[Mike Barrio]

The March To The River Don is being held, as usual, on the first Saturday of the season, which this year falls on the 16th of February.

Several guests have been invited, Aberdeenshire Provost Bill Howartson has been invited to say a few words and then make the first cast, plus Dr Lorraine Hawkins, Director of the Dee and Don District Fishery Boards, representation from the Don District Salmon Fishery Board Water Bailiffs and local councillors.
 
Glen Garioch Distillery are kindly providing whisky for the Toast to the River and a 'hot toddy', plus there will be some 'nibbles' available for those in attendance.

The event is open to all who would like to attend and Inverurie Angling Association hopes that a good number of anglers, guests and public will be there to enjoy the event.

Attendees to gather at the Kintore Arms Hotel in Inverurie from 8.45 - 9.00 am for complimentary tea/coffee and biscuits in preparation for the March, which will begin at 9.30am. The procession will be led by a piper to the Don Bridge for the ceremony to take place.

[Brian Johnstone]

Kintore Angling Club have leased the Balbithan, Torryburn and Kinellar, Salmon & Sea Trout beats east of the bridge at Kintore, along with the Brown Trout fishing to the top of Balbithan Island.

We now offer around 5 miles of dual bank fishing for Salmon, Sea Trout and Brown Trout in 22 named pools.

Excellent Value for £135 adult season ticket, £85 Senior 65+ & Disabled.

See Facebook Page or website kintoreanglingclub.org.uk for details

Tight Lines for 2019 !!

Brian Johnstone
Secretary Treasurer

[Mike Barrio]

I went for a walk down the river to catch up with Sandy today ..... but he was busy

A bright silver fish that 'almost' made it to the net

[Hamish Young]

Cool  But a shame it fell off 

[Mike Barrio]

Thanks to Glen Garioch Distillery for the single malt whisky at this morning's March To The River Don ..... https://www.glengarioch.com/

It was great to catch up with so many folk

[Fred Hay]

First salmon reported off the Burgh Fishings - a 7lb specimen taken yesterday from the Black Pot on the fly.

No photos unfortunately but good to hear there's the odd fresh fish about. 

[Mike Barrio]

Only one more sleep ..............

[Sandy Nelson]

So today was the day...........

Bloody cold , bloody windy Frozen hands  Frozen feet 

But then i could have come out of the water

However from 1.30 -3.30 the hatch was pretty steady, only found a few rising fish mostly smallish, but i did get a nice surprise.
Not quite what i was after, but as fresh as a daisy, so there are some in the river



Hopefully the water warms up a little soon

Sandy

[Scott Cumming]

I fished a few beats yesterday, picking up fish on each. Nymphs, dries and spiders all played their part. Best of the day was a cracking early season lump




Heres one I caught in March, again in great condition - shame the whole system isn't open earlier... might be an idea?






Scott

[James Laraway]

So today was the day...........

Bloody cold , bloody windy Frozen hands  Frozen feet 

But then i could have come out of the water

However from 1.30 -3.30 the hatch was pretty steady, only found a few rising fish mostly smallish, but i did get a nice surprise.
Not quite what i was after, but as fresh as a daisy, so there are some in the river



Hopefully the water warms up a little soon

Sandy

is that a sea trout Sandy ?

[Sandy Nelson]

Sure is James

2.5lb bar of silver, not what I expected working the nymph down a run, but it was a lot of fun.

Sandy

[Sandy Nelson]

Tricky Day today

Beautiful day to be out, but water still a bit dirty about a foot high and running at 8 degrees.

Lots of flies, both Olives and March browns from 1pm onwards, this one was a little legless, maybe drunk on amber nectar



Here and there was the odd riser, so i managed to get my first on the Demo



getting out of the mainstream and round the back of an island proved a better move




2 steady feeders by the trees  proved willing and although not huge quite rewarding on a tough afternoon



Sandy

[James Craig]

Yesterday:

1x Otter
1x Osprey
10x Goosanders
1x Kingfisher
1x Cormorant 
0x Brown Trout

I found a memory card on the track on the way back to the car, the contents of which I checked when I got home with some trepidation. It contained approx. 30 videos from a trail-cam which has been monitoring a badger sett. Pretty awesome to watch the antics of them, mainly arse scratching and bone crunching. It is a sett which is dug into the railway embankment and is being monitored as part of the dualling project.

I think I know the company that is carrying that out, so will return if possible. Interestingly though, the last clip is from 1.30 in the morning, and clearly shows the trail cam being taken off it's stand and switched off. Bit odd.

[Sandy Nelson]

So the first day out for me on the Don fishing event.

I did wonder if it was starting the way it was meant to go on



So i was at Cottown and Bellabeg.
However i found my way to the river, and what a lovely looking beat it is.



