Week Commencing 10th June 2019

It was a wet week last week and the river was high at the start and the middle of the week. The catches were still very good although most beats lost at least part of  a day due to the high water. Next week is to be a changeable week with some bright, warmer days as well as some colder wetter days. The tides are building till Wednesday then there will be no new water till the following week.

 

Catches. The Spey continues to fish well, and as I mentioned some days or at least parts of days were lost to the water being too high.
Gordon Castle, Ian Tennant tells me they had over twenty fish for the week. He also mentioned they were not fully let and only lightly fished.

Orton finished the week in the mid teens, thanks to Richard for the pictures.

 

David Wood’s party were at Delfur and David wrote,

We had a great week at Delfur, enjoying days of 10 and 11 fish, with John Garnett catching his first Delfur salmon on Saturday. We were delighted as a party because the fish were extraordinarily evenly spread between pools and fishers. All of the fish were very fresh indeed although only one or two were liced, which is unusual for this part of the river at this time of year. We caught mostly salmon of 7 to 14lbs with a few stunning grilse of around 5lbs thrown in for good measure. We were lucky to have been joined again by the amazingly talented wildlife artist Clare Haggas. Clare lost a very big fish on Wednesday morning in Sourden which was last seen heading down into Big Haddie. It is always a great delight to come to Speyside, made more so this year by the pervading positivity in the strath created by better runs of our precious salmon and catches being well spread between beats. Our party and the ghillies were delighted and enthused to hear of big days on neighbouring beats. Many thanks to the ghillies for looking after us so well. We were delighted that retired Delfur Ghillie Alan Sheppard returned to the river to ghillie for the week. We were also extremely fortunate that Iain Kelly who for many years was the Ghillie on Upper Arndilly joined us as the fifth Ghillie. He had a wealth of knowledge, a real passion for the river and a huge amount of patience with those of us  who required it. It was a privilege to fish with this real gentleman.

 

Rothes, Mike Euan tells me,

The Bladon party had a brilliant week with thirty-two salmon and three sea trout. Tuesday was the best day when we landed twelve. Mrs Alison Bladon had four to her own rod. Roger Murphy thought he had caught the biggest of the week on Saturday at 20lb only to be beaten by John Bladon by a pound. This week of thirty-two follows three weeks of sixteen. Surprisingly I understand there is still some availability, if anyone is interested the should contact Peter Graham on 01343862969 or http://www.petergassoc.co.uk.

Arndilly Euan tells me

Eighteen for the week. Philip Wilbraham got the week and his season going with a couple from the Cobble Pot on Monday 9lb and 13lb. Tuesday Richard Hollingbery and Euan Guiness had one each from the Back of the Bog and Long Pool repectively. Wednesday was Richard Hollingbery’s turn for a brace this time from the Soo and Bulwurk. The catches stepped up on Thursday with one each for Philip Wilbraham, Roger Alwen, Simon Ward, and Ann Curtis. Friday and Saturday were four per day including two on Saturday morning for Rupert Flury before he had to catch a plane. Philip Wilbraham had five each for the week but Richard took the top rod with the biggest, 16lb from the Long Pool at 4.15. Typical of Arndilly that we had fish from every pool and nobody could guess where the next one was coming from.

Aberlour Angling Club continues to fish well with fish for locals and visitors. The total was fifteen salmon and two seatrout.

Kinermony had four thanks to Davy Brand for the pictures.

Carron although very lightly fished finished the week with six, the best a 16lb fish from the Bridge Pool.

Jim Smillie’s party fishing Phones Knockando for three days and had a few fish including one from Craig Neish measured at 39 inches.

Abernethy and Aviemore, Gary Grant tells me,

Despite being so lightly fished we still managed 2 salmon 1 of which was a tagged salmon biggest 14lbs and  8seatrout biggest of 8lbs hopefully weather will warm up and the river will settle.