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.