[Dave Robb]

I packed up just before 9pm, but there was certainly plenty moving early evening a little further down.

Struggled to tempt anything once again though.  Plenty of fly changes indeed to no avail.

[Ashley Thomas]

Was out last night for the first time in over a month and a half at least.. work commitments have meant my head has been out of the game as of late. Nice rise last night on a local beat, small olives and some huge sedges brought up some nice fish in tricky places just as the sun was setting. Managed to spook one or two rather big fish  but did land a fish in total darkness on the dry - a first for me on the river  Cast, listen, strike 



Ash 

[Dave Robb]

Hmm, still not got the hang of this photo malarkey.  I got it uploaded into my personal gallery from my phone, expected the photo to appear above and it's only a link.

Anyway, went out today despite the weather which at times was bloody awful.  Wasn't surprised not to see anyone be else.

Water was murky early doors but did start to clear around mid day.  Very little seen moving on top, caught quite a few small trout plus the one in the photo.  Not a monster but giving the conditions come afternoon I was grateful.  Lost a slightly bigger fish moments before I caught that, think it might have been a sea trout as it was definitely more silver in colour when it lept out of the water only to slip the hook.

[Hamish Young]

Dave - that should be it sorted now, it had been added to a personal gallery rather than 'add image to post' gallery 

H

[Dave Robb]

Thanks for that.

More rain forecast for today and tomorrow.   Wonderful.

[Rob Brownfield]

Fished a very soggy upper Don with my boss yesterday. Never stopped raining and the river was on the rise. Managed 6-7 small fish to about a 1.5 lbs from some very interesting pools. Mt boss still remains fishless

Three biggest trout to woolly buggers, the rest on dries (although they were wet before I had even tied them on!!) and tungsten PTNs. Probably had about a dozen fish actually on, but the smaller fish flipped off the barbless hooks.

[Sandy Nelson]

Finally managed another day on the river, where the weather had not totally buggered things up
And it was a beautiful afternoon to be on the river, the water was like Dark Tea and running a wee bit up, but these are good conditions for dryfly

Huge hatches of Rosebay willow-herb greeted me as i arrived.



And in amongst the seeds the fish were happily supping down a hatch of LDO's, very small and pale but definitely LDO's



Managed a few nice fish,



And found lots of Sedge hiding in the reeds, i don't think they interested the fish as there were Chocolate olives on the menu, but i enjoyed getting up close and personal with the Caperers (i think)



Now hoping that the weather tomorrow is OK so i can get out on Thursday too

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

Different day today I suspect Sandy?

[Mike Barrio]

Last day of the Brownie season on many beats ..... so a day not to be missed if possible

We arrived to find a fairly brisk upstream wind this morning, something that doesn't usually fill me with confidence. Then enjoyed a walk up and down the water for a few miles in search of rising fish, but no such luck today, only spotting a couple of 'One-cers' that failed to make a second appearance



A great day to be out in the fresh air in good company ( Cheers Brian ) the coffee and sandwiches were good, but the fishing just didn't get going for me today ...... such is life, roll on next time

Had fun trying a couple of flies ( and tactics )  that I haven't fished for a while





Cheers
Mike

[Ashley Thomas]

Ventured out yesterday to swing some flies in the hope of a back-end tourist - nothing doing so I ventured to the dark side and out came the spinning rod 

About four or five casts in I connected with something rather strange yet powerful. The fish was just charging about the pool and refused to surface. When it eventually did I couldn’t believe my eyes, nor was it a salmon or trout but a rather plump pike

Managed to net the fish and take some measurements as I haven’t ever landed one before. Spoke to a local pike angler who estimates it’s weight to be around the 3.5/4lb mark. Just wondering how much of them actually are in the river?

Cheers,
Ash 

[James Laraway]

I see that the Don has been designated a Cat 3 river for 2018....so 100 % C&R. What a sad state of affairs. Back when i started fishing the Don, in 2005 at the backend of the season at Kintore the river used to be 'jumping' with fish. Sadly no longer...

[Rob Brownfield]

Ventured out yesterday to swing some flies in the hope of a back-end tourist - nothing doing so I ventured to the dark side and out came the spinning rod 

About four or five casts in I connected with something rather strange yet powerful. The fish was just charging about the pool and refused to surface. When it eventually did I couldn’t believe my eyes, nor was it a salmon or trout but a rather plump pike

Managed to net the fish and take some measurements as I haven’t ever landed one before. Spoke to a local pike angler who estimates it’s weight to be around the 3.5/4lb mark. Just wondering how much of them actually are in the river?

Cheers,
Ash 

A few...but many end up on the bank , although that situation is changing   I had two this year, both about 4lb, although one was badly damaged. I suspect someone had stepped on it and just pulled the lure free as one side of it had a bad abrasion  and the mandible (lip) was hanging off and bleeding badly.

Largest Pike I know of on the Don was a fish of 23lbs killed on an ADAA beat at least 25  years ago. My biggest river pike in Scotland was a shade over 30lbs. I was given permission to fish a lower Dee beat for Pike many many years ago, but never caught.

I understand there are Perch too, as well as Dace and Gudgeon.

[Ashley Thomas]

A few...but many end up on the bank , although that situation is changing

I see - I had always wondered how many of them were kicking about. The one I caught was in prime condition and my very first so was a real surprise when it eventually surfaced. Went back like a train.

Ash

[Duncan McRae]

Hi Folks

A few years back,there was word of possibly setting up a roving ticket for Brown trout fishing which would include several Don beats.I think it may have been the Don trust which was trying to organize this but my memory fails me.
I thought it was a great idea at the time but for whatever reason it did not come to fruition.

It seems to me that this might be a good time to resurrect the idea.
With both salmon and salmon angler numbers at an all time low, beat owners might be more willing to get involved in anything that will bring in revenue?
It's sad to witness such a decline in Salmon fishing on the Don but if it sparks a resurgence in fishing for our magnificent Browns then that can only be good.

Anyone any thoughts?

Duncan

[Hamish Young]

Duncan,

It was originally the RDBTIA (River Don Brown Trout Improvement Association) that tried to set up the roving ticket scheme.
As I was the 'Secretary' of the RDBTIA back then, I started the 'negotiations' on the roving ticket scheme in late 2007. By mid-2009 I left Aberdeenshire with work and I estimate I was about 80% of the way to actually making the roving scheme a reality for the 2010 season.

My original idea was to make the scheme an affordable way for anglers to fish C&R exclusively on beats across the length of the river.
Naturally some beats were not going to offer their fishing as they already had more rods than water available. Well, so they said at the time
But it was looking good.....  There was significant interest from the smaller beats as the RDBTIA would have taken on the role of 'facilitator' along with FishPal who would have potentially been 'the' outlet for the tickets.

River politics can be fascinating and maybe the concept was too ahead of the game for some, unfortunately the momentum was lost and the initiative didn't materialise - probably as much to do with getting the River Don Trust up and running fully than anything. I still think that the roving ticket scheme is very much the way forward - not only for the Don but other rivers and I still think it should be 100% C&R.

However, it would take someone with serious Don connections to start up the idea again (effectively from scratch after a decade) and make it happen. The timing though, is bang on as the desire to make it happen should be strong. The ADAA effectively have a roving ticket scheme on their waters which came along and (to some extent) could serve as a rough framework for a river-wide scheme as its in operation and works.

H