River Don 2017

« **Reply #25 on:** 28/03/2017 at 12:16 »

Quote from: Rob on 28/03/2017 at 08:13

Not after stockies after silver tourists...and waiting for the season to open for the stockies

Sounds like a good excuse to me, that way, at least, you can always say there's nae fish

Sandy

Awesome fish Ali/Liam

« **Reply #26 on:** 28/03/2017 at 12:29 »

Nice one Ali I still hadn't got round to doing it!

What are Salmon??

« **Reply #27 on:** 28/03/2017 at 13:15 »

Quote from: Liam Stephen on 28/03/2017 at 12:29

What are Salmon??

That's those silver things we were catching on the dryfly back in September

.
remember , they were a bloody nuisance......................

« **Reply #28 on:** 28/03/2017 at 14:06 »

Quote from: Sandy Nelson on 28/03/2017 at 13:15

That's those silver things we were catching on the dryfly back in September .
remember , they were a bloody nuisance......................

Oh aye those pesky buggers!

I remember now......

« **Reply #29 on:** 28/03/2017 at 14:48 »

Quote from: Liam Stephen on 28/03/2017 at 14:06

Oh aye those pesky buggers!

I remember now......

Anyone can catch them on a dry...it takes skill to get them on a lump of copper plumbers tubing and a bit of dead deer tail.

Does a 6" Sunray count as a dry? lol

« **Reply #30 on:** 28/03/2017 at 15:32 »

Quote from: Rob on 28/03/2017 at 14:48

Anyone can catch them on a dry...it takes skill to get them on a lump of copper plumbers tubing and a bit of dead deer tail.

Does a 6" Sunray count as a dry? lol

Yeah yeah ........

No that doesn't count unless it's got a wing or parachute post attached?

« **Reply #31 on:** 28/03/2017 at 15:49 »

Quote from: Liam Stephen on 28/03/2017 at 15:32

Yeah yeah ........

No that doesn't count unless it's got a wing or parachute post attached?

It has a 6" wing

« **Reply #32 on:** 28/03/2017 at 16:02 »

Quote from: Rob on 28/03/2017 at 15:49

It has a 6" wing

therein lies your problem....... its still too early for the Martin Hatch

« **Reply #33 on:** 28/03/2017 at 16:15 »

Liam/Ali
Some stunning trout there.Well done.
With all the doom and gloom caused by the lack of salmon it's great to see something positive.

Duncan

« **Reply #34 on:** 28/03/2017 at 16:34 »

Am I missing something, thought brown trout don't start until 1st April?

« **Reply #35 on:** 28/03/2017 at 16:40 »

Yes is the answer to that.

As I discovered last year, some of the upper river beats open for trout on the 15th of March and close on the 6th of October.
There are only a handful that do this (Fetternear and Kildrummy to name the 2 on Fishpal, there are a couple of others), but worth looking at

Sandy

« **Reply #36 on:** 28/03/2017 at 16:54 »

Quote from: Sandy Nelson on 28/03/2017 at 16:40

Yes is the answer to that.

As I discovered last year, some of the upper river beats open for trout on the 15th of March and close on the 6th of October.
There are only a handful that do this (Fetternear and Kildrummy to name the 2 on Fishpal, there are a couple of others), but worth looking at

Yet Fetternear is opposite an ADAA beat...perhaps the fish on their bank are different

Sandy

« **Reply #37 on:** 28/03/2017 at 16:58 »

A bit late now but handy to know for next year. Thought the whole system was April.

Not sure why I'm that concerned, probably won't temp anything like those in the photos.

« **Reply #38 on:** 28/03/2017 at 17:11 »

There are a few beats that don't follow the norm ..... if I remember correctly, I think Monymusk doesn't open for salmon until April?

Cheers
Mike

« **Reply #39 on:** 31/03/2017 at 14:29 »

It is almost April today

« **Reply #40 on:** 01/04/2017 at 07:04 »

Tightlines for the season guys!

« **Reply #41 on:** 01/04/2017 at 09:13 »

Quote from: Liam Stephen on 01/04/2017 at 07:04

Tightlines for the season guys!

I'll echo that, for all Don fishers

and all our friends from elsewhere, Have a great one

Sandy

« **Reply #42 on:** 01/04/2017 at 15:54 »

Woosh Timed it Just right to hide under Kintore bridge as the heavens opened up with a crack of thunder and hail stones, at the same time a little 10" brownie takes the hook, I'll take that one for a first on Kintore this year.

« **Reply #43 on:** 01/04/2017 at 17:57 »

Perfect morning on the Lower river

Hatch was in full swing when i arrived at 1030, with rising fish as well, great way to start off.
Got my first off the Don on cast number 3

.

The hatch continued right through till about half 2 with the odd rising fish still after that too.
A good mix of flies coming off, a couple of different sizes of Large Dark Olives and later on March browns.

Lovely Day to be out and fantastic to see so many fish looking up and feeding off the top, nothing Huge but plenty decent ones to keep me amused.

Sandy

« **Reply #44 on:** 01/04/2017 at 21:24 »

Great stuff guys ........... looks like this rain could colour the water up a bit for a few days though

Anybody else enjoy some good sport today?

Cheers
Mike

« **Reply #45 on:** 01/04/2017 at 22:24 »

Yes Mike

, I was out today with Liam and we bumped into Sandy later on in the day. Decent hatch of LDO's from the word go (9:30am

), and it picked up later on when the March Browns appeared. Liam as usual found himself a solid fish, this one of around 3 1/4lbs.

Picking away on the nymphs and dries was the answer today, and I was delighted to land my first LDO feeding fish. Hopefully the rest of this season proves to be a good one, especially since it's my real first

Cheers
Ash

« **Reply #46 on:** 02/04/2017 at 11:47 »

was on river 9:30 this morning has some colour, saw no surface activity when I left 10:30

Gavin

« **Reply #47 on:** 02/04/2017 at 16:59 »

Yeah Gavin it was mucky down at parkhill this morning. A move up river around 10am paid off though!

« **Reply #48 on:** 02/04/2017 at 19:06 »

Yup it proved a shrewd move

headed upstream to find clear water, after the chosen beat proved too murky,
Was much more like a normal April day out, although spring was very much in the air

Flies didn't really start till after 1pm so i took a walk on the dark side

Picking clear water pockets proved to be a good move for most of the morning

After some lunch there was several flurries of March Browns and a handful of LDO's, the fish didn't seem to mind to which

Eventually managed to get a rise on the dry

So a day that looked to be washed out at first, proved to be a nice day to be on the river, a far more normal April day than yesterday, with flies coming off from about 1pm to 3pm in small batches and the fish keying onto them for very short spells 10-15mins.
One or two good ones showing too, but all the fish were decent.

Sandy

« **Reply #49 on:** 02/04/2017 at 21:07 »

After a long day on the water on Saturday, and a late night Sat night, a long sunday lie-in was needed. Upshot, I wandered down to my local stretch at 12ish to find mucky waters. Ah well, it was sunny, water *was* dropping, so ever hopeful.... if nothing else it was great watching the ducks picking off a fairly decent hatch.

Eventually spied a steady feeder in a slack spot. Turned out to be an extremely acrobatic sea trout, shining silver in the April sun as he leapt to make his displeasure clear. A pun and a half of fun.

Found some otter footprints. Listened the the woodpeckering. Picked out another steady riser, this time a plump trout of just over the pound. Cleared some flood debris then called it a day. Well, I do have the next 5 days to go fishing, so why rush...