Archive

28

June

Salmon day and night.

Ronald Sutherland

The Helmsdale has slowed down a little, low water and the annual gap between MSW fish and grilse is evident. Seatrout however normally plug the gap and this year is no different on the Association water at least. Good bags are still coming off when the tides suit and one lucky angler had a very pleasant surprise. Regular visitor Adam Macdonald already had seatrout in the bag when he moved slightly up river to keep ahead of the incoming tide in the darkness, once again his size 14 Kennys killer was deployed only this time to be grabbed by what was thought to be a very big seatrout, 10 mins later a 7lbs salmon was landed. Fish are getting caught most days now so this beat is well worth a visit.

The private beats were disappointing last week with around 25 reported and a few grilse sprinkled through.

The Brora has also picked up going on recent catches and one highlight was a double for Donna Carruthers on a flying visit and on the hunt for her first salmon. Welcome rain breathed life into the river after a long dry spell and an Alistair conehead tube was the smart choice for the business end. The morning offered a rise and pluck and a loss after a 2 minute scrap with a lively grilse. The afternoon saw cloud cover completely disappear and with it hopes of a first fish but not as far as Donna was concerned, she persevered and amazingly hooked and landed her first fish in the brightest sunshine in Bengie pool at 5lbs, but that was not enough. Madman pool was visited as the sun began to fade and her second was netted at 10 lbs to complete a memorable day.

So the moral of the story - fish in the bright sunshine or darkness and you will still catch salmon!

By the way, we have just added many of our best selling flies again which were out of stock, Posh Willie Gunn double, Alistair Flamethrower, Gold Bodied Willie Gunn copper tube, Micro SuperSnaelda, Willie Gunn Mylar tube, Black & yellow Mylar tube, Willie Dog conehead, Park Shrimp Micro tube, Loop double Red Frances, Willie Gunn gold conehead, Cascade gold tungsten conehead, RS Blue Elver monkey and many more, all absolute killers!! have a good look through the site for your favourites...

The RS Alistair Flamethrower - click to buy now.

Donna with her sparkling first fish from Bengie pool at 5lbs.

No 2 released from Madman pool at 10lbs

Action from Madman as the fish goes daft!

The deadly wee Alistair conehead which you can purchase by clicking on the link below right now -

http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/helmsdale-alistair-uv-c/h.html

Adams night fish

16

June

Low water

Ronald Sutherland

Low water has put the shackles on the run recently so seatrout anglers had the best of the sport locally. The last full week on the river produced around 35 including a sprinkling from the Association water. William Jappy notched up another 3 super fish up to teens in weight including the superb fish in the pic below. Baby TDs have been working great as usual.

A good head of seatrout are now in the system and if you are fishing at nighttime with the tide suiting you will catch them. Philip Marshall has landed the best specimen so far at 4.5lbs from Roaries pool and Duncan Mackay had a fab hour before midnight Saturday landing 6 in an hour in the Coach pool. I have also had a few to the cdc Nightmare fly and Cascade Seatrout special featured below.

Today we have 1ft of dirty water tumbling down the glen and that will curb seatrout catches temporarily but salmon fishing should be good now that all costal nets are off?. I have also been on my travels and had a nice fish from Castle water on the Spey on an aluminium Monkey tube, the Spey is fishing very well right now.

All the flies below and many more can be purchased on our website here - http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/

One of Williams cracking fish

Ian Muir with another superb specimen from earlier in the season at 18lbs

RS CDC Nightmare blue

 

RS Cascade Seatrout Special

A typical bag of seatrout up to 2lbs from last week. 10ft Loop cross S1 7wt floating line, Blue loop Evotec, 8lbs maxima, CDC Nightmare.

A very broadbacked 15 lbs Spey fish taken on the Aluminium Monkey tube in Upper Birks pool Gordon Castle water.

8

June

Best weeks of season.

Ronald Sutherland

The Helmsdale has just come off 2 of it's strongest weeks, 85 and 70 fish approx including the Association water. Decent water made way for a strong run of fish last week of May as per usual and they were caught right through the system. The Association water continued to fish well and visitors and locals hooked up. Mick Buttery landed a nice fish in the Sewerage pool on a Lady Alistair tube and the Twins Alistair and William Jappy had 4 between them with William landing 3 up to 15lbs on the dropper, a classic and deadly Helmsdale tactic! Baby TDs are hammering fish now with the warmer water. Up river, Alistair coneheads and plastic tubes are also doing very well. Seatrout have arrived and as soon as the tides suit, nighttime sport will be good so long as the river stays low. We have some superb tried and tested seatrout flies for sale here as well as all the latest salmon fly trends and patterns. The new RS SuperSquid is fast becoming a best seller all over Europe, grab some when you can as stocks are continually being hit hard! Don't forget to call us for great deals on all tackle too, Ron will kit you out and make sure everything is balanced perfectly for casting that perfect line. Tighters....