Fishing The Fly Scotland Forum

Ali Mcewan

Re: River Don 2019
« Reply #30 on: 22/04/2019 at 14:44 »
Great result upriver Scott

Mike Barrio

Re: River Don 2019
« Reply #31 on: 23/04/2019 at 12:01 »
Pesky wind .............. :z6

Dave Robb

Re: River Don 2019
« Reply #32 on: 23/04/2019 at 15:57 »
Every day I’ve managed out so far has seen strong wind blowing down river.  Feels like no matter where I go, the wind is blowing into me.


Mike Boyd

Re: River Don 2019
« Reply #33 on: 24/04/2019 at 19:57 »
Agree very windy and little fly or rising fish.

Mike Boyd

Re: River Don 2019
« Reply #34 on: 24/04/2019 at 20:28 »
Finally got one on the dry fly. Hooked in very shallow water and very close in on a March Brown Dun. Ran me all the way down the pool, through a tree in the middle of the pool. Great scrap. I got a bit wet chasing it!


Sandy Nelson

Re: River Don 2019
« Reply #35 on: 25/04/2019 at 09:29 »
For those interested

I had a reply back from buglife Scotland about my mysterious beastie

“Thank you for getting in touch about the bug on your fish. I shared it with Craig Macadam who is our expert on freshwater invertebrates and he has confirmed it is a fish leech (Pisicola sp., probably Pisicola geometra). Whilst they feed on fish like trout they don’t do much harm unless in huge numbers. So this one shouldn’t really harm the fish you caught.”

So as suspected it’s a wee leech. Something to keep an eye out for in the future👍

Sandy

Scott Cumming

Re: River Don 2019
« Reply #36 on: 08/05/2019 at 12:14 »
It’s been hard going with the recent weather.  Yesterday was better when the wind dropped and I connected with some nice trout :z16





Aaron got in on the action too :z16



 :z18
Scott

Ali Mcewan

Re: River Don 2019
« Reply #37 on: 08/05/2019 at 15:56 »
Looks like the gill plate on the first fish hasn't grown with the rest of it, or is it just the photo?

Scott Cumming

Re: River Don 2019
« Reply #38 on: 09/05/2019 at 08:36 »
Ali,

The gill cover looked underdeveloped or has receded due to a previous infection!

Scott

Hamish Young

Re: River Don 2019
« Reply #39 on: 09/05/2019 at 15:56 »
Interesting - in the past (long, long ago when I was a student) I came across some trout with 'short' gill plates and it was determined then as a physical manifestation of extreme growth in a short period, but IMHO it would be unusual/extreme in a Brown Trout in normal conditions.
Did you take a scale sample from that fish at all Scott :?

Scott Cumming

Re: River Don 2019
« Reply #40 on: 10/05/2019 at 10:07 »
No sample Hamish, wish I had. I'll know next time!

Mike Barrio

Re: River Don 2019
« Reply #41 on: 15/05/2019 at 18:22 »
Great day to be on the river :z16



Sandy Nelson

Re: River Don 2019
« Reply #42 on: 16/05/2019 at 19:56 »
It was indeed, especially when you found it.

So i'm walking along and hear some grumpy old man swearing at his phone, "Siri.....Wheres the bloody river?...... How am i supposed to know what it looks like these days??................... I know its round here somewhere!........ sod it i'll follow this nice young man and see where he's going.........." :z4 :z4 :z4 :z4 :z4



So with the old dude in tow, i went for a wander, very satisfying doing your bit for the old folk  :z16



Lovely beat on a lovely day and the fish played ball for most of it.



It actually took me back a few years as the Don behaved more like how i remember it, with good numbers of 10-14" fish keeping you amused all day and a smattering of better ones, from the lies you would expect them to be in.

The light was causing me problems trying to get the fish out of the shadows cast by me, the joys of being on the north bank of the river.
Come the afternoon the sheer quantity of flies in the air was astonishing, zoom in on this one to get a rough idea of how tough it was to try and figure out which ones they were rising for.



It seemed the terrestrials were more preferred to the grannon and olives that were on the water, although this fat little devil ,i think had been feasting on something with a bit more protein in it.



So a grand day out on a favourite beat, a pity the clouds didn't show up, as promised by the weather man, but the surroundings were stunning. What beautiful part of the country we live in.



I helped the old gadgie back to his car and he very kindly gave me a lift home  :z4 :z4 :z4 :z4

Sandy

Mike Barrio

Re: River Don 2019
« Reply #43 on: 16/05/2019 at 22:01 »
Go fishing by yourself - next time you can  :wink

.......... and you obviously didn't look after him very well, cause he took a dunking  :z4  :z4  :z4

Michael Buchan

Re: River Don 2019
« Reply #44 on: 20/05/2019 at 14:57 »
I owe the forum a massive thanks  :z16

I haven’t fished much in the past 3 years since our youngest was born but reading the Don event posts and seeing the monsters that have been caught lately I decided to have a day at south waterside.  I met Scott there while he was doing his Don event challenge and I have been out every weekend up and down the Don since.   Although up to this weekend I had enjoyed the fishing I never hit a really good day that was until this weekend.

It started out great as I hooked a 2.5lber on my 3rd cast then I had fished through a couple pools and nothing until I hooked the biggest trout I have ever seen It sounded like a bowling ball hitting the water every time it jumped Unfortunately the hook parted after a minute or so and I was absolutely gutted  :X1.

Thankfully my low didn’t last to long as the very next pool I hooked and landed my new PB.  A long fish with a head like a shark.

 
Crazy morning stoked with my new PB but I would trade it for the fish I lost in a heartbeat.

Fishing slowed down after the first hours excitement but I did find one nice riser round about 2lb which took a Paul Procter APT.

Roll on this weekend.

Thanks
Michael

 




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