Fishing The Fly Scotland Forum

Rob Brownfield

Re: River Don 2015
« Reply #120 on: 21/05/2015 at 10:19 »
No fish for me on Tuesday evening :( Rain and wind made things rather unpleasant and the lose of two good fish on streamers really capped off a crap session!

However, earlier in the afternoon I managed a Sea trout from the Dee ;)

Rob Brownfield

Re: River Don 2015
« Reply #121 on: 22/05/2015 at 08:23 »
10 or so fish, nothing big, average size probably a pound. Various methods from klink and dink with a HUGE DHE and gold head hares ear through to wooly buggers. Also a few on tiny DHE's as the light faded.

Where I expected to see fish, nothing, where I experimented in water I would not normally fish, I caught.

An interesting night.

Re: River Don 2015
« Reply #122 on: 22/05/2015 at 09:16 »
Troot seemed to start rising last night about half nine where aye was. Nothing doing before then.

Mark Zhang

Re: River Don 2015
« Reply #123 on: 22/05/2015 at 12:16 »
Went to middle river last night from 9.30pm to 11pm. Only saw a couple of rise, the wind was heavy on that beat, so didn't try the dry fly. Put on a stoat's tail and had a fish hooked after 10min. After a few run, just before went in the net, the hook came out.  :cry The best thing is I saw the fish, the worst thing is the fish is definately over 2lb. I have never hooked something over 2lb in the past. After that, it went quite, but I had first fish on fly this year, it's a salmon parr just before I went home. A lovely evening, hope I can go back again soon. :z16

Mike Barrio

Re: River Don 2015
« Reply #124 on: 27/05/2015 at 10:35 »

but the best one was taken off skinny water and was nosing the flies, i couldn't tell if it was a big nose or a small fish, so i tried anyway, good idea, first Trophy off the Don for 2015 :z16




A reminder that watching the river for a while from the bank, rather than wading straight in is a good idea.

This trout was in very shallow water and only a couple of steps from the bank ..... and precisely where we would have entered the water!

Cheers
Mike

Rob Brownfield

Re: River Don 2015
« Reply #125 on: 27/05/2015 at 13:05 »
This trout was in very shallow water and only a couple of steps from the bank ..... and precisely where we would have entered the water

+1  :z16 I have started fishing bits I normally walk straight past and have has quite a few fish from areas you would think would be to fast/too shallow. Biggest fish I have seen would have been pushing 6lbs and was laying tucked under the bank I was standing on.

Scott Cumming

Re: River Don 2015
« Reply #126 on: 27/05/2015 at 14:37 »
Had my first evening session on Monday. Not much happening with a cool breeze and very little fly life. Last night was a bit better, still a cool breeze but maybe not quite so cold as the previous. I headed to the more sheltered spots hoping to find some surface feeders.

After a wee bit of searching early evening I tempted this plump trout on a slimly tied olive DHE size 14. Its been a fantastic year for trout in the 2-3lb range... and some heftier ones too!




Just before 10pm I changed my fly to a slightly heavier dressed DHE, again size 14. Went to a spot where I pricked a decent fish earlier in the season and was pleasantly surprised to see him nosing the surface again in the exact same spot, no more than 2 feet from my bank. I waded out to get a slight angle on the cast, its a tricky piece of water, at best I’d have a 2-3 second drag free drift, get the angle wrong and the dry would skate immediately... I got there eventually and the fish took the DHE with confidence, after a quick bolt upstream he turned (this was the bit I wasn’t looking forward to) and headed downstream straight into the fast weedy water, after a nervy few minutes I managed to get control and net this beauty.....





Still that nip in the air, shouldn’t be long now before we get some decent evening rises but more than happy with my efforts so far  :z16

Cheers
Scott C

Mike Barrio

Re: River Don 2015
« Reply #127 on: 27/05/2015 at 14:51 »
Great stuff Scott ..... that first photo is awesome! :z16

Cheers
Mike

Sandy Nelson

Re: River Don 2015
« Reply #128 on: 27/05/2015 at 15:20 »
Great stuff Scott ..... that first photo is awesome! :z16

Ditto :z16

Another near bank escapade too, over half my big uns this year have come from casting less than a rod length of flyline. :z18

Sandy

Sandy Nelson

Re: River Don 2015
« Reply #129 on: 30/05/2015 at 20:30 »
So i've had the chance to get out the last couple of afternoons, Friday i did 1 till 6 , this afternoon i managed 12-3.

