Fishing The Fly Scotland Forum

Jazzaman1234

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #475 on: 23/05/2012 at 19:19 »
Hi

Was fishing the don around the Inverurie area today.Fishing was crap due to people and there dam dogs swimming
It was like union street in christmas eve. :z14

If they are going to let there dogs of the lead and go swimming in the river they should be paying a permit of some sort.  :cry

Regards

James

Allan Liddle

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #476 on: 23/05/2012 at 22:13 »
I have had quite a few on the dry these last few days, but frustratingly, I seem to lose a lot more than I land, and anything that was big enough to put a healthy bend in the rod, broke the leader!! Getting very annoyed about it. In 35 years of angling I have never had so much hassle from broken line!!! I use a lot of very light line for my roach fishing, down to 12oz breaking strain and size 24 hooks, so I think I am ok on knots, but everything I have tried recently has led to broken leaders, normally the hook knot. Not a happy bunny!!
 
Currently I am using (for the tippet) 3lb Drennen Sub Surface, 3.3lb Orvis Mirage, Wychwood 3 or 4lb Fine and dry.

As for the succesful flies, mainly olive F-flies in size 16-14 or olive paraduns in the same size.



What rod n line you using Rod?  I know it's an obvious question.
Try Maxima green 3lb.

Marc Fauvet

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #477 on: 24/05/2012 at 07:58 »
hi Rob,
where does it break (fly, connecting knots or in between) and how old is your material ?
even if it isn't that old it might have been damaged by sun or getting wet and drying on the spools (not thoroughly).

cheers,
marc

Rob Brownfield

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #478 on: 24/05/2012 at 09:36 »
What rod n line you using Rod?  I know it's an obvious question.
Try Maxima green 3lb.

Two...both Orvis Zero Gravities, 9.5 actions, one being a 5 weight, one a 4 weight.

I have to say the 4 weight has had less breakages so I had worked out that 5 weight might be a bit too beefy, BUT, I have not had this trouble before, playing fish hard at Mikes on the same gear. The 5 weight is my go to rod at Midmar for rainbows in the 3-5 pound mark and I put a proper bend in the rod. Its only this year I have had an issue.

Rob Brownfield

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #479 on: 24/05/2012 at 09:41 »
hi Rob,
where does it break (fly, connecting knots or in between) and how old is your material ?
even if it isn't that old it might have been damaged by sun or getting wet and drying on the spools (not thoroughly).

cheers,
marc

I had a bit of an issue with knots at the dropper going, but I changed from a 3 turn water knot to a "seguar" knot that has stopped that completely :) Now it is at the hook.

The Orvis line has a 2013 use by date, the Drennen Sub Surface was bought 2 weeks ago and the Wychwood at the beginning of the year. All lines are kept in pockets in my waistcoat or in a bag so not exposed to light or wet.

The knots I use for the hook are a five turn grinner which I have used for 30+ years, on all sorts of lines. I have also tried a 3-5 turn blood knot, tucked and untucked, but they all seem to go far too easy. As I say, I have never had issues with these knots before.

Loxiafan

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #480 on: 24/05/2012 at 10:14 »
Firstly, glad to see someone else has been getting out - was beginning to think this thread was dying.  :roll

I had a problem with knots breaking at the hook at the end of last season when I switched to a different tippet, was driving me nuts and lost two decent fish. It was a highly recommended material and used by a lot of great anglers but it just wouldn't work for me. I switched back to Stroft GTM and no problems since. I would echo Allan's comment that the Maxima will simply not let you down if you can live with the diameter, the knots don't have to be tucked either which they do with most of the posh stuff (in my experience).

Also, I have had Wychwood tippet slipping at the hook if you dont tuck the knots, but you are using this further up the leader so not sure if that would be a problem, but it is pretty slippy stuff. With Stroft, at the hook I use "The Knot" ala Paul Procter and recommended by Richard Tong on here. So far it has not let me down, is easy to tie with frozen fingers, doesn't use lots of tippet when changing flies etc. 3 (or 4) turn waters seem ok for tapering tippet.

