Fishing Reports

This week so far

See each day's largest fish and individual beat catches on our Latest Catches page which is updated each time a ghillie uses our automatic telephone reporting system.

Last week

Last updated: Monday 14th May

The River Dee saw a lot of anglers fishing the length of the catchment looking for the elusive salmon with catches reported from Park to Crathie. If you were in the right place at the right time there were fish to be caught. The numbers of fish running this river so far do appear to be well down on last year's excellent spring catch with season to date catch of 1286 quite a bit down on the 5 year average spring catch of 2028. That said FishDee beats reported 143 salmon to 21 lbs and 8 sea trout. Carlogie had an excellent total with anglers catching 21 salmon, Aboyne Water and Birse reported 10 apiece with Ballogie and Cairnton just one behind on 9 apiece. Conditions at times have been difficult for anglers and this week was no exception. The weather has been quite cold and the river levels have fluctuated a bit with quite peaty water coming down the valley which really does seem to put fish off the take. Anglers though are a resilient bunch and the people I met on the river last week seemed to be having a very enjoyable time in the valley, enjoying good Scottish hospitality.

Sean Stanton the Ballogie Estates Head Ghillie commented on his excellent blog 'A disappointing end to the week after the river came up on Friday night and lots of peat entered the river and I knew we would struggle, however it was still a great week with Carlogie claiming top spot on the river with 21 salmon, Ballogie finished with 9 and Commonty 6 which compared to last season was half of the catch on the same week last year.' I visited Sean on Saturday afternoon whilst visiting Swedish angler Lars Terkildsen at Commonty and Sean's anglers were frustrated at Ballogie with a good number of salmon hooked and lost; one unfortunate angler lost 5 in a row. Tony Wheeler caught a 19 lb salmon at Carlogie which was his biggest to date. Victor Gubbins dropped me a humerous e-mail with a picture for FishDee advising ' Well known international fisherman Anthony Roberts landed a nice 13 lb Springer from Woodend (last week) assisted by his ghillie Victor Gubbins.' They both plan to fish the Woodend beats until they fall of their perches !

I spoke to Jim Cowper at Aboyne Water this morning who advised Bill Currie and party were delighted to land 10 salmon for their week. Many readers will know Bill as a writer of numerous excellent books on fishing. He wrote a super book called 'Days and nights of salmon fishing' with a great chapter about Aboyne Water. Bill doesn't fish much these days but still has an excellent knowledge which he is passing onto his son Mark. Tristan Sillars had 4, Andrew Dennis 4 and Mark Currie had 2 for their week. I had a visit from Arni Baldursson at home on Wednesday evening who was enjoying his Deeside adventures at Birse, where we shared a dram and discussed the sport he had been enjoying. His guests had a marvellous time with Doug Murray; the Birse beat Ghillie, who at 82 years young is still entertaining guests with his stories, jokes and music. Arni sent me an image of the group having a dance outside the fishing hut whilst Doug played tunes on his mouth organ and they looked like they were having a great time. I met Kiddi & Kristinn Gunnarsson at Birse on Saturday who were most enthusiastic about their experiences on Birse and success with salmon.

I spoke to Cairnton Ghillie Brian Brogan who reported that they were unlucky not to get into double figures for the week but pleased nonetheless. It was their best week of the season and was helped in no small way with retired Cairnton Ghillie Davie Cowie landing 2 salmon on Thursday when fishing as a guest; a size 10 Munro Killer did the trick for Davie, who must have been delighted. Most of the Cairnton fish were caught on size 8-10 Cascades and Silver Ally's. I also had a phone call during the week from the Cairnton beat's neighbour Davie Gibbon, Middle Blackhall Ghillie, informing me that visiting Norwegian angler Raymond Haaland had his first ever salmon. The fish weighed approximately 17lbs and was in pristine condition. The Middle Blackhall beat is blessed with having fabulous pools to fish with a great experienced Ghillie in Davie who is extremely knowledgeable, as well as being a qualified casting instructor. The feedback I receive from visitors to the beat is so positive about the enjoyment they get whilst being there, so please try and visit the beat as they do have availability over the next few weeks. As always please let me know how you get on by dropping me an e-mail to ken@riverdee.org with any anecdotes and pictures about your experiences on the river. Ken Reid © FishDee Ltd.

Beat catches reported
(week ending 12th May)
SALMON & GRILSE: Park 4, Lower Crathes and W Durris 4, Crathes 3, Invery 1, Lower Blackhall 3, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 4, Middle Blackhall 5, Cairnton 9, Woodend 2, Lower Woodend 2, Commonty 6, Ballogie 9, Borrowston 4, Kincardine 5, Carlogie 21, Dess 4, Birse 11, Aboyne Water 10, Aboyne Castle 1, Craigendinnie 4, Dinnet 6, Deecastle 3, Headinch and Cambus O'May 5, Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld 7, Birkhall 4, Abergeldie 4, Balmoral 2, Crathie 6.
Total: 149 Largest: Dess 21lbs
SEA TROUT: Park 1, Little Blackhall and Inchmarlo 1, Middle Blackhall 1, Cairnton 2, Sluie 1, Headinch and Cambus O'May 1, Birkhall 1.
Total: 8 Largest: Cairnton 4lbs
TROUT: None reported

Malcolm was celebrating his 73rd birthday, when he caught the fish - what a great birthday he had.


Two super photographs of an estimated 25lb fish caught by retired dentist Malcolm Tocher at Lower Crathes.