[Sandy Nelson]

  FRED

[buntinbee]

Hi Mike,

the first photograph was actually of a trout caught on the salmon fly on the last day of the trout season. The next trout was on a nymph fished Czech style in a fast run, it weighed 6 1/4 lb.
As for which beat to fish, I stand by my original choice of Parkhill. I have, as previously mentioned, fished most of the beats from Strathdon down to the sea, particularly spending a lot of time on the beats between Monymusk and Inverurie. I have hardly seen a decent hatch of flies let alone a rise on any of these beats in the last 10 years in the spring. This contrasts with Parkhill, where most days from mid April to mid May can be counted on to produce a hatch with the corresponding rise of brownies. These are mainly March Browns and large Olives. The only hatches of any consequence I have seen in recent years further up the river have been Grannom and I have yet to see the trout taking advantage of these.

One other thing Spiderman, I don't really understand what you mean  when you said "incidentally one of the theories on why the lower river doesn't fish so well early season is it gets stocked at the beginning of April" Why should a beat that is stocked fish badly?

John

[Irvine Ross]

John

You need to get out and about a bit more. There are regular hatches of March Browns and Dark Olives every spring well upstream of Alford. They were late this spring because of the cold weather and cold water but normally from mid April on to late  May they are there between 1pm and 3pm. Some days the fish chose to rise, some days they don't, but the hatch of flies is fairly reliable as long as the weather is not cold.

My diary for 9 April 2005 noted a big hatch of olives from 1.30 to 3pm and not a fish rising. A week later the hatch lasted from 1.30 to 4pm and I took 5 fish. The following week another hatch and I only got one half-pounder.

Where are you seeing the Grannom? Never yet seen any this far upstream.

Irvine

[Sandy Nelson]

John

Welcome to the forum, sorry I bit the last time, but i can be a bit like a brownie in Springtime with a crippled dun, when it comes to the river.
Its my favourite place in the world.(opinion)

It has been discussed here before and elsewhere, that many people had noticed a lot of flies on the lower river early season, but not so much rises.
The thinking was that the introduction of fish upset the natural balance for a while and the only fish people were catching were stockies.I can only speak from personal experience and what i have discussed with anglers on the river and the information was very much the same.
However it is very interesting to see you have a very diffferent experience of these beats.Just proves the point in going fishing.
In fact going by what you're saying your experience of the last 10 years or so has been almost the opposite to mine, mind you from the photo i dont recognise you so i guess we have always been in different places at the same time.
Have to agree with the Czech nymphing part though, once i learned how to do it properly my catch of bigger fish rose dramatically, i still prefer dryfly/spiders though.

I still don't believe on a river such as the Don there is any need to introduce fish, especially as most of the fish are returned.If it was a put and take take fishery perhaps, but its not.

Anyway thats back to opinions and i reckon we have swung round to experiences so lets keep it there.

What type of Czech nymph did the 6lber come out on, its a truly awesome fish, i've only seen one that size from the river before, but i didn't catch it.Looks like it was a really bonny day too, what time of the day was it caught?

Sandy

[Sandy Nelson]

Irvine

Lots of Grannom around the mid beats , Inverurie-alford, but never seen the trout taking them.
But my diary for the year shows large hatches too but only after the start of May, and very localised, didn't fish the lower river at all so perhaps it did better this year seems so, i'm glad to say.
Did get some great fish though.
roll on next year

Sandy

[wildfisher]

I have hardly seen a decent hatch of flies let alone a rise on any of these beats in the last 10 years in the spring.

Exactly my experience over the years. This  year, for example,  above Alford I saw 1 olive spinner  in 6 trips, no march browns  and only a few Iron Blues. Hardly a fish rose at all over these visits (long very hard fished days)  and during several massive grannom hatches no fish rose at all. In contrast, in years past,  fishing at Kintore and on a beat just above Fintry there was plenty of insect life and lots of rising fish.  My mate John also fished Kintore regularly 2 seasons ago, right through the spring and  summer and had good sport  with reliable rising fish. The lower Don might lack the scenic qualities of beats further up river but they seem to be reliable. Through my own forum and contacts I have recommended the middle / upper Don to a lot of anglers and one of them in particular  is probably  a more experienced and better  fly fisher than most of us will ever be. All   had very limited success in insect -free conditions and I would now hesitate before recommending it to anyone else. I know my posting this  will not please everyone, but you have to say it as you believe it to be, that's the point of the forum.



A Massive Grannom Hatch May 2006-  Don Above Alford

[Mike Barrio]

Hi Alwyn

I am sure that you were not expecting such "passionate" replies when you posted your question  :

But then the Don is a river that produces such passion .........  

[Mike Barrio]

Must confess that I don't understand these lack of insect life comments  :

Spending most of my time at the fishery, I haven't been able to get on the Don much this year  

But on the one day that I spent on a Monymusk beat, I saw olives, I saw a good march brown hatch ( which produced some lovely browns for my companions ) and .......... when we sat on the bank for lunch I was amazed at the number of large stoneflies that joined us!  

Best wishes
Mike

[wildfisher]

Mike, I have    put in  a lot of hours on the Don  over the years including this year. This year I was out  in all weathers from diabolical to perfect, always above Alford, all  day and a few evenings. Apart from  grannom and the (very)  odd iron blue  there was no fly life worth speaking of. Plenty of biting midgies!  There were one or two stone flies but nothing moving to them, some say that trout prefer these in the larval stages and tend to ignore the adults.  

Add to that numerous non-fishing walks along the river at Alford (no fishing distractions so really looking for up-winged flies) and it is hard to dismiss the possibility  that all might not be well  in Donside ephemerid circles.  

