[Kevin Muir]

Ahh, that's what they look like.

What a stunning looking fish, nice size to play on the short rod, that must have put a decent bend in it.

Kev.

[Will Shaw]

Belter!

Switch rod again Ben?

W.

[Irvine Ross]

Nice one Ben.
I had a good afternoon on the upper river. Nae photos from me as the battery on the phone was flat. The hatch lasted from from about 12:30 to14:00 but the wind made things tricky. You could only cast in the lulls between the gusts. Anyway I got two nice brown trout at around 3lb each, both on the DHE. I missed a third fish and didn't see any more rises. Anyway a nice change after last week's blank.
Irvine

[Mike Barrio]

Excellent Irvine

[Sandy Nelson]

Gassed off the river this afternoon

Took Daniel down for a few casts and hopefully to get amongst some of the fish, but for some reason the only stretch we could find without the wind causing us issues had some sort of development work going on, this site apparently used to be a land fill.

All i know is the stink was horrendous, smelled like proper gas and gave us both a headache inside an hour, not very nice at all.
Very little fly life seen and only a couple of risers, nothing of any size, not sure if this was down to the wind direction or the gas.
didn't venture too far so not sure what the rest of the river was like.

Bit of a shame as He doesn't come out that much and had been looking forward to it.

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

That's a bit of a bummer ... felt like it was shaping up to be a great afternoon for it

Cheers
Mike

[Liam Stephen]

Like Sandy I experienced a poor day. Everything was looking perfect but very little fly life and only a handful of fish rising... Fingers crossed things pick up again  

One of the few flies I saw today.


Liam

[Jonathan Kerr]

and here's his brother liam..perhaps the only two that rose on the don today! 

[Liam Stephen]

Nice pic Jonathan 

[Dorlo]

Hey all, had another day out on the river today and got my first 'proper' Don Brownie. Great feeling after losing a good one last week!

It wasn't a great day overall with hardly any fly or fish showing, but I was lucky enough to spot this fish feeding steadily on some tiny olives, and he took my size 16 pheasant tail CDC job.

I'll post two photos as the first one has a bit of that 'fish held too close to the camera' look about it 
The second shot gives a better idea of size probably.

This is my best brown trout ever so I was pretty chuffed!

[Peter Rawlinson]

Cracking trout and good  pics .  Cheers .

[Mike Barrio]

Excellent stuff Dorlo ....... 

Best wishes
Mike

[Dorlo]

And forgot to mention, the fish was returned after the photo of course.

[Mike Barrio]

And forgot to mention, the fish was returned after the photo of course.

[Rob Brownfield]

Arrrrrrrrrghhhhhh! I really do give in!

So, as per every friday, I got to the river at 2pm, but this time, only with a ZG 4 weight and one of Mikes olive SLX's and a size 14 DHE.

Went for a walk but the wind was cool and keeping the fish down, I walked to the bottom of the beat and back and only saw one sprat rise.

So, off with the dry and on with a team of spiders. Partridge and Orange, Waterhen Bloa and a made up thing with an olive body and brown partridge hackle, all size 16.

Off I went down the pool and after 10 yards I get a pull and hook a good fish, for all of 10 seconds! Slightly pee'd off, I carried on.  Just as the flies swung over a buldge caused by a rock, the line plucked and went tight.

Next thing I know I am connected to a very silver Salmon of about 7-8 pounds. It stayed deep and came close to me before suddenly deciding to run 15 yards down stream before turning and coming back past me at speed. This went on for a couple of minutes before the line parted at the fly. Looking at the line, it was a clean cut so I wonder if it was a well mended kelt and one of its teeth had caught the line. It had taken the Waterhen Bloa.

I am ditching all my salmon flies and now going to "spider" for them!!! My luck has to change soon!