[Steven Kidd]

Just brilliant Sandy, and its not even April yet!

I love seeing those big March Browns, ........Tied up a few more big size 10  scruffy DHEs today.

Steven

[Iain Cameron]

Brilliant pics Stephen and Sandy. Nice to hear abooot some MBs showing.

Stephen - aye, I hear ya.  I  replaced  the default net on my McLean weigh net quick sharp. The default net caught itself on  everything possible, and that was just in the boot of the car before even getting to a river.  Annoying.  Much better with a simple eBay replacement .

Cheers
Iain
Ps, one lightly used, original, classic, McLean’s net bag up for grabs…. a bargain for £20 😀

[Matt Clark]

Brilliant afternoon at Inverurie today lots of LDO and fish willing to rise to them. Quite a few in the 1lb range and above which was great to see.

[Gavin Stevenson]

Same at Parkhill numerous on CDC's 1 to 2 lbs between 2 and 3pm then went quiet

[Sandy Nelson]

I've been out and about exploring the last few days, some new bits, some favourites.



There have been some good hatches and some nice rising fish.



The LDOs seem to come off first, around 12 but It has been the smaller fish taking them



However when the March Browns start its been a different story 2pm onwards seems to have been the routine.



Sunday was a particularly exceptional day on most beats including the one I was fishing, with a sustained hatch of LDO's from 12-2 and the March Browns from 2-4
And feeding fish to be found all over the river



From yesterday, I noticed that the bright sunshine is no longer helping things and has put the fish down a bit, so the switch has been made, now we pray for clouds.
However the sunshine made this guys red spots and deep orange fins stand out from 3/4 of the way across the river, was lovely to see them up close.



Today I found only a handful of rising fish, but this beauty was making itself known as it charged around looking for March Browns



So a few days of solid dryfly action, the plume tip scored on the LDO feeders and it was the CDC spider and DHE for the March browns



Not all the photos worked either 

[Steven Kidd]

Just superb Sandy,......sounds like I missed a nice day Sunday, (I was trying to fish a Loch from a Boat.......to no avail! )

I went for a wander with the rod today and picked away.  Just a small hatch of MBs where I was for a short time.  Bit of a cold breeze.  But still had a great day,

5 on the dry, very varied in colours and markings, all stunning wee specimens:-)





Steven

[Mike Barrio]

Great stuff guys 

Yep, that wind still feels a bit sharp!

I see @ScottCumming is finding a few fish too,   

[Mike Barrio]

Grabbed a few hours this afternoon, my first time on the river this year 

[Sandy Nelson]

Been a tricky week with the water going up and then down and then up again and then dropping off nicely over the weekend.
Good week for bugs, Orange striped Stonefly

 Patchy rises early in the week before the water went up, no monsters, but some good fish kicking about.

Still LDO's coming off and the March Browns later in the afternoon

By Friday the river was starting to return to a fishable state

Saturday I caught up with some friends and we did a full beat trek, with lots of trees to negotiate. Worth getting to some of the obscure spots though

When you found one rising fish you found 3 or 4,  just a pity finding one was so tough

Fairly typical mid April behaviour with the fish showing in some spots and other seeming totally dead, no sustained predictable hatches or rises.
Things settling down after the initial burst of Sport at the end of March.
I did see some House Martens though, so the Olive uprights wont be far away.

[Mike Barrio]

( This is a back up post - originally posted by Stephen Barraclough )

Loving the pics and updates, would love to tag along with someone one day, my ultimate dream is fly fishing on the rivers 

[Mike Barrio]

( This is a back up post - originally posted by Michael Kearney )



I've fished different beats over the previous three days, all featured emergences of Olive Uprights with trout rising to feed.  My tie of Sandy's CDC spider on a size 14 hook was good enough. The river and its inhabitants are in great condition.

[Mike Barrio]

Nice one Michael, fingers crossed for some settled weather this week 

[Sandy Nelson]

Nice fish Michael, great to see a few of you out and about.

The last couple of weeks have been varied between the bright sunshine



Which makes for great underwater shots in our lovely clear water



So plenty LDOs coming from from lunchtime with the March browns kicking in a touch later meant even with the bright sky there were still some great fish to found feeding off the top
 


My fishing buddy found a couple too



And the week was a blast, then last weekend. It went back to snow and hail and negative o-night temps. This dropped the water temp from 11 back down to 7 in the space of a couple of days and the fish started to sulk.
Still one or two rising to the March browns as the water cleared nicely, even though it stayed cold



Mid week last week I saw the first swallows over the river, the martins have been back a couple of weeks but these were swallows and not 30mins later did the Olive uprights start to appear



This extended the small rise from a handful of fish right up until 5pm.  The last couple of days has seen a rise and fall in the river again but we have a nice relatively warm week ahead so fingers crossed I can find a fish like this , which was the best from a couple of weeks ago caught by a good friend on the dry

[Allan Liddle]

Fantastic stuff guys and interesting to see MBs still around.

[Mike Barrio]

Fantastic stuff guys and interesting to see MBs still around.

I guess the weather is currently more March than May