We still have good water on the Helmsdale and catches are reflecting this with some estates catching up to and over 30 per week recently, there were around 190 caught including 17 from the Association water. Large flies in coneheads copper and tungsten on floating, sink tip and intermediate lines are fishing well. Fresh fish are not in abundance at this late stage in the season but a few fresh grilse and salmon were caught on the Association water and throughout the river. The upper beats provided most of the action in a week which had the feeling of March fishing more than late summer. So much superb water on offer with all the big pools in good order on the lower river too. Fish were everywhere, not showing in big numbers but they were caught all over the river. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if another rod or two were permitted to fish when the river tops over 1ft on the gauge? There were some very large parties up last week all jostling for a cast…. 

And, there is no place to hide from the Ice Bucket Challenge - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlEs3E3nCR4&list=UUpHoAF1kZfmbCkwPebWsVkg&index=1

Some highlights - Hugh Colville fishing Torrish rods got off to a flyer recording 11 fish on Monday & Tuesday to his own rod fishing 3 & 4 above. John (Hardy) Sutherland on a break from oil work abroad had a superb week on the Association water catching 11 fish up to 14lbs along with a number of seatrout to the 3.5lbs mark and Billy Cowie ended the week with a sea liced grilse from the Flat pool on the 1” Red Feeler copper tube. Half Johns catch was fresh and taken on one of our deadly Chartreuse Feeler tubes tied on a 1” copper tube, the black & orange version also scored. These flies are gathering a large following now. Ron has morphed the legendary properties of the Icelandic series of Frances flies with popular UK salmon patterns and they are producing some stunning results for anglers who are giving them work. They are not our latest design by any manner of means, but if you have not yet tried them, its time you did! For best results fish them on intermediate lines and get them right down in full view of the fish especially in the peaty Scottish water.

There is good availability on the Association water next week and a great chance of a hook up with superb fresh fish like the one below. weather conditions are settling down a little so more of this stretch will become fishable as water levels finally start dropping.

Stop press! - William Jappy with probably the last fish of the week from the Association water Flat pool on Saturday night which provided 6 in total for the day. An Alex Fraser Tiger Conehead did the trick.

Below are a few of the most popular Feeler tubes and an offer that we are currently running on them right here - http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/index.php?_a=product&product_id=1278

The Chartreuse Feeler tube which worked so well last week - http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/index.php?_a=product&product_id=1045

Cascade Feeler tube - http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/index.php?_a=product&product_id=1828

Black & Red Feeler Tube - http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/index.php?_a=product&product_id=1763

Willie Gunn Feeler tube - http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/index.php?_a=product&product_id=871

A huge spate at the weekend set the tone for one of the best weeks of the season. Good catches were cropping up the length and breadth of the river. Mostly stale fish were caught but a number of sea liced fish also turned up.

Torrish rods got things going quickly catching 8 on beat 3 before the river started to rise again in an unsettled spell. Water levels remained high at around 3ft for Monday & Tuesday and were very slow to drop due to heavy showers, however, fish were still in a taking mood and even the Association water (which usually suits lower water) started to produce fish regularly. Billy Cowie got off the mark on a rare visit, John (Hardy) Sutherland had fish on most days, and Mick Butterly rounded the week off with a brace from the Flat pool on one of his home tied TDs. Around 12 fish were caught for the week and plenty tickets are available for this water. With temperatures cooling in the coming week, conditions should be good and water levels excellent.

