Dinnet beats update - Beggining of June

Monday began slowly with an attractive height of 1" and warm water at 57 degrees small flies and floating lines should be the preferred tactics this week. Welsh angler Simon Jones is no stranger to the Dee and set to with his small flies tied on a two fly cast and 18' leader began the week with a grilse of 5 lb from the glide. By Tuesday Simon continued to catch with fish landed in red brae and high burn and Regular Dee angler Gordon Tait started off with a fish from red brae from the Dinnet bank. John Jones invited his daughter to fish for the week and he diligently Ghillied her on the beat and netted two sea trout on the Tuesday evening for her. Gordon and I headed to Long Cast from the dinnet bank which is now opened up and a lovely piece of water when the river is low , and landed a lively sea trout from the head of the pool. Gordon has been fortunate to land some big dee fish this year following his 20lber in red brae this April he managed a cracking 17lb salmon from red brae on the Wednesday evening  this week. Wednesday night bought some heavy rain fall and  Thursday morning we were met with a big dirty river which peaked at 3'6". Salmon fishing was tough in these conditions however the sea trout remained active and over the next two days we managed to land 5 sea trout. The river dropped as quick as it came up and by Friday we were back in our main productive pools and some salmon rewarded out efforts. Steve Mulligan landed a stunning 12lber from Pol Slachd and John Jones ghillied his daughter's Lucy her first Dinnet salmon of 4lbs from Pol Bar. We finished with 10 salmon and 13 sea trout. Again river conditions mid week were unstable and our rods all fished hard changed tactics and were rewarded when the salmon were here.

Sunset on the Dee

Simon Jones sea trout fishing

Sunset on Morven

Dinnet Beats Update - Third week of May

The week ending 24th of May once again produced a respectable result here it Dinnet. Finishing the week with 12 Salmon most of our rods were rewarded with a tussle from a Dee Springer although there certainly was not an abundance of Salmon in the pools. It appears that we have lost the majority of our residents on the beat as all the fish that were encountered were very fresh and they also seemed to be moving through the beat fairly quickly.  Fortunately Logie pool held several residents and remained at a great height throughout the week and produced the majority of salmon for the week.

Conditions throughout the week were just fine, maybe a little bright on some afternoons but as a whole favorable for salmon fishing. Starting the week at 7" almost all the pools were were at a good fishing height and water temperatures remaining between 50 and 54 degrees produced wonderful conditions for fishing small flies on floating lines.

Monday began with a blank day and little was seen on the beat however Lowrie Hickman started things off with a sparkling fish from Logie of 6lb's on Tuesday. Colin Espie added to the tally with the first fish from Top Bobby this season on an inch of black at night. On Wednesday a fish of 12lb was landed from Pol Slachd and Thursday bought another springer from Logie. A slow start to the week however things picked up on Friday with 3 fish landed in Logie and a cracking 13lb fish from Red Brae caught by French angler Bernard. By Saturday the river height dropped to 2" and it is uncanny how those low water pools begin the fish and the fish do start lying up there at suitable heights. We landed the first fish from Trochie and High Burn along with two more from Logie and Pol Slachd. 

Successful patterns were silver stoats, crathies, munro killers and some home tied patterns in sizes 11 to 14. 

I really hope the river picks up as June draws closer and we start to see Grilse runs and Sea Trout running the river, time will tell.

Dinnet Beats Update - Lairds Cast-

Well the second week of May has always been the Lairds week and often a very productive week here at Dinnet and Deecastle. This year even with very good river conditions it proved to be a difficult week however most rods were rewarded with much effort and perseverance. The week started off very well but it appeared that we lost quite a lot of fish on the Monday night and we only saw a slow trickle of fish throughout the week thereafter.

River conditions were perfect all week starting at 11" and dropped down to 6" by the end of the week. Temperatures began at 52 degrees but dropped down to 49 mid week and peaked again at 52 on the Saturday. A perfect height for all the main pools and classic conditions for floating lines and small flies fished slowly on top.

