11/1/10

 The River Helmsdale opened with a thawing + 4 degrees on the thermometer (today Jan 11^th) but this was not enough to shift the 8” of ice which has built up daily in the river since December 18^th 2009.

2/1/10

Please check out the latest pics from Helmsdale on the lead up to the opening day here -
http://www.salmonfishingforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15785

28/12/09

The river Helmsdale will open very soon and Badanloch Ghillie Alex Fraser will have the honour of launching the traditional first cast of the season. The long range forecast looks to be very icy but with a slightly warmer blip on the cards a few days before opening day on Jan11th - lets hope this relaxes the ice and opens up the current icy river. A good supply of 1",1.5" & 2" copper and tungsten tubes will be most usefull with medium sinking lines. The other popular Scandi approach is to fish lighter aluminium & plastic tubes on faster sinking lines or shootingheads. Either way you will be presenting your fly close to the salmon who will be lying on or close to the riverbed. The anticipation of that first cast of the season is a magical moment and when you have the whole lower Helmsdale at your mercy it feels even better.  If there is the slightest chance you can get away for a day or two get yourself booked into the last few rooms at the Bridge Hotel for the big opening day buzz. Call Ron at the Helmsdale Tackle Shop for advice on availability tackle & flies.

THIS DEAL IS NOW CLOSED - Dont miss out on our superb Christmas fly deal for the best selling flies of the 2009 season. We are offering these cracking stocking fillers (below) at stupid prices only until December 20th.

Spring best sellers normally selling at £45 are for sale for on a special Christmas deal of £29 + P & P

Summer best sellers (below) normal price £35 are on a special Christnas deal for £20 + P & P

Please buy on-line or call the shop on 01431821372. We can also offer doubles instead of trebles for a little extra, call the shop to organise.

We have new great self catering accom for the 2010 fishing season in Helmsdale. Please see our Helmsdale Accom category on the homepage for details.

best wishes

Ron

We had a super sea-liced springer on opening day 2009 caught by Andy Sutherland on a 2" Alistair copper tube. Beat 1 Lower Caen was the hot spot - It can happen! hopefully it will happen again and lets prey for a great spring in 2010.?

 3/10/09

The Helmsdale is now closed for business once again. The last two weeks provided good sport for some but generally things started to fizzle out as expected. There was however still fresh run salmon entering the system right up until closing. Local water bailiff Malcolm Bromley had 2 fresh grilse on the last Monday & Tuesday from the Association water and William Jappy had another fresh fish amongst 3 up to 15lbs from beat one below on the last day. Ghillie Donald Sutherland had a sporty late surge on Suisgill rods with 15 fish for the last 3 days on beats 5, 4 & 3.

Water temperatures are now dropping fast and rods fishing for hatchery brood-stock should have a fair chance of good returns as fish should be turning on the aggressive side for spawning.

Overall the season has been disappointing just like last year and it’s the same story in rivers all over the UK . There have been high points and low points and if you were lucky enough to have good timing then you saw the high points! But they were few and far between. We had lots of small underweight grilse but some fine springers.

As for next season? Well let’s hope there will be a marked improvement. Unfortunately until the Scottish Executive realise the priceless value of fresh salmon in abundance in our rivers and that they need free passage at sea and do something about it, then I fear salmon stocks will keep declining no matter how well we manage our rivers.

 Opening day is next! And there will be many rods out for the opening 3 days for sure after our big start this season – it would be advisable to book accom ASAP if you are thinking of fishing at the 2010 opening. The Helmsdale river is closed but the Tweed is getting into full swing and many Scottish rivers are open for a few more weeks. We have lots of great copper/tungsten & aluminium tubes for sunk line fishing this backend. Junction Shrimp, Pot Bellied Pigs, Park Shrimp, Ally’s Tungstens, Willie Gunns, Orange Monkey etc will all do great in the coloured cold autumn water so load up and get stuck in! Or perhaps a new shooting head will help propel your flies way across the river much further than before and with ease - That should help hook a few extra fish! Please call me at the shop for any angling advice required, its all part of the service. 01431821372 

 Keep an eye on this report for all the latest on our up coming Christmas offers and for all the build up to our 2010 opening.

