River Reports 2010
Fishing Availability 2010 (Updated 20 Feb)
I have 2 excellent fishing opportunities to offer on the Craigellachie Beat of the river Spey.
2 rods available from 13-15 May inc.
2 rods available from 12-17 July inc.
For further information, please contact me through the facility on my home page. This will be purely on a first come - first served basis.
Week ending 6th Mar.
Grue, Grue and more Grue was the sight greeted by most anglers this past week, with Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday almost unfishable. Conditions on the middle section of the river never got above freezing before lunchtime however lower beats did manage afternoon spells when the river flowed almost normally.
My good friend Michael Ritchie, who had already caught a fresh fish on opening day on the River Dee, added to his tally with the first fish from Delfur, estimated at around the 14 pound mark. Michael caught it from Sourden, probably the best fishing pool on the entire river, whilst brother Graham watched on from above. It’s very encouraging to see early fish of this quality and in fact bigger, as a 17lb fish was caught later in the week.
Friday was an excellent fishing day and visiting angler Gordon Nuttal fishing at Craigellachie caught their first fish of the season, estimated at 15lbs on a black and yellow templedog. A couple of beats lower they landed 3 fresh fish on Friday, which was a blessing for the rods, who had up until then had only watched the ice flow past, albeit from a nice cosy hut. George Michie fished with us at Kinermony on Friday, following a brief detour via Delagyle. We are pretty certain that George hooked a fresh fish in the Little Turn, however it threw the hook before that was confirmed! It certainly didn’t tug the string in normal kelt fashion!
Gordon Nuttal with a bright Springer, from Broom Isle.
Earlier in the week, Rev. Eric Patterson from Golspie fished with us and although the river had already been blessed on opening day, Eric conducted another, more private ceremony, more commonly seen in a Baptist Church. Eric landed a number of kelts at Wester Elchies on Monday and will hopefully return again in September – when the river temperature has warmed up a bit!
Post Baptism!
We had perfect conditions today and novice Salmon angler Andrew Johnston, enjoyed a wonderful spring day in Speyside. He was double speycasting within half an hour and was rewarded by a strong fighting kelt. It was a great pleasure to watch Grandad Bill, issue words of encouragement to Andrew, as he battled with the fish and I’m sure that today we have another angler hooked for life!
Andrew Johnston enjoying the fight.
Most burns were coming in heavily with melted snow as I left, which could well lead to a fair rise in water over the next couple of days. Hopefully once it settles, we’ll also get off the mark this season.
Intermediate and sinking lines remain order of the day, accompanied by flies around the 2-3” mark.
Week ending 27th Feb
I wonder how many years it has been since a blank week has been recorded on the Spey? Well, that was almost the case until a fish was caught once again at Rothes today ( Saturday). A pretty frustrating week for guests and ghillies alike as the prolonged arctic conditions dug in. The top 2 photo’s below were taken last Monday and clearly show the arctic state of the river – before the snow! There had been no fishing up until Friday due to adverse conditions with only the fool-hardy venturing out. however today has seen a good rise in the air temperature and hopefully this will be the beginning of a milder spell. I’d expect anglers to be greeted to similar conditions on Monday, but hopefully, once we get a more settled period of warmer weather, I’m sure that we’ll see many more beats recording their first catches of the season.
The photo above was taken this morning. Willie Mearns and I spent an hour breaking off this lump of ice estimated at 60 yards by 20. Quite a spectacular sight as it hit the stream below Pol Ma Cree, almost in slow motion - fortunately no-one was fishing below!
On a positive note, this cold winter will hopefully have slowed down proceedings as far as egg-hatching is concerned and a timely delay will certainly allow the opportunity for these newly born alevins to feed on more substantial food sources.
Below you will see a photo of a superb painting of my 2 faithful companions. It was painted by local and particularly gifted artist Anne Johnson and as you can see captures the dogs to perfection. Anne has a great love of field- sports, particularly working her dogs and she has certainly taught me a thing or two. Have a look at the link and I think you will be suitable impressed by her work.
