After a bit of a rebrand and a bit of modernisation, I’m back on the blogging scene with more video content, as promised.
John and I had our annual trip to the North-west spate rivers in September last year, slightly later than usual. That didn’t stop it being another pretty successful trip with a good few stories to be told from days on the Badachro, Kirkaig, Culag and Inver systems. We ended the week with four salmon on the bank and a similar number lost, including an absolute belter for John in the famous Kirkaig Falls pool. That coupled with some particularly successful brown trout fishing (as Assynt is known for), some great food and drink and some pretty good surfing made for a great trip yet again.
I’m going to do more similar content in future and will cover other fieldsports too, with my new springer pup Horris coming along nicely on the wildfowling and game days.
I hope you enjoy the new format and the broader scope. Here’s hoping we all get out to do a lot more of what we enjoy in 2021.
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...
This is just a brief note to let readers know that I post a reasonable amount of salmon and sea trout fishing content on both my YouTube channel (which is linked from the homepage of MuchAdoAboutFish) and my Instagram account '@CalumRaine'. I'm always keen to link up with other rods and to share footage so feel free to have a look/follow.
I have been out of the habit of blogging on my fishing for quite a while now, but one of the silver linings (the only silver lining?) of the heavy cloud of pandemia currently rendering life fairly tedious in many places is that I have found some time to revisit my blog. I've had a few pretty memorable trips and days since I last checked in, but I'm going to report on a late Summer/early Autumn trip to the North-west last season.
John and I had two weekends sandwiching a full working week off to play with and set off northwards late on the first Friday with a plan to fish a small, unfashionable spate river in the North-west on the Saturday. We made it as far a Kincraig before we had to stop for the night and so, by the time we arrived in the plague of midgies that is Wester Ross on the Saturday morning, it was already 11am. We stopped in, picked up our permits and had a quick flick through the book, before tackling up with our single handers and jumping into the boat on the small lochan that is the focal point of the system. The river either side of the lochan was very high (possibly 3' above Summer level) and so the lochan itself and the inflow to it was our main fishing for the day. We fished hard all day with fairly little activity, covering a lie where we knew a couple of fish had been caught in recent weeks, before taking a break for a dram and to dry out the sodden and miserable looking cocker who was ready for the car.
There was a good looking spot which we'd saved up at the outflow from the lochan, where the river makes a break for the sea over some old weirs. John very sportingly ghillied me into position a few yards from the certain death of the steep 500 metres of rapid flowing out of the lochan. I cast my flies (a subtle pairing of a Grouse and Claret on dropper and a Bibio on point, which were believe it or not chosen with migratories in mind due to the dark, peaty water) across the draw heading for the outflow weir and, just as the flies came onto the dangle, the line tightened. The fish held deep but for a good minute or so I was sure it was a decent brownie; however, after a good acrobatic fight it turned out to be a small grilse which had been in for few weeks or a month. It had taken that classic highland salmon fly, the Bibio! A great start to the trip, catching a first fish from an old Raine Family favourite holiday spot.
We had a good and successful day's trout fishing on the Sunday also after an equally successful night in the pub, before heading further North to Assynt. I managed another smaller grilse from another small, local spate river in between two unproductive but enjoyable days on the lochs around Lochinver (a few nice trout but nothing more). We then moved onto the main fishing for the trip; our three days on the lower River Inver.
We had fairly high water for our days, being at the uppermost extremity of the levels where fish were reported in the book. That said, whilst the Inver is not as spatey as other West Coast rivers, it is still water dependent and so better too much than too little. At this level, fishing the gorge which runs from the famous Star Pool down to Carpenter's and the Sea Pool at Lochinver was not really worthwhile. The vast majority of our time was spent on the beautiful pools upstream to the lower middle beat and we were fortunate enough to share four further fish between us and to have hooked a few more. Most were good, strong, classic Inver fish with strong shoulders presumably for navigating the various waterfalls and heavy flows between the sea and the spawning grounds in the tributaries and up at Inchnadamph. We also remarked that it was nice to have caught these fish from some of our favourite pools on the beat, Cow, Pollan and the unspeakably good Whirl Pool.
