Sport on the salmon fishing front has eased off a little as sea trout arrive in good numbers. The river level has been steady for the last 10 days but the excellent salmon run which graced the system for the last 6 - 8 weeks has finally slowed down to around 70 fish for the last week. Surprisingly the first fish was caught on the Loch this week by Suisgil rods, many fish have been in the loch for weeks but as usual, it has seen few flies. There is a good head of 2 & 3sw fish in the river now and over the next few weeks we would expect a grilse run to materialise and maybe peak towards the end of July. I am reliably informed that it is all quiet on the North coast for the moment with little sign of any serious grilse run and that is the general destination they hit first. When good grilse numbers arrive on the North coast the Helmsdale usually springs into action 2 - 3 weeks later.

Sea-trout fishing has been good now that the river is running clear and steady. The usual hot spots have produced some great sport with the Well & Coach pools locally giving 10 trout on a good night and on the beats the Craggie bend pool beat 5 has been the top spot.

The Association water has been remarkably quiet recently apart from a crazy day last Monday when 8 fish were landed out of the blue, no other fish were reported for the rest of the week!

We have genuine Monkey hair for sale on-line now. This hair is gold dust for fly tying and we have been very lucky to source a good certified supply. Monkey hair is the basis for the original deadly Scandinavian Monkey tube. The hair is beautifully tapered and fairly stiff so it does not wrap around your hook like most substitute hair. We are the only suppliers in the UK so snap some up when you have the chance - it is expensive, but there is nothing like using the real thing when it comes to tying Sunrays and Monkey flies and the hair is very rare.

Below is a selection of some of our most deadly summer flies for you to stock up on.

Our new Alistair tube with JC in 0.5" & 0.25" plastic body.

RS Salar Flamethrower Boar Shrimp double

Frodin Executioner Hitch tube

Cascade Pig Salar double

Golden Pot Bellied Pig

Tight lines.

We have some great new flies uploaded this week, some of which you can view on our homepage. We also have lots more sizes in stock for summer in many patterns - Crathies, Cascades, Silver Stoats, Yellow Boar Flamethrowers etc, have a good look through the flies and see what's available now.

The Helmsdale gave up approx 90 fish again last week, however, The Association water continues to struggle with the high water and only produced 1 fish for local angler Archie Miller.

Estate catches varied from around 12 to mid 20s for some but a fair percentage of fish were not fresh run. The main late spring run has eased a little as might be expected for the time of year, we are now looking to the grilse run to build week on week. There are signs that these small fish are around but numbers are very scarce at the moment. Sea-trout have been running in good numbers but the river will need to drop before sport begins through the night. Once again it seems to be mainly coneheads & Cascades which are proving to be most effective in the peaty water.

On another fishy note - During the week I was invited to fish the lovely river Ewe on the West coast by Scott Mackenzie - what a day that turned out to be! Scott had organized a dealer day to show off all his new lines and rods. I was one of 5 tackle dealers in action and I was keen to set myself up with Scott's new DTX 64ft head Spey twin colour line on my 15ft DTX rod. This i did and I added a 5ft medium sink poly leader with 9ft Maxima 12lbs and my new Kazcade tungsten conehead + Guideline size 10 treble hook.

Little did I know what was to follow! I was there to try out all the new DTX lines and rods, 5 hours later from a 9.30 start I had landed 5 salmon of 15, 14, 12, 11,& 10.5lbs, Ghillie/river keeper Raymond Dingwall just kept on smiling!! I made him work hard!!

The river Ewe is a short powerful river which drains the famous and extremely picturesque Lock Maree for around 2 miles to the sea. Beautiful varied pools and scenery make fishing there very enjoyable whether you catch anything or not so to catch 5 on my first visit was as good as it gets! if you ever get the chance to fish the Ewe, grab the opportunity with both hands.

The tackle on display was exceptional, new DTX Spey lines in sizes 51ft head, 54 & 64ft head + 2 new shooting heads which are slightly longer than the norm to aid anchoring without adding any poly tips. I tried them all with a very open mind and I have to concede that Scott and his new business partner Andrew Toft (who designed many of the Carron Jetstream lines) really have something here. The lines have new slick toughened coatings and they are very supple offering an unbeatable turnover. They will also retail for less than Rio & Carron lines when they become fully available. These lines are the future and Scott and Andrew have covered every base. I have to say that the set up was a an absolute pleasure to fish with all day. I certainly proved that the DTX combo helped catch salmon and I covered the water with ease, the rods and lines were so well balanced they practically fished themselves. One point to note was that one of the guys struggled in the morning with the 64ft floating head on a Hardy Swift 15ft rod - he swapped to the DTX 15ft in the afternoon and could not believe the difference, he enjoyed his fishing from then on!