Monday Ian Scott began the week with a cracking 9lber from Logie Pool and David Conroy followed close behind with a 10lb sparkling fish from Pol Slachd. Finishing the first day with 4 fish recorded spirits were high and they improved again when the Dinnet Estate Laird Edward Humphrey skillfully landed a very feisty fish of 9lb from Pol Baw at 10pm on the Monday evening. Unfortunately the fish on the beat proceeded to continue upstream and left us very quiet for the next two days. Marcus Humphrey broke the quiet spell with a 10lb fresh fish from Pol Slachd on the Thursday and Colin Somerville kept things rolling with a sealiced beauty from Red Brae on the following day.

Saturday we had great celebrations after I was fortunate enough to instruct and ghillie Amanda Kavanagh's first ever Salmon which she caught and played extremely well in Red Brae. It is a great part of the job being able to share moments like these and I am convinced Amanda will continue to catch salmon in Scotland. We finished the week with 10 fish which for May is disappointing however in tough times those fish are remembered and very well deserved.

Successful tactics were fishing full floating lines and small flies patterns like the crathie, silver stoats, ghillie flies and munro killers in sizes 8 to 12.

Amanda Kavanagh fish on

First Fish!! Well done!!

Edward Humphrey with a feisty

evening springer

Dinnet beats update - Things are looking up

The first week of May should be a very good time to salmon fish here at Dinnet. Last weeks river conditions were acceptable with heights ranging between 10" and 1'4" and temperatures 52 degrees and above the majority of the beat fished well throughout the week. We started off to a slightly slower start with only three Springers landed by Wednesday but a wee rise in water on the Wednesday night certainly brought some fish into the beat. Thursday our rods landed 8 fish with catches on every beat it was encouraging to see the fish spread out throughout the beat. By Saturday evening we finished with a respectable 18 salmon landed for the beat.

Michael Trafford landed a 16lb fish from the tail of Bruich which was the first for the pool this season. Mark Beaty also broke the duck for Pol Slachd and we proceeded to catch some more from this pool. Even with the river rising and dropping during the week fish continued to take small flies on floating lines and it is always a pleasure to fish in this way and often even see the take on the surface. Successful patterns were the Crathie Fly, Stoats Tail, Silver Stoats, Dee Sheep in sizes 9 to 11, Waddingtons, and Black and Yellow tubes all fished on floating lines.

Evening fishing has also been successful with several fish this week taken in the last hour of daylight. It is always important to rest your evening pools and last week beginning your cast at around 9pm was about perfectly timed. There have been some sea trout catches further down river this week and I would expect to start seeing some sea trout on the beat in the next week or so.

Tight Lines

Mark Beaty's lovely fish from Logie

Fish On

Anticipation

Opening week

Well the new salmon fishing season is underway here at Dinnet on the Aberdeenshire Dee. Opening day greeted us with favourable conditions with the river running at a medium height and at 38 degrees we thought the chance of success would be high. Saturday the 1st of March, opening day resulted in no elusive springers and with recent continual rises in water throughout the winter most of the kelts have been washed down stream. Into the first full week fishing started off slow with similar medium water heights between 1'5" and 2' and temperatures hovering around the 40 mark. Conditions  still favourable Deecastle landed it's first springer on Wednesday from 29 pool at 10lb caught by Martin Risberg a visiting angler from Sweden. Thursday saw a rise in water in the early hours of the morning with slightly warmer water we got off to a good start with two springers and a kelt on the bank by 11am and another of a similar size before lunch, both again to Martin.  Friday we saw a considerable rise running at 3'5" for most of the day and a fresh springer was caught a by a happy angler along with some other kelts. Tactics in the current conditions are fishing sinking lines either intermediate lines with sink tips or slightly heavier sinking lines with monkeys, black and yellows and willie guns being successful patterns..