Archive

27

August

Tough going on the Helmsdale

Ronald Sutherland

It's been tough recently on the Helmsdale unless you bumped into a few fresh grilse in the mood to play ball, lots of MSW fish around but most it would seem have been bedded in for a while and have seen it all! Like many rivers in the Highlands the normal strong grilse run has been very poor. Records were broken in May with some incredible sport and records will be broken for the summer due to a lack of it - that's fishing! Who knows what's going to happen next year...

A few fish are still getting caught on the Association water around the tides and this water has good availability right now. Heavy rain is forecast and a rise in the water will kick start sport again.

I have some new flies available on-line now, (below) deadly patterns which were designed recently but could not be offered until stocks were tied up. The new Posh Monkey is a stunning take on the popular Posh Tosh tube ( a huge killer on the Tweed ) we have designed it Monkey style and it is sure to be a best seller. The Kazcade you have read about on here in May, we now have stock and this super fly is available for purchase in tubes, coneheads and doubles. Finally we have our CDC sea-trout flies for sale. CDC has been used exclusively for brown and rainbow trout patterns to date but I have tested the properties of this very mobile and buoyant feather on Helmsdale sea-trout recently  - the results were explosive! fish these at dusk and dawn when sea-trout are on the hunt close to the surface. You may have read about these flies in the Trout & Salmon magazine where they were featured a few months ago.

STOP PRESS - the river is 6ft and rising today, Sunday Aug 28th, 4pm. Get your hooks sharpened for the week ahead!! The Association water will be perfect from Tuesday onwards if the rain stops sometime soon!

RS Posh Monkey mounted with a Silver Salar treble

RS Posh Monkey Salar treble

 

RS Kazcade double

Kazcade double

RS Blue CDC double

Blue CDC fly

RS Kazcade tubefly

Kazcade tube fly

RS Black Brahan CDC double

Black Brahan CDC fly

RS Black CDC double

Black CDC fly

RS Kazcade Tungsten conehead tube

Kazcade Tungsten Conehead tube

15

August

Better week on the Helmsdale

Ronald Sutherland

Big water breathed new life back into the river last week and catches were good throughout the system once things settled down. over 180 fish were caught with most estates bagging between 25 - 35 fish each for the week. Torrish rods had a super start to the week with 24 in 3 days on beats 3, 2 & 1 with the highlight being young Annabel Gouriet catching her first fish on her 10th birthday beat 2, not to be outdone brother Henry went on to shot his first grouse on the 12th  - well done! Unfortunately only a small percentage of the weeks catch were sea-liced proving that there were very few grilse in the firth. Some nice fish in the teens of pounds were running however and a few were snared passing through the Association water, around a dozen was the total for this beat.

Annabel proudly shows off her first Helmsdale salmon.

Annabel with her first Helmsdale fish.

Henry with his first grouse and in the expert hands of Torrish keepers Jimmy & Richard Bain.

Henry's first grouse

Don't forget to visit the Helmsdale Highland games this weekend where we have the best rods on display in our casting comps from G-Loomis including the amazing new NRX. A selection of Carron Jetstream & Mackenzie DTX lines will also be up for demo + a 15ft Mackenzie salmon rod. The casting competitions have a new ladies section this year - don't miss it - Saturday August 20th from around midday.

7

August

The rain has come!

Ronald Sutherland

Last week provided around 40 - 50 fish for the 12 rods fishing the beats on the river. A few estates had catches in the teens whilst the rest struggled to tempt a handful of fish. For the time of year these catches make dismal reading but it is the same everywhere up here. The Association water pirked up a little towards the end of the week and 8 - 9 fish were landed by locals and visitors.

Today, the Helmsdale river has risen to over 2ft and it looks like more heavy rain is forecast for the rest of the day. I have a feeling that the week ahead is going to be the best week of the summer as long as there are fish in the sea to come in. Most of the country looks to be under a swathe of rain bearing cloud so many rivers will be on the up and bigger flies should work a treat this week. A perfect chance to try some of our deadly feeler tube flies (below) which I have designed to bridge the gap between Iceland's biggest ever killer fly and some of our more traditional UK tube flies. The concept has proven to work all over the Northern hemisphere for Atlantic salmon - this fly ticks all the boxes, keep ahead of the game and get some on the end of your line before the season ends. The aluminium model works best on sinking lines and poly-tips and the copper tubes fish superb off full floating lines.

Feeler flies/Frances

The Helmsdale Highland games are fast approaching and we have all the latest top of the range rods from Loomis on display this year, we will be using these in the casting competitions so well worth coming along to try them out. Supreme power, amazing lightness, titanium recoil eyes, these rods have it all and i expect to see great distances lashed out this year by our winners. Competitions are Salmon for distance, trout for distance and trout accuracy and all are free to enter.

I will also have Mackenzie DTX rods & his new twin lines + new lines from Carron Jetstream on demo at 55 & 65ft head length. Mackenzie lines are now available in 51, 56 & 64ft heads. Come along and see what you are missing!

4

August

It could be time!

Ronald Sutherland

Reports of good grilse numbers seen on the Association water in the last 24 hours have perked up hopes on the Helmsdale. It's been pretty grim lately everywhere in Scotland. The beats last week managed around 50 - 60 with a sprinkling of grilse but the main event has not happened yet and it's getting very late. However, salmon fishing always seems to deal something totally different than the norm, I have not known the main summer run to peak later than the first week in August, it could happen this season. There is massive availability on the Association water so come for a cast soon and you should see the best of the run. The river is low but fishable on compensation water from the dam.

Get stocked up on Cascades, Silver stoats tails and Flamethrowers, Hairy Mary is also fishing well.