River Dee Fishing Report – Week commencing 1st September 2025
The turn into the first week of September brought an uplift in river levels, even though we are still fishing in low water conditions it did move the fish, and we had over 120 salmon/grilse on the score sheet this week, it is great to hear all the of the stories from the beats from local and international anglers visiting the beats.
Around the beats
Tilbouries had an interesting week with 5 salmon/grilse to the rods and 8 lost. Syndicate members Fraser Elliott had a 7lber salmon on Tuesday and Derek McGregor had his first fish on the fly – a grilse of 5lb. Andrew Goodenough had a salmon of 9lb, and Neil Stephenson had a couple for his perseverance. There are still pockets of availability if you want to fish here have a look at FishPal.
The Scottish Fly Fishing co were guiding at Tilbouries forJames who was over from Sydney ticking off a bucket list dream for his 70th birthday, he hooked into a few fish but unfortunately, they didn’t stay on, however he made great memories and enjoyed his time on the Dee.
At Upper Drum & Lower Durris David Brown had a couple of grilse from the Hut pool this week.
At Park they had a better week due to the rise in water and cooler water temperatures tempting salmon onto the fly. Welcoming regular and new guests from Scotland, England, South Africa, Austria and Switzerland, who had a plenty of action shown by a total of 21 salmon and 6 sea trout landed for the week.
Notable Park catches included regular Robert Bramman landing 2 grilse up to 6lbs, regular Neil Mitchell landing 2 salmon up to 13 lbs, Barry Ward fishing Park for the first time and landing 5 salmon including a thumping 16lber, regular Mark Robinson landing 5 salmon up to 10lbs, Paul Davies also fishing Park for the first time with his friend Richard Curry each landing a grilse of 6 and 7lbs respectively, regular William Foster landing a grilse of 6lbs, long term regular Emmanuel Farinoli landing 4 salmon and a sea trout and last but not least regular Andreas Gunst who landed 3 sea trout. A fantastic effort by the all the Park rods who were well looked after by Keith Cromar and Shane Christie. Park also mentioned that the forecast is for rain later in the week and it looks like the Cairngorms will receive their fair share, which the river really needs.
Crathes Castle beat had 16 salmon/grilse and a few sea trout this week, tactics were to use small flies and fish deep and that seems to have paid dividends, a couple of notable catches are Blaine Lyon with a 16lb cock fish that had been in the river for a good while and Bernard Reamy who was visiting from Switzerland landed a 5lb grilse.
At Banchory Ewan Maclachlan and David Macleod both had fish to their rods last week. Alba Game Fishing had a group on the river fishing at Banchory and guided by Scott Rutherford who many of you will know.
Cairnton & Middle Blackhall had 6 fish to 8lb and a couple of sea trout around 2lb. Fish were fairly spread throughout the beat with Cascades, Ally’s and Sunray’s doing the trick. Water heights were 8” on Monday, 1ft Tuesday and gradually dropping to 4” by Saturday. Water temperatures were 58/55 Fahrenheit.
Woodend had 8 salmon/grilse with regular September visitor Christian Roulleau from France getting on the scoresheet, welcome back to him.
Harry Williams and his group had two rods on Ballogie and three rods on Carlogie, they managed x7 Salmon in total with the largest going to William Pritchard at 12 lbs.
Oliver Anderson caught his first ever Salmon on his first ever day Salmon fishing – a grilse at Carlogie and a Dee memory made. Jim Lomax caught one salmon at Commonty of 8lbs.
At Dess Andy Robinson had 4 sea trout, Angus Rutherford had a grilse and the week finished with a fish of around 16lb for John Johnson. I hear that they also caught perch and a pike, which is sadly becoming a bit too common.
Other beats with fish this week were Altries, Lower Crathes & West Durris, Knappach, Tilquhillie, Sluie, Kincardine, Birse, Aboyne Water, Waterside & Ferrar, Dinnet, Cambus O’May, Glenmuick and Crathie.
There are still a few places on the Come & Try Day on Monday 29th September, drop me a note of you know anyone who would like to come and try fly-fishing or have only been on the river a couple of times and want to gain confidence before next season.
Let’s hope this more positive start to September continues, not too many weeks left to fish now, so why not have a look at Dee availability on FishPal and get something arranged.
Tight lines.
DC
Debbie Cooper
Pictured – Bernard at Crathes Castle in September 2025