Helmsdale Company have added the new local Post Office to the Tackle Shop.

Best of luck to wife Karen (left) and niece Yvonne. All smiles so far!

Don't forget to order your boxed Christmas flies online here starting from £10 only. Expect superfast delivery now!! mind you, we are a little busier!

We have some cracking discount Christmas boxed fly selections on offer for your fishing friends fron £10. These selections are made up of flies which have proven their worth and many are new designs exclusive to Helmsdale Company - see below and on our homepage. Buy them here right now while stocks last. We can also send them direct to your friends if you let us have their address whilst ordering.

Don't forget also the superb new fishing DVD featuring Paul Young on the mighty Norwegian river Alta. A super film for a dark winters night from the best atlantic salmon fly river in the world. Buy from our homepage now to secure your copy for Christmas.

Helmsdale specials

International selection

At the recent Board meeting it has been agreed that the river opening days in 2012 will be free to the public for the first 4 days of the new season. The river opens on Wednesday Jan 11th. The free fishing takes place both banks up to the Kildonan falls as usual. Keep an eye here for updates and get your accom booked asap if you are interested in this superb early season opportunity to catch the first salmon in Scotland. Have a look at some of our archive reports for opening day information and pictures.

The Board have also set new Association water visitor ticket prices for next season. In line with the dire state of the economy and a noticable drop in day tickets sold this year, the prices will all come down from £35 per day to £25 flat rate for the whole season. Discounted weekly tickets also drop to £100.

The Angling Club have a meeting this week on Friday 28th at 7.30 in the Bridge Hotel unless otherwise stated here. Dee and Brora spring fishing are on the Agenda amongst other things.

We have some superb new Red Park Shrimp tungsten and copper tubes & Red Monkey bottle tubes for late Autumn fly fishing. Perfect if you are fishing the Tweed, Annan, Nith etc soon. These flies are limited and seasonal so I would advise you snap some up ASAP.

We also have a super new supply for Dyed feelers for salmon flies (below). These stripped dyed cock hackles will take the pain out of tying Frances & Feeler style flies - no more arduous hackle stripping!! just cut them to size and tie the fly!

All new products and flies are available on-line so you can buy them here right now!

Another season has come to a close on the Helmsdale and the trend for big fish has continued. The final total will probably show a drop on last years catch but average fish size will most certainly be up. I have not heard of so many fish of over 20lbs being caught in many years, excellent one might think! but what happened to the grilse run!? fortunately the Helmsdale was not the only river to miss out as all UK rivers reported a serious lack of 1sw fish. Based on the unpredictability of recent years, a gambling man would not dare bet on next years performance anywhere. We just have to pay up, turn up and see!

Here are some of the latest big fish captures

Kildonan Ghillie Martin Grant with the seasons best of 29lbs from beat 4 above.

Johnny March Torrish rods with the Photo of the season, a fabulous 21 pounder from Lower Caen beat 1

Caroline Wilson & Badanloch ghillie Mark Shone with a 21 pounder from beat 4 below

Caroline's daughter (also with Mark) showing off a 17.5 pounder from 5 below

The Helmsdale may be closed but there is still lots of fishing to be done on the river Tweed etc. Many UK rivers stay open well into November so don't forget to order up your flies here for that late fishing trip. The water has cooled down this week so sinking tips and weighted flies are now the order of the day. We have everything you need to fish deep and catch big fish. Tungsten, copper and conehead tubes in Park Shrimp, Willie Gunn, Pot bellied Pig, Cascade Pig & Junction Shrimp all do very well in October/November - order now for next day delivery.

If you have any photo's of nice Helmsdale fish you would like to display on here please e-mail them to me.

The Helmsdale provided some super sport last week on the upper beats with many fish being caught over 20lbs, 24lbs was the biggest I believe. Good numbers were had by all the estates, some were in the mid 20s, I guess there were around 100 off for the week. The Association water only provided 2 at 10 and 5lbs and a healthy sea-trout of 4lbs. 

I was lucky enough to manage a day on the Spey on Wednesday with friend Vanya Hackel on the fabulous Castle Gordon water. I always fancied a cast below the main road bridge on the A96 at Fochabers and to my delight that was the exact pool I drew for the morning. The first two hours passed quietly, then all hell broke loose! I managed to get 3 in the net and lose one at the net, before that I broke one and bent the rod in another in a mad spell before lunch, many thanks to John Fox and ghillie Bob Harrold for all their help - I also smashed a 17ft loop rod in the middle of all the action, what a morning!!

A 0.5" tungsten Cascade Pig fished on a 3.9ips 6ft Rio versi-tip on a floating line provided all the interest. I stated that the Cascade Pig was having a purple patch all over the UK in my last report, well it still is!! 