Stroft, other than 'chunky munkey' Maxima, is the most reliable material I have used, so it is just a case of finding or using something you have absolute confidence in eg. what were you using/doing differently for the big fish you caught ( I know it was a streamer and not a size 16 dry) ! ?

L

Marc Fauvet

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #481 on: 24/05/2012 at 10:37 »
i also agree with all the Stroft suggestion. it's as flawless as it gets.

Rob Brownfield

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #482 on: 24/05/2012 at 13:00 »
Hi Marc, yes, its the "Duncan" knot I use. 5 turns for thin line, getting less the thicker it goes.

Always well lubed, tightened slowly and tags pulled evenly. As I say, its a sudden thing. I have no idea why its suddenly started happening. Maybe my "spit" has suddenly stopped being so slippy?..lol

Maxima was always my go to line when course fishing until I took up pole fishing. Now I use some pretty funky low diameter lines that are far thinner than fly leader, but seem to knot better.

I shall continue to play about with knots. I must try this Proctor knot..heard a lot about it.

Peter McCallum

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #483 on: 24/05/2012 at 13:59 »
I would echo Allan's comment that the Maxima will simply not let you down if you can live with the diameter

Think you've pretty much hit the nail there L, if you use dia as your standard (or 'x' number) you'll find maxima is not that different it's just they understate the breaking strain by a fair bit, so '10lb' maxima actually breaks at a higher load. Clever bit of marketing there.

Rob Brownfield

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #484 on: 25/05/2012 at 16:24 »


 :X2

danbruce

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #485 on: 25/05/2012 at 16:28 »
Nice fish Rob,

Was that the monster you had a week or 2 ago, or have you gone and done it again?

Dan

Marc Fauvet

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #486 on: 25/05/2012 at 16:50 »
 :z16   :z13

Iain Cameron

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #487 on: 25/05/2012 at 19:52 »
Was that the monster you had a week or 2 ago, or have you gone and done it again?

must be the same fash from two weeks ago. my pics were obviously not good enough  :-0

there was a 3rd member of the trip, sean/shaun (sorry) who was taking serious photos.

we ended up in the river wearing 240v battery packs and light reflecting umbrellas nearly 5 feet wide and praying that we didn't get blown into the water and electrocuted. Hopefully Rob should have some good photos soon of us mucking about with casting and then some real photos of Ben_D showing us how it ought to be done.

Matt Henderson

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #488 on: 25/05/2012 at 20:55 »
Had an nice afternoon today. Bit frustrating though. Tried up stream spiders, upstream dries, klink and dink, and streamers! Lost one fish on a streamer. Was joined by Iain Goolager who landed a monster.

Things were beginning to look a bit more lively when I was leaving.

Cheers Matt

Michael Buchan

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #489 on: 26/05/2012 at 23:42 »
Just back had a good evening decent amount of fish moving  :z16.  Went through a few fly changes before i started getting rises to a rusty spinner pattern. 

Highlight of the night was when i struck into a tiny sip to the spinner expecting a 6 incher only for it to go screaming down the pool turned out out to be around the 2lb mark.

Should be out most nights in next couple weeks as wife is away with her work for 12 nights yipeeeeee  :grin

Michael

danbruce

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #490 on: 27/05/2012 at 21:02 »
Well its looking like another lovely evening so I have made my excuses and have ventured out to see if i can't catch a late evening rise. Sitting on the bank there seems to be loads of fly life but no decent fish showing, maybe still a little too bright :z8. Decided to ditch the wets and spiders for the dries and wait patiently for something to happen.

Could be a long night.

Dan

Noel Kelly

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #491 on: 28/05/2012 at 23:44 »
Just home from the river. A good night at long last. Must have hooked about 10 and landed maybe more than half of them. Best 1.5lbs and a few about 1lb. All on cdc&elk. Took a few pics but they are horrible.
Was quiet difficult water I was fishing but that's where the fish were rising. Seen a 4+ lbr jump clear out of the water and also seen an absolute monster make a few surges on the surface. It was just about in casting range but I didn't even go for it, felt my leader wouldn't have been up to the job and was 2 dark to change. There will be other nights :grin

Phil

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #492 on: 29/05/2012 at 12:53 »
Hi An Chileog,

wow that sound like a good session!  :z16 Did you catch them all on the dry? at night?  :?

