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used to have a fourth pool, the Island Pool, but this was lost in the catastrophic floods of 2015/16 on Deeside and has been replaced by fairly 'bitty' water, although for the agile angler there does appear to be some pocket water to drop a fly in.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!

Lower Woodend, Dee (7 - 9 May 2015)

My dad and I had 3 days on Lower Woodend on the Middle Dee during the prime Spring weeks in May. As has been well-documented elsewhere, this and last Spring have been particularly poor on the Dee, with no real signs of the decline levelling-off, never mind a recovery. STV reporting on Aberdeen harbour's new 'tourist attractions' (these are the exact words used!) a few weeks ago didn't improve our hopes much - it's easier to catch a Salmon if it actually makes it into the river alive.

Regardless, we set off on the Wednesday evening keen to be in the middle of nowhere while the rest of the country was squabbling over politics and, for those who have been, the Woodend beats are some of most beautiful and secluded beats that you can come across.

There was a rise on the Wednesday which dropped away during our three days; this resulted in 'textbook' fishing conditions for Lower Woodend, a low water beat, by day 3. To be precise, the morning gauge levels at the Woodend SEPA gauge - just 4 pools upstream - for our three days were 1' 10", 1' 5" and 1' 2".

Pictured: The fast water between Woodend and Lower Woodend's huts, from the Girnal on Woodend. You can just make out the Upper Blackhall hut on Scobboc/The Hut Pool in the trees in the distance.

On the first two days, while the water was higher, I took the opportunity to explore the beat a little, although I had fished 3 days there before, all in very high water. At the bottom of the beat, just above the Cairnton march, two pools - Sandy's and Lower Intake - both fish fairly well in high water. Sandy's is a big, deep hole in front of the reservoir intake for the water supply for Aberdeen. This is probably the second-best pool on the beat, behind Hut Pool (or Scobboc, for those on Upper Blackhall on the far bank). This pool runs into Lower Intake, which is a fast stream running down a channel on the outside of the bend, with a few rocky lies to aim for. A couple of fish were seen in Sandy's during our days on the beat, one of which was surprisingly coloured for this stage in the season.

Pictured: Lower Woodend's pools, as shown above the fireplace in the hut.

Sandy's is fished fairly heavily by Upper Blackhall, as are The Rocks, which is known as The Corner Pool to Upper Blackhall Rods. This pool lies in-between Sandy's and The Hut Pool and, as the name gives away, lies on a fairly sharp bend on the river. As Lower Woodend is on the deep, outside of the bend, it fishes better from the Blackhall side, but is fishable from Lower Woodend also. It's especially worthwhile at the tail where the flow spreads and the pool shallows. A favourite of the Upper Blackhall rods, a couple of fish were also seen in here during our three days. 

 Pictured: The Rocks, from above.

Pictured: Looking downstream through The Fence and The Rocks to the tail of the beat. 

The Hut Pool, the main pool on the beat, is a low water pool which fishes best from around 1' and below. All five fish in the Lower Woodend book for the 2015 season have been taken from this pool and, where it had been noted, the relevant height was around 1'. We focussed on this pool on day 3 and this approach seemed justified by the 10 to 15 fish we saw jump during the day in the pool. The best spot in the pool is given away by the Upper Blackhall hut, which looks onto the rocky lies which hold most of the fish. There is a deeper pot above this which Upper Blackhall don't fish, but which can be investigated with a fast-sink top from Lower Woodend.

Pictured: The Hut Pool/Scobboc.

Despite the increase in activity on day 3, no fish were taken from any of these pools from either our side or among the Upper Blackhall rods during our three days. A heavy take on the afternoon of day 3 in the tail of The Hut Pool turned out just to be a big brownie, which was frustrating as the fishing seemed to have picked itself out of the doldrums for the surrounding beats on the Saturday. Congratulations in particular to the friendly Woodend rods upstream who got 3 for their days, plus a Sea Trout. At last contact, these had come from the famous Morel Pool and the Garden Pool further upstream. Woodend is another fantastic place to fish, if you get a chance.

 Pictured: The Morel Pool, Woodend, in February.

Pictured: The Garden Pool, also Woodend, with Commonty on the far bank.

A shame about the fishing and the fishless run continues, but it's a fantastic spot and we'll be back for these days next year and hopefully other Dee rods will keep the faith.

Hope you're all having good starts to the season.

Calum