Last week showed some promise as grilse arrived in pods. Borrobol rods had the best week ending in the mid 20s however, the majority of fish caught were still not grilse. If you were lucky and in the right place at the right time sport was good but it was not the norm. It would appear that the main grilse run is destined to arrive very late or not at all this year. Latest reports from as far North as Iceland indicate that grilse are few and far between with numbers well down on the last two years at this time.

The forecast is for little rain in the next week with high pressure set to dominate, I fear the pickings will be lean for a while yet and we should really be in the absolute thick of things by now. The Association water is giving the odd fish daily but low clear water is making things difficult, early mornings and late would be the preferred taking times. Availability is very open this summer on the Association water, lots of room! the run must arrive soon so I would advise getting over for a cast in the next two weeks.

We have just taken delivery of the new Mackenzie DTX Spey lines which I tested on the river Ewe on an earlier report here. If you want to get the best out of what we have remaining of the season, I would highly recommend you treat yourself to one of these amazing lines. These are the most technically advanced lines ever made, and for £69.99 they are an absolute revelation. Overhead casting is also easy and i have never witnessed turnover on a line like it before apart from when using the world record breaking Carron Jetstream lines. Incidentally, The World Spey casting record was beaten this week at the CLA Gamefair. Irishman Gerard Downie surpassed the 70yd mark for the first time ever in competition using a Carron Jetstream line. Call us anytime to order these lines.

We have all the top lines available here at the Helmsdale Company, we pride ourselves in quality products and service. Don't scrimp on cheap nasty lines, they will do your fishing and fly casting no favours, trust me!. Don't forget you can call us anytime for expert advise on all aspects of fly fishing, we love chatting to customers to help improve their fishing. We also have the biggest selection of killer flies on the net - order anytime at your leisure or call us to discuss patterns for your next fishing trip wherever it is.

Tight lines

Apologies for the delay this week, I've been on holiday and to be blunt, there is very little happening! Last week drifted by with very few highlights. This week the river has been unsettled beginning with a very dirty spate Monday. Tuesday also provided a rising river with little sport. Basically there is a real shortage of grilse at this time (this was our top week last year). I would like to think we are back on the more recent trend of late runners, this would indicate the main run is to come very soon. Get your hooks sharpened!

Last week was anything but special on the Helmsdale but there were signs that the main summer run is about to kick off. The Association water provided a hand full of fish but good pods were running showing a mix of grilse and bigger fish. Suisgill rods had the best of it on the beats with around 17 fish and certainly proved there were good fish around by catching a number in the teens up to 16lbs. Grilse were still few and far between but their growing presence was noted.

Today, Saturday 9th, the river has risen quickly to around 2ft after a morning of thunderstorms - the same storms which ravaged Castle Stewart golf course Inverness during the night and blitzed the Scottish Open Golf. I will be there tomorrow and hopefully the guys will get round dry and we will have a winner.

Prospects for next week are excellent if the weather settles. A few more grilse should be drawn to the river if there are any numbers in the firth and water levels should hold very nicely for the week. It looks like heavy rain has lifted many rivers in the UK  for the week ahead so get some coneheads in the water FAST. One of the best proven killers in peaty water is the Ally Dog conehead in gold or silver conehead which I designed around 10 years ago. These weighted flies dive sub surface and really show up well, they are absolute killers!

Below are a couple of killers in Summer spate water

The Ally Dog Conehead - as good as it gets!

RS Yellow Flamethrower Boar Shrimp - shows up great in spate water.

There are many more so have a good look through the site, all the Black boar Shrimp patterns, Alistairs, Black & Yellow Monkeys to name a few. Don't forget we have very rare Monkey hair for sale now. This hair is absolutely superb for tying the Monkey fly. One of the best ways to tie it is to cut it with a strip of skin still on as the Skandi's do, this gives the hairwing the deadly signature hump back profile which salmon seemingly can not resist!