3 of the 6 fish I hooked were bars of silver, my last of the 3 landed and returned was a 19lbs old crock pictured below! The Lower Spey is renowned for holding fresh fish late in the season and the Castle water is approx 4 miles from the sea, it was nice to see some silver of 7 & 11lbs.

My first fresh fish (below) with a view back up the pool towards the road bridge on the A96. What a fabulous pool to fish off the right bank and it was full of fish. 

The new improved Loop Classic salmon reels are finally back in stock.

These reels are more rare than 40 pounders, Classic indeed in every way and with a precision deep click and "fishon" scream to die for, and if you don't buy them I'm adding them to my own Loop reel collection! Loop set the bar very high with reel design. Innovation, desirability and reliability are the mark of Loop reels, the coolest reels on the market. We are giving away a superb new twin Mackenzie salmon Spey line or New Carron Jetstream Spey line with every Loop reel sold, an awesome innovative combo that's unbeatable and an absolute pleasure to fish with. Buy here online now or call us to secure your combo, if you love fly fishing like we do then treat yourself to this dream combo and have your fishing friends very jealous!

This deal will be on for the week, or probably only today! and they will be gone...this is on a first come first serve basis.

The river fished well last week considering the unsettled water levels. Some excellent catches were recorded when conditions were favourable, notably 10 on beat 3 above to the rod of Johnny Hardy on the Wednesday, amusingly John hardy junior had 8 from the Oykel on the same day, quite a day for the father and son combination! 80 - 90 fish were caught for the week and most coming from the upper beats as per usual for the time of year.

The Association water suffered due to high water and I have heard of only one fish taken last week.

The Tweed, Tyne and Dee continue to turn heads with some excellent scoring, we are receiving some super feedback of catches on our flies on these rivers, Cascade Pigs in 0.5" tungsten and aluminium are fishing very well, as are RS PBPs and Feeler flies. You can fish these tubes on sinking or floating lines depending on what depth you want your flies. Most fish are now being hooked sub surface on sinking tips of varying densities, make sure you always have a few of these to hand in 6ft or 10ft. Another tactic which can also be very productive in cooler water is to fish aluminium or plastic tubes from a full sinking or intermediate line, this lends for a more mobile and alive looking fly presentation which induces many solid takes.

The deadly RS Cascade Pig.

RS Pot Bellied Pig

Tight lines

As I stated midweek last week the fishing has been excellent and big numbers were posted on most estates. Borrobol rods had the lions share with a superb 38 fish for the week. The upper beats were providing most of the action as expected and coneheads and copper tubes scored well. I would guess around 200 fish came off the river last week.

The Association water offered good sport also and fresh fish were taken on most days, 16 was the total for the week. I even managed a few myself! A 1" tungsten Red Frances took my first and last fish of the week fished on a floating line and 10ft leader. I also managed to land another bonus fish in the tail of the Park pool on lower beat 2 fishing for Achentoul rods Saturday evening. The water was around 1ft 6 and the bigger pools on the beat were in absolutely incredible shape for the fly. Around 2 miles of beautiful water, I could not even scratch the surface on foot, and that was just on the lower beat left bank!

We are now in September and the back end feeling is here - although the weather is still pretty mild most salmon anglers are looking to present a bigger fly a little deeper in the water.

The flies below are ideal for salmon fishing late in the season and red/orange is the favoured colour generally. There are too many to list and some can come in deadly conehead form. Give me a call if you fancy some. Don't forget that all the new Carron & Mackenzie twin lines have been designed to handle all the sinking tips you require for late season fishing. We have a great range of quality Rio Versi-SinkTips to get your flies down. 5 densities from Intermediate 1.5ips to fast sink 7ips in 6ft or 10ft lengths pre-looped for easy adaptation to conditions.

Junction Shrimp copper tube. ( Major killer everywhere in the Autumn invented on the river Tweed )

Autumn Glory Temple Dog ( This modern TD has all the colours required to trigger action on a sink tip )

RS Pot bellied Pig ( This tube is a proven killer late in the season )

Autumn Glory Salar Double

Red Frances tungsten tube stuck in a popular place!! - get some in your box NOW!!

Have a good look through the web-site, we have lots of Autumn killers on tungsten, copper & aluminium tubes for sale, if you are not sure on sizes etc please call us.

13 fish off the Association water this week up to Thursday, all off the Flat Pool apart from 2 from William Jappy last night in Upper Allan. Most fish are fresh amazingly and most of the locals are scoring, 7 off on Tuesday evening.

The upper beats are fishing very well too, 3 & 4 above providing most sport. The season is far from over it would seem so get out on the water if you have a chance.