Sluie, Dee (3-5 September 2020)

My dad and I have been going to Deeside for a few days each season for about seven seasons now, for the beautiful, clear river, spacious beats and good local hospitality. From the 2015 season onwards, we have settled on going to Sluie, between Banchory and Kincardine O'neil, for three days each season and staying at Tor Na Coille in Banchory. Initially, we went in May for the springers, then June for the salmon and sea trout overlap and then this season we moved our days to September simply for optimum numbers of fish in the river.

 The river had not been fishing particularly well in the run up to our days this season. The Tweed, Tay and Spey, the remainder of the 'Big Four', had all been fishing pretty well and the Tweed and Spey were having their best seasons for years, but for some reason the Dee was lagging behind somewhat. On arrival (which was late due to work...), it became pretty clear fairly quickly that there were actually relatively good numbers of fish in the main holding pools, the Hut Pool and Middle Jetty (some photos of both from previous trips are below), even if not the other pools, although they were fairly stale and reluctant to play along. Regardless, the main focus of the fishing was therefore on these two pools, with forays down to Strathseven below and to Broken Jetties above to keep things interesting.

Due to the stale nature of the fish and the poor catches on the river as a whole, I chose to fish with two setups to maximise chances. I had my usual 13'6" 9# with a full floating shooting head and small to medium sized dressed flies, but also my 15' 10# with a floating head and ten feet of T-18 to make sure I wasn't missing any fish holed up on the bottoms of the pools. I matched the latter setup with short, strong nylon leaders and weighted tube flies of various sorts. 

Despite seeing the fish in Hut Pool and Middle Jetty fairly frequently, it was day two before any action came about. At the tail of the Hut Pool, there is a good lie on the far side of the current which doesn't lend well to good presentation from Sluie's left bank fishing (even if Commonty opposite probably have an easy cast at it). I was fishing my heavier setup with a conehead Black Frances quite square and with a drawn-in retrieve until the fly came round, when I hooked into a decent fish which was on for about 20 seconds before dropping off. I got a good look at it and had it down as a double figure hen fish with a bit of purple sheen. Frustrating, but at least a bit of action on day two. 

 We decided to get up early and fish before breakfast on day three to try and break the trend of fish being reluctant to take (one take in two days for two rods is slow going). We were up at 4:30am and on the beat for 5am to see the Morning Star and wait for enough light to fish. 

Ironically, the morning session proved completely unproductive and it ended up being the last cast of the trip which got the reward. It was the same cast at the tail of the Hut Pool as mentioned above, with the same setup but this time a dressed Black Frances with a smaller overall profile. The end result was hooking into and this time landing the same fish(!), after an entertaining ten minute struggle. Spending lockdown watching Michael Frodin videos on playing fish hard seemed to have paid off, as knocking the fish off balance every time it settled brought it up on its side and into the net. On inspection, I had a nice hookhold right in the scissors. Very satisfying and one that the pup, Horris, seemed to enjoy too; he is apparently slightly more 'barky' than his bro-in-law Rogie when there is a fish on! 

The week finished with only 87 fish from the whole river and I see only 59 were caught in the following week also. This is in comparison to scores of 300 plus on the Tweed most weeks recently. Hopefully things pick up a bit next season on the Dee.

Next up is a trip to Wester Ross and Assynt which will be a welcome break from the tedium of city life during Covid-19. Last year, we got seven fish for the week on North-west spate rivers so we’re watching the forecast keenly at the moment.

 Tight lines, folk. Get a cast in if you can just in case the extra fish around this year are a one off...

Knappach, Dee (3 February 2018)

My friend John Webster and I have a lot of fishing booked up for this season during the core months of the season and so have been relatively conservative about booking any early season fishing this year. We did agree, though, to have a quick 'season-opener' cast  on the Dee on the first Saturday of the season. Often, the best fishing around this time is in the Crathes and Banchory areas and, with the first 'proper' Winter in a few years having had an effect on water temperatures, we had been keeping an eye on rods on the lower of the early season beats around Crathes. The original plan had been to visit Crathes Castle for the day, where my dad and I had 'fished' last February Storm Doris and where the visiting John took a swim in the Boat Pool while netting a kelt for me. Ultimately, though, we ended up trying a new beat in Knappach, on the opposite bank.