14/9/09 

The Helmsdale is still producing good numbers of fish but few are fresh run now.

A super 25 pounder was hooked and returned on the loch along with another 3 for Badanloch rods on Thursday. Most rods did fairly well with scores in the teens. On a brief encounter with beat 2, I had the pleasure of a few hours and landed 3 on a mixture of Green boar shrimp and Tsunami. The latter fly providing lots of aggressive offers and follows. The pic below shows what happens when a super aggressive 20lbs + fish launches itself at the skating Tsunami and only hits one hook! The Rubbish heap on beat 2 above was the pool and the Willie Gunn Tsunami was skating beautifully at long range right into the draw and bang, a textbook smash on the surface and the brute took off upstream jumping 3 times before throwing the hook – the result is what you see below! A Totally straightened kamasan treble hook!! At this time of the year it very often pays to fish something a little different to the normal orange/black & yellow colours. My few hours on the river proved the point and the Tsunami was an absolute star performer. Fish it like the Sunray shadow and watch it make a bigger wake with less effort – and look out for that big wake on the attack from behind! get some in your box if you want an edge..they really do work well if fished properly! The one below is the 6cm tube http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=618 

After my experience, if you want to maximise your chances of landing a big fish I would recommend using stronger hooks like a Guideline/Salar tube double or treble or a Loop double. http://www.helmsdalecompany.com/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=14 

 The Willie Gunn Tsunami designed by Ron Sutherland showing a not so strong hook!

This week’s prospects are not great as water levels and weather conditions have settled down under a lingering high pressure. There are only 2 weeks of the season to go now so if you still want a cast on the Helmsdale, drop into the tackle shop for a day ticket as there is still a good chance of hooking a fresh fish on the lower river town water.

The Helmsdale may soon be closing but the river Tweed etc are only getting into gear for a big autumn run hopefully. Stock up on Junction shrimp tubes and coneheads if you are lucky enough to have any fishing booked there.

30/8/09 

Two cracking weeks on the Helmsdale have given summer numbers a welcome boost. Good water levels have had salmon interested all through the system and quite a few are still fresh run. The Association water is also still scoring steadily and has been providing around a dozen or so per week. Friday saw lots of rainfall and the river was in full spate on Saturday. The river settled by the morning and 6 salmon were accounted for locally, the upper beats also scored well with lots of salmon on the move.

The week ahead should be another good week with great water levels holding up. The Association water will be in grand order with a few late fresh fish moving through and tickets are readily available from the Tackle shop.

Bigger flies are doing the damage in the coloured water so coneheads and copper tubes will be perfect for the week ahead.

16/8/09 

A reasonable week on the Helmsdale last week boosted hopes of an extended summer run. The upper river saw some good sport however not the high percentage of fish caught were fresh run and most that were showed signs of starvation. This recent phenomenon affecting grilse especially is common all over the UK and is a worrying trend that needs to be investigated in great detail.

With visitor numbers dropping off the Association water struggled to catch more than 10 salmon last week but a few better quality salmon were landed. We have good water levels as of today (Sunday) after some heavy rain. Prospects for the week ahead are good and anglers should expect to hook up with some better quality fresh fish. Day ticket availability is good for the Helmsdale Association water at the moment so it is well worth a chuck!

The Helmsdale Highland Games open salmon distance casting championship yesterday was won by Helmsdale head water bailiff Peter Quail with a cracking cast of 144ft. The competition rod used was the new DTX 15ft from Scott Mackenzie teamed with a Carron Jetstream 105ft Competition line.

Alistair Jappy lifted first prize for trout distance with 97ft and visitor John Sweetman was best sharp-shooter in the trout accuracy scoring 18 hoops in 2mins.  

Don’t forget to stock up on flies if you still have fishing lined up (lots of fishing still to be had!); we are now well on in the season and fast approaching autumn. Cooling waters will start to herald a move towards more sub-surface fly presentation so pop a few coneheads, copper & tungsten tubes into your armoury for best results.