Copper tubes and coneheads worked very well fished on full intermediate lines and floaters. We have loads available on-line so snap some up and get the rod out to enjoy all the fresh water deposited on the UK recently

These killers are starting to make their mark across the UK and it is fast approaching the part of the season when red flies start to dominate. Our red gold & black Feeler tube below is a lethal example of what you need to be fishing as soon as temps drop and rivers rise. http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/index.php?_a=product&product_id=1763

A blustery swirling wind made for challenging casting conditions at the Annual Highland Games but turnout was good and lots of juniors were also streaming in for a go. Jordon Marshall and Finlay Addams cleaned up in the under 16s events, Mary Anne Quail took the ladies title and I was forced to come out of retirement for a crack with all the amazing rods and lines on display. Mackenzie and Gaelforce lines were getting rave reviews but the much longer 85ft head on the Carron Jetstream and Loop cross S1 15ft combo posted the longest cast of 149ft for yours truly. Many thanks to all who helped out on the day.

Some of the prize winners, L - R Jordan Marshall (Junior salmon & trout distance), Ron Sutherland (Senior salmon & trout distance), Mick Buttery, (Senior trout distance 3rd place) Finlay Addams ( Junior trout accuracy ). Peter Quail won the senior trout accuracy competition.

April Sutherland impressively cranking up the trout rod.

The casting arena in full swing.

Nice water finally offered some welcome sport on the Helmsdale especially on Monday & Tuesday. 5 fish were reported on the Association water 4 of which were fresh. It was early bird Adam Macdonald who struck the first blow with 2 fresh fish from the tail of the Flat pool on an Allys tube but the rest of the day surprisingly only produced 3 more. The beats fared better with 3 off beat 1 and 7 off beat 2 Monday but there were no major happenings although fishing was fairly steady for the rest of the week. The count was probably 50/50 fresh to stale fish and no great fresh run materialised but some better quality salmon were caught in the 6 - 8lbs category.

More rain is forecast and a proper big spate would be grand to keep things in fine fettle, there are surely some more fresh fish to come and there are still 7 weeks to go yet! Day and weekly tickets are available on the Association water from the tackle shop for only £25 per rod per day. There is rod and wader hire also.

We have received some very good Testimonials this week (below) from anglers returning from fishing trips abroad. Our Alistairs are really making their mark in Russia and Norway now. Success came quickly a few years ago with the Cascade Alistair copper tube in Norway soon after we invented it and the following has been growing all over the Northern hemisphere, I feel a few new colour combinations coming on!

Hi Ron,
I wanted to let you know that I have had some remarkable success with the Alistair Conehead in Russia....... it was totally deadly. We had an absolute bonanza on the Pana due to the very late spring and I managed to take 86 fish in a week on the Alistair Conehead...... on one actual fly..... it was threadbare by the end! I then went to Yokanaga not long afterwards and got it to 92 not out including grassing 3 over 20lbs to 28lb ...... but I somehow lost the fly at Lyliok when releasing a fish which was gutting! From a flies perspective not a bad place to be lost in action! I can’t imagine you expected one tube to take 92 Salmon when you tied it!
PV
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Ron, just a quick message of thanks. I was on Rynda at the start of July this year. Whist everyone was keen to get on the surface flies I felt the water was still a little high and cool at the beginning of the week. I turned to the trusty cascade alistair cone head that you had tied me up for a previous trip.( water was so low last time they didn't get used.)
I had a top week and over the first 3 days the alistair accounted for nearly 20 fish to 20lb.. It was lethal, every pool and pocket the fish nailed it!!!
I ended up with 36 for the week and 26 on the same fly!!
Many thanks!!!!
I Robertson

The Cascade Alistair

The gorgeous Cascade Alistair JC - call us if you want any of these flies tied up by Ron personally.

Classic Alistair Conehead

Adam Macdonald in his double hotspot - Tail of the Flat pool on the Association water.

As the Freshwater Fishery Review comes to its final conclusions with a report due for ministers in September it would be intetesting to hear your views on the subject. Have a go on our Helmsdale river Forum, simply create a username and password and sign in to have your say! Read the the latest Review update on the Forum.