Good news for the Helmsdale Highland games on August 20th, Loomis rods have offered to provide a range of their new NRX salmon rods for the North of Scotland Open Fly casting competitions. Please come along if you can and try out the rods, David Burgess of Loomis will be there to give instruction and information on the day along with myself of-course. NRX rods hold some amazing technology including recoil eyes and power and lightness beyond belief, it's well worth coming along just to see and feel them in action.

Tight lines.

The Helmsdale limped to a total of around 12 last week. including one fish from the Association water. The river was down to compensation level and grilse are few and far between as yet. It looks like we are heading for another late summer run which has been the norm over recent years. The second week in July was the top week for decades but apart from a reasonably early show of grilse last year the run will probably peak towards the end of the month or early August.

After a strong late spring salmon run, lets hope the grilse do appear in numbers soon, check out my selection of the proven killer flies you need for success over the summer for salmon & sea-trout. These flies work well all over the UK but dig around the web-site as we have many more killers. Don't forget we can also provide all the latest equipment to catch salmon & sea-trout from 6lbs maxima nylon to a superb 13ft summer Mackenzie DTX fly rod.

Baby Temple Dog (salmon). These tiny tubes are absolutely deadly as a tail fly if you are fishing a dropper set up.

Silver Stoats Tail (salmon & sea-trout). Arguably the most successful low water fly of all time.

Black Boar Shrimp Sunburst (salmon). The Boar Shrimp series has many colours and sizes in doubles and trebles. Deadly for running grilse.

Cascade Alistair tube (salmon). One of our greatest inventions. A mix of the super deadly local Alistair tube with the popular Cascade fly.

Silver Blue (sea-trout). A huge killer from our specialist jungle cock sea-trout series.

Silver Stoat single JC series (sea-trout/salmon). A fabulous dual purpose summer fly best fished on the point when using a dropper.

Bloody Butcher single JC series (sea-trout). This traditional fly catches so many sea-trout it is simply a must have for your flybox.

Tight lines.

Sport on the salmon fishing front has eased off a little as sea trout arrive in good numbers. The river level has been steady for the last 10 days but the excellent salmon run which graced the system for the last 6 - 8 weeks has finally slowed down to around 70 fish for the last week. Surprisingly the first fish was caught on the Loch this week by Suisgil rods, many fish have been in the loch for weeks but as usual, it has seen few flies. There is a good head of 2 & 3sw fish in the river now and over the next few weeks we would expect a grilse run to materialise and maybe peak towards the end of July. I am reliably informed that it is all quiet on the North coast for the moment with little sign of any serious grilse run and that is the general destination they hit first. When good grilse numbers arrive on the North coast the Helmsdale usually springs into action 2 - 3 weeks later.

Sea-trout fishing has been good now that the river is running clear and steady. The usual hot spots have produced some great sport with the Well & Coach pools locally giving 10 trout on a good night and on the beats the Craggie bend pool beat 5 has been the top spot.

The Association water has been remarkably quiet recently apart from a crazy day last Monday when 8 fish were landed out of the blue, no other fish were reported for the rest of the week!

We have genuine Monkey hair for sale on-line now. This hair is gold dust for fly tying and we have been very lucky to source a good certified supply. Monkey hair is the basis for the original deadly Scandinavian Monkey tube. The hair is beautifully tapered and fairly stiff so it does not wrap around your hook like most substitute hair. We are the only suppliers in the UK so snap some up when you have the chance - it is expensive, but there is nothing like using the real thing when it comes to tying Sunrays and Monkey flies and the hair is very rare.

Below is a selection of some of our most deadly summer flies for you to stock up on.

Our new Alistair tube with JC in 0.5" & 0.25" plastic body.

RS Salar Flamethrower Boar Shrimp double

Frodin Executioner Hitch tube

Cascade Pig Salar double

Golden Pot Bellied Pig

Tight lines.

We have some great new flies uploaded this week, some of which you can view on our homepage. We also have lots more sizes in stock for summer in many patterns - Crathies, Cascades, Silver Stoats, Yellow Boar Flamethrowers etc, have a good look through the flies and see what's available now.

The Helmsdale gave up approx 90 fish again last week, however, The Association water continues to struggle with the high water and only produced 1 fish for local angler Archie Miller.