Here are some pictures and clips of the outside world to keep you going for now; hopefully Covid-19 will set us all free to go and enjoy the rest of the 2020 season soon enough! Best wishes to all, for now.
Calum
A very high spate river on Day One.
A very happy fisherman on Day One.
It's handy to have a dog who will let you know when he's done for the day.
One of a few nice highland trout. Very distinct Wester Ross colouring on this one.
A quiet day in the boat in Assynt for good measure.
Another small grilse from a tiny pool.
We went for a meal in Kylesku (worth the drive) and this was the view. Beautiful.
A bigger Inver fish from Whirl Pool.
Red Stream.
Dad in Lower New Pool.
Fish on in Cow Pool.
Strong netting technique. Wonder who that is.
John with his first fish.
Pleased.
A fish from Pollan.
Carpenter's, at the bottom of the beat; too high but still beautiful.
Earlier this season, I decided to begin introducing shorter form photo blogs as well as the fuller reports which I have previously written.
After a couple of part-day sessions on my syndicate rod at Old Melrose, Middle Tweed, on 25 August 2018 and 8 September 2018, respectively, I thought now would be an opportune moment to make a start (this has nothing to do with discovering a particularly useful blogging phone app and my Iphone’s dictation feature...). For future reference, I will circulate more fully the full reports whereas the shorter, photo based reports will mainly simply be posted on the blog and available there.
In short, on the first of these two days, in 5 inches on the Boleside gauge, I managed a grilse of around 4 to 5 pounds from Long Cairn/Cockburn’s as well as a couple of on-offs, whereas on the second day in just 2 inches at Boleside, I had a few pulls in Cockburn’s and Rampheugh pools but that was it. Over the season I have found Cockburn’s pool to have become my favourite on the beat and it’s no surprise that Gledswoood opposite have positioned their hut overlooking this particular pool. Some photos of these two days are below (unfortunately my fish was rather non-compliant in terms of sitting still for a picture and made it’s escape about five seconds too early).
Cheers and tight lines for the appproaching back end. Perhaps naive, given the past four, but I am encouraged by the lower and bottom river catches given the in-river conditions and poor levels.
Calum
PS - A reminder that you can follow me on Twitter using @CalumRaine , where I post more photos and commentary.
Cockburn’s on 8 September 2017; very low indeed and has been since April.
Rampheugh on 8 September 2018
Island Stream - you could fool yourself for being on the Whiteadder.
My friend John Webster and I bought into the Craigellachie beat timeshare on the Spey at the end of last year and our debut week on the river was last week. The previous season, it had been one of the best weeks of the Spring; however, unfortunately, this season it wasn't a week on which there were many fish on the beat at all, Wednesday being the day on which fish were thought to have run through. The end result was a blank week, not for lack of trying. The closest any of the various rods on the beat came during the week was a lost fish for John on Wednesday afternoon in the Lower Tunnel pool. Early season fishing is often a bit patchy and so here's hoping that next season's 'patch' is a good one. In the meantime, here are a few photos of the beat, which has some lovely water.
The view down Broom Isle, on the top beat.
Another perspective of Broom Isle; a nice fly pool with good flow and rocky lies.
The top of the long Garden Pool, opposite Macallan (Upper Easter Elchies).
Fish on in Lower Tunnel.
Fish off in Lower Tunnel.
Lower Slabs; one of the main catches on the beat.
Lower Slabs and the view up to Macallan's hut.
Bridge Pool from above.
Dramatic fishing in the Bridge Pool.
The deep tail of Smithy's (also known as Craig Neuk).
Looking back up to Smithy's from Boat o' Fiddich.
John covering the very 'fishy' tail of Boat o' Fiddich.