Speaking to a  chap who retired as a head keeper on the river   a few years back, he reckoned the fly hatches are  not what they were and thought it might possibly be due  the activities of farmers. Perhaps it is an upper /  mid river problem and by the time the waters reach Parkhill the effects have been diluted?  The experiences I have had over the years correlate  with those of buninbee and many many others I have spoken with.

I still enjoy my day though, really like the river,   and will go back. If it's poor   it's not a big deal if you only live along the road! Not so sure I would be as happy if I had travelled a long distance or if it was my main fishing holiday though.

Anyway, these are just my own experiences and those of most , others I know / have spoken with.  Other folks will have had, no doubt,  different ones. That's the beauty of forums compared to say – magazine articles-   a  wider contributor  base. At the end of the day, as a visitor,  you find out what you can,  pay your money and take your chance!

[Irvine Ross]

Out of curiosity I have checked my diaries for the 7 years I have fished the upper Don near Glenkindie. This year was particularly poor, but then we had a lot of snow in March and the water was cold. I still managed to catch 1 fish per 3 visits to the river. Normally I do better.

Over the other 6 years, 2000-2005 inclusive, my diary records a hatch of olives and/or March browns on every visit except when the weather was  particularly cold. Often the hatches are localised and you can walk a long stretch of river and see nothing so you have to know where to look. Sometimes the hatch was confined to a bit of the river sheltered from the wind but it was there.

Now maybe compared to the halcion days of 20 years ago, this is so poor as to be described as no "fly life at all" but in the literal sense of the words, it doesn't describe my experience.

I certainly agree that the upper river is not a location I would recommend to anyone who has spent a lot of money on travel and accommodiation. I get a lot of blank days but the cause is normally the lack of fish rising to the hatch I'm watching. Somedays they are there, somedays they are not, and I wish I knew why.

Irvine

[Sandy Nelson]

hmmmmm

The halcyon days of yesteryear :
I fished the river regularly 20 years ago, i reckon its better now.
Funny 20 years ago they talked of the halcyon days of 20 years ago.
Can't say i've noticed a marked decline in the insects.In fact for the last few years i've seen bigger hatches than before, especially mid river , inverurie,manar etc.
Now 10 years ago the river wasn't as good as it is now, but thats an opinion based on personal observation and experience. The year of Foot and mouth the river was basically shut for the whole season, perhaps thats why it is fishing better now, it had a good rest.Subsequently of course, more and more people are returning fish so this should help too
We could also wonder at the scientists, who apparently cannot find March browns in the river.Maybe they get their specs from the same shop as Fred  

 :

Sorry mate couldn't resist :

Have to add the largest hatches of LDO's i've ever seen have been at Parkhill, but not a fish to be seen, whereas elsewhere i have seen trout mop up every single fly on the surface when a hatch is sparse.
I guess it boils down to being in the right place at the right time, but i go to be beside the river, the prettier the surroundings the better.Thats what floats my fly


Sandy

[wildfisher]

The year of Foot and mouth the river was basically shut for the whole season

The river was certainly not shut   up our way. Alford  was 100% back in action (I use the word  action  loosely)  by May, in fact some of it was available for fishing by   Easter.  That year was one of my most intense on the river in fact. Still  not a lot of flies, although I did witness a few MASSIVE hatches of hawthorn flies that the fish completely  ignored. Maybe they taste like grannom!   :

[Sandy Nelson]

Interesting

The bits i fish were all shut for the bulk of the season, i must admit i thought all the beats were closed too, due to the Don valley being such a rich farming area.
Just goes to show

Sandy

[wildfisher]

Sandy, There was no rhyme, reason or logic to it. Kintore was closed until August as I remember – Sloanes told me that the farmer would just not let folk on - end of story. If it was the same chap who farmed there  in the 1970's then I am not surprised. I had at least one "run in"  with him back then that I remember he hated anglers being on his land. If it had been up to him  there would be no fishing there – at least that's what he told me. As the riparian owner he could perhaps  have stopped trout fishing but not salmon as I believe the council salmon rights on the Don are owned by the Crown Estates.  It's  fairly common for farmers to have trout only fishing rights all over Scotland. I guess they might  receive  payment from the council for the trout fishing but I am not sure. Might be  a bit like those who sell plots of land for vast sums for house building then  moan about  incomers! I am not absolutely certain what the situation is over most of the Don, but I am sure if someone does know I'll find out!  Certainly the beat above Fintray we fished in the 70's,  early 80's  was trout only – the farmer had no rights to the salmon fishing. He let us on for a few quid / day – a lot of slow water but some good fish in there.

[Alwyn]

It's been really interesting following the various replies to my initial questions, although I'm now excited and worried in equal measure! It's strange that there are good hatches but few fish rising - I've heard a lot of talk about fish not liking Grannom (not my experience on Southern English chalkstreams), but not rising to LDO's is a bit of mystery. I consider this to be the best and most relaiable hatch to fish when I'm on the rivers of South Wales and on the chalkstreams. Presumably there is a healthy population of trout generally in the Don?

I once fished a river in the US where the water flow was very erratic because the river was fed from a dam. There were huge hatches of sedge but very few fish rising. The locals said that it was because the river was constantly going up and down and they tended to get all their fish with nymphs on the bottom. Not sure whether this makes sense but does the water level of the Don fluctuate more than average?

I was reading "Trout Hunting" by Bob Wyatt yesterday and he described a heavy grannom hatch on the Tay with nothing taking his adult imitation and then getting terrific sport when he switched to the pupa imitation - perhaps there's a lot going on under the surface that's not apparent from above? (Great book by the way and I recommend it highly - he's a Canadian ex-pat based in Scotland and he focuses a lot on Scottish rivers and lochs. He has some interesting things to say about so-called trout intellegence, selectivity, downstream wet fly fishing and what makes a successful artificial).

All the best and thanks again.

Alwyn