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