[Sandy Nelson]

Here's an opener for 2017.

I had  a few finnock, both fresh and stale last week while spinning in the dirty water, but today the water was looking better and a decent colour. So i stopped playing pretend dryfly with the Bamboo flyrods and did a small cut job on a GT125 and attached a fast sinking tip.

Went for a swing through the river to see who was about

A few nice fresh bars of silver were very forthcoming and i managed to get 3 , all about 11"-12", to the net, and so begins the year of the bamboo proper



The fish were not grouped together in pods yet, all were found as individuals, but its nice to see them in the river and providing good sport already.



Sandy

[Sandy Nelson]

Dirty water today, so i resorted to the dark side.
Picked up a couple of Finnock, but not much happening, still lovely afternoon to be out.

heres one for Will



Most interesting thing was, for the second time in the last couple of days, there was a sprinkling of these little devils hatching off, sparse but still appearing  between 2 and 3.30.



Hopefully this bodes well for a fortnight time

Sandy

[Mike Barrio]

It's only got one tail

[Sandy Nelson]

It's only got one tail

Thats how i managed to catch him

[Duncan McRae]

Lovely reel Sandy.There's something special about these old Mitchell reels.

Fished the Methlick area  this afternoon using the 400 version but nothing doing.

Duncan

[Grant Montgomery]

Nice Harfin reel Sandy. Are they from Australia? 

[Sandy Nelson]

Hi Grant

Yes the Harfin's are from Oz, Ashleigh Dunsmore makes a superb product in some very cool colours.
That one is actually the very first one to have arrived in the UK, so i'm quite lucky
With the exchange rates they work out much better value than some of the high end American reels. Better quality too.
Well worth a look if you are in the market for a top quality disk drag reel.

Duncan, you are right there, there is definitely something about the older Mitchells. I love using that outfit as its my Grandads Sharpes Spinning rod ,1958 and all original. The Mitchell is also original and 1965, very tactile and sensitive which is perfect for Finnock hunting.

Sandy

[Grant Montgomery]

Nice one Sandy! Yeah, I had checked out their website and fb page a few months ago. Smashing looking reel.
You know me, Im always in the market!!

[Rob Brownfield]

I was digging through some gear yesterday and pulled out a couple of Mitchell 300's I use on my Sharpes cane carp rods.

Sorry, they are not wonderful reels, they are bags of spanners! But I would not swap them for anything

Also found my 3 centrepins as well, so I am very happy, and an old J W Youngs "Ambidex" reel which I did not even know I had.

[Will Shaw]

Lovely reel Sandy! 👍

I have a couple of later 410s and they're fab. I have some 300s and a couple of auto bail models. I know the drags aren't up to much, but the line-lay is excellent, and I like back-winding!

[Dave Robb]

Anybody been out recently? 

I crossed the bridge at Ellon on Sunday, obviously some heavy rain the previous day and the water looked like mud.

Monday would have been my chance to get out but gave it a miss due to what I had seen.

Hopefully now we're into spring the weather will settle down.

[Graham Allan]

Anybody been out recently? 

I crossed the bridge at Ellon on Sunday, obviously some heavy rain the previous day and the water looked like mud.

Monday would have been my chance to get out but gave it a miss due to what I had seen.

Hopefully now we're into spring the weather will settle down.

Hi ,Minamoto Ive joined the  Haddo House angling club this season I've never seen the water up there before yet alone fished it.  Ill be nipping up there today hopefully, for a wee look at the water .Ill be throwing the wt 3 in the boot if I've time I might give it a few chucks. Ill let you know how I get on .

Graham

Ok. Managed a wee run up in the Afternoon some nice bits of water with some good runs and pools. There was a strong bitter cold wind blowing down stream .The water looked quite low but carried a bit of colour   .
Tried a few casts at the Gight almost impossible with the wind tried a few runs the downside of Ythanbank not a fly was seen nor was a fin or rise of any kind .I just looked like one of those raw days when you know nothing is going to stir .
Tried mostly heavy nymphs upstream .
Hopefully ill get out again soon to explore a wee bit more.

Graham.

[Graham Allan]

Hi All.I had a wee go on the Haddo waters last Friday to learn the river a bit more for when the sea troot appear .It was a fine warm overcast day for the time of year with a stiff upstream  wind.
Took the wt 6 floater with fast sink tip the plan was to try for a finnock with the wets and cover water . Took a bonnie wee Finnock about 1300 on a wee Dunkeld double  on the dropper It hit the fly like a fish possessed so Im chuffed that is my Ythan season off and running .
On my last run of the day I hooked and released a Brownie of about 7"also on the Dunkeld.
Hardly saw any fly life so the wt 3 stayed in the car.

Question time ..Im away for a month again in about a week and fancy another go  How much longer can I expect to catch Finnock
? When would I expect to see the Sea trout appearing from Ythan bank upstream.
Cheers Graham.

[Sandy Nelson]

HI Graham

The finnock will hang around all year, you get them mostly in Feb-aril and again in sept-october, but you can catch them all year in the river, they seem to run up and down with the tides.
As for the sea-trout, they are already in the Don, so will be running the Ythan too, another couple of months for it to be regular and then they will be there right till the end of the season.

Sandy

[Graham Allan]

Cheers Sandy. Hopefully there will be a few on the go next time Im home ,early May into June .
The Hot orange JC Dunkeld was the closest thing i had to Yer SSS

Cheers Graham.