Lots of water to cover, but i did the whole beat from top to bottom



And then from bottom to top 



The water temperature was just 7 degrees and she was carrying a little colour, but despite this there were plenty flies coming off from midday onwards



Not a rising fish to be seen, so it was a day spent nymphing and searching out the likely looking spots, eventually i was rewarded with a quick pull and the result was this lovely little fella



once he was returned i plonked the nymph back in the same spot and the immediatley met with a solid resistance that then ran towards me, so i had no idea what i'd hooked until i got the line back on the reel and then it took off
So after a really good scrap and negotiating an overhanging bush, i got him onto the shallows and he posed for some pictures while he recovered.



Cracking looking fish, with deep gold belly and big spots



Big teeth in there too



Its a funny old game this fishing lark, a whole day spent wandering and searching the water and then 2 fish in 2 casts from the same spot.
So a new beat for me ticked off, some awesome bits to go back and fish again, including a 50 yd bit of the best looking trout water i think i've ever seen.
Proper dryfly water, if only the conditions had been a bit better, but who am i to complain i had a great day and it was worth the hike just to see that fish.



 

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff Sandy
Haven't fished there ........ a new box to tick

[Iain Cameron]

Cottown is a lovely wee beat; fished it once about 18 months or so ago. Some cracking trout you got there Sandy.


I fished the Grandhome beat on Wednesday as part of the Don 8 Event. The water was still  rather coloured, and higher and therefore deeper & faster than I would have liked.There's a LOT of water - 3 miles or so - but I covered a fair bit of ground.


Saw one rising trout around 1pm. Caught it. So my success rate was 100%.... Half-heartedly nymphed for a bit, but was mostly happy to wander in the sun and have a good old look around. LIke clockwork, a good hatch of LDOs from midday onwards, not many MBs in evidence, though in truth I was wandering a lot and perhaps not as attentive as I could have been


Some big old trout there, as the salmon anglers related... Anyone fishing there in the next week or two, while the water stubbornly refuses to drop, would do well to pack a streamer or two...  It's an interesting stretch; lots of deep, dramatic plunges. Would like to return at lower water levels as I suspect there's a lot more sport to be had.


cheers
iai

[Ali Mcewan]

My first day on the don8 event, kemnay beat 3 to start with.
Great wee beat, although running a tad high I'd guess.  But plenty of varied water. Most my fish came from between the hut & the shark fin stone. 




Best of the day









Got a close up encounter with a bitch otter & had a fly past from the kingfisher too

[Scott Cumming]

Fetternear for me today on the Don 8 event.



Water still very cold and carrying some colour. Had the dry fly rod set up in optimism but very few trout surfaced despite the steady trickle of flies.



So the day was spent nymphing, plenty of small trout in the morning with a couple of bigger ones in the afternoon.







 
Scott

[Iain Cameron]

great stuff Scott and Ali,


the Don seems reluctant to drop and warm up, and get the fish feeding up top.
It's probably ever thus, but early season impatience makes it seem so slow... i suppose the Olives are happy though, getting through the day without being snaffled by hungry troots

[Cameron deBoth]

You will have caught that fish a stones throw from my childhood home !!!

As you say its a great stretch there!

[Gavin Stevenson]

No pictures but fished lower Don today, 2 on PTN and couple on drys biggest around 1lb there were a few large olives but little surface activity

[Scott Cumming]

It was bloody cold out there today...






and to finish the day off, a mini bar of gold



 
Scott

[Liam Stephen]

After Kemnay on Saturday  I tried to find shelter upriver on a friends beat. I had unfinished business in a certain pool. Got the bugger and broke in the new Troutbum stick! 

[Sandy Nelson]

Had my day out on Castle Forbes today.



Took Glass and Grass for the day out, one for the nymph and one for the dry, not often i carry 2 rods, but it was an experiment as i was rather excited about being on Forbes after all these years.

So it was an interesting day with Hatches on the go from 11am right through till 4pm, Olives and March browns at different points.
However there were only a handful of rising fish, i measured the water temp and it was still just 9 degrees, But the PTN started things off quite well



Some nice water for it though, although you can just imagine the rising fish.



There was the odd rising fish in the fast water, but nothing spectacular, though they were keen for the CDC spider



Lots of superb water to explore, although it seemed the nymph was a better option.



I did manage to find one cracking fish sweeping a Vee at the tail of a pool, i didn't know he was a cracker until he took the fly, but all hell broke loose as he snaffled a CDC spider and proceeded to jump around all over the place, unfortunately he managed to wrap  the tippet round his nose and then he came in quite quickly, i should have guessed what would happen next, as i put the net in the weeds as usual to unhook the fish, i had to unwrap the tippet from round his nose, the second he was free, he took off like a rocket and before i knew it was back in the river, but what a lovely fish and this time on the Dry

Next one was a bit smaller, but i managed a picture



Still i wandered the whole beat and managed a few fish from each run, i saw a pair of Kingfishers a couple of deer and 4 Salmon moved in 4 different pools, A great day, with the best conditions so far for one of my days out.



Cheers

Sandy

[Allan Liddle]

Superb stuff guys, loving the photos and i'll have to get onto the Don soon.