River Dee Opening Ceremony 2016

I attended the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 salmon fishing season on the River Dee yesterday at Banchory Lodge Hotel. The event is always well attended and this time was no different. This year the venue had to be changed last minute due to the bridges at Aboyne and Potarch being shut for repairs as a result of the flooding caused Storm Frank.

Banchory Lodge Hotel on the banks of the River Dee.

Marquee tent where drinks and bacon rolls were on offer to all that attended. A great time to reacquaint with friends, ghillies and anglers after the winter months.

Young Aberdeen and District Angling Association member Sean Rennie was presented with the Callum Mackenzie Cup for the best fish caught by a junior angler. Sean landed a sea liced grilse of around 4lb at a Junior Day held at park last August. It was a good day for the Aberdeen and District Angling Association as fellow member, John Fyfe received the Park Trophy for the largest fish of the season which was a 26lb salmon from the Crathie beat. Well done gents.

Sean Rennie receiving the Callum Mackenzie Cup for his fish last year at the Park Junior Day.

John Fyfe receiving the Park Trophy for his 26lber from Crathie.

Deacon Blue drummer and TV presenter, Dougie Vipond had the honour of the first cast this year and he made a great job of it considering the howling gales. He is a passionate countryman and his enthusiasm and love of the countryside came through as he addressed the 200 strong crowd. He blessed the river with the customary quaich of whiskey and made a few casts in the Hotel Pool. It was good to have the river open for business again after the torrid winter of flooding and rain. Fingers crossed it's a good season to keep spirits high on the angling front up and down Deeside.

Dougie Vipond addresses the crowd with ghillie, Craig McDonald to his right and River Dee Director Mark Bilsby to his left.

Dougie made a passionate speech about Scottish countryside which was received very well by the audience.

Dougie takes a quick sip of the whisky before blessing the river to signal the official start of the 2016 salmon fishing season on the River Dee.

The whisky going into the river.

The ceremonial first cast with Glen Tanar estate ghillie, Craig McDonald.

Headinch And Cambus O' May - River Dee

Thanks to ghillie Craig McDonald I had a day on the scenic Headinch and Cambus O' May beat last Thursday. The water was in good order and had dropped away nicely after a rise earlier in the week. It was sitting around the 9" mark on the beat gauge and had a tinge of peat stain. At this height though every pool was fishable and I was to fish from the South bank as it was more suited to this height of water.

The beat gauge reading 9"

My set up for the day consisted of my 13ft Hardy Uniqua rod, Rio Scandi Floating Shooting Head and a 10ft slow sink tip. Due to the peaty colour of the river Cascades and Black Bear Flamethrower type flies were the choice of the day as the orange and yellow combo shows up well in the darker water.

Fishing down Peter Ogg and into Holly Bush.

Fishing down Holly Bush looking across to the hut on the far bank.

Craig suggested I start my day off in the Holly Bush and then fish down through Peter Ogg after I had done that. neither pool produced any salmon although I did briefly hook a decent sized trout which came to a Sunray Shadow just opposite the gauge but it came off as I wound my line onto my reel. Both pools fished very well though and one or two splashes from salmon kept the concentration levels up.

The hut which looks onto the Tassachd Pool.

Fishing down Tassachd. Was a few fish moving in here but none were tempted by my offerings.

The next pool I was to to try was Tassachd. This is a classic Dee salmon pool and fishes the fly beautifully. There were one or two fish showing in here too but tempting them was a different matter. I fished the pool down with a #9 Cascade first but without success and my second run down the pool was with a Sunray which also proved fruitless. After fishing these pools it was lunch time and a chance to regroup and plan for the afternoon.

Sheerless. Moved a couple of trout in here on a Sunray Shadow but no salmon.

After lunch Craig suggested giving Sheerless a cast as there had been a few fish showing in the pool earlier in the week. I was eager to fish Sheerless as I had never done so on my previous 3 visits to the beat. I opted to fish the Sunray first and I made my way down the pool varying the speed in which I stripped the fly in. Several different speeds produced the same result with the Sunray and I couldn't tempt any salmon but a greedy trout about 1.5lb took a liking to it and which was safely returned.

I was joined by Paul Pritchard later on in the day and as he had never fished the beat before he was eager to get going. He was to fish Tassachd and I headed up to the upper most pool on the beat which was Kate's.

Looking upstream from Kate at the top end of the beat.

Rockies looking downstream.

Looking downstream into Black Neuk and Bankie.

Kate is another nice piece of water and again, it's ideal for fly fishing. The views are not too shabby either! I fished my way down through the pool and continued on into Rocky without a touch but I did see a few fish showing half way down the pool. Try as I might, they just weren't interested in my fly.

The hut overlooking Glashan.

Fishing down the Glashan Pool. A really nice pool for the fly.

Paul Pritchard fishing the stunning Glashan Pool.

Next up was Glashan. This pool has to one of my favourite pools on the beat. It's a pleasure to fish and every cast you are just waiting for that pull from a salmon. Sadly, neither Paul or myself could get hold of an elusive Dee salmon but we gave it a good try. Paul decided to call it a day after a wee mishap involving his car so I headed off back down stream to give Tassachd another fling before heading home myself. Unfortunately, there was nothing doing down in Tassachd and I headed off home around 7pm with my first ever blank day on a Glen Tanar Salmon beat! :( 

The beat is one well worth visiting though and the amount of water available to just 3 rods is fantastic. Each and every pool is a delight to fish and the scenery is first class as well. The water did rises nearly 2" during the day and the heavy peat stain which darkened the water maybe didn't help my chance any either but despite not catching any salmon, it was a good day regardless. A couple of brown trout to show for my efforts wasn't what I was after but if catching salmon was that easy, would it be as addictive? Perhaps not.