River Don 2018

« **Reply #75 on:** 01/05/2018 at 19:23 »

Had a look down to the river for a couple of hours. Spotted this Stonker feeding on a brief hatch of LDO’s and it took a liking to my dry fly too

Scott

« **Reply #76 on:** 01/05/2018 at 19:39 »

Great stuff Scott

« **Reply #77 on:** 01/05/2018 at 21:01 »

Quote from: Scott Cumming on 01/05/2018 at 19:23

Had a look down to the river for a couple of hours. Spotted this Stonker feeding on a brief hatch of LDO’s and it took a liking to my dry fly too

Scott

Farking hell Scott, that is a TROUT!!!!
Well played Sir

« **Reply #78 on:** 02/05/2018 at 08:10 »

Quote from: Mike Barrio on 01/05/2018 at 19:39

Great stuff Scott

Pretty sure that's the fish I had last week...but it must have been feeding hard as its put in 4 or 5 lbs

« **Reply #79 on:** 02/05/2018 at 18:48 »

Brief update ..... day permits for the Inverurie Burgh Fishings are now also available online

See: http://new.fishpal.com/Scotland/Don/Inverurie/?dom=don

« **Reply #80 on:** 03/05/2018 at 08:10 »

A cold and wet day yesterday. I hope the river doesn’t rise too much and heats up soon, the water is still cold for the beginning of May or maybe my bones are feeling it more these days! A worthwhile trip all the same and was lucky enough to tempt a couple of nice trout

Scott

« **Reply #81 on:** 03/05/2018 at 12:32 »

Beauties Scott.

« **Reply #82 on:** 08/05/2018 at 07:20 »

Tough going over the weekend... bright sunshine and gin clear water is never a good combo

A mixed bag of weather yesterday. Cloudy with heavy showers in the morning, bright sunshine in afternoon. Covered miles of water and my perseverance finally paid off.

Scott

« **Reply #83 on:** 19/05/2018 at 00:14 »

First evening session of the season for me. Still a bit early but thought I’d be in with a shout after the recent warm spell

Scott

« **Reply #84 on:** 19/05/2018 at 00:33 »

Great stuff Scott

« **Reply #85 on:** 29/05/2018 at 19:32 »

It was a weekend for sunbathing, BBQs and beer. However I did manage to winkle out some nice trout in the bright sun and in the cover of Darkness.

There were some stoneflies skittering on the surface mid afternoon and nice trout coming up for them but I didn’t have any imitations big enough. After a few observations I nipped home to create some big beasties at the tying bench

Using the materials that came to hand I wanted a fly with plenty of movement to mimic the fast legs of the stones. The rubber legs I had were too fine and supple, the flexi floss was too thick and rigid. In the end I used knotted, split strands of flexi floss. I exaggerated the leg length for mobilty and added a couple extra for good measure - hoping these trigger points would provoke a reaction from the trout.

Armed with my new creation I headed back for the evening session to find the odd trout feeding on stoneflies. My rudimentary pattern seemed to go down well and this was the end result.....

I will refine the dressing but happy with the results so far

Scott

« **Reply #86 on:** 30/05/2018 at 08:14 »

Lost him the day before, so went back tonight & had it from the same spot on the same fly. Hooked in the neck of one pool & landed in the tail of the pool below.
You've got to love a bit o tungsten on the don

« **Reply #87 on:** 30/05/2018 at 17:32 »

Solid trout that

« **Reply #88 on:** 31/05/2018 at 10:22 »

That’s a proper fatty

« **Reply #89 on:** 01/06/2018 at 14:45 »

This is the best the Don had to offer me last night. Everything went dead after the haar rolled in!

Scott

« **Reply #90 on:** 02/06/2018 at 07:33 »

Nice night to be on the river bank, although the water is getting extremely low. Managed to tempt some nice trout on a sparsely dressed sedge pattern

Always that bit sweeter on the dry

Scott

« **Reply #91 on:** 02/06/2018 at 08:41 »

Oh for sure, hence you catching ‘99%’ of yours on the dry......

