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

Dinnet & Deecastle beats update

Well my forecasts of full moons, big tides, and shoals of fish entering the river; I am afraid did not materialize with us here at Dinnet. River conditions for last week were satisfactory beginning the week with a low river at 5" and rising to 1' on Tuesday the river was in perfect order. As the week progressed snow in the hills proceeded to melt and the river fluctuated  between 1' and 1'6" so really not bad heights. Temperatures were on the way up sitting between 47 and 50 degrees. Unfortunately not many fish were caught or seen during the week, Mark Trasenster landed a very fresh 6lb springer from Red Brae on the Tuesday yet despite great efforts by a great team of fishers that was the weeks total catch. A wee spate rose on Saturday afternoon and brought in a run of fish and plenty were seen in the boat pool late Saturday and one was lost.

I feel Sunday would have been a great fishing day!!

Monday morning our new enthusiastic rods arrived and we certainly saw more movement of fish than what we saw the previous week. Fishing an evening rod I started the week with a 6lb springer on the Monday evening from the Haugh Pool. Returning guest Graham Forbes caught a beauty from Red Brae on the Wednesday of 8lbs. Colin Lowsen's guest Craig also took a fresh fish from Logie on Wednesday night after moving the fish twice with other flies first he persuaded it to take a small red Frances third time lucky. Mike Forbes who has been visiting Deeside for 50+ years took a lovely 10lb springer from Red Brae on a size 10 crathie fly, and Roy Willingham also broke his duck with a fiery springer from Logie in the evening. Returning rod Harry Dimmey caught a lovely fish from Red Brae on the Friday as did first time Dinnet Deecastle rod Ian Brindly from cobbles. I finished the week with the first fish of the season on a Toucan fly at 9.30 from Red Brae.

The river had fluctuated between 1'3" and 5" and temperatures have remained above 50 degrees each day which is great news for the upper Dee. Now with resident fish in all our major pools we should see fish holding for longer on the beat and with temperatures much warmer then May last year I would predict a much better May this year at Dinnet/Deecastle

Tactics are now floating lines with poly leader tips leaving 15lb nylon and moving to 12 and doubles from size 8 to 12 will be the fly of choice over the next few weeks. Even fishing occasional hitch tubes on the surface and small collie dogs could well produce fish for anglers when the small traditional patterns are not so effective.

Unfortunately
I have not received many pictures of fish this week so here are a few shots I have taken during the week.

I have a feeling it will be a good May :-)

 Casting practice

 Enjoying the new benches at 'Pretty Hut'

 Spring time

'The Toucan' What else could a fish want?

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

Dinnet Update end of March

Well last week proved to be a challenging week for much of the River as the river remained in flood for most of the week. Running over 3' on the Dinnet gauge until Saturday meant our rods were mainly restricted to fishing the Boat Pool. Fortunately even with strong downstream winds blowing all week our capable rods managed to land 5 spring salmon up to 13lbs. Saturday saw a dropping river falling from 2' throughout the day where we had some interesting sport in the Haugh pool landing one and hooking and loosing two in the afternoon. All the fish that were hooked were mainly in the tail of pools which indicates that they were running fish. Successful fly patterns were Monkey flies in large sizes mainly.

With a falling river and some frosts forecast for next week I expect we will be at a perfect fishing height for the beat early next week. Lets hope these floods bring some fresh fish up from the middle river where many fish still seam to be holding.

We must be mad!!

Phillip Wood fighting tough conditions in March @ Dinnet.

Update

Last week proved to be a slightly more difficult week. Water temperatures ranged from 38 to 44 degrees which is encouraging for the upper river this time of year, however the river was up and down frequently throughout the week. Sitting around the 2' mark limited the best fishing from Dinnet bank but Deecastle managed 2 fresh fish of 9lb landed by John Carmichael and an 8lb fish for Colin Espie. Dropping down to 1'3" midweek many more pools were fishing well and first time salmon fisher Pierre Woodford caught his first ever salmon from Logie pool at Dinnet. This weeks rods also took Cambus o May beat and landed three upto 14lb so in all a respectable result for the party. 

Successful flies have been black and yellow copper tubes willie gun wadding tons and of course monkey flies fished deep in big waters. 

Pierre's first salmon definately got the bug!!

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..