Similar story on both days, lovely conditions if a little cold, overcast with  a gentle breeze on the beat i was fishing. Thousands of flies hatching from before 12 onwards, today especially... However the fish seemed reluctant to feed.
Lots of Salmon parr and Smolts holding in some of the good spots and i wonder if the rowdy kids have pushed the bigger guys to wait till later on.

A veritable smorgesboard of food though :z16

The very pretty yellow mays hatching in numbers but the trout only eat these in very specific parts of the river :z8 and not the last couple of days!



The bulk of the hatch was Medium olives, i only managed to catch some cripples, but you get the idea.





And loads of Small dark olives hatching too, the wind kept blowing his wings :z6



The river surface looked like this :shock



Yet the bulk of the rising fish were only wee ones, still they need to bulk up somehow. There was one or two better ones here and there if you sat long enough and they were happy to hit a size 14 DHE, so i'm guessing the Medium olives were the chosen food.
best of the two days was a nice 15" fish about 1.75lb



With a handful around the pound mark, including this bonny heavily spotted fish from this afternoon.



Definately thinking of trying an evening next :z16 Hopefully there will be some better fish moving, it just feels a bit cold.
Today the river was running a touch more colour than yesterday, but it is still looking pretty good

Cheers

Sandy

Marc Fauvet

Re: River Don 2015
« Reply #130 on: 31/05/2015 at 09:57 »
nice review of the day, Sandy  :z16

you mention a gentle breeze. was is by chance from a different than 'normal' direction ?
i'm collecting outputs from people from all over the globe trying to understand the 'plentiful food/no predators/bigger fish not feeding as they might or even hiding'  phenomenon a little better and if wind direction is one of the causes.

wind direction most definitely changes feeding habits around here (North side of the Pyrenees mountains in southern France)
we have two directions: crossing the country from the Atlantic going to the Mediterranean or vice-versa.
the Atl. wind is generally a bit drier, the Med a bit more humid.
for the same amount of bug activity (and the fish are calm, not in any alert pattern) if the Atl. wind is there you'll have a good day.
if it's the Med. you might as well bring a book...

any thoughts from you guys ?
cheers?
marc


Sandy Nelson

Re: River Don 2015
« Reply #131 on: 01/06/2015 at 17:17 »
HI Marc

The wind factor is important here too, especially if its changeable.
An old Don saying is "when the winds in the east the fish bite least, wind in the west fish bite best" it tends to run pretty true most of the time.
The last few day we have had a westish wind but it was pretty strong, i found shelter from it to go fishing, so not sure it was a big influence on the stretch i was fishing.

If you get an easterly it tends to blow upstream on the Don and it has a negative impact on the fishing although it usually heralds drier/cooler weather, the westerlies tend to be warmer and bring rain with them too, not sure if that is also an issue.

Stability for a couple of days seems to be more important, with changing directions seemingly making the fish moody and tempremental. What i hope for is some stable temps and reasonably constant direction.

Might go out tonight to see what things are doing later on :z16

Sandy

Marc Fauvet

Re: River Don 2015
« Reply #132 on: 01/06/2015 at 17:36 »
thanks Sandy  :z16
i had forgotten about upstream/downstream wind and if it might effect feeding habits as well as all the rest.
so much to know, so few lives to learn it all !..  :z4

Rob Brownfield

Re: River Don 2015
« Reply #133 on: 02/06/2015 at 08:02 »
An old Don saying is "when the winds in the east the fish bite least, wind in the west fish bite best" it tends to run pretty true most of the time.

Same saying in coarse fishing circles.

I do have a theory, although it is maybe a bit hair-brained, but there is some science in it..honest.

When the wind is blowing upstream on the Don, as the flies hatch (normally a reduced hatch due to wind temperature) the flies turn into the wind as their wings act as a sail. If you watch them going past a majority are facing downstream.

Apparently aquatic flies can sense the pressure wave of an approaching fish through their front feet on the waters surface, much the same way as Pond Skaters do.

So, my  theory is that an upstream wind means the flies are harder for the trout to eat as they are facing any oncoming trout and can get out of the way, and with a downstream wind the trout are mostly approaching from the rear of the fly so the flies are easier to eat.


Sandy Nelson

Re: River Don 2015
« Reply #134 on: 02/06/2015 at 09:04 »
Makes sense to me  :z16

To add to that, i have found that if my flies, particularly the DHE, is facing downstream then the trout often ignore it.
If it is facing upstream then they hit it confidently. This often leads me to fish it across and sometimes downstream on a slack line cast rather than traditional upstream dryfly style.

Cheers

Sandy

 




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