Its the Highland Games next week and we will have the best of gear in action for the fly casting competitions as usual, this year the salmon anglers will have the luxury of casting with the new CLA Gamefair winning line from GaelForce. Designed by James Chalmers (who worked with Carron Jetstream) these new lines are super slick and cast out of site and we are now stockists. Made in America, they display all the best design qualities of Carron Lines with added durability and phenominal long distance turnover. This line on a Loop Cross 15ft S1 should be a pretty amazing unit to cast, I hope you get along to enjoy! all the other casting comps will be on with troutdistance and accuraccy. This year 2 attempts only per discipline are permitted so get sharpened up.

The previous Monday provided 3 fish on the Association water. Annual Helmsdale visitor Adam Macdonald was amongst them as was William Jappy and Peter Macmillan. The rest of the week was dour and the fresh run expected did not materialise. The beats did better with a Westerly wind cooling things down a little, rods are however still well down on last year. The fish are simply not there in any quantity this year and no stats from fish counters or anything else can dress things up otherwise. I was lucky enough to encounter a fish on Friday after an evening 1.5" rise, one of our Cascade Feeler doubles did the damage fished on the dropper.

The water is up for the week ahead and the river looks stunning, expect some good fishing this week!

I also visited the Kyle of Sutherland the next day with good friend and fellow angling addict Adam Macdonald and managed to land a lovely fat 6 pounder on one of our 0.25 Frances tubes ( in Rome do as the Romans do! ) I am constantly selling out of these deadly tubes to Kyle anglers. Check it out here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf06AGUIGRs

I'll update midweek as I am in London right now. As far as I know the river produced around only 15 fish last week. We still await a summer spate to guage what's truly in the bay but I have a feeling we are not exactly going to be swamped by fresh runners.

Update - The summer run of 2014 will go down as a "non event" unless water and fish arrive very soon, fishing has been tough to say the least. It's a good job we anglers are a resilient mob, I seem to remember a popular quote "there's always next year!", well, here we are and its worse than ever! August will be another challenge, stealth and patience will be the order of the day and tackle should be scaled down accordingly to maximise your chances. Rain is forecast again for the weekend, lets hope this time we get it and rivers rise.

On a brighter note I was out on the Association water Monday on instruction mode, Siobhan Riley Bettyhill, trying a salmon double hander for the first time got amongst the fish with consummate ease whilst all the pro's blanked, I am not going to blow my own trumpet here, but the instruction obviously worked and she took full advantage by landing her first fish from Roaries pool. I have to say at this point that she was casting beautifully and the RS Baby TD on the business end scored again, a very deserved and satisfactory fish at her first attempt. The 5 pounder was promptly released to fight another day as Siobhan felt it would be a total injustice to kill it after its long journey back to the river.

Siobhan bent into her first fish

Showing off her sparkling first fish.

Safely returned

The deadly RS Baby TD

We have another deadly addittion to our massive selection of flies and this one is one of our best new designs to date, RS Mylar SuperSnaelada, and you can buy it right here - http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/index.php?_a=product&product_id=1936

The fishing is not improving here unfortunately. We have decent compensation water flowing so fish can freely enter the sysem but we all know it switches fish off the take due to its warmth and stale composition. Maybe the main run is late, it has happened before and August had the best of the summer run, time will tell, I am not optimistic...

The Association water produced around 6 with Loop Tackle CEO Gordon Sim landing a brace early in the week on the legendary Megan tube but the fishing was tough going. The beats reported around 20 or so.

Hopefully there is better news to report next week. There certainly is on the fly fromt - I have 2 red hot new flies to share, one for seatrout and and a stunning International salmon tube. For the latest news on other fronts, sign in to the Helmsdale river Forum with email and password.

See you next week for a decent report - this week I am not inspired....

We are holding a "Buy one get one free" on all flies From today and including Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday 13, 14, 15 & 16th this week so get your boxes out and see what you need. This offer is only available to Fishing report subscribers here or at the tackle shop for the same period. Please put "BOGOF" in the comments section when ordering so we know who you are and you will receive your offer.