Rosie & Cerys - Captured to Perfection
The key to spring fishing is perceverance and to keep it deep and slow where possible. The fish certainly won’t move far in cold water to intercept the fly. Having said that, the speed at which you cover a pool should be pretty quick – at least 3 steps per cast. As well as keeping you warmer, it allows you the opportunity to fish a pool twice with slightly different methods. Intermediate and sinking lines remain order of the day, accompanied by flies around the 2-3” mark.
Week ending 20th Feb
Cold weather has dominated proceedings over the past week in fishing terms. Even in the bright sunshine, rods rings have been freezing within a few minutes of fishing and although often a good excuse to come back into the hut and warm up, this again has been thwarted due to the gas bottles freezing! Anyway, there are only so many cups of coffee one can drink when wearing chest waders, before causing further disruption to fishing! The river was grue bound on Wednesday and currently the water temperature is sitting around 32 -34 deg. The kelts have also switched off to an extent, however when the temperature increases by a couple of degrees, I’m sure rods will see a bit more action.
Rothes & Aikenway, who normally lead the way with early spring fishing, have landed 3 fresh fish this week and just following closely behind Arndilly with 2. The first Arndilly fish, was caught by Elgin angler Mr Peter Falconer and estimated at 12-13lbs. Further up-river Upper Arndilly landed their first as did the Aberlour Angling Association. It will be no surprise to hear that Mr Ian Morrison caught the first from the Aberlour AA as he has done for the past 4 years. An incredible achievement and the fish was once more donated to the Aberlour Nursing home, an annual occurrence.
Craigellachie ghillie Dougie Ross has had an interesting start to the season. Not content in writing his car off on the Archiestown road on Monday, his ‘ingenuity’ led to a minor explosion at the Craigellachie fishing hut on Saturday. Fortunately only his pride was slightly tarnished however they do say that such events as described above come in three's, so watch this space!
A grue bound Spey.
With an estimated 11 fresh fish so far off the river, a reasonable start, especially considering the near arctic conditions. If the temperature rises even slightly in the next week, I expect to hear of a few more early fish. Intermediate and sinking lines remain order of the day, accompanied by flies around the 2” mark.
Week ending 13th Feb
River Spey anglers were greeted with excellent conditions as the river was opened last Thursday. The other 3 major rivers, namely, Tweed, Tay and Dee had been opened by a variety of politicians and comedians, therefore the Spey, not to be outdone had a combination of both in MSP Richard Lochhead. As a toast to the salmon and indeed to those who pursue this often elusive fish, he poured a bottle of Glenfarclas into the river as a celebration of mutual respect. Following that and under the watchful eye of Champion Spey Caster Ian Gordon, Mr Lochhead, cast the first fly of the season at Aberlour, an area normally more accustomed to a technique common with modern politics ‘The Spinner’
The event was once again most generously sponsored by local businesses, Glenfarclas and Walkers. Representing their respective organisations, Ishbel Grant and Marjorie Walker both caught fish on opening day at Wester Elchies, however they were last years models and therefore didn’t count towards the opening day competition.
Winner of the Spey Quaich for 2010 was Mr Alastair Dodds, who caught a fish estimated at 4.5lbs from the Orton beat. Young ghillie Andrew Hall was on hand to verify and subsequently release the fish. The lucky couple were also presented with Walker’s luxury hampers and a bottle of Glenfarclas 30 year old whisky. Mr Dodds also received a 15’ Sharpes of Aberdeen fly rod, again kindly donated by Sharpes representative Chris Baird.
Spey Quaich Winner Alastair Dodds, Ishbel Grant (Glenfarclas), Andrew Hall (Orton ghillie), Marjorie Walker (Walkers)
Andrew Toft (centre) and Ian Borthwick (Carron ghillie) receive their prizes.