« **Reply #92 on:** 02/06/2018 at 11:57 »

I was out late last night also (might have been you Scott that was parked next to me). Yet another cracking looking fish, well done.

Strange evening all in I thought.

Was really nice earlier, seemingly perfect conditions yet barely a fish moving apart from a couple of leaping tourists.

Once dusk came in I stirred up a couple of decent looking fish but didn't connect. I will get one of these lumps yet

Hopefully.

« **Reply #93 on:** 04/06/2018 at 00:11 »

Quote from: Dave Robb on 02/06/2018 at 11:57

I was out late last night also (might have been you Scott that was parked next to me)

That wasn’t me Dave. I’ve been out six out of the last seven evenings, apart from one evening it’s been tough going. Most nights I’d be lucky to break the 1/2 lb mark. There has been a small window when fish have been hitting emerging sedge, they’ll come up two or three times before disappearing for the night. I have some nice fish pegged though. I see the water is carrying some colour tonight, did I miss something when I was away Saturday night?

Scott

« **Reply #94 on:** 04/06/2018 at 08:57 »

Ah, definitely wasn’t you then if you weren’t out Saturday as same car from Friday was parked next to me on the Saturday night.

So yeah, was out Saturday from early evening. Hooked a belter of a sea trout mid evening which took off like a train, down to my backing and to the point I had to put the brakes on. It then came off. Plenty of sea trout to be seen though, jumping clean out of the water.

Very little activity from the browns, just like you’re saying there was a very small window, maybe 2200 -2230 where they became a bit more active but then it went dead again despite plenty of flies on the water.

And boy are they being choosy. Even with a greatly reduced size in fly (took me ages to get the bloody thing tied on) they were still just having the odd look at it and not committing.

« **Reply #95 on:** 04/06/2018 at 10:14 »

If it was a black pick up then it was myself, I have been out couple of nights and agree with the comments, brown trout been small and activity period short lived however have seen a number of sea trout including day time feeders.

« **Reply #96 on:** 05/06/2018 at 08:53 »

Quote from: Dave Robb on 04/06/2018 at 08:57

And boy are they being choosy. Even with a greatly reduced size in fly (took me ages to get the bloody thing tied on) they were still just having the odd look at it and not committing.

Try going bigger, up to a size 10 or even an 8

Sandy

« **Reply #97 on:** 05/06/2018 at 09:53 »

Not been out much of late with the house an all, but i did get out the other night and the decent ones were only out to play for about 30mins right at the death.
Sedge emergers as Scott said, but i had to go up a size or two to get some solid interest

Going for another bash tonight

Sandy

« **Reply #98 on:** 05/06/2018 at 10:00 »

Won’t manage an evening session until the weekend but will go bigger if they’re moving in the dusk. Just got some sizeable sedgehogs which might be worth a bash late on.

Think I’m going to invest in some new leader material this week, currently using Maxima green but will look at other options see if that helps.

« **Reply #99 on:** 05/06/2018 at 11:53 »

Scott

Quote from: Dave Robb on 05/06/2018 at 10:00

Think I’m going to invest in some new leader material this week, currently using Maxima green but will look at other options see if that helps.

The fish can become leader shy, what breaking strain/diameter you using?

My setup is 9.5ft Froghair supple butt leader with loop to loop connection (thats perfection loop) to a length of froghair copolymer tippet with double davy knot to fly. This has been a solid setup i’ve used for years. I’ll seldom use anything less than 5x-4.9lbs on the Don, sometimes go down to 6x - 3.7lbs but at this time of year we have thick patches of weed to negotiate.

Recently I have been using a sparsely dressed size 14 CDC sedge on a curved hook. I agree with Sandy, sometimes you have to go bigger than the natural, it can trigger a reaction from the trout. Send me a PM if you want some flies to try

scott