River Dee Fishing Report – Week 33 commencing 7th September 2026
We enjoyed a good week on the river, thanks in part to the much-anticipated rise in water. We began with modest returns on Monday and Tuesday and just half a dozen on Wednesday. When the water arrived, it moved some fish up from the bottom river and helped shuffle the deck. Thirty-one salmon were reported on Thursday, 29 on Friday and another 23 on Saturday, giving us 83 fish over the final three days.
The lift in water was not huge, but its timing could hardly have been better. After several weeks of generally ‘challenging’ conditions, it freshened things up, brought more conducive water temperatures and appears to have encouraged some movement through the system. We’ll need more rain soon, but this was a useful reminder of what even a modest change in conditions can do at this time of year.
Perhaps most encouraging was the distribution of catches. Park enjoyed an excellent end to the week, with seven on Friday and nine on Saturday, while Upper Drum & Lower Durris had six on Thursday and Lower Crathes W Durris seven on Friday. Fish were also reported throughout the middle and upper river, including Woodend, Ballogie, Carlogie, Aboyne Water, Craigendinnie, Dinnet and Crathie. It was good to see the extra water doing some useful work throughout the system rather than simply improving sport in one part of the river.
Park rods enjoyed another good week. The rise later in the week put the brakes on temporarily, but the beat finished strongly once the water cleared, with sixteen fish over Friday and Saturday.
Father and son Robert and James Arnold shared two, including a cracking 15lber for Robert from the Upper Kirks on Tuesday. James landed a nice 9lber in Greenbank.
John Johnson landed a 12lb salmon and 6lb grilse, also from the Upper Kirks on Tuesday. French guest Jean Gousset landed two grilse during his four days, while Dan Stevens was rewarded with a nice 10lber from Greenbank during his two. Miguel Magadan and Jorge Dabalino, who had travelled all the way from Spain, did well to land a grilse in the Upper Kirks and a 14lber in Greenbank respectively.
Jeff Gould’s persistence paid off when he was rewarded with a nice fish at Lower Crathes.
Cairnton and Middle picked away with six and as many lost. Kerry Finlay from Australia landed his first salmon in Cottage Run. Jock Holmes managed a 6lbr from the Cottage.
Ewan MacLachlan and Murray Smith had 3 fish to 10lbs fishing at Lower Woodend on Saturday.
It was a mixed bag at Dess. John Webster from Lochter landed a couple of salmon and lost another, all within 30 minutes on Wednesday. One was fresh, which, as ghillie Ali McEwan notes, was a nice surprise.
There was more action later when a large fish was lost just when he looked about done. Ali says, ‘that’s fishing’, but I bet that’s the edited version of the encounter!
They finished with four salmon and five sea trout, which, as usual, were first back on the take after the rise.
Dinnet rods have had a lean time of it in the low water but were back in action last week. Liz Carruthers had a hat trick of a salmon, grilse and sea trout.
Dee Damsel Barbara Noble celebrated her first ever salmon on Thursday from Pol Slachd. Well done Barbara — that is great news.
Andy Pownall added to his tally on Saturday with a brace: a 5lber from 29 and an 8lber from Pol Slachd.
Outlook
The immediate requirement remains: more water. The midweek lift helped, but the river has been falling again and another useful rise would be very welcome to keep fish moving and stir up those that have been in a stupor.
With only a few weeks of the season remaining, we’re now firmly into the period when relatively small changes in conditions can make a big difference from one day to the next. This week demonstrated that rather neatly. Another decent fall of rain across the catchment would be very welcome — preferably before we have to start complaining about it.
As ever, listen to your ghillie.
Ross Macdonald
for inclusion in future reports e mail debbie@riverdee.org