travelly: Invery - River Dee

I was on the River Dee at Invery today on what is the last chance of catching a Spring Salmon for this year. As of June 1st all salmon caught are classed as Summer salmon. I was very kindly asked to fish the afternoon by a friend of mine as he had a prior engagement and had to leave the beat early. As I had never fished the beat before, I was very grateful for the opportunity. The sun was high in the cloudless sky making conditions less than ideal but with the gauge reading 10" there was always the chance of picking up running fish. The temperature in the afternoon peaked at 23C. My set up for the day was my 13ft Hardy Uniqua, floating line, short intermediate tip and a selection of small flies ranging from size 10 to 14.

I arrived on the beat around 11.30am and met the Jim the ghillie at the top hut. He instructed me to head down to the bottom part of the beat as I was to fish the Pantoch and Floating Bank pools before returning for lunch at 1pm. I made my way down to the Pantoch but there was a rod from the Crathes bank fishing the pool so I carried on down to the Floating Bank. I had only ever fished this pool from the opposite bank so it was good to give it a go from the Invery side. I chose a wee size 11 KS Shrimp for my fly and I made my way to the neck of the pool. I fished down the pool and when I was about adjacent to the hut, I had a good solid take from a fish. Unfortunately, it didn't stick but it was encouraging to know that there were fish in the pool. Several more fish showed as I fished it through but were not interested in my fly.

As I had never fished the beat before it was good to have a chat with Jim during lunch. We chatted about the recent catches on the river and about stories from days gone by which I always enjoy listening to from any ghillie or fisherman.

After a bite to eat, Jim took me up to fish the top pools of the beat. These included Signal Pool, Greenbanks, Jetties and S Pool. I fished all the way down from the top of the beat without seeing a splash but the blazing sun and clear blue skies didn't help. There were also a group of young kids swimming in the Greenbanks pool which is not ideal either but given the fine weather, who could blame them for that? I would have done the same not so long ago. I missed out that part of the pool and made my down to the Jetties. Again, I fished it through without seeing a splash so I headed down to the S Pool. The neck of the pool was a nice fast, streamy piece of water which in these conditions, might have been a good chance of holding a fish or two. No luck to be had in this pool either.

I headed back to the hut around 4.30pm for a chat with Jim before deciding what to do in the evening. Jim informed me that there was a 4 1/2lb Salmon landed downstream by one of the other anglers. Always good to hear of fish being caught on the beat you are fishing. As I was the only rod left, Jim gave me the choice of where to go. As I had seen a few fish earlier in the Floating Bank, I headed down to the bottom pools of the beat again. As the Pantoch was free I give it a run though before I fished the Floating Bank. Nothing doing in here but was good to fish it regardless. I fished the Floating Bank twice before giving the Pantoch another try but to no avail. The sun was still high and bright so I called it a day around 8pm.

Invery is a lovely part of the Dee and when conditions suit, it can be very good indeed. It's a beat I will look forward to fishing again some day in the near future. Sadly, no May springer which ends my run of getting a fish every month so far but I would have gladly taken that at the start of the season so I can have no complaints. I will eagerly wait on the arrival of the grilse to both the Dee and Don which can provided some quality sport on lighter tackle. Hopefully there will be here in greater numbers than in previous seasons. We will soon find out.

Here are some pictures from my day.