News from the Ghillie, Raymond Sinclair 2019
Weekly report: Sunday 13th October 2019
Monday and Tuesday were the two last days of the season and on the last day of the season Paul Reilly caught his first ever salmon in the corner pool and Ally Ker caught an 18lb fish in sandys which he landed in the upper ferroch at last light so quite an eventful day. It was quite a poor season, which I expected it to be with the impact of the flood we had four years ago, but all in all there were more fish than I thought there would be when I look back and remember how devastating the flood really was.
I look forward to seeing all our regular clients next year as well as new ones.
​
​
Weekly report: Sunday 13th October 2019
Venetia Mitchell was up for the first part of the week overseeing what work has to be done with the fishing beat and the stables accommodation over the winter and she managed some fishing in between. On Tuesday Neil Marchant caught a 6lb fish in the big girnal, and on Friday James Cowie had a 5lber from the corner pool. Again, it was a frustrating kind of week with the water going up and down. Two days to go and it will be another season over.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 6th October 2019
Mr and Mrs Mitchell were still with us for the beginning of the week with Mr Mitchell catching three fish for the two days. On Wednesday Ally Ker had two fish to 16lb and his friend Murray Smith also had two to 14lb. On Thursday Alison Hutchison did well to catch a nice 11lb fish while Raymond Edge also got one in the big girnal. On Saturday we had a father and two sons family team and Scott Stephen did very well to get a small fish in middle ferroch on a dreich autumn afternoon.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 29th September 2019
It was Simon and Deborah Mitchell who hosted this weeks party and Mr Mitchell started the week well catching a small coloured Grilse in Sandy's on Monday. Unfortunately, with the river going up and down and very coloured from midweek onwards, that was the only fish landed.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 22nd September 2019
It was Major General James Templer and his wife Sally who hosted this weeks party and although they are fairly elderly the whole group fished hard all week. We were seeing the odd fish and it was ms Tessa Inge who finally caught a coloured fish in the corner pool at lunchtime on Friday. The trees are just starting to turn now, autumn is on its way.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 15th September 2019
It was Anthony Bird who hosted this weeks fishing party and although there was the odd fish showing they wouldn’t look at anything until Thursday when Anthony caught a coloured fish in the corner on a red frances and lost one at the top of sandys. It is getting more autumnal now with the swallows getting ready to fly south and with the water starting to cool down hopefully it will turn the fish on.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 8th September 2019
I was away for a couple of days at the beginning of the week and on Tuesday Graeme Robertson caught a nice grilse in the Morel pool. On Thursday Alexander and Jordan had a sea trout each from the corner pool, then on Saturday James Cowie came down from Banff and fished hard all day and was rewarded with an 11lb fish from the lower ferroch at half past seven in the evening. Perseverance pays off.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 1st September 2019
It was Alexander Mitchell and his friends this week. Alexander is a member of the family who own the beat and they are a great bunch of young lads who were very enthusiastic and keen to catch a fish and although they tried very hard, they had no luck. They had a great time and love the place and we look forward to having them back.
Weekly report: Sunday 25th August 2019
It was day rods this week and Jerry Oddie, who had booked Thursday and Friday, had a good start when he caught a nice summer salmon in the Little Girnal on Thursday afternoon and on Friday afternoon got a fresh grilse in the Big Girnal. Jordan came up and gave it a go on Saturday evening with the sunray, catching a small coloured fish in Sandys and a seatrout in the Grey Mare.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 18th August 2019
It was John and Izzy Bannerman who hosted this weeks party with their friends Graeme and Jan Robertson. Both families have been coming to Upper Blackhall for many years and know the beat well. Although the conditions weren’t great with the river going up and down and peaty coloured they kept going and were rewarded on Saturday. Greame caught a nice 12lb fish in the green spout and, in the same pool shortly after, John had a 6lb'er which finished off a good fun week for us.
​
​
Weekly report: Sunday 11th August 2019
It was Chris and Rachel Mchugh this week and although Chris knows the beat very well and fished hard nothing was landed. The water was up and down all week with two substantial rises of five and six feet which made it very coloured. Chris had a salmon and a seatrout on but unfortunately both got off on Friday between the rises.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 4th August 2019
Peter and Delia Alfrey were the hosts this week and they got off to a great start on Monday when Peter had a 9lbr and Delia had a 6lb salmon and a seatrout all from Simms parlour. On Tuesday, Peter kept up his form by catching a nice 10lb fish in the upper ferroch.
Things then went quiet until Friday when Will Templer had a seatrout from the ferroch, then on Saturday Malcolm Innes got up early and was rewarded by catching a lovely 10 fish in the corner pool before breakfast.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 28th July 2019
It was Mr and Mrs Iain Mitchell who hosted this weeks party and the only fish landed was a seatrout from the grey mare caught by Mr Malcolm Strang Steel. The highlight of the week was on Thursday when at seven years old, William Mitchell, hooked a good fish in the corner pool but unfortunately it came off.