I am asking as this is my first season and I am still not so confident with my fishing so far...  I fished last Friday from 6 to 10pm... There haven't been a lot of trout rising, some very small ones once and a while as there was no hatch going on... So I switched from dry to nymph, wet, streamer, dry again and so on...  It's really difficult! So I'm always thinking if I should walk more and look for rising trout, stay and wait if something happens or fish blind in good looking spots...?

Did you see the trouts you have caught last time?

Cheers,
Phil


Noel Kelly

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #493 on: 29/05/2012 at 13:33 »
Hi An Chileog,

wow that sound like a good session!  :z16 Did you catch them all on the dry? at night?  :?

I am asking as this is my first season and I am still not so confident with my fishing so far...  I fished last Friday from 6 to 10pm... There haven't been a lot of trout rising, some very small ones once and a while as there was no hatch going on... So I switched from dry to nymph, wet, streamer, dry again and so on...  It's really difficult! So I'm always thinking if I should walk more and look for rising trout, stay and wait if something happens or fish blind in good looking spots...?

Did you see the trouts you have caught last time?

Cheers,
Phil



Hi Phil
Yes all on cdc&elk dry. It's my go to when there are sedges about. There are 2 pools on this stretch that I have previously seen rising fish so I started at one and walked to the other. About a half mile between them. Last night there were a few rising in the first pool when I got there at about 8.30, got one and dropped 2. So left that pool to rest it and went to check out the other. Not much happening there so after watching it for 20 mins or so I headed back to where I started. Stopping every 100m or so for a look and listen. Picked up a few more by doing this and when I got back to first pool there were fish feeding again :grin
Last night was only the second night I have see lots of rising fish this season so don't worry about not seeing much. Next time I'm back there it will prob seem like there isn't a fish in the river!
I don't understand your last question?
Cheers
Noel

Duncan McRae

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #494 on: 29/05/2012 at 14:48 »
Hi Noel

Any chance that the big fish you saw might have been sea trout?
I was also out last night and noticed a couple of real big fish lunging on the surface.I suspect they were sea trout but  i'm not certain.This is about the time i would expect to see them arriving.

Regards
Duncan

Noel Kelly

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #495 on: 29/05/2012 at 15:21 »
Could well be Duncan. I'm not familiar with sea trout at all. The rises were more like lunges, very splashy.

Phil

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #496 on: 29/05/2012 at 16:55 »
Noel,

ok interesting... maybe I should observe more...  :z5 my last question was more or less if you have seen the trout rising steadily? I mean last time I have been out, I have seen one rise/splash and than 10-15min later another one, but on a different spot... so I could not spot any target to cast my dry fly...  that's what I tried to say when I asked if you have seen the trout?  :z4 sorry, german accent, hehehe....

Cheers,
Phil

Noel Kelly

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #497 on: 29/05/2012 at 19:26 »
Noel,

ok interesting... maybe I should observe more...  :z5 my last question was more or less if you have seen the trout rising steadily? I mean last time I have been out, I have seen one rise/splash and than 10-15min later another one, but on a different spot... so I could not spot any target to cast my dry fly...  that's what I tried to say when I asked if you have seen the trout?  :z4 sorry, german accent, hehehe....

Cheers,
Phil

Germany cool :z16 worked in a few different places there a few years ago. Loved the place.
Yes the trout were rising steadily last night, couldn't see much on the water other than the occasional sedge  but they were feeding hard.
Tonight looks good, get yourself down to the river!

Eddie Sinclair

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #498 on: 31/05/2012 at 22:31 »
Guys, this may not be the correct part of the forum, modes anyone know who owns the fishing that Colin Hart used to run from the Grant Arms at Monymusk these days?

Thanks in advance,

Eddie.

Hamish Young

Re: River Don 2012
« Reply #499 on: 31/05/2012 at 22:42 »
I believe it's all owned by the Monymusk Estate - so that would be Archie Grant.

H :z3

 




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