Little Blackhall And Inchmarlo - River Dee

I had a day on the Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo beat of the River Dee last Saturday thanks to the ghillie, Martin Robson. The river was in fine fettle and was sitting at around 1ft 9in on the FishDee gauge. My set up for the day was my 15ft Mackenzie DTX rod, AFS Hover shooting head and a 10ft super fast sink tip. My fly of choice was the good old Willie Gunn.

Fishing down the Otter Stone.

The granite on the far bank has been exposed after the winter floods. I think it looks quite good.

Looking upstream in the Fawn.

Fishing down the Fawn Pool.

Looking upstream in the Fawn.

I fished the top part of the beat in the morning along side Martin and we covered the water pretty well but despite favourable conditions, we just couldn't temp a fish to take our offerings. Every pool was fishing the fly nicely and it was good to be back on the beat again. This was one of the first private beats I ever fished on the Dee and it's always good to come back. The fishing is easy whether it's off the bank or shallow wading, you just know that there is every chance of connecting with a fish given the right conditions.

The fishing hut at Inchmarlo.

Looking down the Roe Pot from the Inchmarlo hut.

Fishing down the Roe Pot. A classic River Dee salmon pool.

One of the Little Blackhall huts over looking the Roe Pot.

The Roe Pot is always a good bet to pick up a fish on the beat and I fished it down willing the line to tighten with every cast. As I neared the tail of the pool just above the timber pier in the picture above I had a good offer but sadly it didn't come to nothing and that was to be it for my day.

Looking downstream across the tail of the Roe Pot.

The Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo beat looks a lot different since my last visit here in 2015. All the croys which were once a feature of the famous Roe Pot have all but gone and large areas of granite banking have been exposed on the Little Blackhall bank on the upper parts of the beat. As well as this, much of the road leading to the upper pools was washed away and repairs are ongoing to get the beat back to full working order.

Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo is a cracking part of the River Dee and you wouldn't know it's just a few hundred meters away from the bustling town of Banchory when you are fishing the pools. It's always a pleasure fishing here and I will look forward to returning again soon hopefully. 

There is still some availability for the beat this year and if you fancy a day then have a look at the Little Blackhall And Inchmarlo on the FishDee wesite by clicking the link. It's great value and well worth a visit.