Archive

22

September

Ron creates royal fly & new Skullheads (Holidays)

Ronald Sutherland

I am abroad until mid October and will be in only sporadic contact with my email therefore this report will remain unchanged until I return.

Please have a go on our new Forum, this platform was introduced to get some interesting discussion moving about the river. If the Forum is not user friendly please tell me why ( on the Forum ) or simply hit the "comments" link on this page and we will improve the format. 

The last week of the season has so far been difficult as we have missed out on all the rain again....story of the season! The good news is that it looks like the Opening days of 2014 will be 4 free public fishing days from Saturday 11th to Wednesday 15th excluding Sunday. I'll now be looking for an invite down to the Tweed in the meantime!

 

I had the pleasure of creating a new fly for the recently born Royal baby a couple of weeks ago, check out the article here  -  http://www.northern-times.co.uk/News/Helmsdale-fly-tier-creates-unique-salmon-fly-for-new-baby-prince-20092013.htm

Prince George

The river had a stunning week last week with probably over 200 fish off. The week started off with lots of rain but nothing apart from a very slow weedy 2" creep entered the river. A few fish came off but nothing special, then the river lifted a little more to around 8" by Wednesday which seemed to spark the river into action. The highlight was 25 fish off beat 1 to Suisgill rods followed by around 20 to Kildonan rods on the same beat, lots of fish were hanging around on the lower beats and many were on the move to the upper river to their spawning grounds. A sprinkling of fresh fish were also caught throughout the river.

Top scores for the week were around 58 to Suisgill and over 40 to the Wiggington party on Achentoul who unluckily also lost around the same number. The Association water had a good day on the Wednesday with around a dozen fish off. I took the liberty of an extended lunch hour and had 3 on a Willie Dog conehead, William Jappy had 3 and Johnny Hardy had 3 in the Flat pool on a Sunray. Mick Buttery added one as did Peter Macmillan and I heard of another. Alistair Jappy had 2 on Monday and William 1, I also had a bar of silver Tuesday. The week ended on the Local water with around 20 and a super week on the river all round.

This weeks special offer is free lines flies with any rod purchased, as you know we have all types of Mackenzie DTX and Perflex rods on offer along with the amazing new Loop Cross S1. Make casting easy and treat yourself to a hot new setup!

Another awesome new range of flies have been added to our collection and we will be taking forward orders, let me know what you think of them by starting a thread on our Angling Forum - (first 6 comments get freebees to try out!!) Skullheads have an even more dynamic shape than the standard coneheads and look amazing in the water, I have been testing them from conception and they can cartainly catch the fish! As soon as I saw them on baitfish flies I knew they would catch salmon in freshwater on tubes and I was hot onto the vice to design a range.

Pre-order the full set or a half set for Christmas on doubles or trebles, these are the coolest new salmon tubes on the market.

RS Skullheads

New Skullheads

15

September

Only 2 weeks to go here!

Ronald Sutherland

Time is running out fast on the Helmsdale and there are only 2 weeks to go. The good news is that it has rained hard and there is more to come tonight and tomorrow, I'll be looking forward to a day off on the river Tuesday fishing some nice spate water hopefully!

The river gave up quite a few fish last week as Borrobol rods got off to a good start on beats 2 & 1. Monday was windy and cool and fish were up for some fun with many taking, rising and pulling once again. Interestingly the fly that was causing most havoc was an Icelandic pattern fished on a tiny treble size 14 - the Hauger, pic below

Hauger

Total for the week must have been in the 50's so not all gloom & doom

Some pics of the low river with stones not seen for many years, below is the tail of the Flat pool at the top of the Association water

Flat pool

The Marrel pool

Marrel pool

And finally, meet Ruby our new SuperSnaelda designed on Saturday for a customer. I think it is the deadliest looking Autumn fly I've ever seen!

Ruby SuperSnaelda

Call us to order....

10

September

Still no water

Ronald Sutherland

Latest fly Bogof closed but we will have another soon, thanks to all who took advantage..

Last week was almost a non event on the river and a non event with my internet connection at the weekend hence the late report. The good news is that temps are steadily dropping and this week has produced 8 fish in the last 2 days for Borrobol rods. We are seeing stones on the river which I only remember seeing as a boy! This is interesting in itself as all those high water salmon resting spots are abundantly clear now and the bed of the river is giving up it's mistique in most places. 

 

Alistair Jappy had the only real success on the Association water landing a cracking 3lbs sea-trout on a Baby Td tube whilst salmon fishing. Not much else happened apart from most of the fish that were lying there appearing to move upstream or back out to sea with the uncumfortable low water level.

The forecast is looking very promising for rain this weekend, this could be the low pressure we have been waiting for, lets hope we finally get a meaningful downpour and the season can explode back into action.

I have created another new fly which I like the look of for autumn salmon fishing, I am calling it the Red Hot Alistair due to the radiant red badger hackle which gives the fly it's striking red Alistair appearance. let me know what you think of it on the Forum and feel free to contact me if you want some.

Speaking of the Forum, it would be nice to see a few more users on there to get some interesting Helmsdale discussion going. Don't sit on the sidelines, have some fun, make a post and let us know what you think of the river, its pools, its salmon, its beats, flies, tactics, rules whatever, get those fingers moving, nobody is going to bite!!

 

Here is the latest action video from Team Loop and their associated adventure filming team - watch out for the guy hooking the tarpon and wait till you see his line screaming past his boat, unbelievable power and speed but the Loop cross s1 rods handle everything no problem, and yes, we have them in the shop and online! this month we are offering free lines with these extra special rods, call us for great deals. 

http://www.motivfishing.com