River Dee Fishing Report – Week 12 commencing 20th April 2026
This week we’ve seen some beautiful, very silver spring fish to Dee rods, with seventeen beats catching. I heard the cuckoo for the first time, so it’s officially spring. Finally, our smolts from the River Muick on the Upper Dee have started their migration: the smolt traps were much busier on Saturday and Sunday. We’ll be preparing to take the next cohort of fish, as part of the Save the Spring programme, over to the west of Scotland in the coming days.
News from the beats
I hear the water level is dropping off nicely at Park—around 1 ft on the gauge yesterday—which should hopefully slow some springers down. Good conditions, and we hope they get off the mark soon. To book your visit, and for the latest availability, click here: https://www.fishpal.com/scotland/dee/park/
At Cairnton & Middle Blackhall they welcomed a party from Italy, led by long-time Dee regular Vittorio Spasciani and Max Malli, with all the rods being dedicated salmon fly fishers who really know their stuff. Manlio Ramasco ended the recent beat drought with a lovely 14 lb fish in the Douglas Pool late on Monday, on a Willie Gunn. Things were pretty quiet the following few days, with a couple of fish on and off later in the week. The week’s weather was mixed: the first three days were overcast, followed by frosty mornings and bright sunshine. Water heights were 1’9” on Monday and by Saturday 1’2”; temperatures were 43–50°F.
There were a few fish running at Sluie last week, and regular Chris Brooks connected with a very fresh salmon of about 10 lb in the Hut Pool early on Tuesday morning, with a Dee Monkey fished fairly deep. Safely landed and released by his friend Ray Edge.
Jerk Sonnichsen – who has been coming to the Dee for over 25 years returned with his party from Denmark. Scores at the end of the week for them were four spring fish for Jerk himself – two from Ballogie and two from Carlogie. Lars Headland had one from Carlogie and it was a week to remember for Carsten Brandy with his first Scottish springer. James Fairlie added to the total on the Ballogie beats with one from Commonty.
Dess beat had a great start this past week with Malcolm Ewen’s sea-liced salmon then another four springers— with a treble for Stuart Horne on Monday and one for Paul Goodwin on Tuesday. There is plenty of space to fish over the next few weeks. With it being their best April for many years, it is a great time for a day at Dess—page link here: https://www.fishpal.com/scotland/dee/dess/
At Birse they welcomed Geir Svestad and his friend from Norway for the first two days last week, celebrating their 70th birthdays, and they thoroughly enjoyed their week on Deeside. They both enjoyed doing a little fishing and relaxing. The fishings were not let on Wednesday, so Nicol Paton had a cast and managed to pick up two nice fish: one of around 8 lb and the other around the 6 lb mark. He said it was encouraging to see a good number of fish on the beat and running through; however, the weather from Thursday to Saturday really didn’t help catches, with bright blue skies and a dramatic rise in air temperatures. The river is starting to get lower and clearer now and the water temperatures have increased, so tactics have started to change to lighter set-ups and smaller flies. There is availability to fish Birse here: https://www.fishpal.com/scotland/dee/birse/
I hear on the grapevine and from the FishPal reports that there was a 25 lb fish caught at Aboyne Water on Tuesday—what great news. If you were fishing there, please get in touch and tell me all about it!
At Aboyne Castle & Craigendinnie beats Nick Mariner had a nice 8lb fish in Crofts from the Craigendinnie bank on Monday. The fish took a Willie Gun size 8 double. Then on Wednesday Jerry Smith landed a 7lb fish from Plantation again from the Craigendinnie bank, he then had his second fish of the week and the first fish of the season for Aboyne Castle. The 11lb fish took a size 10 Alistair in Symmons.
The Glen Tanar beats at Waterside & Ferrar got their season started with an 8lber from the Barron Pool to the rod of their ghillie Joe, hopefully the first of a good few this season.
Dinnet and Deecastle had 3 last week with Duncan Young starting the week well on Monday with his first ever salmon on his first day salmon fishing which was to be celebrated, a lovely 8lber from Bruiach on the Dinnet bank. Peter Horsburgh had a 9lber from Pol Baw on the Deecastle bank on Tuesday evening and Mark Trasenster had an 8lber from Cobbles on the Dinnet bank on Wednesday.
Headinch & Cambus O’ May had a week of two halves. In the first half of the week, anglers finally got the settled river conditions they were looking for and catches improved. Dee regular Neil Stephenson got going on Monday morning with a nice fish from Lower Bellhole on a home-tied Monkey. Mark Lough had a fish of about 6 lb from Tassachd on Tuesday morning, and Alan Robb repeated that by catching one of about 7 lb in the afternoon from Tassachd. Alan was back on Wednesday and, after losing one in the morning, landed a fish of about 9 lb in the afternoon from Kate Pool, although it did have some damage on one side.
In other news… Blaine Lyon of Twin Peakes Fly-Fishing headed to the Spey-O-Rama competition to defend his world championship title. Winning again, he also set two new world records—casting off both shoulders. Blaine continues to lead the way internationally in distance Spey casting, after winning the 15’ category at last year’s World Championships in Sweden. Many congratulations to Blaine—say hello if you see him on the river in the coming weeks.
I will be out and about on beat visits in May and hope to meet some of our angling visitors in person, until then, tight lines.
Debbie Cooper
debbie@riverdee.org