Estate catches varied from around 12 to mid 20s for some but a fair percentage of fish were not fresh run. The main late spring run has eased a little as might be expected for the time of year, we are now looking to the grilse run to build week on week. There are signs that these small fish are around but numbers are very scarce at the moment. Sea-trout have been running in good numbers but the river will need to drop before sport begins through the night. Once again it seems to be mainly coneheads & Cascades which are proving to be most effective in the peaty water.

On another fishy note - During the week I was invited to fish the lovely river Ewe on the West coast by Scott Mackenzie - what a day that turned out to be! Scott had organized a dealer day to show off all his new lines and rods. I was one of 5 tackle dealers in action and I was keen to set myself up with Scott's new DTX 64ft head Spey twin colour line on my 15ft DTX rod. This i did and I added a 5ft medium sink poly leader with 9ft Maxima 12lbs and my new Kazcade tungsten conehead + Guideline size 10 treble hook.

Little did I know what was to follow! I was there to try out all the new DTX lines and rods, 5 hours later from a 9.30 start I had landed 5 salmon of 15, 14, 12, 11,& 10.5lbs, Ghillie/river keeper Raymond Dingwall just kept on smiling!! I made him work hard!!

The river Ewe is a short powerful river which drains the famous and extremely picturesque Lock Maree for around 2 miles to the sea. Beautiful varied pools and scenery make fishing there very enjoyable whether you catch anything or not so to catch 5 on my first visit was as good as it gets! if you ever get the chance to fish the Ewe, grab the opportunity with both hands.

The tackle on display was exceptional, new DTX Spey lines in sizes 51ft head, 54 & 64ft head + 2 new shooting heads which are slightly longer than the norm to aid anchoring without adding any poly tips. I tried them all with a very open mind and I have to concede that Scott and his new business partner Andrew Toft (who designed many of the Carron Jetstream lines) really have something here. The lines have new slick toughened coatings and they are very supple offering an unbeatable turnover. They will also retail for less than Rio & Carron lines when they become fully available. These lines are the future and Scott and Andrew have covered every base. I have to say that the set up was a an absolute pleasure to fish with all day. I certainly proved that the DTX combo helped catch salmon and I covered the water with ease, the rods and lines were so well balanced they practically fished themselves. One point to note was that one of the guys struggled in the morning with the 64ft floating head on a Hardy Swift 15ft rod - he swapped to the DTX 15ft in the afternoon and could not believe the difference, he enjoyed his fishing from then on!

Watch out for the new DTX lines & shooting heads - they are about to hit the market soon and I predict they are set to make a very big impact! just like the rods. Keep an eye on the web-site for the new lines to appear as I will have them for sale as soon as I can get them.

Many thanks to Scott, Andrew & Raymond, these guys really know their stuff, absolute experts, they know how to fish, cast and design and that's why the DTX range of rods and lines are here to stay and give lots of pleasure to lots of anglers worldwide. Call me if you want to chat about or try anything in the DTX range. 

Here are a few pics from my unforgettable the day. The biggest of my 5 from Macordies pool.

Swinging the new white DTX 64ft head Spey line across Macordies pool.

Head Ghillie/river keeper Raymond Dingwall secures my 5th from Lady pool after a tussle mid river. Its tough to get there and even tougher to land one especially at 14lbs.

And last but not least - the deadly new Kazcade tungsten conehead, this fly took all 5 fish on the day teamed up with Guideline treble hook, 5 fish hooked, 5 fish landed. This fly is amazing and only invented in conehead form a few days before my Ewe visit. I think it is one of my best designs to date and it obviously works a treat on a half inch plastic body.

Tight lines.

The Helmsdale river relentlessly keeps producing the goods, 95 - 100 fish were caught last week and it was the turn of Borrobol rods to top the scoring with 27 fish. water levels were very favourable once again early in the week and ferociously topped up midweek to 3ft after serious overnight rain. 2 grilse were reported and numbers of these small fish should keep building week on week. But it is the good numbers of quality fish which is most encouraging and many fish in the teens of pounds are still running the river.

