[Black Pennell]

Hi all,

Am strongly considering a visit to the Don this season to the Monymusk beats and was after some info.
Firstly what would the best time of year for a chance visit as I won't be able to plan in immediately in advance and would like to hedge my bets with avoiding too low/high water. Is April too early?
Secondly any personal favorite tactics for said beats/time of year.
Brownies only. Have seen a few threads about other reports which have wet my appetite but if you only had one chance?

Any advice welcome.

Thanks

Rob.

[Richard Tong]

Hi Rob,

We always have April penned in but on one or two occasions have had to delay till May due to snow melt affecting river heights and temperatures. May is good and the evening fishing can also start being worthwhile then. Ben has had great success in mid Summer fishing in the evening but for the like of you and me who have to travel to get there (700 miles round trip) what do you do in the day but twiddle your thumbs as there is not a lot happening. Long time to spend for 1 hours fishing(which could be spectacular nonetheless).

All beats at Monymusk are good and like the rest of the Don hold sizeable Trout. Main tactic we employ is dry fly..paraduns and CDC mainly,last May fished a lot of Black Gnats/small black Klinks with great success

Richard

[Ben Dixon]

Hi Rob,

If travelling from Elgin, you have not too far a trip.  Last year, there was not much doing until the last few days of March and things were slow until into April.  April was o.k but, I had much better sport in May during the day and the best of my dry fly fishing was in the evenings from late May until about the last week in July.  Things were slow early August but I did O.K in the last few hours of light when we did not get a sea mist coming in and the temperature did not drop too much, many fish at this point in the year came to streamers 

One shot, a day in early May.

Cheers

Ben

[Noel Kelly]

I would also say a day in early may. I would ideally want an overcast day with a gentle warm breeze, even better with a light drizzle but we rarely get that here.

[Black Pennell]

Thanks for all the info guys,

Most helpful with my decision. Fairly conclusive time of year being May. Any way can't wait.

Thanks again

Rob

[Rob Brownfield]

If you are down that way, pop into the Grant Arms and ask to see the catch return book. It makes for really interesting reading indeed.

Some days you will see reports of 10-15 fish taken by one angler whilst the rest of the beats produced very little/nothing..and normally that angler is called Ben

Seriously though, a flick through the book will help you decided when, what beat and what tactics to try.

I only got out twice last year on Monymusk, both in May, just an afternoon ticket..and caught both times (Czech Nymphing as the air was very very cold).

[Sandy Nelson]

I'd go early May too

One of the best days we have out, was early May on Monymusk.
And as the guys say, you can hang around and there may be some evening sport, although it may be with streamers.
Thats really good fun too, and a nice way to spread the day out.
If you are out, then the main hatches will be from 1130 -1430 at that time of year, LDO's and march browns and perhaps a small sprinkling of Iron Blues.

The other trip i would reccomend travelling down for would be Kildrummy in mid-late June.
You'll get some good nymph fishing during the day and then a lovely dryfly session later on with Yellow mays, BWO's and sedges. Very nice piece of water to fish too, with some cracking fish

Sandy

[Ben Dixon]

Hi Sandy,

Kildrummy is an excellent stretch, very nice water.  May be we should get a forum outing arranged there, any takers?

Cheers

Ben

[Noel Kelly]

Hi Sandy,

Kildrummy is an excellent stretch, very nice water.  May be we should get a forum outing arranged there, any takers?

Cheers

Ben

Yes me.

[Jim Eddie]

Sounds like a plan , I'd be up for it.

 

Jim

[Irvine Ross]

Hi Sandy,

Kildrummy is an excellent stretch, very nice water.  May be we should get a forum outing arranged there, any takers?

Cheers

Ben

Ben

Me too. How many rods can the beat take?

Irvine

[Sandy Nelson]

I'll go too if we can make it 15-18th of july or 30th july- 2nd august.

I'm sure MR B would be up for it too

Sandy

[Paul Garrigan]

I would be up for this. 

[Tam Greenock]

Me too 

[Ben Dixon]

The beat takes more than have expressed interest so far, we could do the earlier dates in July Sandy, will be at the CLA for the second lot.  No reason we could not arrange a couple of days up there in the spring too.

Will do some digging tomorrow and post back an update.


Cheers

Ben