Rubber hooks!!

     Will losing his 5th fish in a row!!! Sorry about the expletives at the end!

A disapointing day today with only 1 fish to show for all our efforts, however we seem to be able to hook the fish but not land them! I've seen it many times over the years where no matter what you do the fish fall off, the only consolation is that you have had the rush of blood as you feel the fish pull line off the reel but a lost fish is just that and it wont count on my returns unfortunatly.

But it was good to see a rise in water height so this should bring fresh fish into the river and with settled conditions we will have good water right into next week.

Heavy rain!

                        Another good fish swims away at Carlogie

It rained heavily for the first time today, so hopefully we will get a good rise in the height and have good water all week long. A couple today from Ballogie, both caught by Dr Roy McKeracher from the slips pools, his perserverence paid off as the other 3 rods fishing Ballogie this week decided to have a day out with their families due to the rain.(Bet they will be kicking themselves when I tell them tomorrow!)

Nice photos taken by Craig Mcdonald who is standing in for me this week

Looking forward

                                      Another goes back at Ballogie

I only managed 3 half days last week so I don't have too much to report but hopefully I can manage a full week this week. It was good to hear that my Franc N Snaelda fly continued to catch fish.

 Seeing more and more fish like this one, hopefully they will survive till spawning time.

Hopefully this week the runs of fish should get better and new fish will fill up the pools, it's traditionally from this week we change from heavy spring tactics to more float/sink tip setups with small doubles rather than heavy tubes but as the water is so cold we will maybe still be on the heavy artillery!!

Pickin away!

                           Nice one from the Sands, Ballogie

A quite day yesterday, but a few caught today. A cracker from the Slips at 14lb covered in sea lice, then 2 from Carlogie, 1 at 12lb from the Boat pool and another fish of 7lb. 

                             Black Frances, Deadly spring fly

With rain forcast over the Bank holiday weekend hopefully we will see a big rise in water and get back to proper spring fishing with big water, big flies and big fish!!!

Commontys 25lber!!!

Ingolfur with his second from the Blue Chair, Commonty. Photo courtesy of Fiskebloggen.com

6 inches of snow!

                     Nice fish from the Top Gannets pool, Ballogie

With 6" of snow over night the coming days should produce better conditions on all the beats, the river has slowly risen today, up around 4" which doesn't sound a lot but given the conditions last week it's like fishing another river! However with the cold air the river temperature has dropped and we are seeing less fish moving in the pools.

 I just received a call from Ian at Commonty to say that they have had a Sea liced fish weighing around 6lbs, this fish was caught on one of my Red Francis flies which seem to be doing the trick at the moment, the fight and capture of this fish was filmed so hopefully i'll get a copy to show you all.

It's raining!!

              Lars Terkildsen playing a fish in the Boat pool, Carlogie

I'm glad to see the end of march! It has been a very hard month on the Dee and I must congratulate all the anglers on the Ballogie beats for perservering in such horrific conditions, the low water combined with record breaking daytime temperatures made the chances of catching fish very difficult, however we still managed to beat the 5 year average for march on all 3 beats which is a fantasic achievement given the conditions.

As I am writing this it is raining outside and the weather forcast is giving rain for all day tomorrow, then with snow on the hills forcast for monday night/tuesday morning we may have the lift in water that we've been needing now for weeks, the pools have lots of fresh fish lying in them but they are hard to catch due to the low water, if it does rise I can see catches improving dramatically. As we enter the prime spring months we hopefully will see bigger runs of fresh fish entering the river daily and given rain we will continue to have good sport for the rest of the spring.

Also sorry for not posting as often as I would like, but i'm not at work at the moment due to ongoing complications from Lymes disease. I've been signed of for the next 2 weeks but if I feel better at all i'll be back on the banks as soon as I can!!