9/8/09 

40 fish have been recorded on the Association water over the last two weeks and many more lost. Catches are not near what we are used to and sport has been far from consistent but fish are here and hopefully the coming week will bring the biggest run of the summer. Figures could be higher but visitor numbers have been brought back into control now with just 4 open daily tickets available ( 9am – 12pm ) and 8 x 24hr tickets for visiting anglers staying in Helmsdale accom, this has been welcomed as a fair system and is working well. 

The upper river has also reported disappointing sport on the whole apart from the odd big day when conditions have been perfect. The size of most grilse caught has also been poor and many are in the 2 – 3lbs class. The last few seasons have peaked in the first two weeks of August, let’s hope next week is the big one and fish improve in size. As usual you can stock up on here for all your flies. Fish with two flies if you want to maximise your chances of a hook up and get that dropper dibbling in classic Helmsdale style. The deadliest flies on the Helmsdale right now are Alistairs and baby Temple Dog tubes.

The Helmsdale & District Angling Club have had a meeting recently and many interesting topics were discussed with the most popular being the 10% discount at the Tackle Shop for members. The Tackle Shop has also started a fish of the month competition in association with the Northern Times weekly Rag. The comp is open to all who read the paper in Ross-Shire, Sutherland & Caithness. The biggest or best catch can be rod caught in fresh or salt water. For full details please refer to the entry form in the paper. The monthly winner will receive a £100 tackle voucher. I will display the winning fish each month on this report. The Helmsdale Highland games will be here again this weekend (August 15^th) 3 times World Spey casting champion Scott Mackenzie has introduced his new DTX salmon rods to the market and the Games Open Salmon Distance casting competition will be using the 15ft model, I will also have his other rod sizes on show + Scott’s new lines which match the rods perfectly. Please pop along to the casting arena as there are Trout distance & accuracy comps too. The event begins at 12 noon and will run until around 4.30.

 26/7/09 

Its crunch time on the Helmsdale once again as we are expecting the main grilse run to arrive in the next fortnight. Recent weeks have been poor in general for July with another low dry spell but this is a sign of the times and to be more expected now. This week the river has suffered badly with high unsettled water conditions but in the past week around 75 fish have been recorded in total. The Association water produced the best quality fish and all (14) were fresh run grilse with an occasional 8lbs salmon. The upper river saw few fresh runners however pods of grilse were encountered amongst the persistent but welcome spate water. Most of the fish caught & returned were stale salmon. 

Grilse numbers are definitely on the rise now. Hopefully the next month on the river should provide excellent sport.Don’t forget to kit up with the correct tackle here on-line. Give yourself the best chance of a hook up by having a good supply of the right flies for water conditions. All our salmon lines are on offer for the next fortnight so now is the time to get a slick new floating line on the reel to shoot those deadly new flies. The more fish you cover - the more action you will have! We have lots of Spey, double taper & shooting heads in store so call for advice on your best option.

 Tight lines.

12/7/09 

It's been a tough few weeks on the Helmsdale due to a spell of low water and very high water temperatures hence the lack of news on this report. The spring run has long dwindled out and the summer run has yet to materialise. Sea-trout fishing is producing most sport at the moment supplemented with the odd fresh grilse & salmon. The next few weeks should see an increase in fish arriving – apparently there are encouraging numbers milling around on the North coast waiting for rain.

Recent seasons have seen the main summer run peak in early August so get shopping for grilse flies right here right now as the action is about to start again!

We have introduced many new flies on-line in the last few weeks so have a good look through the site to pick your favourite killer flies. This is the time when Baby Temple Dog plastic tubes really start to score heavily so make sure you get some in your box fast! Silver stoat’s tails, Alistairs, Cascades, Park Shrimps, Pot Bellies Pigs & Coneheads are also big proven summer killers. Also don’t forget just how well the Jeannie, Thunder & lightening, Munro killer & Hairy Mary used to perform in summer, we have them all.

Remember,the most successful anglers can adapt to conditions quickly and always have a range of fly/tube sizes to cover all water heights and clarity.

Tight lines.