Alistairs, and conehead TD tubes are ever present on the score sheet as usual and if you are experienced it is now worth fishing a dropper set-up throughout the summer months. Fishing with a dropper tends to be a bit of a "Highland thing" but results can be explosive if you are using this extra fly and you are amongst the fish. Dibbling the fast water at the head of the pools is where the dropper works best but you would be surprised how many fish ignore the tail fly during conventional long line fishing and chose to take the dropper fly instead. I was on the end of a perfect example of this last Friday on one of my many flying river Brora visits. I had 4 salmon - 2 on the dropper and 2 on the tail fly.

The first pool i fished was the tail of the Madman pool on the lower half of the lower Brora. Covering the draw I had a glorious rise and take fishing a long line from the South bank. Providing you are consistently casting the same length of line on the same angle and taking one step between casts any fish you are covering should firstly see your tail fly first then next cast see the dropper fly, I was set up with a 3" Monkey tube on the tail and a Kazcade double size 8 on the dropper - the fish chose the smaller dropper. It obviously ignored the bigger tail fly on my previous cast and then opted for the dropper next. Would I have caught that fish fishing with no dropper?? I doubt it, I would have probably moved on with no action. Fishing the next pool I had a vicious take from my first grilse of the season on the Monkey tube - the team was working well!

Looking up to the tail of the Madman pool Lower Brora where I hooked my first of 4 salmon. The height is 1ft 3.

First grilse of the season on the black & yellow Monkey conehead

The Helmsdale Association water is fairly quiet at the moment, not many visiting anglers are on the water. We are between the peak spring run and main grilse run so it is to be expected. Water levels are excellent however and chances of a hook up are still very good. Availability on this water is also very good and sea-trout are now running. Call the shop to book day tickets for £26 per rod per day. Don't forget to book local accom for the 24hr ticket.

I am delighted to report that Helmsdale Co financial wizard, partner and wife Karen finally landed her first fish but not from the Helmsdale, it came from a day trip to the beautiful little river Borgie on the North coast. The 10lbs bar of silver was caught using her new Kazcade fly in Forresters pool beat 1, not far above Borgie bridge.

Karen with her first salmon in the bag!

Forresters pool - a likely looking spot!

Karen into her fish.

The Helmsdale had another good week and ended up with around 75 fish. Badanloch rods took the lions share after a superb Monday on beat 6 with 8 fish. Good water assured decent fishing all week but the sun came out in force later in the week and slowed everything down. At the moment the river is holding around 7ins on the guage and fresh fish are still running however the main spring run has now peaked.

Grilse were spotted in the estuary this morning so i would expect a few to get caught in the coming week. Sea-trout should be around also and if the river stays reasonably low we should start to catch a few.

Dont forget we still have a "Buy one get one free" on all flies - the offer will end tonight at midnight June 5th so get those last minute fly orders in. The new Paul Young DVD from the river Alta Norway is getting rave reviews. The best salmon river in the world it is claimed, many 50 pounders are captured every year. This is a DVD you must see and we are first to have a batch for sale. You can buy on-line here now!

Due to very high demand on our flies at the moment please order well in advance if you want special flies tied up, Alistairs, Willie Dog coneheads etc, we can not tie them up fast enough right now and have a 1 month waiting list in operation.

Tight lines

Two superb weeks on the Helmsdale have been followed by the best yet and a record score for Kildonan rods. Kildonan Ghille Martin Grant informed me around 6 weeks ago that this week past was available on his rods, I put out a few feelers and the rods were duly snapped up by Mr Ian Muir. There is always a risk when you book fishing on any river at any time - conditions can be good, bad or otherwise, well this week the Muir party found out what is like to hit it just right.

Very stormy weather on Monday and Tuesday made fishing difficult for most but Kildonan rods picked up a remarkable 18 fish on beats 2 & 1. Conditions improved on Wednesday and all rods took advantage of the great water and lots of fish. By Friday evening Kildonan had amassed an incredible record breaking total of 42 fish. Most other rods were experiencing numbers in the teens or 20s by this time, very respectable fishing indeed. No large fish were reported and strangely many were without sea-lice. The week ended with over 150 at least.