Meanwhile the river is fishing as poor as I can ever remember for the second week July. I have heard of only 13 fish of the beats and 4 off the Association water last week. Alistair Jappy, Peter Macmillan and yours truly all on the score sheet. Prospects for next week? your guess is as good as mine!

Suffice it to say that it is a good job our business is truly international and that there are excellent numbers of salmon reported in Iceland, Russia and the fast growing salmon destination of Sweden. We are more and more equipping destination anglers as UK stocks of wild salmon seem to be in meltdown. Many anglers are seriously questioning why they are paying the "big bucks" required on many Scottish rivers when they can quite easily travel to a load other destinations outside the UK for more fish and at less cost. Our international fly range like Frances flies, Temple Dogs, Sunray shadow, Green Highlander and our most popular Feeler, Skullhead & Tiger Flies are becoming best sellers abroad. Loop Equipment is also becoming more sought after especially the premium range of Cross S1 rods and GDC lines.

It was no surprise to me when I received yet another super destination pic involving one of our clients Mark Tellwright. Mark was very please to let me know that he had been involved in a "double hook up" with one of his angling mates Nigel Hawkins on the Russian Yokanga and the common denominator was our Feeler Willie Gunn tube 1/2". We get countless fabulous international pics but this is one from the special occasions file. Pic and fly below uploading...

Willie Gunn Feeler tube, buy here now - http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/index.php?_a=product&product_id=871

We also had two of out keenest young anglers in the tackle shop at the weekend on another fly tying lesson, great prospects and waiting for a hookup with their first salmon. Jordan Marshall and Ewan Gordon, this week it was sea-trout flies and some wee beauties were knocked up.

After a good start to the week on the Association water with 6 off over Monday & Tuesday it looked very much like the summer run was kicking in. The highlight was Alistair Jappy landing 2 fish at 4 & 10lbs early in the morning which he followed up with another at 6lbs from the afternoon tide, a superb days salmon fishing on any Association water. The rest of the week was pretty quiet and a run did not really materialise. Only around 30 fish were recorded throughout the system. The tide lined up to suit nighttime seatrout fishing locally once again and a few nice fish were caught, including a 4 pounder from the Wood pool beat 1 above, there are lot's of finnock around also which is encouraging.

Baby Tds, Silver stoats and Alistair coneheads work well in the low clear water and these flies will make their mark all summer providing there are fish around. View them all here - http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/index.php

The most successful summer anglers however are those who can adapt best to all conditions and situations. Typically you should have the following flies lined up to deploy. Sunray shadow 9 - 12cm ( skating ) Alistair/Stoats tail tubes 025 - 0.5" ( conventional ) Alistair, silver stoat ( hitch tube ) Cascade, Ally's, Hairy Mary (droppers) Red Frances (doubles & tubes) RS SuperSnaelda  (deep impact presentation)

Alistair hitch tube - you can buy it here now - http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/index.php?_a=product&product_id=1758

What this selection enables you to do is engage with salmon on many levels rather than just fish through a pool with a Cascade and simply move on to the next one. If there are fish around be prepared to (mix it up). Get the Sunray Shadow skating over the water at right angles to the fish and look out for some explosive takes. Drop the SuperSnaelda deep and close to fish and prepare for a hit and run, similarly fish a Frances tube deep with the rod tip up and swing it through all the pots and runs. Dibble the broken water at the heads of pools in classic summer style or hitch all areas and watch as fish rollover your fly right on the surface. The key is to be flexible, make sure you have a braided loop on the end of your line for quick tactical changes. Have intermediate and sinking tips to hand and do yourself a favour and get a decent salmon line if you don't already have one. Fly presentation is important and casting should be fun. If you think your casting could be better please feel free give me a call and I'll talk you through the best line option for your rod, there is a perfect line out there for everyone and believe me when I say that a good slick balanced line can transform your whole fishing experience, call me on 01431821372 - http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/index.php?_a=category&cat_id=28

Last week was not a memorable week on the Helmsdale. Grilse were practically non existent and some rods only managed to save the blank for their week! Temperatures were below average but the river was running fine on summer level, the missing ingredient was fresh running fish in any numbers. Some stragglers were caught and the Badanloch rods of Ian Muir and Chris Wall probably had the best of it with 8 between them by Friday mainly on our tiny Willie Gunn Conehead TDs.