​
​
Weekly report: Sunday 21st July 2019
It was Mr David Tisdale who had the fishing this week. Although he is an experienced and very accomplished fisherman there was nothing doing until Friday when he caught a lovely fresh summer salmon in the Upper Ferroch first thing in the morning. He caught the fish on a small Willie Gunn tube.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 13th July 2019
It was Annabel and Ed Willis who hosted this weeks party, Annabel’s family have owned the beat for a few generations now and she has been coming to Blackhall since she was a baby so she knows the beat well. The river was low at the beginning of the week but started to rise on Thursday and was up and very coloured on Friday. On Saturday it had dropped and cleared and Henry Wyrley-Birch caught his first ever salmon, a lovely fresh grilse in the Big Girnal and Ally had a seatrout in the corner.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 7th July 2019
It was a better week for us at Upper Blackhall, with Richard and Anne Agnew hosting this weeks party. David Crawshaw started things off on Monday when he caught a nice 15lb fish in Sandys, followed on Tuesday with a 12lber from the Big Girnal. Not to be outdone, Richard got a lovely 20lber from Sandys on Wednesday and a small grilse on Friday. We also had a nice seatrout on Saturday so all in all a good week for us.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 30th June 2019
It was day rods this week and the water dropped off daily as the week went on. We ended the week with three seatrout and a salmon which was caught by John Bannerman at eleven forty five on Tuesday night on his trout rod. It was a lovely 12lber and John described it “as good fun” it took a small black Pennel.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 23rd June 2019
It was day rods this week and again the water at the start of the week was quite high and coloured but it dropped off and cleared by the weekend. We had nine seatrout up to six pounds, and on Saturday Andy Goodenough had a lovely 13lb salmon from the corner pool on the Sunray.
Weekly report: Sunday 16th June 2019
It was Mr and Mrs Pawski this week and they were joined by there daughter and partner midweek. Again, the water was up and coloured all week with nothing showing and we ended with two seatrout. There has been some fish caught on the river so hopefully it will be our turn next week.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 9th June 2019
It was day rods this week and with the water going up and down and very coloured it was Thursday before we got a fish,a lovely fresh 11lb sea licer from the Scobboch pool. The fish was caught by Oliver Rowland on his first visit to the Dee. On Saturday, I at last managed to get my first fish of the season, a small sea liced fish from the Green spout on the good old sunray.
​
​
Weekly report: Sunday 2nd June 2019
It was Will and Caroline Wells and their children along with their friends Rob and Ali Bowen and family, in all seven children and four adults. All the children were very well behaved and very eager to learn how to fish and had great fun up the river playing games and learning how to cast.The river was up and down and very coloured all week and Rob was the only one to connect catching a nice sea trout on Monday.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 26th May 2019
We had two guests from Sweden for the first half of the week and on Monday, Torbjen Walin had a nice 7lb fish in the corner and his friend Soren Olsson had a seatrout. The water then came up over four feet on our gauge on Tuesday, and it was Thursday when Derrick Hughes and Lee Murdoch had a seatrout apiece. On Saturday the water had cleared and Lee had another seatrout and the host of the party Robert Galbraith had a lovely 14lb sealicer in the lower ferroch, followed twenty minutes later with a similar 12lb fish in the middle ferroch. There is plenty of water let’s hope there is plenty of fish to go with it.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 19th May 2019
Well this past week was very nice if you were holidaying on deeside but it wasn’t so good for fishing with glorious sunshine every day except Saturday when it rained all day. Nothing was caught for the week with not much fish showing, hopefully this next week will produce something.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 12th May 2019
It was Mr Mike Lax and the Yorkshire fly fishers this week and it proved to be another challenging week with only a sea trout being caught by Bob Milne in the Morel pool on Tuesday, as the saying goes (there’s more to fishing than catching fish) it was a good fun week with a lot of jokes and laughs.
​
​
Weekly report: Sunday 5th May 2019
Conditions were reasonably good at the beginning of the week and on Wednesday John Bannerman caught our only fish of the week, a lovely ten pounder from the upper Ferroch, the weather then turned colder and windier and on Friday, Alex Subbotin sadly lost a big fish in the Ferroch after playing it for some time.
​
​
​
​
Weekly report: Sunday 28th April 2019
It was Tom Flockhart and his guests who fished with us this week and again they tried hard using different lines and flies and techniques but nothing doing.
There has been a cold east wind blowing upstream for a few weeks now and the quicker it turns round to the west the better it will be.
​
​
​
Weekly report: Sunday 21st April 2019
It was the third week of having Pontus Gunlycke and his guests with us and again they fished hard but had no luck. The weather is warming up and on Monday the Sand Martens arrived followed by the Swallows on Friday. A lot of the fish that have been caught up and down the river have been sea liced and it would be nice if some of them would stop with us and give us a chance to catch some.
​
​
Weekly report: Sunday 14th April 2019
It was the second week of having Pontus Gunlycke and his guests with us and although conditions were unfavourable now and then it was Patrick Ekblom who caught our only fish, a lovely seven pound springer from the Upper Ferroch. I saw the osprey for the first time this year and the sandpipers have arrived and the swallows should arrive this week, summer is almost here.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 7th April 2019
Pontus Gunlycke hosted the first of three weeks with his friends and as all the Scandinavians do when they come to us, they fished long and hard but to no avail.The water came up about midweek and is still up around the three foot mark so hopefully this will bring in some fish.
​
Weekly report: Sunday 24th March 2019
We had day rods fishing this week and although the weather and the fishing conditions were very good it was Friday before Kevin O’Brien from Falkirk caught our only fish for the week, a lovely ten pound sea licer from the corner pool.
​
​
​
Weekly report: Sunday 24th March 2019
​
Henrik Larsen and his Scandinavian friends were fishing with us this week and as our fishing lodge accommodates up to twelve people there were nine of them fishing three beats. Sadly there were no fish caught on our beat but they had a great time and love coming to the Dee.
​
​
​
Weekly report: Saturday 16th March 2019
It was Paul Cabrol who hosted this weeks party with his friends Carl and Kevin and although they fished hard all week nothing fresh was caught until Saturday afternoon when Carl Stacey caught our first fish of the season a lovely fresh 9lb springer from the Morel pool.
​