The beat is a very small, two rod beat, with three main pools (arguably two and a half) to fish; however, with it being very early season and with the days being quite short, this suited us fine for the day. Most fish would be moving through, anyway, and so covering the same fish repeatedly wasn't likely to be an issue. Indeed the beat used to have a fourth pool, the Island Pool, but this was lost in the catastrophic floods of 2015/16 on Deeside and has been replaced by fairly 'bitty' water, although for the agile angler there does appear to be some pocket water to drop a fly in.

In summary, we rotated between the most likely spots - Floating Bank (Knappach has the lower half only) and Lower Birkenbaud - for the majority of the day. We did have some brief and experimental sessions in the third pool, Upper Birkenbaud, which is very fast on the Knappach side for its upper half, although the tail has some spots which look like they could hold a fish. The only action of the day came on my third cast of the morning in Floating Bank, when I briefly had hold of a fish which had taken my 1" copper Posh Tosh (a Spring favourite) fished from a 15' sink 3 tip. The fish dropped off after around 15 seconds, having given no good indicator either way as to whether it was a kelt or springer taking a break in the calmer water of the Floating Bank. 

John and I agreed that it had been an enjoyable day and that the beat does suit an early season session. Floating Bank seems a likely cold water lie and Lower Birkenbaud is a beautiful fly stream which a known locally as a good holding spot. The hut is well geared up for the colder weather and you don't need 25 pools between two people on these cold, short days. It seems likely we'll be back, somewhere along the way.

Here are some photos.

The very tail of Floating Bank.

Floating Bank; Knappach rods can fish from roughly the steps in the middle of the lower picture.

Looking up Upper Birkenbaud.

Upper Birkenbaud.

The lies in the tail of Upper Birkenbaud.

A view of the lower half of the beat, including the warm hut which looks up through Upper Birkenbaud.

John puts out a line in the main catch, Lower Birkenbaud.

The neck of Lower Birkenbaud.

Crathes Castle's map of the pools shared with Knappach rods.

John puts a line out on the Boat Pool with Brian Sim (Crathes Castle) in February 2017.

About to bag a kelt - 5 minutes later and John would be floating chest deep in here!

Woodend, Dee (8-10 February 2016)

As was well-publicised, the Dee had not had the best of Winters following its very poor 2015 season. Storm Frank had battered the catchment, causing extensive damage to people's homes, most importantly, but also to all sorts of other facilities including the river's famous fishing beats. We had visited the Dee in both of the previous two Februarys and decided to show our support following the river's recent adversities by booking three days on Woodend, just upstream from Banchory. Unfortunately, Woodend House was badly affected by the flooding, being right on the banks of the river, and so we hope that the repairs required go well and that the owners, the McHardys, can get back in as soon as possible. Surprisingly, though, the beat seems to have remained for the most part unchanged and the beautiful Moral Hut - above the pool of the same name - survived also, except for a couple of armchairs and some damage to the verandah.

On the drive in to the beat on the first day, we stopped to take a look at the damage to Lower Woodend, the sister beat which was sold off around the turn of the millennium. It had lost its nice hut, which is to be replaced, and the main Hut Pool appears to have gained some nice-looking lies.

Pictured: Looking onto the Lower Intake pool, Lower Woodend, with the damage to Cairnton's hut balcony in the background.

Pictured: The site of Lower Woodend's old hut.

Pictured: Lower Woodend's hut in August 2014.

Pictured: Some new lies in the The Hut Pool (or Scobboc) on Lower Woodend.

Pictured: The Moral Hut - still there!

There had been a little rain on the Sunday evening at the top of the catchment and so the river was cold and at 1' 10" and dropping on the beat gauge (which equates to a good few inches higher on the SEPA equivalent, positioned on the Long Pool, Woodend) on our first day. I fished the morning with a fast intemediate shooting head and a 15ft sink 8 tip to get down into the deeper pools.

