Little Blackhall & Inchmarlo - River Dee

My good pal Charlie Robertson and I found ourselves on the Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo beat of the River Dee the other week courtesy of an invite from beat ghillie, Martin Robson. Conditions on the day were good and the river level was sitting around 1ft 8in on the Woodend gauge. Fish were running the river most days and the beat manged to land a nice, clean fish on the Friday before we arrived. My set up for the day was my old 15ft Vision GT4 Catapult with a F/H/S1 shooting head and a 4ips tip. Fly of choice to begin with was a Willie Gunn tube.

Looking upstream from the Fawn.

Fishing down through Sandy Bay and the Otter Stone.

Covering the Roe Pot from both banks.

We were to be fishing with local angler, John Fyfe who is an expert in most disciplines of game fishing. He has certainly been in about the springers this year on the Dee and anyone who can catch fish like John can is a real asset to the river during these lean times.It's great to see the success he is having and long may it continue.Charlie and I were to start off fishing the upper part of the beat. This is where the fish was caught the previous day and we we encouraged by that. We started up opposite the gauge on the far side and fished right on down to the Floating Bank. Unfortunately neither of us touched anything for the morning and we saw nothing either. The water was in really good shape and we were both surprised not to have at least seen a fish moving.

Looking upstream from the Floating Bank.

Lunch time was spent chatting away in the hut to John about his fishing this season and how and why he has been getting the success he has. I'm never shy in asking good anglers about tactics and successful methods as you're always learning in this sport. Advice and tips from an angler of John Fyfe's caliber can be extremely valuable. We took on board all the John was telling us and after lunch we headed across the river for a crack at the Roe Pot from the South bank.

Looking upstream towards the hut from the Little Blackhall side.

I hadn't fished the Roe Pot from the South bank since February 2009 and was really looking forward to it. back then the pool was renowned for producing early spring fish and even today, it's still one of the more famous holding pools on the river. On arrival to the pool we were greeted with the welcome sight of a fish showing out from the hut. This really spurred Charlie and I on and we eagerly began fishing down the pool. I had changed tactics slightly and opted to get down a wee bit deeper. I started up the top of the pool and Charlie went in mid way down. We both covered the pool well as did John form the opposite bank but despite seeing six or seven fish thorough-out the afternoon neither of us could temp these running fish.

Charlie and I working our way down the Roe Pot.

Charlie and I decided to give the New Fawn a cast so we made our way up to this cracking bit of water for a final chuck before calling it a day. Again, it fished really well at this height of water but try as we might, we just couldn't temp any salmon with our offerings so we decided to call it a day about 6pm.

Looking downstream in the Roe Pot from the Inchmarlo bank.

Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo is always a pleasure to fish and it was no exception on this day. The water is perfect for fly fishing at anytime of year but especially in the Spring month where it excels. If you are looking to fish the Dee anytime and you could do a lot worse than fish here. It's all off the bank fishing and a pair of wellies is all you need. Check out their page on the FishDee website by following this link Little Blackhall And Inchmarlo. Maybe see you there some time!