[Iain Goolager]

Had a trip to some of the Association water today, starting off at Kemnay. Lovely morning but had to call it a day at noon as I had a severe ablution issue
Saw one fish around 2lb cruising about but no rises of note and a smattering of LDO's & MB's. Really wanted to wait around for a decent hatch but had to go. Did manage one fish around 3/4 lb on a MB spider - chock ablock with parr.

12:30ish and I was on the lower Don (already tackled up with spiders) and a decent hatch of LDO's brought surface activity in some fast water from some Parr and obviously larger fish.
A few casts over the rising fish brought a nice 1lber to the spider. This was quickly followed by another, and another........



Moving to another fast run with fish feeding on Olives I proceeded to contact a few more fish in the 1 lb range.

Fortunately the hatches were reasonably prolonged and allowed me to search out some more fast runs which seemed to be where the fish were showing more confidently.




I tallied 12  in total, all stocked  but in fighting fit condition and keen to rise.

Iain

[Hamish Young]

Nice to see you 'educating' the stockies Iain 
Tough job, but someone has to do it 

H 

[Michael Buchan]

Well done Iain  

Had an enjoyable night a kintore yesterday nothing much happening then i came across an 8 inch genius, spent half an hour trying to get him he finally took a cdc olive dun.  There were a few olives coming down the water around 8:30 but nothing moving to them.

PS Loving the lack of cows at kintore just now  

Michael

[Iain Goolager]

Loving the lack of cows at kintore just now

Too right Michael, enjoy it while you can though.

Iain

[Noel Kelly]

Was down the river last 2 evenings. This evening I walked the bank looking for surface feeding fish and saw one tiddler which had the cheek to refuse my offering.
Yesterday evening I fished a wooly bugger and had half a dozen small trout. This is the first year I have fished the river of an evening in april and I still think its still way 2 early for that approach, but with the conditions the way they are, gotta try different things because it seems to be all turned on its head this year
 

[Mike Barrio]

Same at the loch Noel, conditions feel right in the evening, but the trout are not ready yet ...... I think it will probably be a couple of weeks before things start to kick off in the evenings.

Nice to see quite a few Hawthorns about today.

Cheers
Mike

[John Reid]

Same at the loch Noel, conditions feel right in the evening, but the trout are not ready yet ...... I think it will probably be a couple of weeks before things start to kick off in the evenings.

Nice to see quite a few Hawthorns about today.

Cheers
Mike

Its the same on the Clyde.  I was out last night for a couple of hours and there were still duns coming off but very little surface activity.  There was one rising fish which kindly accepted my sparkledun but it was nothing to write home about.  I am heading back to the river now so will hopefully get a decent hatch and rise before lunchtime.

[Michael Buchan]

Was out last night.  While the sun was out it was dead but from 8-9:30 there was a steady trickle of flies coming down and quite a few fish rising to them.  Got a couple on a size 14 black klink 

Hopefully thats them starting to wake up as had a great night.

Will have another crack saturday as im one of the few poor sods having to work today 

Michael

[farrochie]

Ye were probably better off at work! I couldnae even have the wireless on for the drivvle and tripe they were spoutin.

Jimmy

[Richard Tong]

Despite our better judgement we shot up the road from Dundee yesterday morning(after a blank visit to a desperately low Annan) as forecast was for cloud around Monymusk area. The weathermen had got it wrong again and it was wtw sunshine-saw plenty of big fish (some very big ones) but mostly they were lying doggo though saw 3 rise intermittently whilst cruisin around. Did not really cast during the day,had dinner at 6pm and were back on river by 7ish. There was a very monor hatch of Olive Uprights but nae fish stirred, also was a bit of a niggly cold easterly. Did not cast at all in the evening so we both blanked without really wetting a line in anger.

We were up at 4am and shot down to the Eden where the wind was blowing a gale. However eventually found a sheltered spot and were treated to an amazing spectacle of  over 20 Trout going crazy for the Black Gnats blown onto the water in one pool, where we both had fish over to over 2lbs.

Will be back up to Don but only when there has been a significant rise in the river level and hatches (and fish) are back to normal. It's been grim this year so far...

Richard

[Noel Kelly]

Up at 4 am  good effort.

[Matt Henderson]

My Dad and I headed to Monymusk today to avoid the wedding.  As everybody else has been mentioning the river is very low and extremely clear.  The beat we were on was split in the middle with a road bridge so we parked up at the bridge.  We fished upstream of a bridge in the morning and caught a few tiddlers, fishing a nymph and spider combo.  The old man claimed to have moved a few fish but not actually connected with any.  After some coaching Dad changed his tactics after lunch.  Fished down stream of the bridge in the afternoon. There were some unidentifiable black flies coming off the water in the afternoon and also what appeared to be olive uprights but I'm not at Iain's level of insect spotting!  There appeared to a few fish rising but it wasn't obvious whether they were taking flies off the surface or below the surface.  I tried a black Klink but with no success so switched back to nymph and spider.  Interestingly we did spot a monster trout when it made a massive splash.  It refused the nymph and spider and the klink.  By the splash it made I think it was chasing fry rather than an insect.  Dad hooked into the largest fish of the day but subsequently lost it, interestingly enough on an Alexandra which might fit in with Ben's current trout theory!

Took some pics but the camera has died so hopefully they will be on the memory card.

Cheers

Matt

[Noel Kelly]

Dad hooked into the largest fish of the day but subsequently lost it, interestingly enough on an Alexandra which might fit in with Ben's current trout theory!
Matt

I don't like Ben's current trout theory.

[Matt Henderson]

Fry is where it's at Noel! 

Also think something that looked like a stonefly landed on me a couple of times.  Can anybody recommend an idiots guide to river bugs and when they appear so that I can gain some bug knowledge?

[Ben Dixon]

Hi Matt,

Matching the Hatch is a good first book and Goddards Waterside Guide is also good but a bit in depth for a first read. 

Went out tonight for a few hours but didn't even make a cast, saw parr moving and nothing else.


Cheers

Ben