River Dee Fishing Report – Week commencing 21st July 2025
At last! A decent uplift in water levels certainly made a significant difference to the numbers of fish this week for me to report on with over 130 salmon/grilse to the Dee rods. I am hearing about some bright fresh grilse as well as the larger salmon moving up the river with weights of 16lb recorded at Cairnton and Crathie beats on the Dee.
Around the beats
There are over 25 beats reporting to FishPal this week and so here are the highlights.
Starting on the lower river at Altries and David Clement the ghillie there told me that they had 2 grilse of 3lb and a salmon of around 6lb with a couple more lost. Syndicate member Garry Dawkins caught all the fish this week in Alfred’s pot on tiny Francis’s.
Just a bit further up the river Nicol Paton told me about success on his beat this week, particularly if you are called Martin it seems! I have included a photo of Dee board member and Tilbouries syndicate member Martin Gardener with a 14lb salmon from Alfred’s Pot on the Tilbouries beat, Martin Webster also landed a sea liced 11lb fish from the Kelpie. Nicol said that a few more fish were seen and lost throughout the week, and they are starting to see fish in their pools which will hopefully encourage some fresh fish to pause for a while. Tilbouries & Middle Drum now offers double bank fishing for the first time, rod numbers have been reduced by 3 with the view of enhancing the experience for an angler by offering more fresh water and space – click here to see all the details – https://www.fishpal.com/Scotland/Dee/TilbouriesandMiddleDrum/
William Foster at Park beat agreed that the rain certainly helped catches up and down the river, although the weed and debris stirred up by the rise took some time to clear. Customers from Scotland, England and Spain had a very enjoyable time at Park landing a total of 31 salmon/ grilse. All were regular customers to the beat, with some stand out performances among them. Colin Maclean had 13 salmon for his week, which was a fantastic result. Many congratulations Colin! Gerard McLean landed 4 salmon, James Simpson 3, Shunsuke Washiya 3, Mauricio Gordillo Alcala 2, Carlos Garza Fernandez 3, Richard Nelles 1, John Wood 1 and retired Park ghillie and accomplished fisher Bert Webster had 1. Very well done to all.
I heard news from Tilquhillie that on Wednesday a 4lb grilse was caught in Old Kiln on an Aurora Cascade fly and by all accounts it was a lovely plump fresh fish, then on Thursday a bonny 4lb sea liced grilse was caught in the Birkwood pool by Dee regular Brian Sim.
Jordan Sinclair had a busy week on the Banchory beats and with the rain and a decent couple of rises for the river it livened things up for their anglers. Jamie McCulloch had his annual days at Banchory the first half of this week landing 10 to his own rod. Jamie McCaig and Ross Macdonald joined him and had 3 each. Alan Tulips party took over for the second half of the week and David Murray, Kev Reed, Peter Bolling and Neil Taylor all added fish to make it 27 landed for the week with twice as many shaking it off as we all know the grilse like to do! Well done to all.
Little Blackhall & Inchmarlo beat had 12 salmon and 2 sea trout to their rods this week.
It was a good week at Cairnton & Middle Blackhall with some fish caught, Brian Brogan said to actually see water in the river again was a relief. The week started with the height at 1ft 9in and gradually dropped as the week went on, water temperatures dropped a bit to 60/62 Fahrenheit. On the fishing side of things, they welcomed the return of Mike Richardsons party for the week, so expectations were high after the first decent rise in a while. Mike had a lovely fresh 6lb er in the Old Garden on Tuesday and a 2lb sea trout mid-week. James Madden had his personal best a 16lber and a 4lb grilse in the Cottage Pool on Friday and a couple of sea trout earlier in the week. Graeme Allen (Kinloch House) managed a lovely 4lb grilse from Grey Mare on Saturday. Flies that worked were Executioners, Monkey’s and Ghillie patterns. Congratulations to all the anglers. There are spaces to fish on the beat over the next few months, please contact sarah@cairntonestate.co.uk
Michael Buchan let me know that Helge Vetås and his Norwegian fishing party had an interesting week at Lower Woodend with 3 salmon to 13lb and some sea trout action. Helge had 2 fish with Asle Kolstad landing the 13lb fish. Well done to them.
It was good to see the photograph sent in by Alice at Ballogie Estate of Roger Holmes, he had told her that he had a red-letter fishing day on Tuesday. It started with him losing a 15lber at the net at Gannets… so later when he was fortunate enough to connect with an 11lber at The Mill, he took the precaution of having his brother Paul helping with the net, and you can see how happy they are in the photograph in this report, Roger said he looks forward to returning next year. Also having success at Ballogie beat were Alistair Mackintosh and Craig Fleming with a fish of 3lb to each of their rods. Patrick Taylor had a 5lber at Commonty and Bruce Biggart had a 7lber on Carlogie. Well done to them all and a great Dee memory for Roger and Paul in particular.
At the top of the middle river on the Aboyne Water beat Chas Booth reported that Don Keenan had a wee grilse of 4 lbs on Monday on a Stoats Tail at Red Rock. Fred Chadwick had a 6 lb grilse on his homemade black & orange fly , beat regular Peter Rejzner had a grilse on Friday night of 4 lbs and sea trout at 3lbs and on Saturday night a fish 3lbs again all on the Hitch Fly. Well done to them.
On the upper river Headinch & Cambus O’May ghillie Craig McDonald told me they had 1 grilse caught of about 3lbs to the rod of Andrew Markland in the Lower Bellhole on Friday on a small monkey . He lost another fish same place on Saturday.
There were many other beats reporting fish this week to FishPal , as always I am happy to hear directly from anglers about their time on the Dee, so if you were fishing at any of the following beats Upper Drum & Lower Durris, Lower Crathes & West Durris, Crathes Castle, Upper Blackhall, Woodend, Sluie, Dess, Birse, Waterside & Ferrar and Crathie, please do contact me debbie@riverdee.org or on 07979 878971.
Just before I sign off the report this week I wanted to let you know that Fisheries Management Scotland have launched a new video called Small Changes, Big Impact, produced by Castabroad Collective with the support of a wide range of partners as part of delivering Scotland’s Wild Salmon Strategy.
The film brings to life the key messages in their recently published Best Practice Guidance on Catch and Release. It highlights the small but vital changes anglers can make — like keeping fish submerged, using the right tackle, choosing cooler conditions and avoiding unnecessary handling — that gives wild salmon the best possible chance to survive and spawn. You may also spot some familiar faces from across our community featured in the film! YouTube link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jp2FKillMA
Some days this past week I have noticed dew on the grass in the early morning, so I hope the water temperature will cool this week with the lower night temperatures and bring some more rain to Deeside.
Tight lines.
DC
Debbie Cooper
Pictured – Roger & Paul at Ballogie in July 2025