The Association water did not completely miss out and after a hard working week there were 10 recorded - even I managed to get in on the act with 2 evening fish from the Flat pool and Alistair Jappy out manouvered his brother William this week with 2 also from the Flat pool. Saturday produced 3, one of which was a first fish of the season for local water bailiff Malcolm Bromley. Availability is still good on this water, book through the tackle shop, for details call 01431821372.

A 3" Black & yellow Monkey took my second fish of the week but the first came to a large black & yellow Monkey style feeler tube fly at 9pm on Wednesday evening. water levels were high all week so 1" - 3" tubes were working well.

Black & yellow Feeler fly firmly embedded in my 10 pounder.

With the fine river conditions and good chance of a fish I had the female team out this week for a cast - Wife Karen & youngest daughter April, they won't thank me for showing pictures but as we need more ladies in the sport I thought I would publish anyway! Both are looking for that elusive first fish!! I also decided to invent a fly which took inspiration from an old chewed up double I was given by top Brora ghillie Donald Cameron who told me it was deadly...needless to say i copied and tweaked and came up with the new "Kazcade double", named after the wife. I think it looks deadly...let me know what you think of it in the comments section. ( fly below )

Rainbow krystalflash, grey squirrel, black body twice as thick as normal, jungle cock and a blue hint in the tail

Daughter April enjoying a cast.

Wife Karen concentrating hard on the Helmsdale.

More big news - we are starting a " Buy one get one free" BOGOF on all available flies from tomorrow. We only have 2 per season so this is another great chance to really stock up for your summer and autumn fly fishing, please put "BOGOF" in the comments section when ordering on-line. Destination selection boxes are not included.

On an other note, we have been lucky enough to take delivery of the new Alta ( by special invitation) DVD featuring Paul Young and Vanya Hackel. Set on the fabled river Alta, Paul & Vanya go fishing and give an amazing insight into life on this legendary river which produces countless 50lbs+ salmon each season. Superb viewing! be first to get one of these. Buy here on-line for £21.99

The 100 mark was hit once again last week on the Helmsdale with estates averaging around 15 fish each. Super water and obviously lots of fish around resulted in some excellent sport. Nothing outstanding in weight was landed but it was good to see steady runs of fish migrating through the system. The upper beats once again produced most of the action mainly because "that's where most of the rods were fishing"!

The main news of the week however was unfolding on the Association water with 9 for the week. A quiet start began with a fish for Archie Miller on Monday and a visiting rod on Tuesday. We had to wait until Thursday before another 2 were caught by William Jappy who also had his third for the week on Friday. Unfortunately I was on the Deveron river on Saturday taking part in the Deveron Fishing Festival, low water levels produced no fish on Forglen beat that day but the Loomis rods on demo were outstanding! I will be stocking some very soon!! Saturday on the Helmsdale Association water however, produced 4 to the delight of Fred Unwin pictured below with his first Helmsdale fish. Alan Scott visiting from Inverness also managed to get in on the act fishing the first ever Inverness AC Exchange ticket by landing a fine 12 pounder from the style pool on a 12 Cascade double (pic of fish and pool also below). 2 other fish were taken by locals on the day, P Macmillan & S Macaulay all broke the duck, lots of fish were running that day. This proves that the lower river will fish well if rods are on the water - shame our lovely river is so under fished above the Association water.

All the usual flies worked well, Alistairs, Coneheads, Cascades and TDs

The tail of the Style pool at the top of the Association water where Alan Scott had his first fish of the season.

Fred Unwin with his first of the season, a fine 10 pounder

Day tickets are readily available on the Association water for just £26 per rod and chances are obviously very good at the moment. Call the tackle Shop to book or simply turn up on the day. We will advise you on the best size/pattern of fly for the water levels on the day and supply a map of the water. Access to this beat is very easy and an enjoyable day's fishing should be had!