Locally, one grilse was caught by Phillip Marshall whilst seatrout fishing, Phillip also had some nice seatrout up to 2.5lbs. I have been out on the water also experimenting and developing some fresh new deadly seatrout flies which will be in the new Fulling Mill catalogue coming out in the autumn, watch out for them, they are stunners and I predict they will be the biggest selling seatrout flies in 2015 if the popularity of our CDC doubles is anything to go by. Seatrout are still in the estuary here and will give sport until the grilse arrive - hopefully we do not have too long to wait.

The word from other rivers in the North is the same, not a lot happening yet. One highlight being a clonking 20 pounder for David Raper on the Brora Well Pool. The fresh run fish was caught on a Willie Gunn and returned.

Chris Wall with a solid 12 pounder to start his week on Badanloch rods from New Stream beat 3 above.

The Willie Dog Crimp conehead doing the damage this week - http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/index.php?_a=product&product_id=1222

Ron with a 3.5lbs seatrout taken on the Black CDC double which has had a very good month! - http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/index.php?_a=category&cat_id=11

A close up of the lethal teeth and black CDC on this ferocious cock seatrout.

Don't forget to ask for a demo cast with the sensational Loop Cross S1, we have a 15ft rigged up and ready to roll with the perfectly balanced Loop GDC Shooting head. Please call in advance to book a trial with this amazing rod and line as they are often out on the water - http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/index.php?_a=product&product_id=1287

The fishing slowed down last week on par with history. In a week dominated by high pressure the fishing was always going to be a challenge but a few rods did have some success. Beats 3 & 5 fished best and the first fish came off loch Achnamoine, beat 6 above. Astonishingly this water barely sees salmon anglers cast a fly in anger and is generally used as a few hours trout fishing for the kids. I'm all for giving youngsters and beginners the opportunity to fish, it is especially important to keep them interested but in the opinion of many it is high time locals were given the chance to situate a boat on this loch and pay fair rent for the opportunity.

The loch holds salmon from April onwards, as soon as fish are over the falls you have a chance there but it is merely paid lip service as far as serious salmon fishing goes. It is a considerable waste of good fishing which could be enjoyed by many more anglers. The loch is not big but size is not the issue, it is the lack of rods. For those of you familiar, Loch Achnamoine is bigger than loch Askaig on Borrobol and roughly the same size os loch Arachlinnie on Achentoul estate. A locally managed trouting boat on full catch & release for salmon would create a real buzz!
It will not be entertained....and that's why the outcome of the Freshwater Fisheries Review will be so ruthless in parts of the highlands.

Loch Achnamoine looking North West towards Badanloch and the dam.

The Association water only produced seatrout and some good bags were caught early in the week. One of our junior anglers Jordan Marshall was delighted to catch his first of the season at 1.5lbs on a Butcher double. The fly catching most is the Black CDC double ( pic below ) up until last year CDC was not used in any seatrout patterns. I wanted to try a wet fly close to the surface and tied up a few flies on doubles with the buoyant leggy style feather and it was an instant rip roaring success! Seatrout love to hit flies very close to the surface (as some of the classic Welsh surface lures prove) and they hammered the CDC from the word go. I am now working on expanding the range.

It is quiet on the salmon front everywhere at the moment and less than 30 were reported last week but we are hopefull that the grilse run will start in earnest soon. No salmon were reported from the Association water.

The deadly Black CDC seatrout fly - buy it here now - http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/index.php?_a=product&product_id=1127