[sightbob]

hi all
fishing the spey end of feb on the macallan beat.
can anyone give any advice as i've never fished there before and can't seem to find much on the net.
will be fishing fly if suitable and spinning if not.
cheers
brian.

[Graham Ritchie]

Take full sinking and sink tip lines. At that time of the year you will be fishing with tube flies, personally I use flies tied on 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 inch copper or aluminium tubes at that time of the year. The wings on these tubes are about 2 times the body length so the overall length of the fly is about 2 1/2 to 3 inches. Black and Yellow or Gold Willie Gunn tubes should be all you need. The choice of whether to use full sinking or sink tip lines and copper or aluminium tubes will depend on the pool and on the water height. Use a short leader of 3 to 5 feet of a minimum of 15lb, 20lb is better especially with copper tubes, this will prevent the fly riding too far above the level of the sinking line or sink tip. The gillie on the Macallan beat is very good and will keep you right.

[sightbob]

not long back from the spey today, caught two kelts both around 7lb.
excellent beat and gillie but will have to wait till next year to fish it again as it's fully booked from next week til the end of the season.
ended up spinning with devons and flying c's but should have taken the fly rod as the river was only up 12 inch although it was rising.
both fish were caught and safely returned first thing in the morning and both took a debarbed black 20g flying c which was a first for me.
at £20 a day as apposed to £2000 a week in the summer i would recommend it to anyone as there was fresh fish showing.
cheers
brian.

just a small part of the beat which is about a mile long but not all can be fished from the bank when the water is up.



one of the kelts