Carlsberg don’t make Fridays but if they did.....!!'' sums it up perfectly! East Haugh is a great piece of water and exceptional value, contact details for this beat are www.fishtummel.co.uk

 

 

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Two of our clients are just back from Tierra del  Fuego, pictured is Alan Olivier from SouthAfrica with a huge 28lb Sea Trout and a 25lb hen fish. Alan andhis good friend Jon fished a little known river called the Irigoyenand were lucky to arrive withthewater falling after a big rise the previous week. The tactics were to cast tight into the structure on the far bank using Sage 9' #8 or #9 rods with Rio Versitiplines, streamer patterns worked well into the evenings and bead head patterns with rubber legs during the day. A powerful drag system is essential to stop the fish breaking off in all the obstructions as the last photo shows. Alan also discovered that applying so much pressure meant that standard Trout hooks straighened so we at Gamefish are going to develop a series of patterns tied on saltwater hooks specifically for this river.[ Strange to see a tree in TDF as any fisherman who's been to Rio Grande will appreciate, usual scenery is demonstrated in the next photo].

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Jamie Stewart also ventured to TDF to fish the Rio Grande, Jamie had a fabulous time with similair conditions to Alan, high water dropping during the week. The  Rio Grande is a bigger river subsequently he used a double hander with an intermediate line and a sinktip. This picture shows Jamie with a cracking 23lb fish. He also had plenty of other Sea Trout in the high teens. Luck boy!

Gamefish carries a wide range of equipment to meet the demanding requirements of fishing in Tierra del Fuego, from powerful rods and specifically designed fly lines to cope with the howling wind to the wide range of unusual fly patterns developed to entice the Sea Trout.  If you are thinking of heading southjust give Nick a call, he can recommend the best Travel companies and all the gear you will need.

 

More to come soon and with rising temperatures we expect the action to heat up soon.

Aye

 

 

Opening day R.Dee

Despite the big freeze many of our clients have been bravely venturing out to cast a line.

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Ian Neale [seen here fishing Durris Stream at Park] , Clive Williamson and I drove through blizzards to reach the R. Dee on the opening day. Despite the Baltic conditions we enjoyed a great day but sadly no fresh fish were caught. The water temperature was a very chilly 35 degrees C so wading all day required a lot of stamina!.  This was a day when Simms thermal layering proved just how good Simms gear really is!.

 

DTYS annual spring trip

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Later the same week, the legendary DTYS club were back up to Park on the Dee for 2 days early spring fishing. Part of the team featured are Rory, Jones, Neil and Jonathon.

A lot of hard fishing in yet more challenging arctic conditions resulted in plenty of kelts but the real quarry are the Spring fish but were either not in the beat or were keeping their heads down. 

 

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The one exception was this cracking 11.5lb springer caught by Jones [David Adamson]. The fish fell to a black and yellow eumer tube fished on a type 2 sinking shooting head. A great start to his season made even better the following Saturday when he christened his branded new Loop 15' Classic rod by landing another springer at Dryburgh on the Tweed.

 

 

 

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Jonathon Sutton who is Chairman of the esteemed club is pictured here hooking into a kelt in the House Pool.

 

 

 

Lower Birgham R.Tweed

 

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Week beginning 15th February, Gamefish invited some clients to fish this cracking Middle Tweed beat. The week before our trip the beat had produced 3 springersto a lady angler - the largest being 16lb and all on the fly. Inspired by this success we went withhighhopes but the weather yet again turned exceptionally cold with temperatures as low as - 7degC. Luckily we were blessed with lovely sunny days and a few keltswhichmade the cold easier to cope with.

 

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Gamefish handle some letting on Lower Birgham and we currently have some dates available in April, June and July. Please call us on 0131 220 6465 if you would like to make an enquiry.

 

 

 

Dryburgh North R.Tweed

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At the end of the week we had 4 rods on the upper beat of Dryburgh North. This beautiful upper middle Tweed beat is really suited to high water and due to the temperatures constantly being below freezing the river had shrunk back to summer height. A lovely day was had by all despite the lack of action and we enjoyed a superb lunch in the mid day sunshine. 

 

More to come if the ice ever leaves the northern rivers and the snow stops.....