Tuesday 15 April 2014

Dinnet Beats Update

The last three weeks since the last update have been somewhat challenging for rods fishing Dinnet and Deecastle beats. Even with the river running in extremely good condition during the majority of the period considering river heights, water temperature and fishing weather conditions. Being a fisherman and ever optimistic I really thought we would see a large migration of Spring Salmon that seem to be occupying the middle river in the first few weeks of April. Unfortunately this did not transpire but on the plus side what fish we have been seeing and catching have been very fresh, many with sea lice and have rewarded well deserved rods with some exceptional sport.

Simon Mckay's party ending March and rolling into April were faced with a beat at what one would describe as a "perfect" fishing height and truly all the pools are a pleasure to fly fish. River heights fluctuating between 1'1" and 10" meant that almost all of our major pools were fishing well and river temperatures beginning cool at 38 degrees on the Monday but warming up throughout the week to the mid 40's. Simon caught the first Spring Salmon of the week from L. Slachd full of fighting spirit and Nigel was surprised when almost 3rd cast in the Haugh from the south bank a lively 14lb fresh Springer grabbed his fly to which Colin arrived and aided catching and safely returning the fish.

The following week our returning guests were again faced with superb fishing conditions with a river remaining between 1'2" and 11" all week and water temperatures sitting above 43 degrees, I really was running out of reasons (excuses) why Spring Salmon clearly holding in the middle beats were not migrating upstream along with fresh fish. Tony Smith our returning Glaswegian rod got off to a very good start by landing a beautiful 8lb sealiced springer on Monday morning from Cobbles pool. Paul Mcnally also managed to winkle out a spring fish from L.Slachd. Even with hard fishing efforts 2 fish was the total for the week

Monday the 7th of April provided us with a falling river that maybe peaked at 3.5' on the Sunday night, Geoff Slight's rods fished hard and a total of three fish were lost on Monday morning by Mark Caswell. The river dropped away as the week progressed and temperatures remained high above 45 degrees each day. The latter half of the week was  better and a 20lb stunning fresh Springer was landed by regular rod Gordon Tait from Red Brae (North Bank) on the Wednesday.

Swedish Charlie was also rewarded with an 8lb springer from Red Brae (South Bank). One more sealiced fish from sandy bay concluded the week.

With a full moon whilst I  am writing this I am expecting very high spring tides to welcome shoals of salmon into the river this week. Also historically the full moons in April I'm told trigger a migration in fish within the river and hopefully we shall finally see a large migration of fish from the Ballogie, Carlogie area and welcome them to the Dinnet Beat!! :-)  Time will tell

Gordon Tait's 20lb Springer!!


Happy chappy!!

Tony Smith's Springer from cobbles


Needle Stone


Mattias Helde