In the morning, my Dad started in the Moral Pool with a 1" brass Black & Yellow tube while I went upstream to fish a 2" copper Gold Bodied Willie Gunn in the Long Pool, reputedly a good cast in higher water from the Woodend bank. There were no rods fishing the first part of the week on Commonty, who fish the opposite bank for all pools bar the Moral and Girnal Pools, and so we were spoilt for choice in choosing pools on the upper part of the beat. Upper Blackhall (who fish the far bank of the Moral and Girnal) did have rods out and had had 5 fish so far in season 2016, mainly caught by the gillie. Nothing was doing in the Moral or Long Pools and so we retired for a coffee, a dram and a warm-up by the fire.

Pictured: Looking back up the Long Pool on day one.

Pictured: The view out on to the neck of the Moral from the hut verandah.

After a break, we headed up to the top of the beat to both fish the Garden Pool, my dad fishing the neck and me the tail. By this stage, I'd changed to fish a Monkey slightly higher up in the water. There are plenty of nice lies in the Garden Pool and it fishes really well from the Woodend side, but nothing was doing and the more exposed nature of the pool meant a strong wind coming towards to bank was making life difficult.

 Pictured: Passing the House Pool on the way up to the Garden.

Pictured: The Garden Pool at 1' 10" on the Woodend beat gauge.

In the afternoon, after another break by the fire, we both had a go at the Moral Pool, dad in the neck and me fishing the lies in the tail. No action again and so we retired to the hotel before going for dinner at the Boat Inn in Aboyne. Later, we learned that only two fish came off the river on Monday, both from Lower Crathes and West Durris, downstream from Banchory. We were surprised at this given the settling conditions and good catches the week before, when 30 fish were caught in poor conditions.

By day two, the river had dropped by 4". We headed straight for the Garden Pool and decided to fish back down to the hut from there. I was now fishing a Black Snaelda, which looked the part. We had a quick few casts in the House Pool and the Loop on the way back down, both of which were starting to fish better in the dropping water. There were works going on on the Commonty bank to repair a footpath and bridge down from the hut to the Bend, Loop and Points pools.

Pictured: Looking down to the Boat Hole and Loop from the House Pool.

Pictured: The Loop; there was a lot of damage to the banks and rocks on the Woodend side, at Boat Hole and the Loop, but this doesn't seem to affect the pools at all.

We again finished the day in the Moral Pool, having at least spotted what I think was a small springer in the slow, cold water lies at the tail of the Long Pool while walking back. On this evening, we headed back to Aboyne for an Indian before heading to the Douglas Arms in Banchory for West Ham - Liverpool in the FA Cup. We learned of one fish being caught from Ballogie, but nothing else.

On day three, our final day, the river was down at 1' 4" on the gauge. Similarly to the Tuesday, we headed up to the Garden Pool - Commonty's most productive pool - for our first cast of the day. I was now fishing a brass Black and Yellow one inch tube, which looked nice in the cold, clear water. Dad fished a one inch copper Magenta Gledswood in order to try something a bit different (I'd imagine every fish in the Dee has seen enough black and yellow for a lifetime!). We again had no results from the Garden Pool and so headed down to the Loop to cover a big rocky lie in mid-stream a couple of times. To finish off, we fished the afternoon in the Moral and Loop pools to no avail. There really didn't seem to be many fish about at all, having tried various depths and keeping a close eye on the pools. There was only one fish from the river on the Wednesday (caught at Carlogie) and again only one (caught at Commonty) on the Thursday, all in good conditions. 5 fish on the Saturday helped the week's catches, but it was a disappointing week after the hope arising from the previous one.

Pictured: Cack-handed double-Spey casting in the Garden Pool, to beat the strong downstream winds.

Pictured: Looking back up to the Boat Hole from the Loop.

We'll be back up on Deeside in late Spring to fish Sluie and we hope the river gets a break and begins to fish better soon.

Cheers

Calum