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to have a fourth pool, the Island Pool, but this was lost in the catastrophic floods of 2015/16 on Deeside and has been replaced by fairly 'bitty' water, although for the agile angler there does appear to be some pocket water to drop a fly in.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

Upper Kinnaird, South Esk (5 March 2016)

My dad and I had a day on the upper beat at Kinnaird, on the South Esk, in early March. This was right at the beginning of the beat's Spring prime time and 3 springers had been caught so far, all from the Root Pool, in the the middle of the beat.

Pictured: Kinnaird Dyke - A famous feature of South Esk Spring fishing.

We started by fishing black and yellow flies on floating lines with various tips in the Root and Bridge Pools, the latter of which fished very nicely and I felt that there was a good chance in here, especially down the crease on the right bank.

Pictured: The Bridge Pool.

We then fished down the Flats together, where we both had tugs which didn't stick. This is a nice cast from the left bank. It was a cold day and so fairly frequent coffees by the fire in the fishing lodge were required, including one after the long wade down Flats.

Pictured: The Flats.

Pictured: Welcome, on a day with air temperatures of a round 0c and a fierce North wind.

I then tried fishing the Flats and Root Pool from the right bank, which proved difficult in the stiff northerly wind. Later, I came back over the bridge to fish the Bolster Pool, beneath the Kinnaird Dyke, from the left bank.

We finished by each fishing Arn Pool from the left bank, but it perhaps needed a little more water to fish nicely.

Pictured: Lower Flats, looking down to the Arn Pool.

The temperature dropped at around 4pm and the other rods packed up for the day. We fished on until around the back of 5pm, but it seemed the best chance of the day was gone and so we headed home via Finavon Hotel (a good pub tea stop!).

Pictured: It's a small beat, but the quality of the water is very good and it is full of features.

I'm still hunting for a first fish of the season, but I've got plenty of fishing coming up.

Cheers

Calum