You would think spending a week waving 15ft of graphite and a #10 line about with little to show for it, apart from sore shoulders, cracked skin on the fingers from line burn and an empty wallet, should be enough to put any sane person off?
It was a great weeks Salmon fishing, despite the lack of Salmon! They were in the river but we seemed to be about 10 miles behind them all week.
The first few days we fished Ardoe on the Dee in the morning and the South Esk for Sea Trout in the evening. As with so many Salmon trips, like so many anglers before us, the weather proved our downfall. It had rained very hard the Friday and Saturday before we got there. So we used the first three days as casting practice.
Fish that had been sitting in the Estuary all piled into the river at the same time and used a rising Dee as an opportunity to get as close to their spawning grounds as possible. They swan like fish possessed all the way to the middle and middle-upper beats, they were caught on the Monday and Tuesday from Lower Blackhall to Cairnton. We were about 20 miles too far east.
Mid-week and we switched to our second Dee booking, Lower Blackhall. Overnight rain on Tuesday scuppered us again and as we arrived on the Thursday to see the last of the Salmon swimming under the Banchory bridge and heading for tea with the Queen at Balmoral!
Soon the aches and pains from constant Spey casting were the main topic of conversation and AT's bad shoulder and my sore hands were the focus of our attention. Even the capture of a silver tourist was not enough to fire the hope that we were about to start catching Salmon.
The afternoon rain storms continued for the rest of the week and there was little prospect of a fish. We were neither seeing Salmon in the river nor were there fish being reported from the lower beats to give us hope that something could be heading our way.
However, no sooner were the rods loaded into the car on the Saturday evening than we were planning a September trip and the hunger for a Salmon was all consuming, again, until next time!
It was a great weeks Salmon fishing, despite the lack of Salmon! They were in the river but we seemed to be about 10 miles behind them all week.
The first few days we fished Ardoe on the Dee in the morning and the South Esk for Sea Trout in the evening. As with so many Salmon trips, like so many anglers before us, the weather proved our downfall. It had rained very hard the Friday and Saturday before we got there. So we used the first three days as casting practice.
Fish that had been sitting in the Estuary all piled into the river at the same time and used a rising Dee as an opportunity to get as close to their spawning grounds as possible. They swan like fish possessed all the way to the middle and middle-upper beats, they were caught on the Monday and Tuesday from Lower Blackhall to Cairnton. We were about 20 miles too far east.
Mid-week and we switched to our second Dee booking, Lower Blackhall. Overnight rain on Tuesday scuppered us again and as we arrived on the Thursday to see the last of the Salmon swimming under the Banchory bridge and heading for tea with the Queen at Balmoral!
Soon the aches and pains from constant Spey casting were the main topic of conversation and AT's bad shoulder and my sore hands were the focus of our attention. Even the capture of a silver tourist was not enough to fire the hope that we were about to start catching Salmon.
The afternoon rain storms continued for the rest of the week and there was little prospect of a fish. We were neither seeing Salmon in the river nor were there fish being reported from the lower beats to give us hope that something could be heading our way.
However, no sooner were the rods loaded into the car on the Saturday evening than we were planning a September trip and the hunger for a Salmon was all consuming, again, until next time!
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