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.

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 Kazcade double

RS Blue CDC double

RS Kazcade tubefly

RS Black Brahan CDC double

RS Black CDC double

RS Kazcade Tungsten conehead tube

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.