Latest angling report 8th May

The river levels fell back and ran clear for the week until last Friday when heavy rain fell over the upper and middle catchment bringing a 4inch rise on Saturday. Now into May the Don is still running at a great height for angling and salmon entering the system have been taking full advantage with sealiced fish being reported as far upriver at Breda.

Water temperatures are on the increase and rose to over 50f yesterday for the first time this season. Gusting winds during the day have made casting a fly difficult at times but conditions have improved in the evenings when the winds dropped away.

Throughout the week most beats from Grandhome upriver to Breda have reported landing the odd fish, nothing spectacular but considering the ever growing numbers of Seals and Dolphins that are being seen in the bay it's surprising that anything has made it into the river.

There has been some lovely short fat fish landed of late with the average weight being around 10lb, the heaviest landed was a beautiful fish at 24lbs from the lower river. Fly fishing has proved best as the water clears with the usual patterns of Cascades, Park Shrimps and Ally's being used to good effect.

Sea Trout have started trickling into the system with a few being landed up to 5lb from the ADAA lower beats.

Trout fishing has been a bit hit or miss with short lived hatches of Olives and March Browns appearing daily bringing fish up to the surface, only to disappearing just as quick. Trout have been landed from beats at Strathdon and Kildrummy on the upper river downstream to Parkhill beats, with a few around the 4lb mark falling to emerger flies. Spider patterns fished wet have also been working well.

Please contact me with any news, catches or photos at donfish2@btinternet.com
Martin Webster

Season review

Season 2012 Review – Aug - Oct

August & September

The grilse run tapered off by the middle of August and with it the quality of these 1 sea winter fish changed from the plump June fish to skinny kelt like specimens with a few barely making 1lb. The summer fish were however in fantastic condition and August saw nice fish at 22, 24 and 25lb landed. The best for the month though was a cracking fresh 32.5lb fish landed from the middle river. This is the biggest salmon reported from the Don in quite a few years. Sport then tapered off as the water levels dropped away, come September anglers began to struggle as runs of new fish slowed up. The pools on the middle and upper reaches were holding good numbers of coloured fish but catching them on certain days proved difficult as they went off the take. Brown Trout anglers at last enjoyed good evening sport with some decent hatches of fly coming off the river. Beats at Parkhill, Kintore and Kemnay all reported trout up to 4.5lbs. One angler salmon angling at Littlewood returned a specimen of 7lbs. The last week saw heavy rainfall and colder air temperatures fall across the catchment, sport picked up as the coloured fish became more aggressive and back on the take.

October

The last month of the salmon season proved a little bit disappointing in terms of the normal anticipated sport with fresh fish that the Don can often produce. Anglers were however reporting landing small numbers of coloured fish from many beats up and down the river. On the upper river guests fishing Glenkindie and Kildrummy beats enjoyed the additional water and good sport was had with coloured fish up to 20lbs. Even when the river rose midmonth the autumn run of fresh fish failed to materialise with only a scattering being taken from the lower river. Anglers were left wondering if only as the final two days of the season saw a flurry of activity with fresh fish up to 16lb being landed from beats at Parkhill, Kintore, Kemnay, and Inverurie. The biggest salmon reported for October was a coloured cock fish at 27lbs from Fetternear beat.
Martin Webster

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