Watch out for the new DTX lines & shooting heads - they are about to hit the market soon and I predict they are set to make a very big impact! just like the rods. Keep an eye on the web-site for the new lines to appear as I will have them for sale as soon as I can get them.

Many thanks to Scott, Andrew & Raymond, these guys really know their stuff, absolute experts, they know how to fish, cast and design and that's why the DTX range of rods and lines are here to stay and give lots of pleasure to lots of anglers worldwide. Call me if you want to chat about or try anything in the DTX range. 

Here are a few pics from my unforgettable the day. The biggest of my 5 from Macordies pool.

Swinging the new white DTX 64ft head Spey line across Macordies pool.

Head Ghillie/river keeper Raymond Dingwall secures my 5th from Lady pool after a tussle mid river. Its tough to get there and even tougher to land one especially at 14lbs.

And last but not least - the deadly new Kazcade tungsten conehead, this fly took all 5 fish on the day teamed up with Guideline treble hook, 5 fish hooked, 5 fish landed. This fly is amazing and only invented in conehead form a few days before my Ewe visit. I think it is one of my best designs to date and it obviously works a treat on a half inch plastic body.

Tight lines.

The Helmsdale river relentlessly keeps producing the goods, 95 - 100 fish were caught last week and it was the turn of Borrobol rods to top the scoring with 27 fish. water levels were very favourable once again early in the week and ferociously topped up midweek to 3ft after serious overnight rain. 2 grilse were reported and numbers of these small fish should keep building week on week. But it is the good numbers of quality fish which is most encouraging and many fish in the teens of pounds are still running the river.

Alistairs, and conehead TD tubes are ever present on the score sheet as usual and if you are experienced it is now worth fishing a dropper set-up throughout the summer months. Fishing with a dropper tends to be a bit of a "Highland thing" but results can be explosive if you are using this extra fly and you are amongst the fish. Dibbling the fast water at the head of the pools is where the dropper works best but you would be surprised how many fish ignore the tail fly during conventional long line fishing and chose to take the dropper fly instead. I was on the end of a perfect example of this last Friday on one of my many flying river Brora visits. I had 4 salmon - 2 on the dropper and 2 on the tail fly.

The first pool i fished was the tail of the Madman pool on the lower half of the lower Brora. Covering the draw I had a glorious rise and take fishing a long line from the South bank. Providing you are consistently casting the same length of line on the same angle and taking one step between casts any fish you are covering should firstly see your tail fly first then next cast see the dropper fly, I was set up with a 3" Monkey tube on the tail and a Kazcade double size 8 on the dropper - the fish chose the smaller dropper. It obviously ignored the bigger tail fly on my previous cast and then opted for the dropper next. Would I have caught that fish fishing with no dropper?? I doubt it, I would have probably moved on with no action. Fishing the next pool I had a vicious take from my first grilse of the season on the Monkey tube - the team was working well!

Looking up to the tail of the Madman pool Lower Brora where I hooked my first of 4 salmon. The height is 1ft 3.

First grilse of the season on the black & yellow Monkey conehead

The Helmsdale Association water is fairly quiet at the moment, not many visiting anglers are on the water. We are between the peak spring run and main grilse run so it is to be expected. Water levels are excellent however and chances of a hook up are still very good. Availability on this water is also very good and sea-trout are now running. Call the shop to book day tickets for £26 per rod per day. Don't forget to book local accom for the 24hr ticket.

I am delighted to report that Helmsdale Co financial wizard, partner and wife Karen finally landed her first fish but not from the Helmsdale, it came from a day trip to the beautiful little river Borgie on the North coast. The 10lbs bar of silver was caught using her new Kazcade fly in Forresters pool beat 1, not far above Borgie bridge.

Karen with her first salmon in the bag!

Forresters pool - a likely looking spot!

Karen into her fish.

The Helmsdale had another good week and ended up with around 75 fish. Badanloch rods took the lions share after a superb Monday on beat 6 with 8 fish. Good water assured decent fishing all week but the sun came out in force later in the week and slowed everything down. At the moment the river is holding around 7ins on the guage and fresh fish are still running however the main spring run has now peaked.

Grilse were spotted in the estuary this morning so i would expect a few to get caught in the coming week. Sea-trout should be around also and if the river stays reasonably low we should start to catch a few.

Dont forget we still have a "Buy one get one free" on all flies - the offer will end tonight at midnight June 5th so get those last minute fly orders in. The new Paul Young DVD from the river Alta Norway is getting rave reviews. The best salmon river in the world it is claimed, many 50 pounders are captured every year. This is a DVD you must see and we are first to have a batch for sale. You can buy on-line here now!

Due to very high demand on our flies at the moment please order well in advance if you want special flies tied up, Alistairs, Willie Dog coneheads etc, we can not tie them up fast enough right now and have a 1 month waiting list in operation.

Tight lines