A week away from home was pleasantly spent on the waters of the river Dee in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
The accommodation was amazing!
We had three beats to fish: Dess (a big, glorious place); Woodend (delightful with a long channel that meanders from one side of the river to the other); and the Cairnton water (where A H E Wood invented fishing for salmon with the floating fly line).
Dess
Trout!
Yes, trout made light of my flies no matter what size I swung around in the Dee's powerful currents. A photograph was made of the first trout as a reminder that small fish will eat quite big items of food. Well they do judging by the size of the fly this one attacked, a two inch aluminium tubed affair of squirrel tail dyed ultramarine blue.
So it went on. Trouts of tiny and moderate size seemed only too keen to be caught by this Sassenach. The 15ft Sage "flagpole" was even forced into a bend by one plucky two pounder, which was caught on the Wednesday night. It was shaped with a very rounded cross section, reminiscent of a mackerel.
The salmon, on the whole, steered clear except for one at the tail of a pool called "Russel" on the Cairnton beat, which took a Tosh on a size 12 low water double, set off back down river for the thick end of twenty yards, rolled on the surface so I could see it was probably into double figures and then just seemed to let go. The line fell slack and I kept my comments limited so that I would not burst into tears. Later in the week, on the same beat, in the middle of a pool called "Ferroch" the fly was being held for a few seconds on the dangle with the end of the fly line about two feet from the left bank there was a sudden screech from the reel then a silent pause only broken by my saying out loud "Don't Strike!" and then another slightly longer screech then nothing. All had gone slack and I "knew" that this holiday was going to have me watterlicked as far as migratory fish were concerned.
To tell the truth I fished on in as focused a manner as possible, only finishing on the Saturday night at 23:50 to both give it a full go and ensure I did not, inadvertantly, fish on the Sabbath...
Regular Rod's Manifesto for Catching a Salmon on a Double Handed Fly Rod (Eventually)
I learned a lot (the hard way). Next year will be better for me. I will go for more casting lessons and practice the art until proficient. I will tie more flies in the variety of sizes needed to cover all water heights and conditions. I will equip myself with a variety of floating, intermediate and sinking lines and leaders. I will not quit.
Now it is time to get back to Dry Fly Fishing, where I can still kid myself that I understand what is going on....
Regular Rod
A good read RR, remember its all character building.
ReplyDeleteWell you've gotta try haven't you. Perhaps the trout just new it was the famous 'Dry Fly (Trout) Expert' on the other end!!
ReplyDeleteGreat report. That lodge looks so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
Wondered where you were. I kept checking for a new postings and presumed the weather was keeping you away from the river. Salmon fishing could be a ploy by the Scots to extract money from the Sassenachs. I too have paid good money to fish good beats, allegedly full of good fish, only to catch nothing. At which point the Ghillie\Keeper says, '...Ach, they're just not interested, must be fully fed afore they came into the river...' If they'd told you that was a possibility before you'd paid and travelled you might not have gone. Good single malt is compensation for fishless days.
ReplyDeleteThere was no "allegedly" on the Dee. The fish were there. I was the only one in the party of 6 to fail... It was my fault, not the Dee's.
DeleteRegular Rod
Being accustomed to fishing for steelhead rainbow in broad fast moving rivers, my day on your Wye in June was a truly humbling experience. The ability to cast a #10 fly line out 100 feet to fully cover the water proved to be of little use, when accuracy and delicacy of presentation were the order of the day. Truth be told I was as joyful to land a wily small Wye brown on a dry as I would have been if it had been a mega multi-pound wild rainbow caught on a wet fly (or a nymph). We learn new things every time we head for a river and that is part of the sublime pleasure of fly fishing.
ReplyDeleteMaz
Nice article and an enjoyable read.
ReplyDeleteThe new accommdation at Cairnton is fabulous.
Hope you are successful with Salar on your next trip.
Tight Lines
Ken Reid
Dee District Salmon Fishery Board & FishDee
Thank you Ken. I will be doing my best...
DeleteRegular Rod