The largest fish of the day at around 11lbs was landed at Carron by Mr Andrew Tolf, a member of the highly successful Carron Casting Team. Ghillie Ian Borthwick was on hand to unhook and release the fish and again they were both rewarded with whisky from Glenfarclas and Walkers hampers. A third fish was reported as being caught on the Rothes and Aikenway beat but was not verified and not registered with Munros tackle shop.
As is normal on opening day, most beats up and down the river were fully booked and the majority of anglers had their lines tightened at some stage. These kelts are very free takers in the early part of the season and must be handled with the same care and respect as their fresh relatives. The outlook for the next couple of weeks in terms of fishing conditions is pretty good, and although it is very much early days with regard to the number of fish entering the river, those fortunate enough to encounter a springer will be well rewarded, such is their sheer beauty. These early ‘springers’ in fact are regarded as the ‘greatest prize’ and with lots of availability on many private beats, a great opportunity for local anglers to visit an often pretty exclusive river.
We are launching a ‘Fish of the Month’ competition, sponsored by Glanfarclas, where size will not always matter! Most of the ghillies have been informed and I'm sure that my fortnightly report in the Northern Scot and the Jungle Drums will do the rest. John and Ishbel Grant have kindly donated a bottle of their superb Glenfarclas 105 Cask Strength favoured in Fishing Huts throughout the river, to the monthly winner with a special prize for the 'Fish of the Year' Winners under the age of 18 will still be rewared however, with a more appropriate prize.
As they say, 'you have to be in it to win it' therefore anyone wishing to enter the competition, please send a photo of the fish along with capture details to jock@speyghillie.co.uk
Pre-season report.
With the opening of a new fishing season only a week away, it’s time to dust off the rods in eager anticipation of catching that first, often elusive but most prized spring fish.
The 2009 season figures were as I predicted, with around 8600 salmon being caught, of which over 75% were released. These catches were roughly 20% down on the previous year’s total, however mostly due to a distinct lack of grilse (1 sea-winter Salmon). Our hope is that these ‘missing’ grilse also spent this past winter at sea in good feeding grounds and will return to the Spey this year – only time will tell.
As a matter of interest to any non-fishing readers, it has been established that currently less than 10% of all smolts, (juvenile salmon) actually return to their rivers of birth, such is their plight at sea. There appears very little that we, as anglers can do about these alarming figures; however it is very clear that unless something is done that our stocks will continue to decline.
A proposal to supplement the natural smolt run with hatchery reared smolts is currently being considered, however maintaining the ‘genetic integrity’ appears to be an issue along with the normal bureaucracy and financial concerns, therefore, it may be some time before we see any headway. From an angers perspective, all we want to see is our salmon runs returning to something like their former glory: nature will as always, find a way of sorting out any perceived genetic issues by it’s own natural process.
Last season, the opening ceremony at Aberlour was cancelled due to inclement weather. This year, we are hopeful of gathering at the suspension bridge in Aberlour before heading off to our respective beats. The event will again be sponsored by Glenfarclas and Walker, with the addition of a Sharpes of Aberdeen rod as a prize for the captor of the first fresh fish on fly. With some high winter floods behind us, I’m sure that anglers will encounter many changes to their favourite pools, especially around Fochabers where there was a substantial move in the river bed at the end of last year.
Sinking & intermediate lines/tips will be the order of the day accompanied by a range of flies around the 1-2” size. The various angling associations at Garmouth, Aberlour and Grantown will have lots of availability and at a very reasonable price. Early season rods are also available at Craigellachie and if you require any further details regarding contacts, just drop me a line.
Hot off the press - The River Dee opened yesterday and my good friends Graham & Michael Ritchie both caught fresh fish at Cairnton. River Spey Board chairman Mr Alan Williams also had a fresh fish at Crathes and celebrated the event in his own unique style, by testing the water temperature literally! Let's hope the idea isn't added to the Spey board recommendations for 2011!
The Grey Mare at Cairnton yesterday - A pool favoured by the legendary Arthur Wood.
An opening day springer from the Grey Mare caught by Graham Ritchie.